Archive for June, 2015

quick trip to Cincinnati…

Sunday, June 28th, 2015

Last weekend I made a quick trip to Cincinnati for an art opening. My work Currents #13 was juried into Art Comes Alive 2015 sponsored by Art Design Consultants of Cincinnati.

Currents 13, detail

There was one direct flight from the Bay Area to Cincinnati so I jumped on it, flew all night and arrived none the worse for wear! I stayed at a really fun hotel recommended by a local friend. the 21cMuseum Hotel was possibly the best hotel I have ever stayed in.

They have an entire 2nd floor in-house gallery, hallway and lobby art with both permanent and changing art exhibitions. They have an award winning restaurant and a great staff. And because I often read hotel directories, while looking for room service menus, I also found they have a great sense of humor. Thus the ICE zombie apocalypse instructions!

Ironically I took more art photos at the hotel than I did at the opening. The yellow penguin snapped in the elevator moved curiously around the hotel.

The reception desk contained molded human hands thrust upright under glass. And the hallway to the lobby restrooms had a Keith Haring vibe to it with motion cameras changing the pattern as folks walked on it! The jungle scene was painted on all four lobby walls with other art by Abano Alfonso installed on top. It was fascinating!

work of Natalie Dunham. image courtesy of ADC

The art at Art Comes Alive was stunning as well. Mostly I just took in the scene with my eyeballs absorbing every minute. That said, two of my favorite works, both award winners were: Natalie Dunham, painted & chopped sticks, which looked a lot like yardsticks, and then fastened with bolt and rod to torque the angle. This piece was was stunning and she won both People’s Choice award (got my vote!) and a contract.

work of Amy Genser . image courtesy of ADC

 

 

Amy Genser’s work also was captivating. At first I thought it might be fabric but upon closer inspection proved to be paper, rolled in sushi-like parts and constructed on painted board.

It was such an honor to have my work exhibited with this spectacular fine art, let alone designing the sole textile juried into this competition.

 

 

And on the return trip my window seat ensured I captured lots of aerial shots of our beautiful country…literally art is everywhere!

salt ponds on approach

Rocky Mountains

Colorado River

Posted in exhibits, patterns, photography, shapes, textures, travel, Uncategorized | No Comments »

daughter of the war bride, part tres…

Wednesday, June 10th, 2015

I have long joked about being ‘the daughter of a war bride,’ which essentially I am. This explains why for most women of my generation it is next to impossible to just throw something out without finding it a good home. This coincides with saving for a rainy day which leads to today’s post.

Two friends have both taken to ‘tidying’ their homes based on the NY Times bestseller book “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up” by Marie Kondo. Ok, so I bought the book initially on my Kindle but then figured this was to be a joint project so I bought the hard copy. I am already struggling my way through it because (1) I don’t follow instructions well and (2) why should I read the entire book before starting the purge? My husband is terrified for other reasons; the book is in the house; both friends who read the book and tidied up are now moving; and he may just have to let go of some of his own stuff which he has been carrying around for nearly 7 decades.

So I decided, rebel that I am, to just start in today and tidy my office a bit. I was successful in that two bags went into recycling, another started for charity and another into the trash. But I also ran head-on into the daughter of the war bride. Remember her? The one who never buys just one of anything? Oy…many things come to mind but surely these are some of the best.

personalized CD labels and 100 pk of CDs

Mere hours before CDs went out of fashion, I ordered 100 personalized CD labels. I probably used 10 labels and then never sent a CD of images anywhere again. I could maybe wallpaper the bathroom with these though; oh wait there is that ‘good home’ thing again!

The war bride’s daughter also ordered 500 of these gorgeous tri-fold brochures to send to art consultants. She sent maybe 222. The rest languish and might look really awesome lining the recycling can.

brochures

And don’t even get me started on the Tall Girl books. Wasn’t it enough that they were a limited edition, and out of print? No, someone at some museum convinced me I should do another printing. So they too reside.

And lest not forget the Fedex Ground tracking labels. Apparently Fedex thought I was going to be shipping a lot, and I have but really, two rolls of 250 each? Actually the bathroom might be really original if I did a collage of CD and tracking labels.

So now I am tired of tidying, which is exactly what the book said would happen if I didn’t follow the directions! Oh what does she know?

Posted in procrastination, time management, wisdom | No Comments »

Art on the iPad, part deux…

Monday, June 1st, 2015

original carwash image

I just finished Susie Monday’s 6 week online class titled Art on the iPad. You too can take this great class chock full of resources from a very knowledgeable teacher. Her next class starts soon.

I learned so much from this class not the least of which is I have a really bad habit off not writing down the steps I take when designing. What? Me follow directions? What? Me follow instructions? What? How did I design that? What app did I use? Uh, I don’t remember!

In my defense it is really a challenge to be an honor student while still having great fun playing in apps. When one has the option to add several layers within one app, how much fun is it to stop, and write down each step? It is NOT fun, so mostly I didn’t do it. I purchased 23 different apps and tried all of them at least once, except for those where the only way out was to hit the HOME key.

I did take note though of the apps I most like and those are the ones I most often used to alter images. What follows were altered in more than one app. So like my art-making it all became a bit serendipitous, and really is that not what all of this should be about anyway?!

For the last lesson I had four fat quarters (18″ x 18″) printed on Spoonflower. Normally I am not a fat quarter kind of gal, but I was just trying out this easy-peasy way to print my own fabric online. The fabric arrived a couple of days ago and so (ta da) I present the original images and the four fats!

The first image (above) was taken inside the car going through the carwash.

carwash, black and white printed on cotton

This is the carwash manipulated in MegaPhoto, Waterlogue, and Pixlr and printed on cotton. I so love the b/w piece as it looks so modern art, instead of some jive carwash while the color one has a bit of a camo appearance to it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition, I manipulated this image of an old weathered, painted, cut board leaning up against the wall outside a friend’s art studio. She works in metal and paper and uses the board to cut the metal against.

susan’s studio cutting board

This is the board rotated and manipulated in MegaPhoto, Pixlr and several others. Overall I am happy with the results and have no idea what I will do with them yet, so please don’t ask me!

board manipulated in MegaPhoto, Pixlr, Pic Monkey

board manipulated in 3 apps and then tweaked in Pic Monkey, color change

Posted in documentation, shapes, wisdom | 2 Comments »