Finished some more bracelets........

Switching gears again.  I had a shift at the High Hand Gallery so I made some new jewelry to take with me.  I guessed wrong and made more necklaces when I really should have made more bracelets.  Necklaces are more fun to make though.  Here are a few of the new ones.  As a side note, I'm getting better with my jewelry photography skills.

Painting for Artstock!

Had a great time today painting tablecloths with some of the artists from High Hand.  They will be used at the Artstock Reception!  I've been focused on making jewelry and mixed media lately so it was fun to play with paint for a change. 

Artstock Entries 2013

Finished my pieces for Artstock.  One piece is a bronze I made several years ago.  After the first and only show I entered it in a weld broke while I was transporting it home so it's been residing under my art table since then.  After getting the weld repaired and a little TLC it is ready for viewing once again.  I re-christened it "Theta".  My son suggested it.  It has something to do with a polar graph that creates a spiral.....did I mention that I that my husband and sons are all math/scientists?




This piece started with a ceramic figure I made a few years back but never glazed.  I painted it with metallic/opalescent acrylic paints and finished with a satin varnish.  The base is a piece of wood from a stump we chopped out of the backyard a few months ago.  I usually start with materials that interest me and work out my point of view as the artwork starts taking shape. I didn't really know where I wanted to go with this piece until I put the two together and got a strong earth mother vibe.   At this point it didn't look finished.  I wanted something more around the head that wouldn't detract from the figure and had a "nature" feel.  After digging through my stash of odds and ends and not being very inspired I was getting a little desperate.  I finally found a small metal wall sculpture I had picked up at a thrift store ages ago and cut off a piece that seemed to do the trick.  A scrap of bronze a little gold paint and some varnish on the base pulled it together and I called it done.





If I had more time I may have adjusted a few things but the deadline had arrived and it was time to submit.  I was just glad the glue and paint was mostly dry and it was staying together.  I liked the idea of mother nature but it didn't quite work for me as a name.  I finally decided on "Gaia", the Greek personification of Earth and the mother of all things.

Bumping up to the deadline

 
Working on some sculptures for the High Hand Artstock Show.  The entry deadline is tomorrow.  It would be nice not to always be in such a rush trying to my work done at the last minute but I seem to get more creative when I'm in semi-panic mode.  I've got to work on changing that dynamic. I'm sure it's not good for me and it's probably  annoying to everyone who gets there stuff done on time.....or early.  We'll see how I do next time.

Gone Too Soon.....

This is what can happen when there's a new puppy in the house and you don't put your things away.  The frustrating part is that he had new chew toys and a full bowl of food when he did it.  If he'd eaten a left and a right I could get creative and wear one of each!

The Eye of the Beholder......

I sold a mixed media collage at the High Hand Gallery today!  I was excited that I had sold something but I feel especially good knowing it went to someone who really appreciated it.  The woman who it belongs to now is visually impaired and was very excited to find art that she could experience through touch.  She liked that the fan moves.

Although many of my art pieces are dimensional because I work with found objects I hadn't really thought much about the tactile aspect of my art.  I should have, especially after teaching a visual art residency to a visually impaired class.  At the time I was mostly concerned about the my student's experience making art while not being able to see and I didn't think about how they would enjoy and experience the artwork after it was made.  Even though I'm a "visual" artist I think I'll have to keep in mind that people "see" in different ways.

New Jewelry

Finishing up some jewelry for High Hand.  Still need to make more before I start focusing on some pieces for the Artstock show that's coming up next month.  Then I have to work BIG which will be quite a change of pace!
  
Bracelets

Earrings

 Necklaces

 

 Demoing at High Hand

Earl Warren Art Residency 2013

Here's a slideshow of the Earl Warren Elementary Residency I just finished. For more details and pictures of the projects from this year here is a link to the school art blog.

Tonight's the night! It's time for the High Hand Gallery's Fifth Annual Bra Show and Live Auction

 
I finally finished my entry last night and will be taking it to the gallery to join all the other fabulously creative entries made by our artists and other members of the community.  Click here if you'd like to get a taste of what will be at the auctioned tonight at the High Hand Night Gallery.

Help us support women fighting breast cancer.  All proceeds go to the American Cancer Society.

Elmer

Elmer by David McKee

I finished up my Any Given Child Residency this past week.  I used the book "Elmer"  by David McKee as an introduction to our final project on camouflage.  "Elmer" is the story of a patchwork elephant who learns the importance of being true to oneself instead of trying to be like everyone else.  As I read the book we discussed the importance of not making fun of others and being happy with yourself.  I also let the students know that I didn't expect their work to be perfect but I did expect them to show me their personal best.  The next thing we discussed was the camouflage aspect of Elmer.  As a patchwork elephant he didn't fit into his habitat so we   discussed what his habitat would have to look like in order for him   to be camouflaged. 

For this project the students had to think more abstractly.  The first part of the project was to draw the outline of an animal.  We had already practiced drawing animals for the previous project.  This time they were instructed to keep the animal simple and not add much detail.



Next the students drew lines through the entire page from "edge to edge".  The type of line was their choice (curvy, straight, zig-zag etc...)  but the lines needed to cut through the animal.  Then they traced over all the pencil lines with a black sharpie.  When they were finished the image looked kind of like a jigsaw puzzle.

Next the students used watercolor pencils to color in each of the newly created shapes.  They were also instructed to limit their color palette to only four colors.  The hardest part was getting them to color the new shapes and not look at the image as an animal and a background.

The students who finished in time had the option of brushing water over the colored areas to activate the pencils in order to create a watercolor effect.

Here are some examples of the finished products