Christmas Around The Corner

Art class was cancelled today, so I jumped over to the workbench to cut out two maple leaves that I am preparing to etch.  These would be difficult for a beginner as breaking the needle size saw blade is an inevitability.  I want to get several of these cut out, so that the Ferric acid bath will be contained to one day.  I don't like to have that stuff sitting around.  I am not liking the look of the silver wire on the smaller leaf....maybe I can find some smaller copper or brass wire for those.

These are made by glueing an actual leaf directly onto the metal, then sawed out using a jewelers saw.  Next they will be spray painted then etched in order to bring out the veins.

Right Off The Tracks

On the way to recycling I can't help but notice this old abandoned passenger railway car.  It must have been something to travel and see the countryside from one of these.  Most of them have been scrapped.  I wish it was mine.  I would live in it!

Honoring The Maple Tree Today

As I become dangerously low on recycled paint and the paint from the in kind donations, I turn to nature herself for my final colors.  If you have been following my blog for awhile you probably noted the tremendous impact the city s massive tree killing campaign.  I watched many giants needlessly put to death.  My soul grieved.  Today I honor the maple.  She who has sheltered and provided shade and protection for the most of my life.  When the paint is all gone, I will turn to what I have to work with that won't require the purchase of anything.

This is a maple leaf from my backyard that I glued flat onto the copper.  It can be cut out, forged, etched, patina added.  Sometimes we don't have to use a sketch...we can go direct:)

Late Day Blog

One of my favorite Newark Ohio murals is this one that almost vanishes into the background landscape.  The further you get away from it, the more it becomes part of the landscape.  I took the afternoon off from my painting project to snap some pictures of my downtown before the leaves are all gone.

I think I am down to the wire on my own painting EIEIO, and I just have no idea how to finish it up.  It doesn't feel quite done, but it is close.  There is an outside chance that I can get it done in time to enter it in this years VSA show, but my guitar is in hock, utilities up....It is just too close to call at this point.  One thing is for sure, I am not gonna lose my guitar in favor of getting entry money.   Those are the hard choices I have to make everyday.  I am living in a continuous state of collapse.  My guess is that the middle class will feel this same way soon.  Be grateful dear readership for what you have, and try not to waste anything! 

 

Wrecking Ball

I love my librarians...and my tapes....and my CDs.  What would I do without them?

Finish Line In Sight

Syd will be happy when this painting is finished.  We want our kitchen table back!

Hard At Work or Hardly Working

Now that I have constructed my frame, I can concentrate on getting the hardware for it and coordinating the colors to finish EIEIO.  I am seriously low on paint, and it is not clear that I can get any in time for the deadline for  this years VSA show and tour.  No word yet on The Ohio Online Visual Artist Registry show.  Will I know in time, to enter Old School for VSA if it doesn't make the cut for the registry show?  Tune in dear readership the suspense gathers as I am working hard and hardly working.  These are seasonal paintings, so if the deadline passes, I can imagine I will want to work on this next September?  It is a win win situation as I get to decorate my walls for another year and possibly make some sales to private individuals.  When I run out of paint, I get to move on to whatever I have the supplies to do.  If I don't have supplies, there is always writing to get back to.  After filling out my absentee ballot the other day I felt confident that my oppressors didn't do anything to me that I can not retaliate against....in ways they were not intending:)

Little Things

The other day when I was grocery shopping at Little Bear downtown Newark, I noticed the weather vane. The wind shifted and I was able to see the mother bear and her two cubs.  Nice!  It is the little things like this that make me love our downtown area.  I am going to make a point to speak with the manager and try to find out if the weather vane was made by a local artist.  That would be fantastic.  I still want to move to Columbus as soon as I can, but while I am here, I like to appreciate the little things like the perfect weather vane on top of Little Bear 

Backdrop For Syd

Syd is happy to pose in front of anything I may be working on.  He is the perfect cat for an artist.  Syd is around 12 years old.  I mark the time from Hurricane Katrina.  It is the only time he and I have been separated.  I left that year on September 11th and returned some 10 days later before Hurricane Rita and Wilma came on the scene.  When I got home from that excursion my kitten did not recognize me.  Since that time we have moved 5 times if you count the 10 days at the Starlite Motel.  Cats do not like upheaval.  He isn't too friendly to strangers, and it has taken a couple years for him to allow my friends to pet him.  I worry about him during Halloween season as he doesn't know he is a black cat.  Humans can be cruel and I hope that his caution around people will keep him safe.  He looks good in front of any backdrop:) 

Hittin The Ground Runnin!

This very well might be a photoshop of the American Gothic house from Grant Woods famous painting.  I confess to being negligent on my research.  This week I did a bead demo at the local library and bead exchange.  I was happy that 7 people poked their head into room B and that the Christian Right didn't show up to try and derail my efforts.  I would call that a success.  Plaster molds are poured and setting up for the kids to carve next art class.  I am free to plunge into my painting projects.  I made something for Katie Belle this week and will be anxious to get that into the mail to her.  Her music remains inspirational to the creative process.

Perhaps this photo above is the state that the model farm for American Gothic was in during the 70's.  It wouldn't surprise me.  When I get a little time for research, I will find out.  In the meantime...true or not this is as good of an image for what I am aiming for as any.  I did miss drumming yesterday as I need the gasoline that is my truck for just everyday running around.  Fox news is happy to blame Obama for every little hang nail that comes up.  Wonder if they noticed that gas came down below $3 during his second term?

Brave New World

I am doing a bead demonstration today at the local library from 3-6.  I hope to have a good turnout.  In the meantime I like to stash videos on my blog that I can come back to at a later date.  This is a good one.  This interview was done around the time of my birth, and many of the things Mr. Huxley was warning us about have come to pass.

Frack Granville First

My painting EIEIO is almost finished in terms of placement of objects and subjects.  Since my hate mail, and pondering the lengths that the Christian Right Wing-nuts are willing to go to....I do a lot of joking in private.  This morning the joke came to me that since the wing nuts all seem to be associated with Granville Ohio and 2 baptist churches that want to harm me, I should seriously start making fun of them.  I should give them a true reason to persecute me rather than whatever frightening reason they think they should.  Perhaps I should paint in a billboard  in EIEIO to honor them and their fear of me.  What would it read....let me count the phrases?  My favorite is Frack Granville First.  Granville has always had water problems and issues.  If fracking is perfectly safe...start in the homeland of greed.  It is not likely these folks would want to jeopardize their own water supply, but they wouldn't think twice about coming to your area and fracking up your environment and your water supply.
  
I am doing a bead exchange at the local library tomorrow 3-6.  I will also be doing a demo using my feathers, and a matching beaded necklace.  I expect trouble from the right wingers.  I am ready for them and how ever many of them decide to derail my good intentions.  They can't get to me in my own home these days as I ran off their last ditch effort in July....after a stupid hurtful remark.  I am tolerant, but I will only take so much....and certainly not in my own home.  They will have to resort to publicly humiliating me....and bullying through hate-mail.

In June a woman from their church wrote to me and told me she was the evil in my painting.  I was working on 4 paintings at the time, and I hadn't gotten around to painting in evil just yet....so I admit I was confused by her remark.  3 and a half months later, I wonder if she was not taking exception to my McDonalds sign???? How could I ever know?  I would have to try to think in a convoluted way in order to know what she meant.  One thing for sure though after the new person who impersonated a librarian in order to get her hate messages through.....I will be putting evil or a representation of the very evil they are in this painting.  The only thing they have managed to do is refine my ideas.  As my friend John says "Capitalism is violent, evil, and seamless".  I will aim to convey that....and if I piss off a few Right Wingnuts on the way....more power to me.

  Come out in droves to my my bead demo and exchange.  But you won't will you as you have to operate behind the scenes?  The only way you are gonna be able to exploit more people and land is to deceive them.  So,,,,,who is the deceiver....and where is that church of the deceivers....proly Granville?  So lets Frack Granville First....before we frack anyplace else.  If it is safe, then by all means after time tested scientific experiments....go on to the next community.  Imagine a billboard in my painting that says Frack Granville First.  Don't worry Granville wing nuts, by tomorrow another evil idea will have popped into my head.  Your deceptions are safe with me... for now.

Hate Mail Comming At Me

Not surprising the Christian Right has weighed in on my new painting EIEIO.  LOL, I should have been expecting them.  This time it came in the form of emails and the person impersonating one of my favorite librarians.  So here is my message to the Christian Right who are usually wrong.  I must be doing my job well if you hate my painting because of course hypocrites would be threatened.  I will be alerting the librarian that you impersonated today, and who knows maybe our rinky dink police department may go after the offender.  Run little fake ups.  Tricks are for kids.

These so called Christians have been following me around since my early adulthood.  I have only ever had any reprieve from them the 8 years I lived in Clintonville.  It is no wonder that I want to move back there.  I want to be surrounded by progressive thinkers.....not Christian stinkers:)  And for the record dearest readers they are harmful.  They are every bit as harmful as Ebola or ISIS.  Their rigid thinking is exactly the same fanaticism that we are witnessing in the beheadings in the Middle East.  The Christian mentality that I grew up around is identical...convert them, or kill them.  Don't let them convince you otherwise.  Any heaven that they are in is a heaven that I wouldn't want to share space with them in.  Their heaven isn't big enough for me and them LOL!  I take it as a compliment that they hate my new painting.....and I am not even finished yet!

Half Of A Frame!

Replacement windows at a neighbors house resulted in the old windows and screens being put to the curb.  These particular ones are maple, with real brass screen.  Some of the brass hardware is still in tact, so this sort of thing is irresistible to me as my canvas, paint, and now frame are all recycled.  I am constantly on the lookout for this type material, and the stuff to make it work.  A piece of that brass screen ended up being cut into one of the bow ties on my metal quilt.  Nylon screen would probably not have worked as it doesn't hold its shape, and would not cut nicely.  I had two maple pieces left over from my Old School painting which was not enough to frame EIEIO.  There is a couple little surprises I have to put into this painting before starting in on the frame, but I am relieved that I won't have to dumpster dive to find it when I am running out of time.  Art class with the kids today, so I probably won't get back to this until tomorrow or the next day.

The maple recycled window frame was perfect for the old schoolhouse painting.  I even left the crystal knobs in place:)

Framing Coming Up Next

EIEIO is finished enough that I need to start looking around for some framing material.  I can't enter it into the upcoming VSA show without a frame.  Of course store bought frames are out of my reach.  Wish I had a buyer.  The entry fee to apply for this upcoming opportunity is equally problematic.  I keep telling myself to just keep working...the frame will appear...the entry money will be provided.  If I didn't think like that I just would need to stop working.  I have to remember that the reason I paint is to decorate my own domain.  These art shows and competitions are relatively new on my radar.  I am running out of red, yellow, green, and blue paint.  I am not even mixing colors at this point.  I work right out of the empty tubes.  This paint that I am using were all given to me by other artists, otherwise I wouldn't be a painter.  
My metal shop is all but shut down right now for lack of simple things like solder and flux, as well as silver.  I tell myself that if I sell one of my new paintings I can go replace the paint and get the supplies I need to start back up with metal projects.  I need a buyer for both of my new paintings.
Today, I will be deteriorating my old farm house, and bringing my trees to life.

American Gothic House

The house that Grant Wood used as a model in his painting American Gothic is in Iowa.

I have always loved this painting and of course have my ideas about the value in terms of art therapy.

A farmer on a documentary I was watching a couple days ago made reference to this painting in trying to convey to the viewer that modern farming wasn't like American Gothic.  I turned the documentary off and immediately went to my canvas EIEIO and scrapped my oil well and stone chimney.  Perhaps the lingering mood of my experiences with remodeling the old schoolhouse in Hopewll also played into the instantaneous Ah Ha moment that proceeded striking out two of my main implements to tell the story of the sadness of capitalism.  I now have to deteriorate the building that I love.  One of my art students this week drew and painted buildings on fire.  I don't think he knew how his painting paralleled what I have to do to part of my painting.  I know what I must do...but sometimes out of the mouths of babes gets at a truth.

I Just Knew He Was Singing About Me

She's got everything she needs
She's an artist, she don't look back
She's got everything she needs
She's an artist, she don't look back
She can take the dark out of nighttime
And paint the daytime black.

You will start out standing
Proud to steal her anything she sees
You will start out standing
Proud to steal her anything she sees
But you will wind up peeking through her keyhole
Down upon your knees.

She never stumbles
She's got no place to fall
She never stumbles
She's got no place to fall
She's nobody's child
The Law can't touch her at all.

She wears an Egyptian ring
That sparkles before she speaks
She wears an Egyptian ring
That sparkles before she speaks
She's a hypnotist collector
You are a walking antique.

Bow down to her on Sunday
Salute her when her birthday comes
Bow down to her on Sunday
Salute her when her birthday comes
For Halloween buy her a trumpet
And for Christmas, give it a drum.

Acceptable Skyline Picture For Painting

Google Images has loads of Columbus Skyline photos of the capital city.  Trouble is, they are almost all of them picture perfect...almost quaint and from 3 other directions.  After an hour of examining these photos I determined that there is not a photo from the angle of the city that I desire for my painting...except one.  This top photo is the closest thing to the shot I would make of the skyline if I could be a passenger instead of the driver.  For years I have contemplated the impossibility of the shot.  I always assumed because I only have one eye, that risking taking that eye off the road for even a millisecond is careless, and would jeopardize any one on the road with me.  I am surprised that a two eyed person hasn't taken the shot.  The top shot is almost the one.  It is the second time from the east that we see Columbus skyline.  The first opportunity and glimpse of the city comes a couple miles earlier on a hair pin turn, followed by another sharp turn.  You only see Columbus for a second or two...not long enough to take the shot safely.  This photo will have to do until I can figure out a way to take that shot and add it to the hundreds of other Columbus skyline photos on google.  I need a good driver that can accommodate my photo instincts.  If I had a tripod, I might try mounting the camera on the dashboard and take my chances.  There is not time in those two hair pin turns to take more than one shot....and it is several miles to the exit that could swing around to try again.  It is a good feeling when I see that glorious skyline.  My heart always quickens and I know I must smile.  Us crazy artists smile at the darnedest things.

Next Up... With A Deadline

My next painting deadline is November 5th for the VSA show.  I started putting in the Columbus Ohio skyline yesterday afternoon.  There is still a lot of tweaking to do in this painting...and of course the unexpected.  Yesterday, was the unexpected, as I had not planned on putting Columbus on the horizon line.  But, here it is in spite of what I thought before.  There is a spot on I 70 around a sharp bend in the freeway where Columbus first becomes visible.  I have marveled at that view for years as I first commuted to the Cultural Arts Center for my assistant post, and then moved to Columbus.  I noticed yesterday while I was googling images that the view from I 70 is absent.  It is no wonder.  The spot is so precarious, and turns into another sharp bend within a couple seconds, that it would be next to impossible to take a photo.  Still though, it gladdens my heart each time I see it.  And each time, the skyline seems a different color depending on the weather and atmosphere.  I am not finished yet dearest readership.  Somehow I want to convey a sad idea about capitalism.  My friend John says "Capitalism is violent, evil, and seamless".  I know what he means, but conveying it is another matter all together.