Articulated Chaos

I have been so neglectful of my poor blog this year. So little time to call my own these days.
     Life has been throwing curve balls these past few months.  Schedule revision at the good old J.O.B. - I am now working 10am to 630pm.  Not to bad, but trying to get a doctors' appointment. .. what a pain that is.
    The best, and most exciting,  curve is that my work was accepted at the Gallery of Ocean Shores. I was very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.  Being artistic,  one of the first things I checked out when deciding to move to Ocean Shores was the art community.  I had gone into the gallery several times during our trips there (car fully packed with moving boxes). One of the times I happened to be wearing a Chris Friesen inspired fire lizard pendant. The artist on duty that day really liked it and suggested that I bring some work into show the jury committee.

 Boy, was I nervous!
 But I got lucky ... they had just lost their jewelry artist AND had decided to expand the range of art exhibited at the Gallery.
   I set out my display August 1st and have sold several earrings already. A HUGE thank you to Marie Segal who taught me to make her bullseye earrings  (and graciously allows me to sell what a make using her techniques). They have been my best sellers.
    Another great thing about the gallery ... it is an artist owned 501(c)3 non-profit. That means am surrounded by artists. It is so inspirational!  NBAG (The Northshore Artist Guild) was invited to set up an exhibit in Aburdeen  (sorry, can remember exactly where ... too new to the community).  I challenged myself to try something completely different and paint with polymer.  I was originally told that the theme was Articulated Chaos and was to be  abstract in nature.  I had never done abstract before (unless Mokume Gane counts).
    I discovered I loved freedom I felt when creating this piece.  I had a sliver of an idea when I started. .. and  it grew from there. Started with several Skinner blends and my handy Christi Friesen clay tools .... I am very happy with the results. I hope that time allows me to explore this aspect of polymer more.

  After finishing my piece,  I was told that the theme had been changed to Oceanic. Luckily the painting looks like a storm at sea

Articulated Chaos

If I only had a Heart

Wait a minute ..... I DO have a heart.
I saw these hearts at Michael's (or Joanne's - sorry can't remember for sure where) and thought they just cried out to be altered.

Out came the Vintaj Patina and a while later they were transformed into earrings I have aptly named "Tin Woodman's Desire".

I hear a beat ..... how sweet!

The Weekend that was

I spent the last weekend visiting my family in Eastern Washington.  Took the train over.  I usually enjoy the ride. The scenery in going over mountains is breathtaking.  When we hit Wenatchee, the sun had gone down and the full moon had risen.  It was a vivid golden moon, peeking out of the clouds.  Then it burst out in all its beauty over the top of the buttes of central Washington.
   Fortunately I had taken my MP3 player with me. I used it to drown out the total rudeness of some of the passengers.  There was a man who thought he was Washington's answer to Larry the Cable Guy.  Don't get me wrong, I like Larry and the rest of the Blue Collar Comedy team... but there is a place for it and it is not with a captive audience.  The conductor had to warn him several times to tone it down.
   But I side track.  What I wanted to talk about is my sister's work in her theater group. She has been involved for years with the Masquers, a group out of my childhood town of Soap Lake.  She is currently involved with the set decoration for their upcoming play, Chapter Two. Usually she is acting or directing  in the plays, but with Mom's health issues, she is taking a backstage role that is less demanding on her time.  I got to help with part of it and discovered first hand that it is hard work.  The set is being divided into two side by side apartments.  She wants to simulate a wood floor in one of the apartments. The color of the floor that was left over from the last play (on the left in the picture) is a brick red.  So first, half the stage floor was painted brown.  After it dried overnight, we mixed three lighter colors (yellow, light green and blue-grey).  I walked in front of her, splattering paint drops on the floor while she used a broom sweeping side to side to spread the colors out.  After this layer dries, she will be on her hands and knees with a magic marker making the lines to simulate the wood planks.
  I didn't have my camera so had to use my cell phone to snap a pix of the stage.

Work in progress  (whole floor used to be red). Imagine lines drawn in to resemble wood grain.