Famous Potatoes

This piece started with one of three pieces of art that were given to me by an artist friend who was cleaning out all her art and what she couldn't sell, she was giving away or throwing away. These had colorful loops of hand painted paper glued on top. I hated to destroy her art but she gave me permission and said If I didn't take them they would go in the dumpster. I didn't know what I would do with them and didn't want to just hoard them so I only took 3 of these. I emailed her yesterday if she still had the others and she said they were all thrown away! That makes me sad. Not only for myself but for her, and for the landfill. 

So what did I do with the frames? Below is one of the pieces of art and the process I went through.

I had this encaustic collage hanging around the studio waiting for something to finish it off.  I made it at Karen Bubb's encaustic workshop   It was just a tad too wide to fit inside the frame so I asked a builder friend if he could cut a 1/2" off the side. Now it fit.

 

The next decision was what to do with the frame itself. It had paper and blobs of glue and glitter on it that I sanded off. I liked how it looked sanded and decided not to paint over it.

Next was how to finish off the top and bottom as I was left with an inch or so of space on top and bottom of the collage. I tried vintage children's blocks but they looked too blocky, even if the colors were good.

Next I painted around the edges of the frame with black, so the bright colors of the back ground would not show up.

This same day my husband was called by the elderly neighbor if he could go over and help change out her license plates on the car. He came back with two license plates and said "I thought you could use these for something" now if you know my husband, this is a rarity! He usually throws things away before I can say, "can I have that?"  My initial reaction was no thanks I don't want them but on second thought I said, well what the heck give them to me an I'll see if I can find something to do with them.

Here are 2 of my pieces drying in their frames with all my button and bead jars to help hold them down and glue flat.

Famous Potatoes 15" x 15" $250 Encaustic Collage/Mixed Media

I love serendipity. I had to cut the edges of the license plate off but I love the way it turned out especially with the truck. Can anyone guess what state this license plate is from?

Artful walking around Bellingham WA

Tomorrow I'm off to Art Fest in Port Townsend. I came up to Washington 10 days early as my husband was up here teaching a spring break course at Western Washington University....

The sun would poke it's head out occasionally and that's when I would snap my photos! Here's a scene looking down from Western Washington University down onto the harbor. The second largest harbor in the NW.

I then proceeded to walk down to the harbor and took a shot looking back towards campus

 up on the hill. 

Squalicum Harbor

A "fence" made out of colorful bike parts....

and then I spied a cool bike mural....

A splash of bright color...the place was closed and this plant was not chained down and I was in an alley...must be a good town.

A wooden duck along the road....

some live birds on the rocks...

 and walking in the water.

 Some mosaic art on a building and ...

 some crochet work on a tree!

 My husband bouldering on some pretty interesting rock on his day off...

 tunnels....

 and holes.

In  10 days I walked a total of 32 hours. I didn't have a pedometer so I calculated 2.5 miles per hour which comes out to 80 miles- no wonder I have holes in my socks! yes, I did change socks. I was out here on a business trip with my husband. They put us up in a cheap motel out by the mall. No place to sit outdoors at all! Our neighbors were up partying all night, banging doors and smoking but I really can't complain as I got a free vacation and probably burned a hell of a lot of calories walking all over town.

But then tonight I got a taste of the good life...my husband had to go back and one of his co-workers across town offered to let me stay in the B&B where she was staying...

 in a quiet little neighborhood with quite the view! Fresh fruit and yogurt in the fridge, chickens in the yard and an actual place to sit outside and away from the noise of the freeway.

I had a nice relaxing evening to sit and sketch and paint....and to watch the sun go down over the town...

good night!

Surf, Sun, Sand

$50
this original acrylic painting was completed while attending The Savannah School of Art in Savannah Georgia a couple of summers ago. My teacher was from Egypt and told us how he always put some symbol of man in his landscapes/seascapes...hence the sailboat way off in the distance. Glued to the easel are coral from Florida, sand from Galveston, TX and a wooden boat from Mystic Seaport Connecticut.