Big Ball of Happiness

Remember the giant green Styrofoam ball that I bought for $7.50 and talked about in an earlier post? I've been rolling some ideas around in my head about what I want to do with it, and I'm thinking about creating a big ball of happiness. I'm picturing a combination of felted wool, fabric, and embellishments that will blend fabric art with collage and journaling and revolve around the theme of happiness. Inspire me with your ideas. Tell me how you would finish this sentence: Happiness is....

Sketchcrawl

Today I attended my first ever sketchcrawl with my partner in crime, Cathy. On the first Saturday of the month, a group of people meet at a pre-determined location and spend about two hours sketching their surroundings. Today's location was the West Side Market. Cathy and I decided to start out near the food stands and we searched for a spot that would be out of the path of the crowd of shoppers.

I had a hard time getting started for several reasons: I haven't sketched in a long time and I'm not very good at it; I've never sketched in a public place; I've never sketched standing up; and I don't like crowded spaces. After much deliberation, I settled on a display of cream puffs and got to work. It was hard to ignore the stares of the shoppers and the glare of the bakery vendor who probably would have preferred if I had bought a cream puff instead of sketching them. I only got three of the four cream puffs drawn before I was jostled aside by paying customers. I decided I didn't like sketching so close to people in such a crowded place so I went outside to find something else to draw.

I went to the alley behind the fruit and vegetable stands where they toss out empty boxes and trash. I found a half empty box of tomatoes and decided to sketch that. After a while I rejoined Cathy inside and we went to the balcony to meet up with the rest of the group. It felt good to sit down, so I pulled out my watercolor pencils and spent the rest of the time adding color to my sketches.

We had a lot of fun and we're going to try and make the sketchcrawl a regular monthly outing. I don't think my sketches are great, but at least it leaves me a lot of room for improvement in the months ahead.

Juice, Anyone?

This may look like an ordinary bottle of juice, but in the hands of Margaret Garrington it is a work of art. Check out the Looza Bottle Project and see how Margaret combined empty juice bottles and loads of rejectamenta to create an incredible art installation. This is one of those projects that I admire and think, "I wish I had thought of that!"

The Looza Bottle Project reminds me of a smaller version of John Dahlsen's Environmental Wallworks made from plastics collected from Australian beaches. These pieces are amazingly beautiful and created entirely from garbage washed up on the beach. John is the King of Rejectamenta in my book! Be sure to check out his entire site--there's a lot to see.

This is the kind of art that really gets my juices flowing. (Pun intended. Sorry, I couldn't help myself!) I plan to buy a bottle of Looza juice every time I do the weekly grocery shopping. I will consider it my reward for a task that I don't especially enjoy. I think the bottles will look lovely in my studio filled with rejectamenta and various art supplies. If anyone drinks Looza and would like to donate their empty bottles to me, just let me know. By the way, the juice is pretty darn good and a bottle goes a long way.

What Are You Going To Do With THAT?

The "that" in question (this time) is a giant, green Styrofoam ball that stands two feet tall. I bought it for $7.50 when Cathy and I went to a liquidation sale at a local display company. I don't really know if $7.50 is a good price to pay for a giant, green Styrofoam ball, but I do know that I've never seen one before, and may never see another one again. When I took the ball to the checkout table so that I could continue shopping, I asked the saleslady to make sure that she didn't let anyone else buy it. She replied, "Oh, I don't think you have to worry about that!" Who wouldn't want a giant, green Styrofoam ball? I think it's just crying out to be covered in something, but I'm not sure what. Buttons? Beads? Mosaic? Pennies? Postage Stamps? Collage? Any suggestions or ideas? What would you do with a giant, green Styrofoam ball? For now, it will just keep rolling around in my dining room until I decide what kind of art it will become.

Photos of Class Projects

These are the photos that Terry took on the last day of class.

This is my project inspired by the wood sculptures of Louise Nevelson. I'm slightly obsessed with circles and they appear often in my artwork.

A closer view.

This is my version of a Robert Rauschenberg "combine" painting. I was happy to be able to use a few of my favorite street finds in this piece. The metal signs with numbers were used to mark outdoor parking spaces downtown--until they rusted and blew off the wires where they were suspended. I found the big hunk 'o rust in a rest area parking lot during my fall trip to West Virginia.



Finally, my project inspired by the work of Joseph Cornell. I bought the frame at my neighbor's garage sale about 10 years ago. I love the weathered wood and the metal pieces that join the sides together. I originally intended to use the paper tags to label the keys that were going to be the basis of the piece. Instead, the tags became the focus and the keys are now a future project.

Art Journaling Magazine

It's here, it's here! I just received a contributor copy of the premier issue of Art Journaling magazine which will debut on January 1st. Wow! This is going to be a real treat when I finally sit down to read the articles and savor each and every gorgeous photograph. I'm thrilled to have a couple of pages from Rejectamenta featured in this beautiful new publication from Stampington.

And....what a lovely surprise to discover that Cathy's artwork is also featured! It was our hope when we sent in our submissions to be in the magazine together. It looks like dreams really do come true.

Rejectamenta Journal

Here are a couple of pages from my Rejectamenta journal. This journal was created as a tribute to the flotsam and jetsam of society that I find quirky, crude, and appealing. It is comprised entirely of rejectamenta attached to acrylic-painted pages. In keeping with the concept of found art, I chose to use found words in the form of quotes, to illustrate that one person’s trash is indeed another person’s treasure.



I found the metal piece on the cover while walking on the beach about 20 years ago. I'm not sure what it is, but I've always loved that thing. This seemed like a good place to finally use it.





I live by this quote. The journal was hard to photograph since it's crammed with all kinds of strange and weird found objects. I'll post more pictures after I photograph some more pages.

Last Class

Yesterday was our last class for Found Object Art. We brought in all three of our finished projects, critiqued the last two projects, and Terry photographed everything for us. I’ll post the pictures as soon as I receive them.

In the meantime, I can say that I’m pretty impressed with what we created and with how different and individual all the projects turned out. It was amazing to see the final results and talk about how the projects evolved from our initial ideas. I had planned to use my large collection of keys in my Joseph Cornell project—and ended up not using a single one. I guess that’s part of the excitement and fun of creating art; you’re never really sure just where it’s going to take you.

For me, the structure of a class definitely keeps me more focused and productive than I am on my own. And Terry’s input was invaluable in helping me to think on a higher artistic level. I also have a brand new appreciation for Nevelson, Rauschenberg, Cornell and all artists who create with found objects. The class was well worth the investment of time, money, and effort and I hope to take more classes in the future.

I really wanted to share more of the class and the artistic process in this blog, but it was difficult balancing that with the rest of my life. Blogging hasn’t become an integral part of my life just yet. I’ll have to keep working at that.

Thanks Cathy for taking the class with me! Everything is more fun with a friend by your side.

I Love Rust

I don't know why rust fascinates me so much, but whenever I see something rusted and decrepit, my heart soars. Recently, I spent a weekend in Beckley, West Virginia with two of my dearest friends. West Virginia is beautiful in October--autumn leaves, waterfalls, scenic overlooks, rustic cabins, and countless wonders of nature. I wish I could have captured a little bit of the beauty on film, but the sad truth is that I'm a lousy photographer. (I need to work on that.) Of all the photos I attempted to take, here are a couple of my favorites.

Time Flies When You're Having Too Much Fun

We're more than halfway into Found Object Art class and we're now working on our Rauschenberg "combine" project. Bob helped me mount a 20 x 24 canvas board onto strips of wood to give it more substance and depth. During class we worked on choosing text and objects for the piece and started painting. Today I added a few more layers of paint and I also painted the wood sides. I'm using a series of numbers and letters as text and a couple of small metal signs, a chunk of rust, and a round, red reflector as objects. At least, that's what I have planned. I've noticed that ideas and plans often change during class after getting Terry's input. He definitely gets us thinking beyond the ordinary.

Last week we displayed our finished Nevelson projects and they really turned out well. On the last day of class we're going to bring in all three projects and Terry is going to photograph them for us. Yay! I'm sure he'll do a much better job than I could, and hopefully I'll have some nice photos to post of the finished projects.

I finished everything on my list of things to do today, so now I can go into the studio and play! We turn the clocks back tonight for daylight savings time so that means I get an extra hour of studio time.