Saturday, June 16, 2012

"Seeing Red"

The Art Center did a show to coincide with the Red Carpet Corridor event and we gave each artist the theme "Seeing Red" - it was fun to create pieces to fit and even more fun to see how everyone interpreted the theme.
I did two collaboration pieces and one simple little portrait.

"Red, Red Wine"
This table was a collab between myself and ed lipinski. I had gotten the piece of wood with notches from another artist and it inspired this table - i got to thinking of how the wine glasses would fit into the notches and the song Red, Red Wine and i asked ed to help me construct the table. We found and scavenged EVERY piece of the table. The wood, the base of the table was from a different broken table and even the glass was found in the basement of the art center building (couldn't believe it was in perfect condition). the spacers are of course used wine corks.
Next, I created the Neil Diamond stencil (no UB40 did not write Red, Red Wine - Neil did). I painted the image and then wrote the lyrics to the song all around it. We sealed it and then found mis-matched wine glasses (from thrift stores). 
I imagined this table sitting on a porch. You and a friend are enjoying a glass of wine and a neighbor or friend stops by - no need to get up and get another glass, just take one off the table and pour.

happy to say this piece sold the weekend of the show.




My second piece is the "Seeing Redd Foxx" - created my own stencil graphic and did a layered effect on canvas.

This piece sold the weekend of the show as well.


This was the second collaboration i did - it was with john fitzgerald. John has a really whimsical sense of humor and a very folk/outsider art style of painting. He has only just started painting in this past year and is self taught.
I asked john if he wanted to do a painting together - i really liked the idea of our very different styles juxtaposed.
i gave him the lead to come up with the idea - he had this round board and said he was thinking "red planet" and that evolved into the first music festival on Mars. Soooo, he titled the piece "Fourth Festival:2037 (the first music festival on mars)"

My first thoughts when he told me this were "hmm, if I were at a music festival on mars, what sort of bands would i expect to see?" I brainstormed and came up with "The Rolling Moonstones, Mars Wind and Fire, King Crimson Planet, and the Alien Parsons Project" - my friend Ali suggested "Ricky Martian" and i loved it.
so, i created the lettering (the martian language is an actual code and can be translated) and made it into a poster style piece - i painted the whole thing red with the swirls and craters and then john started painting his alien musicians (he has the rocket man, the rockettes, the star wars cantina band, michael jackson doing the moonwalk, and a few other characters). I filled in with some alien hippies and added some google eyes (because i believe there are probably some floating eyeballs in space).

this wacky piece is still available at the art center.





The whole show was a hit and I wish I could post other people's pictures but I didn't ask permission.

We just got notice that we'll be doing another group show in October called "Nightmares" - can't wait, i have so many ideas floating around my noggin.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Painting Dressers!

I found a dresser at a garage sale last summer - it was only $5 and you can tell it was a nice piece of furniture in it's day. I always do a drawer test (hate when the drawers stick or don't slide in and out right). Everything checked out. The kick plate was warped so I just removed that. I didn't take before and after photos because I didn't really think this would become a post. But, I love the way it turned out so here is the "after" and a few details of how I managed.


The above photo was taken before the dresser was complete. Here the white base coat is still showing on the sides, top, and bottom. I decided to use some leftover golden yellow latex paint from a previous project (daughter's Moroccan inspired bedroom).
I sanded all the drawer faces and sides and top then gave everything a coat of white latex wall paint (left overs). I let all that dry and then drew on a rough idea of the designs I was feeling. It was pretty free form and did change as I went but I knew I wanted the lotus in the middle and some mandala style designs overall. It's pretty much one of my elaborate doodles.

Then I took the drawers to my studio and painted each one separately. I used acrylic paint (because I found a bunch when I cleaned out my basement). I wanted very vibrant and heavy coverage so each color is at least two coats and some colors (like the cyan and black) took three to four coats. I outlined everything in black (this is insane, I originally thought "pfft, no problem, I will outline with a thick black sharpie" but that did not work AT ALL).

5 days x at least 5 hours each day and I was finally finished with the drawers. (as I moved from one drawer to the next, I lined them up and made sure my design flowed). I put all the drawers back in the dresser and made sure everything lined up - not all perfect but I was happy with it). I found once it was in the dresser that the sides of the drawers really looked funny left plain so I went back over each drawer and painted the half inch sides to match the design. (I also did the tops of the drawers because I went a little crazy).

Took the drawers out and painted the entire dresser golden yellow. Let dry and gave everything a few coats of spray poly to seal and shine (covered the drawers with poly separate from the dresser so nothing stuck).
annnd that is that. I moved my dresser to the upstairs hallway and put all of our extra sheets and blankets in it. It's so much cooler than the cheapo cabinet (walmart) that we had previously used (was happy to sell that on our garage sale and let someone else get some use from it).


I have another awesome dresser in the garage waiting for a paint job. I already had my husband put casters on it, (it's a long side by side dresser unlike this tall chest of drawers). (it was another $5 find at a thrift store). Hope to have that one done this Spring.