Thirty Babies

My newest assemblage is based on the truly inspiring story of the Chinese rubbish collector who saved and raised THIRTY babies abandoned at the roadside

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2181017/Lou-Xiaoying-Story-Chinese-woman-saved-30-abandoned-babies-dumped-street-trash.html#ixzz2r3VJMd6y 

This piece started with the black plastic candle holder from the popular faux Mediterranean style of homes of the 1970's I purchased it from a junk furniture store a few years ago when I was looking for a desk for my daughter.  Last month I purchased a bunch of plastic babies from a thrift store in Park City Utah. They look like little baby Jesus' with the arms outstretched as seen in Nativity scenes.

 I knew I wanted to use those two items in a piece of art. I  googled "baby legends" and horrible story after horrible story of murder and mayhem and baby ghosts haunting people popped up. So I narrowed my search to "good baby stories" and this article from the daily mail  about this woman and her husband rescuing newborn chinese babies that were abandoned in the rubbish caught my attention. Perfect! Just what I was looking for, and such an inspiring story!

AND (insert serendipity here) I have had these pair of Chinese Cloth Dolls that came from my childhood home that would be perfect to symbolize Lou and Li.  I emailed my three sisters and my mom for details on the dolls. No one knew anything about them other than that they sat in an oversized chair and my younger sister remembered playing with them. I looked them up on ebay and they are vintage '50-'60's cloth dolls that sell for around $10 each. 

First I painted everything with white gesso. Then I got out Michael DeMeng's Book Dusty Diablos for some inspiration and color combinations. 

Then I had to do something to the babies. First I painted them all with gesso.

Then I added a wash of colors to make them look more natural.

The fun part of adding washes on top of the gesso.

I left some area's black. On top of the bright colors I added another wash of Golden Fluid acrylic to tone them down.

I glued the 30 babies down and added rhinestones to each forehead to symbolize each precious life that was a treasure found in the trash.

The dolls would sit but I didn't like how their legs stuck straight out. 

Luckily, I have a friend that makes doll's. She suggested I put a few stitches behind the knee.

I hate to sew but gave it a try. (I had to borrow my husbands sewing kit, as I don't even have a needle and thread to my name!)

Yes, it worked, thanks Micki!

In the center is a small battery operated candle with a lantern shade over it. The lantern shade came from a string of lights I used to have. 

Detail shot of the painted dots and jewels that were added. 

Detail of babies with rhinestones.

As I was working on this piece a call for artists for the new Treasure Valley Art Alliance show "Metamorphosis" came in and I knew this piece would fit the bill! 30 Babies lives transformed from certain death to life because of one woman's commitment to do the right thing.

Thirty Babies 24" high x 12" wide $325

Some DeMeng Inspired Art

A week or so ago I blogged on ArtFest.   and I said to stay tuned for my pieces from Michael DeMengs class.

I had a lot of fun on this one, combining a lizard and a small doll and a guitar. The earring for a head piece was added towards the end. During the critique I mentioned how the first time I took a workshop from him at Art & Soul my pieces looked just like his and now I am branching out to combine his style with my sense of color and whimsey.

 Here we have a skull head with a dog body standing on a rubber stamp. The monopoly top hat was given to me as one one my trades and worked out perfect. It is attached to an old metal frame.

 One of the fun things I learned in class this time was how to create different hairstyles for the dolls using a heat gun. Here we have a lovely bouffant on the cat/girl. Two earrings make up the tiara. I brought some pages from an old novel and found the perfect words to fit the piece..."escaped again"

 Here's a piece I had started on before I went to Art Fest...

 ...and came together after Helen, who sat beside me in class and had come all the way from England gave me this little piece of real parchment from 1775. It had to be honored in some way and was the perfect fit for my little door! Helen was so sweet as my hand had cramped up so bad from squeezing some DAP that I couldn't move my finger and she massaged it out for me.

 This one still in the works

As well as this piece on Frogs....

Art Fest

I spent a day in Anacortes prior to the event enjoying the scenery (I hiked up to the top of the hill to the left of the photo, the wind was fierce!).

I decided I had better write this blog before I read any others that are posted about Artfest as I don't want them to influence my post. This was my first and last Artfest. Not because I didn't like it but because this WAS the last one. I think it has been going on for something like thirteen years. I had heard about it and always thought well one day I will go. Then when I read Destination Creativity The Life Altering Journey of the Art Retreat written by Ricë Freeman -Zachery and she says "Artfest is the granddaddy of the art retreats, the first and the biggest, an experience you really don't want to miss. If you can go to only one art retreat, you really owe it to yourself to experience Artfest." THEN I read that this was to be the last one and I said to myself, "well it's now or never" so I made my reservations and went! (By the way, if you get the book, my first published piece of art is on page 69!)

Bought a few second hand treasures while Shopping in Anacortes. The woman at the store said, "isn't she such a cute doll? and I thought, oh boy you don't want to know what I'll be doing to her in Michael DeMeng's class.

My friend Denise picked me up in Anacortes and we got the last ferry out before they shut down service due to the high winds!

We arrived late and dinner was just ending but they were so nice to open the door for us and let us grab a bite to eat. I had heard there was a new chef this year and the food was fabulous! Homemade desserts at lunch and dinner, a wonderful salad bar, vegetarian options for meals. All seemed fresh and healthy and local. We then ran over to hear the speaker for the evening- Jesse Reno. After hearing his talk I wished I had signed up for his class but his was over 2 days and I wanted do 3 different classes. There is always another time. :)

First day class- Stephanie Rubiano -Encaustic Homebodies

Stephanie had a stressful start to class as the heat guns and warming trays kept blowing the fuses in the old fort, but she called for help and found were the breaker box was and kept us in business.

 A few samples from class.

 We had to sew the little houses. I said, "What! I didn't know there was sewing involved in this class or I would not have signed up." but it went well. I made friends with Betty from Canada who was camping at the fort with her husband in their trailer.  Stephanie is a great teacher and we had a fun day.

Evening entertainment included Belly Dancing by Jesse Reno's wife.

Day 2 Class was Zoo-Illogicals by Michael Demeng

 I took a workshop from Michael a couple years ago at Art and Soul in Portland and knew I wanted to take another class with him and this one didn't disappoint.

Quite the fun dismembering dolls and animals and reattaching parts with Apoxie Clay. I met a wonderful woman from England whom sat next to me.

Michael showing us how to add that "baby-doll glow"

At the end of class we had a wonderful critique and discussed each persons piece or pieces.

Lynn Perrella's class sample

 Day 3 was Lynn Perrella's class "Shine On" The finished project was to be a large banner where we use lots of different layering collage techniques. I signed up for this class not so much for the project but that I wanted to take one of her classes as I read her book Art Making, Collections, and Obsessions: An Intimate Exploration of the Mixed-Media Work and Collections of 35 Artists
 quite by chance and it had an influence on the path of my art making. 

Making texture using a doily and gesso.

My finished banner was created as an inspirational piece for training for my first mountain bike race that is coming up the end of this month.

A fun part of the art retreat was the "trades." The coolest things I got was an original piece of parchment with writing on it that was supposedly from 1775 from England.  An newspaper clipping from 1945 and a feather with a cyrstal tied to it.

I was very impressed by how well everything ran and how Teesha and her husband Tracy recruited friends and family to make sure all went smoothly. They had continuous free shuttles circling around to help drive you to a class in the rain and stationed helpers at the classroom buildings to help some of the women with their huge suitcases of art supplies up the stairs.

It's now back to real life for me, but real life is living and breathing art...so I'm not sad. Monday morning was docent training at the art museum followed by a mountain bike ride then an artist alliance board meeting. Tuesday I packed up for a show I'm doing tomorrow and then last night was my regular studio night with some friends and I did an artfest show and tell. That was quite fun. Today I'm working on this blog and making some new art for the museum gift shop.

Stay tuned for pics of my assemblages from Micheal's class.

Dia De Los Muertos 2010

My little home display that I have set up. With my art, my daughter's art (the mirror in the center) and a piece I bought from Michael DeMeng at Art & Soul in Portland last year.

I bought this piece last year when taking Micheal's class at Art and Soul in Portland and then when I was at my friend Marianne's last night I saw this magazine with the cover article on how he makes these pieces.
Here is my version but instead of plastic I used a porcelain sculpture and a metal lamp fixture. I antiqued it, covered it with a varnish and added some Apoxie clay since last posting of it.

Nancy's Nightmare

When Nancy and I signed up for Art and Soul we received long lists of things to find for our classes. One of the things to find for Michael DeMeng's class was "eyes." I have lots of doll's saved from when my girls were little but I couldn't bring myself to cut or tear out their eyes. Nancy went to several thrift stores and finally found some appropriate eyes on a cute little baby doll. When she went up to the counter to purchase it the lady said "awh, how cute! who are you buying it for?" and Nancy being in a foul mood anyway said, " I'm not giving it to anyone, I am going to cut it's eyes out with an exacto knife." The lady looked grief stricken and gave her her purchase.

After we came back from Portland, I found this picture of a doll factory were they are presumably putting the dolls eyes in their heads and I immediately thought of Nancy and her story. The metal base was purchased at The Reuseum, unique finds from the worlds of science, industry and government surplus. The hole in the center of this metal base has an "eye" suspended behind an old camera lens.

What happened to October?

The first weekend of October I went to Art & Soul with my friend Nancy and had a great time. I created a wonderful blog all about our adventures in Portland and fun classes we took, but when I tried to publish...it would not cooperate. Then got a call from Texas that my dad was in the hospital. I have been in San Antonio for 16 days, arrived back home the evening of the last day of the month. Dad can use all the prayers you've got.

The first photo is my 3D collage from Crystal Neubauer's class. We learned how to cut plexiglass with a jewelers saw and sandwich the main element of the collage in between 2 pieces.

The second photo is one of 4 pieces I completed in Micheal DeMeng's class. I loved his definition of Assemblage: "gluing crap together." We learned lots of new techniques for layering color and making things look old and creepy. He does a class in Mexico every year for Dia De Los Muertos, I hope to be able to go next year.