So this story starts with stuff. It's hard for me to part with stuff. And then I had two girls who hated to part with stuff. One day about 10 years ago we did a major cleaning out of the girls closets and under their beds. I couldn't part with all that colorful stuff that was a part of their growing up.
I had the idea to create a huge piece called the "Unhappy Meal" as most of this stuff came from you know where. It was a commentary on children begging their parents for one more toy but in reality all they really want is their parents attention.
I moved about 7 years ago and decluttered and got rid of a lot of stuff, I then started my Every Little Thing art business where I use up all this stuff in my art. Well lo and behold this gave me a reason to start collecting little things again, justified by the thought that I'll be using it in my art. And people started sending me their little things. Which I greatly appreciated, but was starting to feel the pressure of STUFF.
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| It was time to create an Unhappy Meal II |
My younger daughter asked me, "what ever happened to the Original Unhappy Meal? I said "I left it at the last school I taught at and for all I knew it could be in the trash". She said, "I hope not, that was the defining piece of a defining period of your art." WOW
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| The frame was given to me by the same daughter when she moved, it was part of a display at Borders that she bought when they were going out of business. I am using it upside down. |
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| Next step was to find papers to collage the board with so white would not be showing behind the toys... |
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| ...which meant I had to take all the toys off the board. |
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| Laying out the papers. |
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| Then painted the frame. |
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| Then start gluing down the toys. |
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The finishing touches were adding the mardi gras beads to the groove in the frame and adding the block letters and toys at the top. Then I poured Dimensional Magic all around the toys to give it a nice finished look.
The original UnHappy Meal was also in a rainbow, but it was much larger and it had a crying baby voice box that could be turned on and off.
This one measures 18" x 24" |
Many thanks to my top contributors of stuff: Lisa, Innes, Selina, Leslie, Aunt Jerry, and Millie. If I left you off by accident just leave a comment. And to
Rebecca for the idea of using the alphabet blocks for the title.
3 comments:
This is ready great! Katrina was excited to see some of her old toys used so creatively. The thought of them languishing in a nasty landfill is long gone now.
pam i love it!
espececially like how you separated the colors of the 'toys' . . . and yes it does remind me of a rainbow or golden arches . . . or some such thing . . .
just kidding, it's great!
Thanks Innes and Rebecca! I'm thinking I am going to do a series of these...they are so much fun.
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