Art Every Day – Day 7

YAY ME!

I’m on schedule! Marble is done, now to do the pre-grout sealer, let it dry overnight, then grout tomorrow. There have been no major roadblocks yet – one minor one. Yesterday I stopped at Home Depot to pick up the proper sealer for the marble. (Grout can stain marble if you don’t seal it first) I wanted the type that enhances and slightly darkens the stone. I was pretty sure I knew which one I wanted, but the packaging has changed since I last considered buying it, so I was dithering. An employee came over and tried to help (bless his heart) but he didn’t know any more than I did. He then called over someone else, who then argued me out of the one I thought I wanted. She insisted that I buy a different one (which was WAY more expensive, by the way), so I caved. Guess what? I tested it this morning, and it is NOT the one I wanted. So I have to return that tonight – but no biggie. This is the kind of set back I can handle!

Beer me. I deserve it. :)

Art Every Day – Day 6

So last night after I posted a picture and ate half a carrot cake dinner, I went back to work on the gold travertine. My goal was to finish the gold last night, but I realized at one point that I would be better served to fill in some of the black around the lower acanthus leaf instead. I have no idea why. It seemed like a marvelous idea at the time. Of course today’s commitments took a little longer than expected, so it was 4:00 before I even got started today. I have now finished the gold travertine and it’s time to start dinner. I’ll come back to it again tonight and get some more of the black done, then tomorrow finish the black.

See you tomorrow!

Art Every Day – Day 5

Oohh…..I think I might actually make it. I might make the deadline. Today has been an intensive day in the studio, and I will come back again after dinner to do some more. Tomorrow will be a half day because of prior commitments , so I’d better make hay while the sun shines. (That’s such a Midwesterner’s saying, isn’t it?)

Somehow this photo is pretty distorted, I must have been holding the camera at an angle. Anyway, my goal is to finish the gold travertine tonight. Then with tomorrow’s half day, and all of Saturday, I should have no problem finishing the black background. After the thinset has cured overnight, I can grout on Sunday (which is a bigger deal than one might imagine, unless you’ve done it). Also, I plan to use 3 different colors of grout which is way more time consuming than a single color. So…Monday it can be photographed and the application submitted. Now….universe? You hear me? Don’t throw any roadblocks in my way just for sh*ts and giggles. If I can’t stick to that schedule, this ain’t happening, and baby you don’t want to face me on Tuesday if you’ve derailed me. Huh. So there.

Art Every Day – Day 4

I’m a risk taker. No mosaic work at all today. Frankly, I think I needed a break anyway. But today we’re celebrating my youngest son’s birthday, and my contribution to AEDM today is a cake. Not a fancy cake, but one from the heart. (*Corny*)!!!!

Ben turns 20 tomorrow. He was such an easy child when he was young (it didn’t last long) but he has become an amazing person. He’s very easy to be around again. He has his own apartment and I miss having him here. But I usually get to spend every Wednesday with him, since that’s his day off (and I own the washer and dryer)

Happy Birthday Ben!

Art Every Day – Day 3

Honestly, when I look back at the picture I took yesterday and consider that today I spent most of 7 hours on this, with only short occassional breaks to stretch my back, I get a little depressed. *Sigh*

Not sure how much I will do tomorrow ~ certainly not 7 hours. Tomorrow I’m making a birthday dinner for my youngest son (who turns 20 on Thursday!!!). But it’s probably a good thing that I won’t have that much time to spend on it – I would feel obligated to keep at it, and I might end up throwing it out the window.

See you tomorrow!

LA

Art Every Day – Day 2

Day 2 of the Art Every Day Month – the morning and early afternoon were taken up by errands and grocery shopping, which left me with only about 2 hours to work on it. And I must admit, I have an ulterior motive for participating in this challenge anyway ~(NOW you tell us!!)~ I have a deadline to finish this piece and hope the challenge keeps me on track. I need to have it completed, grouted and photographed by November 9 for submission to an exhibition. Yeah, that’s only 7 days. Is it possible? Yes. Is it likely? Mmmmm…..

Anyway, below is today’s progess…

Ok, just go ahead and shoot me now.

What possesses me to make commitments when I already feel strung out, behind on housework, yardwork, and grocery shopping? Well, I’ve gone and done it again. Leah Piken Kolidas writes a blog that I enjoy. She uses challenges to help motivate herself and other artists to keep the creative juices flowing. She has a Creative Every Day challenge, to do something creative, whether that be art, cooking, taking pictures, knitting…whatever, and then share it with the others in the challenge. It is an ongoing thing, and she posts optional themes for each month in advance. I decided that might be too long term for me, what with my incredibly short attention span. So instead I have joined her Art Every Day challenge. In this one, for the month of November, you are supposed to make some art every day and share it with the others. But when December gets here I’m free. I think I can do this. Maybe.

So…I will be posting my efforts here and linking to it from Leah’s blog. You can see what the others are up to by going to the Art Every Day blog. All the participants are listed in a drop down list on the right, and you can click on the names to be taken to wherever they are posting (might be a blog, or Flickr, etc.)

Because most of my stuff takes so damn long weeks or months to make, I’ll be posting progress photos here, rather than individual artworks. Probably. So here is the mosaic I worked on today:

See you tomorrow!

Boo!

I LOVE Halloween! When I was a kid, it was my favorite holiday. Forget Christmas….I got socks, dolls, stuff I generally wasn’t all that interested in. But HALLOWEEN? Yeah, baby. Can you say sugar coma? I went trick-or-treating with a pillowcase! No tiny plastic pumpkins for me! And an elderly neighbor lady used to make fresh caramel popcorn balls for us. She would only pass them out after we came inside and admired her collection of dolls in glass cases. Well, hey, the best treat and the best scare all in one stop – beat that!

But aside from the candy haul, I always loved the macabre. I can’t explain it, but things that are intended to frighten have always drawn me in. I think it was in part because some of the images were ridiculous to the rational mind, and so I never understood their power to frighten. I loved the old scary movies – anything with Vincent Price or Frank Langella. Vampires, swamp things, giant ants, walking mummies and skeletons – they were fascinating because they were impossible. As an adult, I began to understand the symbolic and archetypal aspects of the macabre, and appreciate it all on a whole new level.

So in honor of all that Halloween is…… a little video compilation:

Poppies and Willow

I’ll give you a peek at what’s coming next, if you promise not to make fun of the smeary pencil marks that won’t come off the primed MDF. I drew a loose pencil sketch of what I wanted on the board, then went over it in permanent marker and adjusted some things as I went. Of course I wanted to take a picture of it, so I tried to erase the pencil marks off the areas that were adjusted. Ummmm, for future reference, they won’t come off primed MDF. You can certainly smear them to the point where you don’t know quite where they were originally, but – that graphite ain’t goin’ nowhere!

The design is adapted from a William Morris wallpaper design from 1873.

Oh, one thing I should mention: if you are drawing out a design for a mosaic and are planning to use a white or light colored grout (and of course you always plan all that stuff out, right?) don’t use permanent marker. It will very likely show through the grout in places after you’re done. This will be grouted in charcoal, so I’m not worried about show through.

And the marble piece, Oak and Acanthus, is coming along faster than it seems most of my projects do. Can’t explain it, but I’m grateful to be working a little faster. I get frustrated with being so slow, because I get some great ideas, and if I have to wait to long to start them, I’ll lose enthusiasm for them. Game over - they’ll never get made. In fact, I have one piece that I made a drawing for (just on paper, not on the substrate), and now I’m finding my interest waning. Uh oh. I’d look for a support group for my apparent ADHD but I can’t stay focused long enough.

Was I on vacation?

 

Jeez-O-Pete!  Where have I been?  You’d think I might have gone on vacation, but I’m pretty sure I never even left the house this week except to run errands.  Huh.  Missing time again, eh?  Seems to be a regular occurrence.  I think about once every 3 or 4 months I get internet overload and just wink out for a bit.  I feel better now, thanks.

And so what have we been up to this week, boys and girls?  Have you done any adventurous art?  Have you stretched yourself beyond what you are comfortable doing?  Is there something you have made this week that you have the nerve to dislike?  I can happily say Yes!  I have been working on an acrylic painting.  Acrylics are relatively new to me.  I am not comfortable with the paint itself.  It dries much too quickly to suit me (which is a little odd, since I come from a background of watercolor painting and have yet to try my hand at oils).   But with watercolors, they can be blended even after they are dry by adding more water.  Not so effective with acrylics.  I was planning to share with you the progress on it so far, but I’ve changed my mind.  I will wait until at least the next painting session to see whether it will turn out acceptable or whether it will be a learning experience that ends up in a closet. 

Meanwhile, I have started the marble on the Oak and Acanthus mosaic.   Not much to look at yet, but here you go, such as it is… 

 

 

 

 

And after a hike through the woods with my husband and camera, I have a couple of photos that I really think I’d like to do something with, although I’m not sure just what.  Take a peek:

Reflections of trees in the moving water of a brook	Leaves under water
Trees reflected in the still water behind a beaver dam	Hemlock and beech