And now for something completely different...

This is one of those odd moments that I let the painting make itself.  I have been reading a fat book about the solar system. This piece is called "Abstract Nebula".

BDPQG

This is painting #2 in the series about Dyslexia. The singular dark blue shape is the mash up of the lower case letters b,d,p,q, & g. 

My brain does this mixing by itself. It takes concentration to get letters and numbers to hold still long enough to decode. 

More to come on this subject. Thanks for visiting! 

Mother's Day 2015 - finished mini sculptures

It's time to update you on this sculpture. I have finished the mini sculptures surrounding the floating little girl. I am moving to the cloud above them, which i hope will allow the camera to emphasize the sculptures more. No more paper mache, on to fabric and wire.

READ

A rather quick straight forward 5 x 7 painting, "read" was inspired by a bookmark I created years ago. 

This painting is the first of a series celebrating my own unique, messed up, dyslexic brain. It may help the rest of you normal folk understand how I see things. 

Finished Haiku

Moons and Flowers
these are the true ones
the masters ~Basho

Yes, I found this dead lunar moth while on a run earlier this year. Then the perfect Haiku. So together they are my newest mixed media piece.

School work

I have been doing art... well kinda. These are the past three weeks of visuals to tie what the kids are learning in Health class to what they are eating in the cafeteria.

Respiratory system 

Ribs 

Also in September

To help reiterate what they learn in Health/PE i am making visuals of healthy foods for whatever part of the body the students are learning about. Did you know that dark chocolate helps with hearing?

Mother's Day 2015 - aflac

Poor thing. At this stage he looks like the Aflac bird crashed into something.



In truth he is another piece of the sculpture Mother's Day 2015. I had forgotten to put wings on so the delicate thing is drying on a bowl. Two other pieces are in the paint stage so expect an update on the project soon.



TTFN

weekend Art projects

I declared it tool day and had a blast making stuff.

This frame is custom built and ebony varnished. It holds our first piece of art that we bought as a couple the weekend before. Thank you, i think it looks nice.













This older piece of art was mounted on a new board with hanging brackets. It will soon be displayed at Shepherd Community Center in 46201 zip code.











Stay tuned for more art. I've got several things in the works!

Mother's Day 2015 - 4 new sculptures

These are some of the additional little sculptures that will be included on "Mothers Day 2015". 

Can you tell me what stories they are from? 

I'll give you a hint: Sharmat, Keats, Eastman. 

school work

This past week the health class emphasis was on EYES. So to tie it in with what we are serving in the cafeteria I hilighted the Eye Foods on a copy of our menu & I made this ...

Reboot

Dear Internet Followers,

This last weekend I did a REBOOT  on the scuplture Mother's Day 2015. Basically I set it up, stepped back and asked, "Why does it stink?"

The answer is that there just isn't enough of it. So I'm working on four more little sculptures to orbit the little girl. I would show you but BAD NEWS: my camera on my phone is no longer speaking to my computer. Photos will be trapped there until they decide to start talking to each other.

For now, I wanted to update you on my art progress. Thanks for checking in on me.

Kathy

Bus Stop Pew

A church is demo-ing a local eye sore. They found an old pew in the building. So they put it by the bus stop (where it stayed for three days!) I thought it fabulously odd, took some reference photos, and set to paint it fast. I hope you like it as much as I do.

haiku by Soseki

The winter gale

blows the evening sun

into the sea

~ Soseki

July 2015

Some work you just follow as it grows into something. This one took reused board, paper pulp, acrylic paint, old calendar & hymnal pages, with stickers! Mixed media is easy but never looks like ART when I make it.

So what you have you been creating this month?

short pieces

A volunteer at work gave me a bunch of pastels. So I've made a goal to do a new quickie drawing every 2 weeks and display it at work.

This week's inspiration was a group of butterflies in my garden. I counted four but they kept moving so it's possible there were six or seven. They aren't monarchs but look similar, native to Indiana. I'm just happy to have butterflies in my little flower garden. What an enjoyable way to spend an hour.

free pastels

Sometimes in life you are blessed with free art supplies. And the best thank you is to do a picture.

This sketch is of some of my roses in my garden. The haiku goes like this: 

Bouquet of roses

volunteers like sweet fragrance

new smiles each day.  

Mother's Day 20015 - More mini sculptures

Completed Wolf and Puffin. 

coffee beans

My good friend Tabea is leaving soon because her fellowship at the community center is over. I wanted to make her something but was challenged because Tabea cannot see my paintings... So I made 3D art!



Since she loves coffee and knows all of the Starbucks employees by voice, I made these coffee bean magnets for her. Some are dark roast, some golden brown, and the reddish brown look the yummiest.



How do you overcome challenges?

finished a painting!

This one has been on the table for a while. It was the alternative to working on sculpture. But yesterday it was finished!

This is "desire". it symbolizes the simple things we want and the simple beings we are.

first paint out!

Today I participated in my first ever paint out! My Aunt & I did the Festival of Flowers at T.C.Steele historical site in Brown County. She got an honorable mention. (I don't think the judges even glanced at mine. It was the only one of it's kind - sore thumb surrounded by beautiful landscape paintings.) We both learned a lot and managed to enjoy ourselves despite the rain.



I am very happy with my painting. This is the second done on denim.It features white iris and purple lupines. Tell me what YOU think of it.

Mother's Day 2015 - Beautiful Failure

This is it... Mother's Day 2015. And it's not finished. 

The kinetic sculpture I've been working on since December, and I'm not done. 

Do I feel like a loser? Yes. Did I bite off more than I could chew? Yes & that happens to be a defining characteristic of my creative personality. 

So here are the pictures and intentions of my hard work. 

 The little girl - symbolizes me.

As the center piece of this kinetic sculpture, she swims around in the wonderment of stories told by her mother.

 Harry and the Terrible Whats-It by Dick Gackenback

 This Whats-It is found sitting on the washing machine just as Harry starts to develop courage.

The Magic Fish by Freya Littledale

My Mom made stories come alive. The want, the dislike for what happened, and how to be happy, all came across with her telling of this story.

Peter and the Wolf  by Sergei Prokofiev

Because every good story for children had a wolf in it. My sculpture was about to have this prowling creature circling its edges. Thanks Mom for exposing us to a half hour of great music!

What Spot by Crosby Bonsall

My Mom did voices, the best voices. This slow moving book took on a life of its own when she taught preschoolers to "read" pictures. 

A wagon was to be in the sculpture as well but it is still under construction. 

So that's it. No promised video of the great kinetic sculpture I was making for Mother's Day 2015. I am truly sorry! I'm sorry to disappoint you reader. I'm sorry to have made a goal and missed it. I will update you on it's progress. 

*Also note that the Father's Day 2015 will not be on time either! 

do nothing day

Today was declared a do nothing day. So i finished this dollar store puzzle.

trapped

So I spent a Saturday morning last month trapped in a car repair shop waiting room. My book ran out and they hadn't even looked at my van yet. I had to entertain myself some how...

Mother's Day 2015 - white stage

This is my little girl sculpture who will hang in the center of my Kinetic Art piece. She is in the white stage which means the paper mache clay worked fabulously!

http://www.ultimatepapermache.com/

 All I have to do now is paint her jeans, shirt, face and piggie tails on. I'm so behind schedule but so happy with how it is turning out. I'll keep you updated on it.

Mother's Day 2015 - rough

I've hit a rough patch in my sculpture. I'm still on step one- the little girl swimming happily though... wait i can't tell you! That would ruin the surprize. 

This piece is now due at the end of March. I am looking for a new coating, perhaps?, to make her smooth and paintable. Right now the paper pulp makes the surface too bumpy. And yes, i have to rework the face. Again.

Then on to the rest of the kinetic sculpture- armature, literary references, etc, etc,etc. I'll keep working on it & keep you up to date.

crafting 4 my valentine

Not sure if it counts as ART but this is what I made earlier this week. 

Decoupaged an old box & filled it with Haiku love poems I'd written just for him. Simple craft & silly love but that's what this "holiday" is all about right? 

Mother's Day 2015 - media change

I found the best website ever to help me with this project,
http://www.ultimatepapermache.com/

I'm using the paper pulp method to build my girl doll. Let me tell you, it's great! Its not the messy, uncontrollable strips of newsprint anymore. Instead its a mushy wet drippy mess that I can build in layers, kinda like working with clay. The only drawback is that it takes 36 hours to dry. (Faster if I set the doll on the heat vent. But the firefighter in me says that's not safe.) The other cool thing that I've learned from this website is that you can drill, sand, power tool your paper mache. I broke out the sander Tuesday night in between work & church. The child sculpture no longer has thunder thighs or flabby arms.
This weekend I will be working on her head shape, face & hair. When she is farther along I will post a picture for you.

No photos please!

My latest painting... has officially been scraped.

It's great to follow the muse, draw out a piece inspired by a line in a song, and then paint in all the colors. But after fighting fro three weeks with unruly paint, I put a black border "frame" on it and called it done.

No Photo you ask? Not on your life!

Mother's Day 2015 - started

In an effort to honor my Mom & Dad through art, I will  be creating a sculpture for Mother's Day & one for Father's Day. The overwhelming intimidation of said project forced me to start over Christmas Break.

I'm happy to report that I'm farther than where I thought I'd be. (Yes, if you see a floating doll & egg then you are looking at the art in it's naked beginnings.)

The thought process is much farther along than the actual accomplishment.

But it's better that way- Think B4 you DO.