Iron Artist...

Totally forgot to mention that I did make it into the Iron Artist Challenge at the Tacoma Art Museum! Come watch the fun on Friday, August 8, from 5-8 PM. It's part of the Midsummer Night’s Community Festival...music, dancing, art-making and "Shakespeare in the Parking Lot." Free to all, something for everyone...

Some Beads

Here are just a few of the paper beads I've been working on. The round ones are newspaper mash and PVA glue, painted with acrylic paint and finished with Future floor wax. The others are all rolled rectangles or triangles of various papers, with added paint and embossing powder. The very shiny smooth surfaces are layers (upon layers) of clear embossing. Messy, but effective don't you think?

It's been a busy month...

...and it isn't over yet. The good news is that the camera and the computer are speaking to each other again. No more going to Bartell's to download from the camera to a CD and then back home to save from the CD to the 'puter so I can use my photos. So I'll be able to show you some pretty nice paper beads later this evening.

Meanwhile go to the Tacoma Art Museum website and read about the Iron Artist event. I just sent in an application...keep your fingers crossed. See you later.

5 Yrs. old: Wonderment

Here's the cake that Lena, Berkeley and I made for the Tacoma Art Museum's Building Birthday Bash. It was constructed of packing tape, recycled plastic, ephemera, found objects, telephone wire, blister packaging from the Dollar Store, old Christmas tree garlands and some hot glue. Oh, and marbles. I've probably forgotten something. One of the found phrases on the bottom layer is "5 Yrs. old: Wonderment" so we chose that as the title of the piece.
Click for larger views and lots of detail. See the other cakes in the slide show to the right.

The bottom layer is cut out words and phrases about art and seeing, mostly from magazines and museum programs. The middle is paper dolls dancing around the art in the museum. Look close and you'll see art by Chuck Close, Renoir and Dale Chihuly - all currently on exhibit at TAM - inside the circle of dancers. The top layer shows the wonderful building itself and its place in Tacoma and the region, set into 12 blister pack windows. (Thank you , Lena!) The candles are paint brushes and the little telephone wire dog is a miniature Leroy, the giant cardboard dog sculpture that lives in the lobby of the museum. (Thank you, Berkeley!)

We had already decided to use the cutout dancers when we realized that the slogan for the museum is "Connecting People Through Art." How about that!

Cake the day after...

The Birthday Bash was a ball, and the cake turned out great, if I do say so myself. I took a lot of pictures and will put some up later today.

Thanks to Lena and Berkeley for your input and work.

More Cake

Two of us got a pretty good start on the Birthday Cake project last Friday. Yesterday I went to Tacoma to take photos of the museum building and elsewhere around town. Had a bit of a setback when I got home and couldn't get the pictures to upload tot he 'puter. Apparently it has decided not to recognize the camera as a bona fide piece of equipment. Couldn't figure out what was wrong, and it was too late to do much about it so I took the evening off. Today I went to Bartell's and got the pictures on a disk, so now I'm Photoshopping and printing. All of which is boring as can be, I'm sure, but mostly that's an update for folks who might be wondering when we'll be working on it again...and that will be tomorrow, Wednesday, in the evening. (I might be there during the day...call first.)

Let's (not) Eat Cake!

The Tacoma Art Museum has called for non-edible Art Cakes to celebrate the 5th anniversary of its beautiful permanent home. I'm pretty busy with that for now, but I'm not sharing any details yet. Will post pictures after May 3. Meanwhile if any of you regulars want to come by this evening or some other time (call me) to work on it please do. We'll make our own party out of it!

Three of us had a nice quiet evening on Third Friday, sitting in the studio watching the blizzard. I do love that big wall of windows, even if I have to go to some lengths to keep the sunlight off the Stuff at times. It was beautiful.

Bras, Gelatin and Cats

Here are a few pictures from recent Art Parties in Room 206. Since Packing Tape Shoes I've been having fun with Packing Tape Bras; that's Berkeley and moi making gelatin prints, and those are some of Berkeley's wonderful Phone Wire Kitties. I'll see you all later, right now I have work to do.

First Tuesday tonight...

Sorry you folks on the mailing list didn't get a reminder this time...seems it came around awfully fast. Anyway - yes, the studio will be open to anyone who wants to drop in. It'll be a bit of a potluck this evening; we will be looking at samples and considering ideas for the next few gatherings. We might get started on Hats or Cats, or you can certainly come and cut rubber again (or for the first time.) Michelle Ward's April Art Crusade involves making stencils, and I have materials and tools to explore that as well. Come be Foolish!

See you after five.
Liisa

Time to Eat Words...

...your own or someone else's! Yes, tomorrow is International Edible Book Day. I am not making this up. IEBD is the creation of Judith A. Hoffberg and Béatrice Coron (a favorite paper and book artist of mine). Look here or here if you want to know more.