Life Adventure Studio

New Inspiration!!

Thank you. Sue Pelletier, for being an inspiration in more ways than one, but specifically for giving me a great way to remember my grandmother's quilts. 

I have found that I can't create without hard core inspiration and it is near impossible for me to recreate something I've already done.  Sue helped me overcome both without even trying. 

The reason I bring up the second challenge is because I've been trying to find new inpiration to build an assemblage similar to one I built this summer.

The first piece was built from a sketch I drew of a chair at our lake house.  I had the perfect wall picked out for it and was ready to hang it, but before I could I decided to display it at the Lawrence ArtWalk.  I'm sure you've already guessed what happened.  It sold. 

I've stared at blank art panels ever since trying to figure out a way around what's in my head ... "It's already been done."

When Sue told me about the new class "Plaster Quilts" she is offering at CREATE this summer, my mind skipped right over how fun it would be to take a class with her and went right to the box of quilt squares I found in Grandma's closet last month.  I knew they were there because every time I had come for a visit, she would pull them out and tell me all about what she planned to do with them. 

I was back for a visit last month, she in the long-term care center and me staying in her house, alone.  Grandma was having a hard day and needed to rest, so I wandered from room to room, cupboard to cupboard with memories flooding my mind.  I wanted to cry when I had to shut the door to her closet with filled with projects she would never finish and those quilt squares sitting on the shelf with no hope of being remembered. 

Then, Sue typed those perfect words ... plaster quilts.  I could immediately see how pieces from my rusted metal collection could be laid out in similar patterns and I almost jumped up and down when I realized that while it wouldn't be an exact match, they would be more rusted metal and less ephemera like the assemblage missing from my wall and this time I am going to hang on to one. 

And remember.

 

 

You will never judge artists the same again.

Above from left to right: Bonnie, Christine, Annette, Tami.

Do you remember that trip I took to Chicago for the CREATE Mixed Media Retreat in August?  While at the Vintage Metal Deck class, I had the pleasure (and pain) of sitting with three incredibly loving, caring and crazy women.  We've since set up a Facebook page and really gotten to know each other ... at least as much as you can through cyber therapy.

Friday was our Lawrence ArtWalk reception and the first faces that I saw were the ones with me above.  Annette drove from Wisconsin, picking Christine up in Illinois "on the way".  They stayed with Bonnie (the innocent looking one above) in Kansas City.  And had Cyndy (the friend who keeps secrets) scout out the area and guide them in.  I couldn't believe it!  What great friends who, when together, are able to set all those silly societal rules aside and have a heck of a good time. 

If you don't know them, that means Annette leads the way, Christine follows right behind and when Annette's ideas run dry Bonnie says something that to those who don't know better, sounds quite innocent, but to Annette sounds like a dare.  And off we go again.  Love you guys!!!!

Shellac Burn

 

 

Disclaimer:  This was my first video and I did not intend to narrate, so please don't judge.

I was not much of an Andy Warhol fan before ...

We learned several techniques to achieve patinas at the CREATE mixed media retreat in Chicago, but nothing like how Andy Warhol oxidized his works.

Warhol's Oxidation Paintings, 1977-78

After Andy Warhol: Piss & Sex Paintings and Drawings, Gagosian Gallery, 2002

In December 1977 Andy Warhol began to make a series of elegant, abstract paintings. These iridescent canvases, made up of coppery yellows, oranges and verdant green strokes, pools and drips, offered Warhol's viewer a sensuous and very physical enjoyment of paint, quite at odds with the crisper images one found in his Pop vocabulary. Surprisingly, the only paint used by the artist in this very 'painterly1 body of work was that employed for the metallic gold ground. The blooms of color that effloresce over the pictorial space were created in quite a unique manner. As Bob Colacello notes, "Andy paid Victor [Hugo] to be the 'collaborator' ... He would come to the Factory to urinate on canvases that had already been primed with copper-based paint by Andy" The uric acid would oxidize the metal in the copper ground, causing it to discolor, allowing for patterns to be created according to the 'movement' of the 'painter'. Later, Ronnie Cutrone, one of Warhol's Factory assistants was asked to 'assist', much to the delight of the artist. According to Warhol, Cutrone took a lot of Vitamin B, which caused the copper pigment to oxidize a particularly 'pretty color' As Bruce Hainley notes. "Like .. blood . urine is rich in DNA The Oxidations ... are portraits of Victor . They're also self-portraits and portraits of . assistant Ronnie Cutrone. Doggedly marked territories, they trace signs of identity, even if that identity is unknown (or unknowable)". (Bruce Hainley, "Urine Sample" in Exh. Cat., New York. Gagosian Gallery, Andy Warhol: Piss & Sex Paintings and Drawings. September - November 2002, pp. 7-8)

Source: Georgetown University

http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/visualarts/Warhol-Oxidations-Post-Gagosian-2002.html

Encaustic Euphoria

I love, love, love working with melted beeswax!  It is so forgiving and fun.  It is a great complement to my infatuation with plaster.  I started with an cradled art panel (8"x8"x1.8"), plastered with potter's plaster (plaster of Paris would work), layered with Cobalt Teal Encaustic medium and Burnt Umber.  Then, I melted and moved the wax with the heat gun.  Fun!  Fun!!!

The picture above shows the brush marks before I used the heat gun to fuse and soften the appearance (below).  Brendon had just gotten home from Emporia State when I was working on this board.  I was showing him what I had learned at the CREATE mixed media retreat in Chicago.  He thought it was pretty cool, but after watching for awhile he looked at me and said, "If you're still doing this when I get married, this doesn't count as my wedding present." 

Now, that's funny.

Problem Board

This board has plagued me for two months!  I tried acrylic paint over plaster and I like two of the areas, but four areas of this much color movement seems too much.  Maybe I'll look for some rusty metal to cover the lower left area.  Whaddya think? 

I love this collection of objects I found, took apart and/or altered.  There is a piece from a broken chair, springs from a baby bed found at a salvage yard, a piece of trim from the first library built in Lawrence that I found from a construction dumptster where I almost got clocked by things being thrown away (imagine!), knobs from a free garage sale (heaven!!) and trim that I took my torch to.  ALL ON ONE BOARD!

I LOVE mixed media!  Where else can you find such adventure?