Room

A few weeks ago my husband and I watched a movie called Room about a young boy who spends the first six years of his life confined in a room with his mother.  After the boy and his mother break free of their confines life is both incredibly exciting and rich but also overwhelming.  They refer to life in captivity as Room and life outside of that as World.  I sometimes feel this way transitioning back and forth from months in our travel trailer to our home in Boise. Life is so simple most of the time in the trailer, and while it is exciting to return to all of the more complex and varied life of home, it is also a bit overwhelming.  First World Problem... right.

I am excited to escape the heat of Boise summer and discover some new and beautiful places in Room (the latest nickname for our trailer), but I have been busy for the last couple of months in World.  I started a women's mountain biking group, had my art accepted for a Ketchum ID utility box, entered three works in a call for artists in Seattle, submitted three works to the 2017 Boise Art Museum Triennial, submitted three works to be considered for the Boise Weekly cover and sold three pieces of original art to a local office.  So while it's sometimes a bit disorienting to go from Room to World and then back again, I am grateful that both places are good ones.

WoWoW (Women on Wheels on Weekdays)

Sneak Peak of the Utility Box in Ketchum

Three water related pieces of art in my studio

Our old table is new again!

We wanted to do something with our everyday dining table. At first I thought I would paint a design on it with those new chalk paints I've been hearing about. Then my husband and I got the idea to glue a map that shows all of our travels onto the table and add collage elements around it then pour resin on top to seal it all.

This photo shows the first attempt of trying to glue down the map. I used a whole jar of acrylic gel medium and it had some horrible wrinkles I couldn't even get out. I carefully took it off before it was dry. The photo shows were parts of the map stuck. I poured water on the table and used a credit card to scratch it all off. 

The map sat around for a week while I gained courage to start over and  got some helpful hints from my friend Marianne and the internet. I tore the map apart on its creases and crinkled up each section to make overall wrinkles and coated the front and back of each section. 

It came out perfect this go around.

After I glued down the pieces, I added dots and swirls of paint between the ephemera. 

The next steps were to put masking tape around all the edges and then pour a coat of 2 part resin. Unfortunately the resin soaked through the map making dark mottled areas where the paper was thinner from it sticking to the table the first go around.  Now what to do?

I decided to start painting on the resin.
I painted our tandem bike.
I really liked the way it turned out so I painted some more...

Next I added our teardrop R-Pod trailer complete with
our little pink and blue trailer shoes under the door. 

Next I added our  Dodge Ram Pickup truck we had to buy to pull the trailer, then the second coat of resin was added. We thought it still needed more "stuff" so my husband and I decided to add some current travel photos to the mix...

In total there are 3 layers of resin. I waited until it was dry to the touch to add the second and third layers. After letting it cure for 72 hours, we removed the tape and had to do a light sanding around the edges as the resin had tried to creep up the tape. I didn't have the resin pour off the sides. The table top is 3' x 4'. I have ordered some silicon place mats so we don't scratch it up or cause any damage since it is a table we use every day.