He cooks, he supports my habit -- AND he makes art for me!

Okay, this is a major first. You know The Husband is my personal Art Enabler. He's encouraged me to go to both Art & Soul last year, and Artfest this year. He waited patiently until I got up the nerve to sell my notebooks on Etsy, and at the holiday craft fair at work. He thinks my stuff is cool.

But this time he went beyond... and made art for me!

Sci-Fi Bride, by The Husband

As I said in the last post, we're both big sci-fi/fantasy fans. So The Husband created this piece to express our shared lurve, and love of sci-fi. The collage was created using six public domain images, plus one of our wedding photos. (I bought me some hair for the occasion.)

I look like the Creator and Destroyer of Worlds. With a veil and a pretty little bouquet. Cool.

He also made and framed another poster, this one to celebrate our adoration of "Little Britain". (Warning: major time-suck -- do not visit that site unless you've got time and privacy.) He used to hate the "We are Ladies" sketch, in which the two comedians play not-very-convincing transvestites who love Victorian-era dresses. But he found more public domain art of men in Victorian drag, so I guess The Husband couldn't resist.

Yes, he's wonderful. No, you can't borrow him.

Happy fifth anniversary, sweetie

Don't stand too close. It'll take a chunk outta ya.
I might've mentioned in an earlier post that I make art for The Husband each year for our anniversary. It's our fifth, so the traditional gift is made of wood. But really, who wants a wooden gift that hasn't been altered? Then, under the influence of Jane Wynn's Altered Curiosities, I realized I had the foundation of this anniversary's gift.

The Husband and I share a love of Terry Pratchett's Discworld. One of the recurring "characters" is The Luggage, as described on Wikipedia:

It is a large chest made of sapient pearwood (a magical, intelligent plant which is nearly extinct, impervious to magic, and only grows in a few places outside the Agatean Empire, generally on sites of very old magic). It can produce hundreds of little legs protruding from its underside and can move very fast if the need arises. It has been described as "half suitcase, half homicidal maniac."

So I started with a balsa wood box I'd gotten for another project. I painted it with bronze paint, then patina.
I cut "teeth" into the top and bottom, then painted the teeth off-white, then added more patina over the tooth paint. (Really should've cut them before I painted the box, but I was so excited about trying the patina!)

Oh, and then the Dremel cutting wheel comes out! Oh, yeah. There is nothing like the smell of friction-melted, amputated toy soldier legs.
Except for friction-melted, amputated fake Barbie legs, of course.

And you can add McDonald's action figurine legs for variety. I attached them with epoxy putty from the hardware store.
Again, try not to jump the gun with the paint... like I did... again. You'll need to attach one row of legs, then paint, then attach another row. Otherwise you'll need a really skinny paintbrush to get around the corners to paint everything.
I lined the inside with a textured red paper, and then collaged the tags.
The Husband immediately put it up on the mantle. He knew what I was making, but he still liked the way it came out. Oh, but you have to see the art he made for me!

"Spring: winter, only not as cold." -- Me, 1998

29 Mar 2008, about 6:45pm PST:
Screw the cute little robins that have been hopping around our yard. It ain't spring yet. It ain't spring yet.
See, this is why I don't get excited about decent weather this time of year. It disappears and reappears just to mess with your head, until mid-June. But no -- still nothing to go wild about, because our week and a half of summer doesn't show up until oh, late July. Rain on Independence Day is the norm, not the exception -- and yet we still have fireworks shows.

No, I don't know why we bother.

Pocket art, display art

Voila! The magic of Photoshop... the expertise of The Husband... and now I have official business-type calling cards. The Husband gently nudged me to get it done, and man, it was about time. One more step closer to being ready for Artfest.

And if you're going to Artfest, please stop by the gallery area, where my assemblage "Dryad and Child" will be available for purchase.
I know I'm offering this to an audience of artists, in a place where the artists are hoping to make some money to recoup their retreat expenses.

But still... if the piece isn't your thing, talk it up to your friends back home who would like it. You've seen this grow and change -- you're practically a midwife to this baby! Help me find a home for these two.

I don't have issues. I have a subscription.

I have a good reason for the carnage below, but just looking at the picture, it occurs to me that someone might think I have anger issues.I do have to admit there's a twisted pleasure in cutting through plastic figurines. (Did you know the friction of the Dremel cutting wheel heats up the plastic? Keep this in mind when you're pulling off the scrap bits.)

The legs are now attached to a body, of sorts. I can't say much else, because The Husband reads my blog and it's a piece I'm making for him. He's probably figured out what I'm making, even now, 'cause he's one of those disturbingly smart people.

On to my other issues. No more carnage, I promise.

I thought I finished my artist book. But I couldn't keep my hands off the cover, so I gave in. I added Golden regular molding paste and acrylic paint, the last of my copper mesh pockets, and some scrapbook stencil letters. The paint mixture I just kind of eyeballed; I used eggshell white, plus Golden yellow oxide and nickel azo gold, with a drop of brown to make it earthier. I washed the edges with Michael de Meng's secret recipe grungy color.

The pocket was partly covered with a plastic lace doily and brushed with patina. You can still see a little of the scallop-y pattern, even though the copper is folded.

The stencil letters used to be shiny, but I let them sit in a paper bowl with patina solution until I got some corrosion. Ooh, you should've seen it -- the solution wasn't doing much of anything at first, but eventually the stencil surfaces started to bubble and fizz, and when I picked up the bowl, it was warm! Hoo boy. The reaction stopped when I popped the letters into clean water. Let's just call that my contribution to global warming.

Next, I cut down some bookmarks, then stamped and wrote the lyrics of "Someday" on them.
On the back, a favorite stamp of a sketch by da Vinci: it's Cleopatra. (You can see her just a little bit through the copper mesh, if you go back to the previous photo.)
And on the front, the lyrics. I decided to add Alice only because I thought to have her looking at the earth above and behind her. If she'd just been looking at the lyrics, that would've been a little too precious. I like the stamping because each figure is looking off and away to a world that no longer exists.

I finished off the inner covers with a mottled green paper, which worked especially well for the back cover and last page. It makes the letters and gate on the patina'd copper stand out better. The book is now sitting in a box a friend gave me. The box will make a convenient traveling case, since I'm going to bring it to Artfest and show the result to LK Ludwig, in whose class I began this project.

If you're going to Artfest, ask me to show you the book!

Patina-tiny experiments

For The Husband's anniversary art, I've been trying out some green patina. I'll upload a few pix later. In the meantime, this is a little real-world patina I walk past most every day: Rusted and patina'd rebar next to an empty flowerpot.

I'm sure if I thought hard enough about it, I'd be able to figure out why some of the rebar is more green than the rest.

Rust and patina experts: any ideas?

"An artist never really finishes his work, he merely abandons it." -- Paul Valéry

I think I'm done with both my artist book (from Art & Soul Portland) and my Artfest assemblage. I took up Jen Worden's challenge this week, being already in that frame of mind. But you never know... I may succumb to messing around with one or the other...

Here is the finishing touch to the heart in the Artfest assemblage, before and after:
And the last pages in the artist book I started in LK Ludwig's class last October. I'm having trouble posting the photos (THANKS, BLOGGER) again. To see the pages from start to finish, go to my Flickr.

As soon as BLOGGER GETS ITS ACT TOGETHER, I'll post the pages here too. Sorry for the hassle.

Sluggish...

Today... ugh, stayed home from work because the cold I'm fighting won this round. I spent most of the day unconscious. According to the Urban Dictionary, that makes me a bit of a sleep slut.

But yesterday, I made another page in my artist book about my parents.
I decided to repeat the chorus of "Someday," focusing on my mom this time. This time the first line, Just close your eyes and I'll take you there, seemed to speak to me more than the second line, this place is warm without a care. The keyhole -- a real one! -- kicked it into gear. As far as I can tell, her first name is an English name meaning "hidden."

Since the keyhole is pretty heavy, I attached it to corrugated paper on one side, but that wasn't enough. The slide mailer on my desk was perfect.We went on a bus tour of western Europe the summer I graduated. We were in the Netherlands when our tour guide told us Yeltsin had taken over the Kremlin. I thought made a lovely historical touch.

Practically at the finish line

I put the hair on the mother figure, wired the baby figure onto her back, and took pictures! Unfortunately, I couldn't post them before heading out the door, but they'll be up tonight. Still a few more steps:

-- apply E6000 to the feet of the mother figure

-- wire mother figure's feet into the tree stump and forest floor

-- wire one of her hands to the stump

-- cover exposed foot and hand on stump

-- possibly add transfer and attach heart

-- coat with soft gel gloss and varnish

Hang in there with me!

EDIT: Okay, so this is what they look like from the front:
In west Africa, that's what you'll see when a mother is walking toward you: a woman with tiny feet sticking out from each side of her waist.The baby sling knotted on her chest:And the baby strapped to mommy's back:
If you think that's a lot of yarn for hair, you should've seen the mother before I gave her a haircut and tied up the rest.
I almost put the "branded on the heart" text somewhere else, but I realized how perfect it was on the sleeve.
I need to retake the sleeve detail pictures, but they'll do for now. 'Night.

Ugh! Get on with it already!

I still like the assemblage I'm making for Artfest, but I have taken waaaay too long to get it done. I had the concept way back in late November or early December, because I was drawing the main sketch while I worked the holiday craft fair.This is one of two figures I'm putting on a base, a mother and baby. I started out making the baby's t-shirt a week or two ago. Also added text on the back.

Then last night I made the shirt into a onesie. I finally attached the face and hair last night as well, partly to get myself into the home stretch of assembly. I have this thing about not attaching the face until the end... I mean, I burned masking tape on both the "baby" and the "mother", and I've drilled holes into the mother. I can't do that with a face looking at me! Wouldn't you want to be completely unaware while someone was (re)creating your body?

Yes, the figure has two faces. Yes, that's on purpose. I placed a page pebble (you know, those domed clear thingies) over the first image, then adhered a transfer of the second image.

You know how these poseable figures have no ass? I rolled up some paper and made the baby a tushie (that's Yiddish for "backside" for all you goyim out there.) Did the same for the mom, but added a lot more paper. [Insert "Baby Got Back" joke here.]

After I finally finish this project, I have something in mind for The Husband for our anniversary. (I give him art every year. This was actually his idea.) And I want to finish up the LK Ludwig class project from Art & Soul, so I can show it to her after class at Artfest. Oh, and did I mention I need to finish Photoshopping a business card into existence?

I'd like to do more blog candy stuff, but I gotta get this done! Well, it's been said that if you want to get something done, give it to a busy person...

Tagged and bagged

The fabulous pink-slingin' Julie tagged me the other day! Prepare to learn more than you ever wanted to know about me.

Julie says I must:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

It is a bit of a job so even if you just wanted to post the facts that would be fun!!!

Here goes:
1. The little bitty circle scar next to my nose is a chicken pox scar I got when I was three. I didn't like how it felt when my hand brushed up against it, so I scratched it off in the bathtub.

2. When my brother and I watched cartoons as a kid, we used to call dibs on the characters. This means you have to speak up quick at the beginning of a Bugs Bunny cartoon, or your animated alter ego will spend the next half-hour bitching about that wascally wabbit.

3. My favorite color is a very specific shade of scarlet. Not orangey red, not fire truck red, not candy-apple red.

4. My favorite expression of my father's was "The first hundred years are always the hardest." He always attributed that sentiment to his older brother, but I've never once heard my uncle say it.

5. If I keep my elbows bent for more than about five minutes, when I straighten them out, they make a loud snap that sounds like I'm cracking my knuckles next to an amplifier.

6. I paid for most of my college education with winnings from a game show. It was called "Body Language" and I won about $27,000 from a week's worth of victories.

7. I want real-life scientists to figure out how to tesser, so I can live on the same street as all my friends and loved ones. (Man, I miss Madeleine L'Engle.)

I tag these peoples to carry on the tradition: Ricë, Jan, Stacie B., Lisa H., Evil Greg, Paula, and Deryn. I realize not all of you will participate. But I tagged you because you hold the secrets of the universe, and you've been dying for my command to reveal said pearls of wisdom.