harbinger

the wind has finally let up here in colorado.  this pushed me to go out in the sunshine to get a bit of vitamin D this morning.  what i didn't expect to find was this!  the crocus are in full glory on my south faced garden.  i also spied two lady bugs, but the wouldn't sit still long enough for me to photograph them.  it always makes me smile to see the first glimpse of spring!

i think the warm weather (and the promise of this very snowy winter being over) has my head full of new ideas.  pinterest has also been helpful.  i have seen some incredible art there lately.  it's such a great treasure trove of images!  but i am also slightly standoffish to pinterest.  a friend emailed me an article that made me wonder if the venue is safe.  when you sign on, there is lots of fine print you need to read and ponder.  for the average person pinning some recipes or craft ideas, it seems pretty innocuous.  but when i read the part that said:

By making available any Member Content through the Site, Application or Services, you hereby grant to Cold Brew Labs a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free license, with the right to sublicense, to use, copy, adapt, modify, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, stream, broadcast, access, view, and otherwise exploit such Member Content only on, through or by means of the Site, Application or Services.

so that basically means that if i post my art on pinterest, they have a royalty-free license to use my work in any way they would like (even to sell it) for the rest of eternity??

then there is this part:

... you represent and warrant that: (i) you either are the sole and exclusive owner of all Member Content that you make available through the Site, Application and Services or you have all rights, licenses, consents and releases that are necessary to grant to Cold Brew Labs the rights in such Member Content, as contemplated under these Terms.

so now, what i am getting is that they are telling me if i post someone else's work or content, i need to have the consent of the artist?  oh my gosh.  something to really think about, huh?  i don't want to be paranoid, but isn't that kinda scary?  i would love to hear your comments about this.  in the meantime, i took down all of my pins until i can decide what to do.

here is a link to the article that was sent to me.  please check it out!

Read more: http://technorati.com/social-media/article/pinterest-users-need-to-read-the/page-2/#ixzz1nnjy9IKG

i think i'm gonna go back to the garden now.  i need to clear out my head from thinking about the internet.  i'm sure the flowers will get me back in the mood to focus on making art.

underwear

i've been printing away.  three new ones complete, another 2 in the trash.  at least i'm keeping more than i am throwing away!!

anyway, one of the new ones:

taking a break

i haven't really done a lick of work this week.  we left last saturday for taos (see photos above), and were welcomed with some new fallen snow.  it was beautiful.  since john has been out of snowboarding so far this winter due to his back, we hung out at the house for 4 days.  my son ben and his friend scott ended up being the ski area residents without john.

the good news is that john and i can't possibly sit still for 4 days.  so we painted our bedroom, which has been on the "to do" list for years.  so the pink walls are now taupe-y (ben says we traded light beige for dark beige.)  for those of you who are color oriented, that small change from light (and warm) beige to dark (and cool) beige is a game changer.  the room feels cozy now, and the new mexican details in the room now pop instead of blend in like before.  i only took one photo, and it's not too great, but here is a picture of the pink-turned-taupe in action:

hopefully i will get some better photos one day.  i'm not too great in the room documentation department.

if you look closely, you can see that the vigas (beams) on the ceiling used to be almost the same tone as the walls.  so even though they were up there, and beautiful, they were almost lost.  now the contrast allows them to shine.  i love that!! by the way, we learned if you move the ladder without remembering there is a whirring fan on the ceiling, it makes quite a large clatter!

okay, time to get back to art making.  all of this home improvement is taking me away from my "real" job!!

getting better??

here's my print from the last post again today.  it's changed quite a bit, as you can see.  i have added a lot of reflection on the glass.  not sure about this one.  i hate the lid.  i think i gotta put it away for a while and look at it with new eyes in a few days.  then i will decide if it's destined for the cut-up collage bin or not.  

it's making me crazy.
sometimes posting a piece helps me see what i don't like, or what i need to change.  i think you can't see it anymore in the studio as you are working.  you are too close, and too familiar.  putting it out there lets you see it from another perspective.  e gads.  as i keep looking, that lid is turning into a blob monster.

jar full of...

fireflies

newest monoprint.  6 colors, 12x19 inches.

taken on my iphone, so a tiny bit blurry.

i'll repost a better pic when it dries!

series complete!

i finished the series of boxes with first-aid images from old cigarette cards.  had to buy a new point driver in the process, which cost me fifty bucks.  hopefully the new one will work better than the old one.  for those of you who care, a point driver is a staple gun looking device that puts in those little tabs on the back of frames to keep the contents secured in the frame.  

when people ask about pricing artwork, i try and let them know all of the stuff that goes into a piece of mine, besides the artwork itself.  for example, the boxes are created with clear poplar or birch plywood, which i have to buy.  and then my sweet husband spends hours making them.  he uses lots of tools.  a table saw, a router,  and a dovetail jig.  then i use the orbital sander to smooth everything out.  next, i have to cover the box, cut plexiglass to fit, and cut the rulers to size for the spacers.  then i secure the spacers, and place the artwork inside of the box.  then i put on the backing, drive the aforementioned points, and add the hanging hardware.  it took john all day yesterday to make the boxes for me, and then it took me all day to finish two boxes.  the artwork had been completed previously.

i don't want to get on my high horse, but it's a lot of work!!  

i don't know exactly how much it cost me to make the series, but i do know that i spent many many hours on them.  these pieces will be in a show that opens this may.  this particular venue is going to also take 20%  from any sales i make.  that's a good percentage.  most galleries take 40 or 50%.  i will be teaching a class on making boxes to local kids as part of the deal.  and i won't get paid for teaching.  but i will get the added bonus of 5 more percent if i make a sale.  their usual rate is 25%.

i guess that's enough of the diatribe for now.  the good news is that there is joy in completion!  so enjoy the finished pieces!

finger tip

sylvester's method

collections

medical stuff

pocket watches

doll dressers

old toys

numbers and letters

hands

i have always been a collector.  when i was small, i collected live pet mice, dead butterflies, plastic breyer horses, and seashells. the collections were just part of who i was, and i took joy from finding a new specimen to add to my cache.  none of my early collections have made it this far into my life.  the pet mice (they bred fast, and i had over 50 in my parent's basement) met their maker when one night i left the top off their cage.  my very happy cat had the feast of a lifetime.  ugh.  the butterflies went next door to my friend timmy.  shells...i think my mom probably got rid of them secretly over time.  they just disappeared.  breyer horses?  my niece ended up with them.  by the time they resurfaced, 30 years of girl play had stripped them of most of their ears and small appendages. goodwill was the final recipient.  

 i still collect today.  i like old things, things with wear and tear.  i often wonder what makes us collect, and why we are drawn to those things in our collections.  my gatherings of items changes a lot.  i go through periods of passing on my things, and replacing them with other ones.  sometimes i think i have to be crazy to keep all of this stuff, and do a major clean out.  often, i wonder if the collecting thing is a outward sign of a mental issue deep within me!!  i do know that finding and saving things is definitely something that makes me feel happy.  the good news is that most of my things cost little.  i am the consummate bargain shopper.

every once in a while, i like to donate a really great former collection item to goodwill.  i think about how happy i am when i find a great thing in the heap of donations at the thrift store.  and i somehow get a dose of glee thinking about the person who finds my former treasure.  it's a kind of payback to the universe.

anyway, the pictures above document some of my current collections.  i won't go into long reasons why these things resonate with me, because sometimes i just don't know.  but here they are for you to consider.

3 new boxes

i have been working on a series of 5 assemblage boxes.  in an earlier post, i photographed the beginning of one of these, thinking that i would create a print and install an assemblage on top of it in a large frame.  but then i got the idea to place the assemblages into a smaller boxes instead.  the 5 boxes can then be hung together or stacked into an installation.

here are the boxes i have finished so far.  they are 5x7x3 inches.

four point bandage

fractured knee cap

fractured jaw

all of the boxes feature tin (and other metals), cigarette cards with first-aid images, vintage rulers, and vintage game pieces (which are loose and can move around in the interiors).  the numbered tacks were for numbering window screens.  when they were taken off and stored, the numbered tacks helped you find the correct window.  love that!!

they are all protected with plexiglass.  sturdy dovetailed boxes are hand made by my fabulous and talented husband!

anthology magazine

thanks to aphrochic for the photo

i love anthology magazine!  it's a shelter magazine which runs quarterly.  currently they have just delivered issue number 6.  i missed #1 somehow.  guess i wasn't paying attention as well as i should have.  if you know me well, you know that magazines are one of my favorite things.  i got this obsession from my mom.  each week at the grocery store she splurged at the checkout and threw 2 or 3 women's magazines in the cart.  i remember  being so excited about the purchase.  mc call's had a page with a besty mc call, a paper doll.  and i could barely wait to get my hands on it.  i would glue betsy and her outfits to a piece of shirt cardboard my mom stashed away for just this purpose.  usually the glue made her a bit wrinkly, but i didn't care.  then she would dry, and i could then cut betsy and her wardrobe out.  my cutting skills were not the best.  i think i cut off the little tabs on the clothes more than once.  but it was amazing how one page of a magazine could keep me so occupied and thrilled.

i thought of all of this when i got my new issue of anthology.  the cover this time is a paper cut sculpture by an artist named chloe fleury.  there is more of her work throughout the magazine.  she has even created a little trailer, a film featuring her cover design.  

here is the link from vimeo:

http://vimeo.com/35615315

i am so glad that print is not dead.  i don't know about you, but turning pages on a computer screen doesn't do it for me.  i like the feel of the paper in my hands.  and i love to dog ear the pages i love.  

one of my favorite magazines of all time was home companion.  a couple of years ago it just stopped.  i was so bummed, because it was really the only magazine which consistently featured artists and their work spaces.  ready made was also a good magazine, but lately (after it was sold) it does not cut the mustard for me.  so anthology wins, hands down.