Fancy Animals: ATCs

I did these animals in fancy outfits for an ATC swap.  The critter on the lower left is a Slow Loris.  The Fast Loris, obviously, was too quick for me to bundle up in Renaissance garb.

50 Canvases in 2014: Art for the Bathroom

This week, my challenge project is posted on wonderstrange!

http://www.wonderstrange.com/living-with-art-vintage-first-aid-kit/

50 Canvases in 2014: Make It Yours Challenge

Last week's challenge over on wonderstrange was to draw your favorite cartoon or comic character(s), but in your own style.

I did the PowerPuff girls,who shall reign with equal glory forever in the City of Townsville and the Kingdom of Amazing.  Here's my version:

There's a video of me painting the canvas right over here, if that's the kind of thing that winds your watch.  Or fights your bad guys.  Or spills your Chemical X.

Miracle Ride: The Auction!

(If you're visiting from PPF, you want the next post, although of course, you're more than welcome to comment on this post if you like!)

Apparently, I am a 42-year-old body trapped in the spirit of a five-year-old kid.

I could hardly wait for today to get here - the big day, the day of the auction for Miracle Ride, to which some friends and I had donated artwork - but when I woke up this morning, I was suddenly nervous and unsure of myself.  I didn't have butterflies in my stomach; I had moths, and possibly a small bird.  What if my canvas didn't sell?  What if I had dragged my friends down a rabbit hole?  I haven't been that anxious since my last piano recital!  When I was 15!

Here's what we had all donated, artist by artist.

First up, here's a Red Riding Hood sort of girl by Tanya F. Balding, done with Copics, because Tanya is crazy good like that.

Next up, Cindy Dauer sent these adorable cats on a motorcycle.  It was ridiculously fabulous!

Michelle Lydon sent many amazing prints (so generous!).  Some of them were so photoreal that I initially mistook them for photos.  For real.

Finally, Connie Carpenter sent this stunning watercolor that I pretty much wanted to keep for myself:

Here's how they all looked before I got the mat for Tanya's (the canvas near the middle is mine):

Now that you know what was on the block, I'll set the scene for the auction, held inside a big white tent at Lucas Oil Raceway.  It was 92 degrees by the time we arrived, and if I stood in the sun for more than a couple of minutes, the top of my scalp started to crackle, so the shade of the tent was very much appreciated!  A lot of the 12,000 bikers we saw had skipped the sunscreen during the ride, and the poor things had bright red faces and little white raccoon masks from where their sunglasses had been.  I felt bad for them, but at the same time, the sight of a 6'4" dude in leather with a reverse raccoon mask was a little comical.  I studied the ground more than once to hide a smile.




Event organizers had Italian sausages, hotdogs, beer, soda, and water available for free to the riders in a separate set of tents, so we grabbed a water and headed up to the auction table to see how everything was doing.  I was surprised to see 88 notebooks on the table for bidding.  There were a lot of things available!
  

It was hard to have a normal conversation inside the tent, not only because of the sheer number of people, but because of the drag racing taking place on the track about 300 feet away.  I SHOUTED A LOT TO MY MOTHER-IN-LAW.  She nodded a lot in return.

When the end of the auction drew near, one of the guys behind the table cut through the noise with a siren.  People were advised every three minutes as the clock ticked down, which caused the elbowing up by the table to get a little intense.  Finally, they counted down from ten and physically removed notebooks from the table, with some people still trying to write down their bids.

In the end, our artwork raised more than $250.  I didn't manage to get pictures of all of the buyers, but here are two of them.

I will definitely be donating again next year!

50 Canvases in 2014: Text Challenge

This week was my son's last week of middle school.  An organized mother would have had teacher gifts and photo shoots, or at the minimum, a crystal clear understanding of where the boy needed to be - and when - and with what (a cello, a tie, a toga, a bottle labeled "Nectar" for his Midsummer Night's Dream performance, whatever).  Alas, I am not an organized mother.  Let's just pretend that people who make life look easy are dull and unfulfilled, okay?

On to the art!  Earlier in the week, for a blog entry on wonderstrange, I created this background, which I ultimately thought of as a sort of whimsical storybook cover.  And who better to add to a storybook than Red Riding Hood, freshly rescued from her ordeal with the wolf?  I laid down the text to meet the text challenge from 50 Canvases in 2014 on wonderstrange.

I don't know if you can see the text in the pics, but it is faintly visible in places.  I am kind of ridiculously excited to have used red as a shadow color.  That's the type of thing I tend to like in other people's work but don't include in my own.

50 Canvases in 2014: Miracle Ride Canvas

A few weeks back, I was feeling all kinds of down and out about the tremendous suffering in the world, and more specifically, my total inability to do anything about it.  I posted an open note on Facebook, telling my friends that even though I'm not the most talented artist in the world, I will always, always donate work to fundraising events for causes I support.  Within an hour of posting that, I am delighted to report that I had a PM about the silent auction held during the annual Miracle Ride, a big motorcycle charity event here in Central Indiana that raises money for Riley Hospital for Children.  It's hard to think of a better cause than helping sick kids and their families!

Better still, several of my friends decided to join with me in creating art for the auction.  I'll post shots of all the work next week (some of it is still en route to my house), but meanwhile, here are progress shots of my canvas, which is a 9x12 made in the hope that it will appeal to a woman who rides!

50 Canvases in 2014: A Long Time Ago, in a Kitchen Far, Far Away

This week, I spent most of my time designing a new amigurumi crochet pattern for the Corpse Bride - as in, the title character from the Tim Burton film - and it was HARD, man! 

Corpse Bride in progress

It was so hard, in fact, that I'm still not finished - which is why my "canvas" for this week is a non-traditional one.

More specifically, my canvas this week is the front of a kitchen canister, which I am working on for my shop, and which I decided to paint up with a Star Wars theme.

 

When it's finished, the top strip will read "Hot Cross Buns" in a Star Wars-inspired font, because let's face it.  She is hot.  She is not very happy.  And she practically defines sidebuns.

50 Canvases in 2014: Word Up!

This week has been nuttier than an Almond-Pecan torte!  After my friend Nancy left, my BFF and business partner Sarah arrived, and I think it took me two full days to recover from all of the late nights and the extra glasses of wine.  (Incidentally, I am perfectly happy with the entire aging process except for that part.  What do you mean, four hours of sleep will turn me into a zombie?!  I'm indestructible!  I'm indefatigable!  I'm . . . oh, wait.  I'm 42.  Never mind.  Totally destructible.)

I did manage to do a canvas while Sarah was here, and it was the "word" challenge on wonderstrange - namely, to create a canvas inspired by a word that isn't "hope," "believe," "faith," or any other word you can find on scores of other work.

My word was "both," because that's something I really need to work on.  I can have a day that is BOTH productive AND frustrating.  I can have an experience that is BOTH rewarding AND disappointing.  I do not have to pick one or the other.  I can embrace both.

50 Canvases in 2014: Monochromatic

I didn't think I would have the chance to do a canvas this week, since I was hosting my friend Nancy, whom I have known since the third grade.  As it turned out, however, Nancy really wanted to sit in a comfy chair and veg as much as humanly possible, so we traded stories, marveled at each other's drama, and watched a lot of movies.  Like, I don't even want to tell you how many.  I think the people at the video store thought we were going into an underground bunker for a month.

While the movies played, at any rate, I painted an olive oil bottle (it's on wonderstrange, if you're curious), and I caught up a little on the wonderstrange 50 Canvases Challenge by completing the monochromatic canvas challenge that I missed a few weeks back.

While I was painting this, Nancy would periodically pause the movie and come over to tell me how brilliant it looked.  I have no illusions that I created a Monet or anything, but honestly, it is pretty darn nice to have someone come up and act like you're painting the Sistine Chapel every 30-40 minutes.  I highly recommend it and would consider sharing Nancy with you, except for the fact that I rarely get to see her myself.