Artists@Work: Day 17

Today was the last Saturday of our exhibit and the Seed Pod workshop. Not knowing how many people would attend the workshop or how to deal with people coming in at different times was hard, but my two helpers did an excellent job! A total of 15 people came to play in paper, including  the assistants. Whew! There were possibly a few more who would have liked to participate but table space was limited. I’m sorry we couldn’t fit George & Nick into the group! Below are the images from the workshop.

Kendal Hathaway’s large mosaic made some beautiful changes. It’s a good blend between the two previous days.

And Elaine’s train moved closer to the tunnel entrance as the day progressed.

and even closer!

Thanks to Suzanne for providing extra muchies for our last weekend together. Plus a big thanks to all who came to participate in the event! Please don’t forget to pick up your pods on Tuesday night at the reception: 5:30-7:30pm.

Artists@Work: Day 16

Only Saturday, Tuesday & Wednesday left in the show!

Friday’s progress:

I managed to get out and purchase quite a few rolls of paper before heading into the “studio” and managed to cover over half of the structure.

Kind of a ghostly skeleton branch structure. I’m thinking the leaves will remain uncovered for now. Many people have been asking if the leaves were for sale.  For a limited time there are 3 leaves available in the shop space ($15 each). There might be more after the structure is dismantled!

Elaine put up a fresh sheet of paper and a new view emerged of the train.

Julia’s husband dropped by to work on his own transfer. Apparently the copy machine can really make a big difference with the image quality, plus a little time in Photoshop!

Ahh, Kendal! I’m so enjoying watching her process the large project. It took on a totally different form today but she was not pleased. Today’s experiment made her realize that she liked the direction it was heading the day before.

Saturday will be a crazy day of creating seed pods and seeds. I have no idea how many people will be coming so it might become a tad overwhelming. Fortunately, I have two super helpers coming! Hurray for my hubby Dave & my big sister Kim for agreeing to assist! The fun continues at The Arts Center!

Artists@Work: Day 15

There are only a few days remaining in this show. If you have not been by to see it, you better do it soon!

Julia hung some of her finished work up a few days ago. She mentioned this is part of her routine when working. Is it done yet or not?

It’s also been fun to take shots of the artists at work!

Elaine worked the entire day on a train emerging from a tunnel and moving down the tracks. This shot was taken late in the day with the train mostly out of the tunnel.

Kendal was the grout queen today! I’m wondering if the blue stain will wash off her hands?

I like how people’s walls have changed over the weeks. Kendal has been doing charcoal rubbings of her glass before grouting.

She has also started working on another large piece.

More of her grouted works waiting to dry & get buffed clean.

       

On day 15, I determined my pulp was beaten past the point of use.  The strands of cellulose are so short they are unable to mesh together into a sheet. When I attempt to pull a sheet off the couching material (X heavy Pellon), it just pulls apart.  Not to mention it just falls through my mesh leaving holes and more instability.  I’m a newbie to the art so it might be something to do with my technique. More experimenting to come in the safety of my studio and no hand made paper for this project. Also I won’t be ordering a very fine beating of Abaca ever again. I won’t loose my entire investment, only some. The remaining pulp will be frozen and added to coarser pulp at a later time.

Plan B to start on Day 16 using rolls of tracing paper and glue. Won’t be the same effect, but it should look ok with the lights shining through. Also getting things ready for the pod & seed workshop, which has also shifted gears due to lack of fresh paper. Oh well! Just rolling with everything right now!

Below is the one image taken of the paper.  I think I prefer to make my mistakes at home  behind closed doors rather than in front of a watching public eye!

Artists@Work: Day 12 to 14

Rain and grey skies filled this Sunday at the Arts Center. The number of people visiting was certainly diminished from the previous day. I think all of our energy had slipped out the door after Saturday. It would have been a good day to rest.

We all had some lovely conversations with people. Friends came and went.

Kendal Hathaway was gluing glass down on wood.

Elaine shifted gears and moved onto a new sheet of paper. I couldn’t resist taking a photo of all the sanding & erasing remains that reside on the floor.

Julia seemed to enjoy the quieter day, especially when the other 3 artists were off on a break.

Day 13 I heard was quiet. Personally, I hung at home prepping my screen, getting things ready for paper making. The pulp finally arrived after 3pm and I was super happy!

Day 14: small crowds today. Most of my day was spent trying to get things organized and producing paper.

Kendal was grouting great work.

  

Elaine had started a new drawing. She mentioned her still photo images did not work out well. A different approach has been started.

 

Julia helped some folks do photo transfers and started working on a dog collage. Can’t wait to see this one finished! Below is a collage she was working on at the end of the day. Like the lace!

I finished my day in deep frustration over screen problems. Over the course of the day there were about 5 trips to the hardware store, one trip to the fabric store, and nothing helped the immediate problem. However I totally switched screen material and now have aluminum  screen in place. This should hopefully solve the problem. Maybe I’ll find time to photograph the work on Day 15.

and then there were three

Warning to all: this is a non-art post. A bit more personal today.

This morning I went through my normal chores, which have been thrown off due to the July schedule. The cockatiels were on the list, but I didn’t check them until after 11am. When I entered, they were fairly quiet. Then I noticed the oldest bird on the bottom of his cage, dead. Kiki has lived with me since he was about 6 weeks of age in 1990.  Maybe it was 1989? Hard to remember. He was our first talker and loved to whistle. Kiki always enjoyed any attention he could receive, extra whistles or chats through the bars. I was his focus. I knew eventually his life would progress to this point, but how could I miss the signals? The respiratory infection came quickly and wiped him out. There is no going back now. We’re down to 3 tiels that are all at 20 yrs of age. Our Cockatiel Era is beginning to close.

Dave came down with me to Eugene for the oncologist visit with my dad.  His blood work is better today, white blood cells back up to a more agreeable level. His count had dropped very low during the last major visit a month ago. Fortunately they were coming back up two weeks ago when he went in for an additional blood test. The doctor also mentioned several new medications on the not so distant horizon. One should be available in about 6 months, the other about a 1.5yrs out. As long as the Revelimid keeps working with his body, he’ll keep going with it. If the white blood cells start going funny again…. at least there will be some new meds possible. Now if he would just give up those cancer sticks to help the old lungs out!

Oh, and the paper pulp should arrive tomorrow. Whew!

What a day!

Artists@Work: Days 10 & 11

Friday night just got too late to post anything and Saturday morning was filled quickly with heading into work.

Day 10: We were treated to a couple of children’s camp events today. It was invention week at the Globetrotter camp and the robots were on parade!

Love the flower power robot!

Next up, after a quick costume change, was a PLAY they created & wrote! The kids created all the scenery & cars. We watched for most of it then headed back into the center. The parents were loving it all!

Not much of day 10 images from inside the gallery. Here is one of Elaine’s drawings.

The branching structure has maxed out. If I were to go higher, I wouldn’t be able to get up into the canopy to cover all the branches.

Day 11: Da Vinci Days brought in well over 350 visitors Saturday plus an extra indoor event: The Peace Mandala.

Below image was taken late in the day when crowds had thinned. We were all amazed at the number of people coming through.

What I produced today: LEAVES! They happened to be easy to create while talking to people (plus not a lot of wire flipping around!)

Still waiting for my paper pulp to arrive but there are plenty of other components to work through. We have now tipped the half way point and I’m feeling pretty anxious about getting the coverings on.  Received great response on the leaves from many people and even had a new friend come and try her hand at making leaves.

Next weekend is my seed workshop. I’ll be putting folks to work on making seeds to pack into pod forms. Should be a fun time. I’ll try to get more images of Kendal & Julia’s progress today. With all the rain, we will probably get a fair number of people visiting Sunday.

Artists@Work: Day 9

Wow! Has it already been nine days? Amazing!

Again, a quick thanks to Kendal for all the great tunes. She knows how to keep us moving! Plus a thanks to the staff for passing along yummy cupcakes left from their “good bye” party for Courtney. She will be greatly missed by all the staff.

Photos! Lots of photos today.

First off, we had a reporter come visit our group today and interview each artist. I couldn’t pass the chance to get a candid photo of him photographing Julia! Think the article will come out next week. Maybe in the Entertainer? Not certain.

We all enjoyed talking to him and hopefully the article comes together well.

Art work! Let’s start with Julia:

The below image is one I tried to explain in day 8 notes.  Much better to see the real thing!

The below image is one for sale, or so I believe! It’s one of my favorites.

Ok, now on to Kendal Hathaway! I took photos of her work before the day really got going and then at the end of the day.

And now later in the afternoon…

Love the blue grout Kendal mixed using Julia’s pigments.

Elaine produced a couple more seconds onto her original grouping. The images appear and then change throughout the day. Below are a couple shots of the changes taking place plus a sketch and her great chalk board.

The second image has a bit more clarity to the people’s forms.

sketches posted above the drawing scene.

And her great chalk board which she takes notes on to remember later. What a great method!

Ok, now on to the last artist, ME! First below image is from day 8 when nothing really happened. And below that is day nine progress. I’m thinking it will just remain one branch emerging from the wall.

Still waiting for the paper pulp to arrive. Maybe tomorrow??? More fun to be had on day 10!

Artists@Work: day 8

Day 8: First off, I forgot to take photos today. The camera was in my bag but I neglected to pull it out.  Sorry folks! Tomorrow I promise to update you all.

The artists talk drew in a large crowd, about 35 people. A huge thanks to all who attended. It was wonderful seeing so many friendly faces. All four artists spent several minutes talking about their work. Hester did an excellent job of gathering feedback from the crowd regarding the show.  My brain was in a sleep deprived world so my section didn’t come off well. Bill Shumway even bugged me about it afterwards. Oh well!   Julia, Elaine and Kendal all did lovely jobs. I have a long way to go in learning how to talk about myself in front of a crowd. Now give me just a person or two and it seems to work better.

With all the extra beginning events for our day, my production went down. Elaine seemed to make progress with her still images, gaining several more seconds of video. Kendal was pinging her glass (a very cool sound!)  indicating new cuts and progress forward. Julia was working with fabric, lace and photo transfers. It will be interesting to see how the new creations are mounted.

So tomorrow more images will come forward as life gets back to “normal” with our projects. Oh, and a big thanks to Kendal for providing great tunes today!!!

Artists@Work: Day 7

The start of a new week and new possibilities! Will it be a productive day or not? I think it turned out rather ok. It’s been interesting watching the others create throughout the days and realize how similar we react to a problem. I find that when a problem really stumps me, I just move to a different idea. This allows me a little space to breathe and reexamine what the original problem was. Seems like the other three act in similar ways.

Kendal has multiple projects in the works. Her larger blanket design seems to be on hold while working on a more familiar smaller format. First two images below are ones she completed on Monday, but she might have worked on them today, I’m not sure.

Below image is one she worked on quite a bit today.

Today I felt rather caught up in rearranging how the sculpture hung on the wall. There were multiple branches I attached to the main limb while it was down on the table. Then how to re-position the beast? I completely changed the support lines and moved it away from the corner. By moving the support lines to a much higher location, it will allow a more open feeling above the sculpture. The two horizontal wires set at 8 feet really bugged the heck out of me and I’m glad they are gone!

By hanging it in this new location it will be able to spread out farther in both directions and feel more prominent rather than hidden in the corner.

Hester and I spent a little time talking at the days end about the piece. She voiced a positive opinion on the work but I have problems with it. Is that normal for me to have issues? Yes! Will I actually enjoy the work… eventually. For now, I have many parts that are irritating me and need resolution. Once I get there, it will feel better. On my drive home, I actually had some pretty good ideas on how to move the branch structure back into position once the paper is applied. More trips to the hardware store should take care of that idea.

Wednesday is the Brown Bag Talk. Will I just wing the talk? Probably. It’s already after 11pm and my brain is not holding much. Tomorrow will bring something better!

A day off

Here I thought my Monday would be a good day to regain energy for jumping into the new week of creating. Instead, I spent most of my morning and afternoon worrying about George’s vet report, which turned up nothing. Somehow I also managed to sleep very little last night due to him. 2:45am meds isn’t quite what I really wanted to do… plus I REALLY didn’t want to wake up at 1:30 in anticipation of the alarm clock. The brain works in mysterious ways.

I also have managed to possibly get myself into trouble with a “beater load” of Abaca pulp. According to Travis at Twinrocker, the current supplier of Abaca is not keeping the quality up to snuff. Each batch is different.  So to try to achieve the translucency and shrinkage rate, he highly recommended getting it beaten to a Very Fine consistency. It should be shipped out tomorrow. I kept asking if I could freeze it. He kept talking about refrigeration. Well, I just might have missed what he said. It’s possible. Anyway, it’s ordered. Think I need to start making more lamp forms to sell! Maybe even some bugs since there were several friends who mentioned they would LOVE to purchase some. If I create it, will they purchase???

The screen is finally at the finishing stage for creating paper. Just need to secure down the window mesh over the plastic lighting grid and staple the foam onto the top. Need to locate good lidded buckets and drag a couple of yogurt containers out of recycling for scoops. Argh, still need to cut up couching material. Where is the wool blanket? Ok, guess I’m not quite to the finished state yet!

Time to figure out dinner…..