Custom Assemblages

A few months ago my sister Selina  was the winner of a piece of art on my Facebook page.  I wanted to make her something personal, as she just started a new wine tasting/trolley tours venture in Texas  "Texas Grape Escapes" I had her send me a logo, which I scaled way down and glued on the wine bottle along with a crystal bow that my little neighbor Marcus found for me in the street. (thank you Marcus!) I created the table out of a large plastic spool that I think ribbon or wire came on. I gessoed it and then painted it brown. I cut out a checkered tablecloth for the top and added a ribbon border, glued corks to the base and now she has a business card holder for her new business!

I will be traveling down to see mom and sisters next week, so I am hoping she doesn't see this blog until then so it will be a surprise. If you live in the TX Hill Country area she is putting on a Chocolate and Wine Festival you should check out in October.

I have quite the entrepreneur family. Every one of my 4 siblings owns a business as well as my nephew, Tommy who started a flight school near San Antonio TX. I wanted to make something for his new business Anderson Aviation. This piece started out with the frame with the airplanes on top. One airplane was broken and the frame had a large blemish. No problem for me as I got the frame really cheap as no else would want it and I could fix it up adding pictures of his 3 airplanes. Bordering the airplanes are cut out pieces of a large compass. Lots of letter A's and in the center is a gold hanging earring in the shape of Texas.

Ideas on Ideas

Myself as well as 2 other local assemblage artists, Belinda and Cyndy gathered in the art classroom of Jerry Hendershot at Timberline High School Wednesday morning to discuss our methods and hopefully inspire the students to branch out in 3D media other than clay. Even though all three of us do basically the same thing (collect and put old stuff together into art) we each had a very different approach and feel to our methods and their results.

The students noticed that Belinda's all seemed to be in boxes, that Cyndy's were all characters and that mine were hard to put in a category.

The talk I gave was on how I get my ideas. I told them that:

1. Number one I was inspired by the items themselves, and then secondary to that my art was informed by the culture I live in and am exposed to:
2. Books
3. Movies
4. The news and commercials
5. Viewing other art shows
6. Traveling
7. Music

I brought examples of art to show for each.

Cyndy and Belinda brought a couple items each and did a digital slide show. I was very impressed by their work.

Afterwards Jerry  passed out boxes of items he had collected over the years and purchased at the youth ranch bins. The 3 of us also brought stuff for the students to use. The students were all very interested and dove right into the project of making their own. We had to leave but hope to be back to see their work in progress and hear their final presentations.

Memory Tin

Small tin painted with gesso, with art tape on the sides and one of my assemblage images. I call it "Memory Box" as some children were looking at it this weekend, they asked me, "How do you put your memories in there?"

This morning I followed along on our docent model tour for "Comics at the Crossroads" I give my first two tours of this exhibit on Thursday, one to a Junior High group of boys and the other to a group from Boise High School. I was going to get my script all in order tonight but Wednesday I do a presentation on assemblage to a class at Timberline High School and I have spent the evening gathering odd objects that they can use in their assemblages.

On October 6, I will be doing an assemblage demo at the Boise Art Museum for First Thursday in conjunction with Boise Open Studios. The open studios will take place Oct. 15 and 16.

October 13th I will be teaching a collage/assemblage class at Twigs and Twist in Hyde Park. There are still a few spots open if you are interested.

What to do with an empty tin?

First I painted the outside of the tin with white acrylic. Then I cut out images from some vintage  paper a friend gave me. I used gel medium to glue everything down. The antique look was done by rubbing an ink pad on the acrylic paint.

The leaves are stickers which I then added gel on top. To add some dimension inside the tin, I added a green bead to hold a ribbon flower and added a tie tack of a little race car. Since my dad raced back in the 60's I could see the "vintage connection"  I also tied it all together using a yellow and green color scheme.

Every side of the tin has something on it, to keep it interesting.  $15 plus postage

Dunia Fundraiser at Art Source Gallery

This summer Art Source Gallery initiated a summer series of art events to be held on 3^rd Fridays.

Each of the events of the summer series is about seeing art as it is actually being created, and allowing the public to witness the process. Art work created at these events will be available for purchase by silent auction as the pieces are created; proceeds will go to Dunia Marketplace, the Gallery's partner charity for the three summer events. Items not sold the night of the event will be available for purchase at Dunia or The Art Source.

Friday, August 19^th I participated in the Quick Draw as the Dunia Market Place Guest Artist, in which artists complete a piece of art within a two-hour span. Artists Jaki Katz Ashford (acrylic), Martine Castoro (oil), Rick Olmstead (jeweler), Barbara Bowling (enamel jeweler), Shana Hoppe (Acrylic), Kay Coughran (Oil) and Dunia Guest Artist Pam McKnight (Assemblage) will create in their chosen medium for 2 hours, giving the viewers yet another insight into the creative process.

The event was held from 6 to 9 pm, with music, and wine provided by a local winery. There was  no charge to attend. All art created at these events will be available for purchase by silent auction, with proceeds to be donated to Dunia Marketplace, a not-for-profit Fair Trade store located at 1609 N. 13th Street, Boise.

Here is my table with all the stuff I brought to create something. I had to borrow a punch bowl to put my beads in so I could look through them without them going all over the floor!

Here is Marianne and David at the wine table.

2 wooden eggs with decorative dowels glued on top with beads on top of that, then painted to look like candles.

The main structure for my piece was a 70's looking black plastic Spanish style hall sconce for candles, the musical instruments were Christmas ornaments. I painted Blue Interference on the black.

Here I am adding touches of white paint.

Finished project. Some said it reminded them of New Orleans or the House of Blues. I got 2 bids that evening and David was the 2nd bid, we'll have to see if he got it.

Art Source members have been having so much fun making art together that the series will continue into the fall- stay tuned for their next event!

This Post is all about Linda!

I just wrapped up 3 days at Art In The Park. It was a tremendous amount of work getting ready for it, Then setting everything up, (thanks to my daughter Katherine) then tearing everything down ( thanks to my friend Nancy) and manning the booth for 27 hours in 3 days by myself.

After paying for the booth and fee to the museum, I made $150.00, not including supplies or hours to make the projects...BUT...it was all worth it if I could have any positive influence at all and I know I did...especially for one little girl named Linda.

She came to my booth and was fascinated with what I did and she said she knew she could go home and do it and make something out of the stuff she had in her room. Well she did! AND she came back the next day to show me what she made. She wanted to bring the actual project but her mom
(standing in the background) suggested she take a photo instead.

So here is Linda standing proudly holding the picture of her project. ...it was really good. Her older brother asked if he could be in the picture as well and I said sure! Mom said it was ok for me to post on my blog. I hope Linda gets to see this and how proud I am of her! You go girl!

and if you are thinking these are cousins or something....I have never met these people before. But I hope I see them again. :)

Art in the Park Day 1

1. I have met a lot of really nice folks
2. Saw some old friends I had not seen in a while
3. Had a great dinner hosted by the museum 
4. My daughter has stopped by both evenings to help me

AND
5. I Have a great site :

• next to the Rose Garden
• in the shade
• close to the bathroom
• close to the hospitality tent
• within eyesight of two friends tents
• on the main drag
• close to the parking lot

Begged, Borrowed and Stolen

 I've had lots of time to work on art for Art in The Park this week. I went to Marianne's for Studio night along with Nancy and made a bunch of key chains with collage and paint on wood sample chips from a building supply. At first I was going to use real scrabble tiles from a game that was missing many letters anyway but I thought the height of them might not be good for something that gets quite a bit of jostling about and could come off.  So I started to look through all my daughters' stickers they had given to me and I found some official scrabble stickers- perfect! and I didn't even have to go shopping! (Not that I ever do) I took the key rings from my husbands stash. So nothing was purchased for this project, just begged, borrowed and stolen. :)

Making Art the Canadian Way and Style File

I have just returned from a 2 week trip in our teardrop T@B trailer through the Canadian Rockies.

 I brought my large art kit and made a couple collages...

don't you just love those pink smurf shoes...

while the amount of time for doing artwork was limited

there was lots artistic inspiration available while biking....

and hiking...

and hanging out with friends...

Upon my return I found out that I have been chosen to be in the Altered Page's "Style File" Style File is the 1st of 6 projects from The Pulse. Participants were asked: How would you describe your artistic style? check out Seth's blog at:

http://thealteredpage.blogspot.com/2011/09/style-file-chapter-12.html