Monkey's, Museums and Mist

Just back from a wonderful long weekend in Seattle with the Boise Art Museum Docents. 27 of us saw art everywhere...

 ... the space needle shrowded in mist as seen from the Olympic Sculpture Park.

...the homeless even had artful trees to hang out under.

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..street art of Bruce Lee in the International District.

...beautiful gardens and mosaic walls.

...in the swirl of the iron gate

 

...in front of whole foods we were greeted by the artist Aiko Takamori as he spoke about his sculptures.

...even the fruits and vegetables made beautiful pattern...

...as well as Nancy's sweater blending beautifully with the Aboriginal painting.

...Deborah Butterflied's horse sculpture greeted us as we arrived at Greg Kucera's Gallery tour.

...Seattle Art Museum tour...

Seattle Art Museum Installation

Seattle Mist

Gabriel Cornelius von Max, 1840-1915

Monkeys as Judges of Art  Frye Art Museum Tour

...special thanks to Terra, Drew and Bonnie for all their work in coordinating the trip to make it enjoyable and informational for all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boise Open Studios (BOSCO) 2011 weekend wrap-up

Pam, Geoff and Nancy working on their art.

 This past Saturday and Sunday was the big event. Now you might ask yourself why has my studio been relocated to the front yard. Well for  several reasons. One my studio is too small for three of us plus guests. Second, last year Marianne and I were set up in the back and we had a total of 15 visitors over 2 days, and since I live on a busy street...I thought this way we would get people that wouldn't normally stop (more visibility and not as wierd as going around into someone's back yard that you don't know) and 3rd reason was when I went to Open Studios out in Lake Tahoe this was how one house was set up and that was were I got the idea.

Well this set up worked very well for the first day. We had a lovely warm fall day! By afternoon you can see I was down to a sleeveless shirt. My theory was correct about better traffic up front. We had many people stop by that were not doing the tour but were just driving by and wanted to see what we were up to...plus lots of neighbors. I didn't count how many people came by on Saturday but at least 45, if not more and almost that many on Sunday. I sure wish I had thought to count.  We had a constant stream of people until 4pm when the Football game started. It got so eerily quiet that we thought maybe the rapture had taken place. No cars, nothing...just silence.

 And for people wanting to see my studio- they got a private tour, so all worked out well. I had many comments about how calm and tranquil and zen like my studio area was. That made me happy. That must mean I did a good job of cleaning up the usual jumble of stuff!

Nancy worked on staining old letters with coffee and burning their edges to add to her moth painting. Geoff is seen working on his cartoons.

Here I am gluing buttons and adding paint and glitter to a project.

Day 2: Sunday we awoke to pouring rain and dropping temperatures! The tent had pools of water on the awning! Time to re-adjust. Bill moved the truck out of the garage and we turned that into a working studio for 3! We did such a convincing job of that- ( in only 30 minutes!) that we had a quite a few people comment that it was nice that 3 of us could share this studio space (all the time). We laughed and said no we didn't usually work in the garage and then I would show them my studio. Which is just through the door in the garage, so this arrangement actually worked out really well. And I told them that Nancy and I actually would go work once a week in Marianne's studio which was also open and then we would send them over there to go see.

We also had comments from folks that were happy to actually get to see us working, they said that at some of the other studios they went to the artists were not actually working on something.

At first the rain was a dampener on traffic but as the day went on the people came out, at one point we had a bottle neck in the garage it was so full of people. I think the other factors in such a good response was the insert in the Boise Weekly, the cards promoting our website (a lot of the folks I talked to had just printed the map off the website and didn't even have the one from the paper) and the opening at the Boise Art Museum.

Happy Life

Wednesday- first I gave a tour at the Boise art museum to a group of 3rd graders from Payette on the  current comic exhibit. A large group of wiggly kids,  I think they all enjoyed it.

Then I started my Etsy shop- have just added one item, but there will be more.

... did some reading and discovered I had a piece of art in a newly published book: 

http://www.createmixedmedia.com/blogs/destination-creativity-addendum

check out the link- One of my ATC's made it into Ricë's book!

Then it was out for a mountain bike ride to enjoy some of this cooler fall sunshine. I went big and tried some more difficult trails. Got my back tire caught in a rut on the motorcylce trail and had a tumble,  nothing serious, just a few scrapes and bruises.

 And finally it was back to my studio for cleaning and organizing for Open Studios (BOSCO) this weekend. Seriously I had to put lots of things away, so there would be room to walk...while finishing a few projects that have been in the works, here is one of them:

This post is in reverse...here is my newest finished assemblage/collage:

Happy Life 9 x12 on Canvas

Here it is before the frame. I found the gazebo at a thrift store and I had the Mulan doll, other 3d elements include a glass turtle, game piece, glass bird, handmade clay flowers.

Here I have collaged the background, added crackling paste, paint, fabric, the red roses are from a plastic grocery bag.

 This photo shows the very first step of assembling the pieces to go on the canvas. It all started with an unfinished painting from 5 years ago.

Links to other blogs- givewaway, book, video, techniques and tools...

Thanks Seth for including me in this edition of The Pulse. It's always great fun and educational to read The Altered Page.

Another blog to check out is Diane's My Art Journal. Diane is a great online artist friend and leaves me comments, which I like. She is giving away a copy of a new publication- Mingle.

Another favorite blog of mine is Ricë's Notes from the Voodoo Cafe. Her "rants" :) can be long but are very entertaining. She is an excellent writer and just came out with a new book which I am in the process of reading. Check out the Utube video on the book "Destination Creativity: The Life-Altering Journey of the Art Retreat. "

Boise Open Studios (BOSCO) preview at Boise Art Museum (BAM)

 What a fun time! The Boise Art Museum held the opening for our Boise Open Studio Event (BOSCO) this evening. Rick Friesen and myself were chosen as the 2D and 3D working artists for the evening. Rick drew portraits of people and I worked on 3 separate projects. I told people I got way more done in 3 hours at the museum than I get done at home, cause there are not distractions like a computer or a husband.

 Lots of friends stopped by to say hi. Pictured above are Marianne and Nancy both BOSCO members who will also be on the tour of open studios.

 The first of three projects. The thought and gathering of materials is what took up all of the time prior to the event. #1 you have to have an idea and #2 you have to bring everything you will need to complete the project away from your studio. So basically I created 3 "kits" to then put together at the museum.

This one consisted of a painting on canvas I had used 5 years ago at Highland Park Elementary School when I was teaching a unit on Georgia O'Keefe. I then collected emphemera related to flowers and a pink and green color scheme. 3-D objects include a thrift store gazebo, Mulan doll from McDonalds from years ago, a small bird from the Catholic rummage sale in TX.

I did not finish this one but got a good start. Now I need to find a second hand frame for it.

 With hunting season approaching, my second project was this cool intricate wood cut of deer and birds. I painted it all and added the game pieces that spell dad, the rifle (again from the $2 bag from the Catholic rummage sale) the deer and chair. Inside the chair I put a very small photo of a fisherman on a lake in the mountains. I still have a little more to do this one as well.

 This one I think is finished. A cool mirror from the thrift store covered in jewelry given to me by my sister and a friend.

Now to clean up the mess I made in the studio earlier today when I pulled everything out!

Sittin on the dock of the Bay...

I just returned this week from a great birthday week in TX with my family. My mom took me and my 3 sisters to Rockport for some much needed girls time. Lots of time to visit art galleries and get inspiration. Rockport is #48 in the Book " The 100 Best Small Art Towns in America"

Mom bought us each a pair of new flip flops.

Marianne working on her photo transfers.

While I was in Texas I received an invitation to studio em for our Tuesday night art making. Since I was back of course I went. Good friends, good art,  good wine...what much else could you ask for. :)

 Echo kept me company all night, sitting under my chair.

 Lynn, working on a "secret project"

 I worked on some frames I bought at the Catholic Rummage Sale I went to with my Mom (this was just prior to her winning $25 at Bingo!) I covered them in corks and some other finds.

One of the days I spent in TX was on a wine tour of the Hill Country. At one of the wineries they had a barrel of corks that said "free." Needless to say I threw a handful into my purse. Now to create some collages for the frames.

One of Marianne's beautiful photo transfers. I went by the Art Source Gallery and her art looked really good in it's new display! Stop by on First Thursday (tomorrow) to my friend Zella's metal art as the featured show and then come by the Boise Art Museum were I will be demonstrating my assemblage techniques from 5-8 pm.