To The Moon!

Or at least outer space!

My friend Gretchen Bierbaum, The Queen of Collage, has a postcard-sized collage going up on the next space shuttle mission. 

Artists from around the world created small artworks on the theme of space exploration. The artworks will be included on the next two space shuttles launched to commemorate the end of the space shuttle program. Gretchen's will be on the shuttle that will launch on Nov. 1.

http://fluxfaceinspace.blogspot.com/2010/07/gretchen-biebaum-92.html

More information about the exhibit is here:

http://www.wix.com/fluxfaceinspace/exhibit

Opening for Project Water at Studio 2091

Studio 2091 is hosting a show and sale called “Project Water”. They gave 6x6 inch tiles to artists around the world and asked them to create their version of what water meant to them. More than 300 artists responded.

I can’t wait to see what the show looks like and what everyone did. Here's mine: http://lifeneedsart.blogspot.com/2010/09/entry-for-project-water.html

The show opens Friday, November 5 at 5:00 p.m.

Studio 2091
2091 Front Street
Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221
 
Details, and lots more, on their web site: http://www.studio2091.webs.com/

Art Every Day Month

Leah over at Creative Every Day runs a challenge during the month of November called “Art Every Day Month”. The title makes it pretty obvious – the goal is to make some art every day during the month.

So, ok. I’ve taken her up on the challenge. Look for something new – or at least some progress – every day next month.

Oh, and there’s still time to sign up. Hint, hint, nudge, nudge. ;)

Saved

After the …surprises… with the little Art-o-mat paintings last week, I’ve learned a few things:

Coating the blocks with matte medium sealed them enough to prevent the paint from running. Well, except for a few blocks, which needed a second coat.

The pink, blue, and yellow origami paper absorbs the matte medium unevenly and I don’t like how they look. Even coating them with matte medium and letting them dry beforehand doesn’t help. Once I glue the shapes to the blocks, I’m sunk. I like transparency, but not here. I won’t use the paper for Art-o-mat anymore; I’ll have to save it for other projects.

The green, white, and purple papers behave nicely so I can use them. Go figure.

I have to only cut a few new shapes from my old paper. Phew!

All in all, I only lost a few blocks, so I’m happy. Onward and upward.

Crap!

Let's be honest - that's not what I said, but I'm trying to be family friendly here.

I like to experiment. I enjoy learning new things, and I like a challenge. The up side is that sometimes experimentation leads to wondeful results.

The down side is what happened today. As soon as I started brushing matte medium onto some of my blocks, a colors started to smear. I'd used a couple of colors that I don't typically use and even though I'd put down those layers more than a week ago, they somehow hadn't hardened and smeared when the medium touched them.

You can see the smearing in the photo that shows the edge of the rust-colored block: the blue runs off to the left.

Both jars of the problem colors went into the garbage.

I pulled all the paper cutouts off the blocks and gave them a sealer coat of matte medium to lock the smeary colors in place. Because it's raining, I don't trust anything to dry fully today and will give them a full 24-48 hours before doing any more.

The second problem is the new origami paper that I tried. In some places, the medium saturated the paper, making it transparent. You can see it in the photo of the yellow block with the pale blue snowflake.

Phooey. Now I'll have to find some better paper and cut a bunch more shapes. I should have played around with that paper more before going to the effort of cutting out all those shapes.

Before I give up, I'm trying one more experiment - I've coated the back of one of those shapes with matte medium to see if that seals the paper so I can use it anyway. It's drying now and looks promising.

Don't Sneeze

All the little paper cutouts are done and placed on their blocks. They're ready to be glued into place, which I will do using acrylic matte medium. It takes a while to lay al those bits of paper on the blocks and rearrange them just so.

I had placed them all on the blocks last week but wasn't happy with how they looked. The blocks looked kind of flat, so I took them all off and added another layer of paint to each block. I'm much happier with them now; they're more detailed and interesting. At least I think so.

Lots of Paper Cutouts

The next step for the Art-o-mat paintings is to get a little shape cut out origami paper. 50 paintings means 50 cut outs. So I've been busy cutting out little fish, flowers, snowflakes, and whatnot.

I found a different type of paper recently: it is a softly colored paper with a shiny floral design and tiny gold flakes printed on it. It's lovely. I used that paper for some shapes and my brightly paterned paper for others.

Now that I have enough shapes, I will place them on the painted blocks. It usually takes me several days to arrange them, trying different shapes on different blocks. When I'm happy with the arrangements, I will use acrylic matte medium to glue them down.

Art-o-mat Updates

The little paintings for Art-o-mat are coming along.

Progress on Art-o-Mat Paintings

Progress! The blocks all have had 2 coats of gesso and then 2 coats of acrylic paint. This paint is just the background color. They still need lots of work yet, but I'm happy to have gotten this far. The background coats take a lot of time but I enjoy it. Maybe in a previous life I was an elf in Santa's workshop who painted wooden toys or something.

This time, I've tried a slightly darker shade of blue and also red ones. The red ones are really cool - I added a little bit of iridescent paint to the red, so they actually have a bit of shimmer and look kind of a coppery.

Stay tuned...

New Paintings for Art-o-Mat

I love doing paintings for Art-o-Mat. There's something about these itty bitty blocks and working in a series that just gets the ideas flowing. So here's a new batch of 50 wooden blocks, all fresh and clean. They need 2 coats of gesso on all sides before I can begin painting. So, here we go...

Timeless Reflections, Exhibit by Elinore Korow and Betty Wolfe

I'd like to pass this invitation along:

“Timeless Reflections”

An exhibit celebrating original art in oil, acrylic, oil pastel and watercolor.

The exhibit features the artwork of Elinore Korow and Betty Wolfe, nationally known and awarding-winning artists from Northeast Ohio.

The exhibit opens with a meet-the-artist reception on Sunday, October 3, from noon to 1 pm and an encore reception on November 7 from 10:30 am to 1 pm.

The exhibit will run through Thursday, November 18, 2010. The Gallery is open weekdays 9:00am to 4:30pm, Sunday, during regular hours and Saturdays by appointment.

The First Congregational Church of Akron

292 East Market and Union Streets

Akron, Ohio 44308

Scarlet and Gray...and Black

Cindy, from Simple Elements Design on Etsy, has included my Letter R ACEO in her recent treasury.

She's chosen some fantastic items. And the way she's put the treasury together, with the black and gray items with the bits of red sprinkled throughout...very classy.


Stop on over and take a look when you get a chance:


http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4ca7839c63448eefe9febac7/scarlet-and-grayand-black#4ca7845363448eefb31fbbc7