Artwork-A-Week #2, Begun

Or, Art Workshops with Myself...

Aside from the "artwork-a-week" project, I decided to start 2008 with some "workshop" time... first, by exploring the "interference" acrylic paint colors that Golden makes. These are undeniably cool, (they sort of appear and dissappear in different light) and with the 3D work, I had a specific way of using them that filled in some areas with the interference color, and left other areas without. But the 2D surface is different because I don't have as much texture to work with. Or maybe I do, (one never knows!) but I want to master this paint on a flat surface too...

I started this piece from a cardboard base I made a while back; it's covered in papier mache. Just a plain square.... we'll see where it goes. I had to run to San Francisco over the past couple days, but it will be finished by Sunday. Although working on this second piece made me wonder if I can actually carry on with this "Artwork-A-Week" for the entire year! Yikes...

Also on the "to do" for this week is the SmARTist Telesummit (an art marketing conference), which I signed up for... On the way down to SF I listened to a recording of part of last year's telesummit, and it got me primed and ready for this year. So, look out.

Artwork-A-Week #1

This week I started a project I'm calling "Artwork-A-Week". For the first piece, I chose to deconstruct an old mixed media piece I did a while back (admittedly awful!). Usually when I'm getting back to work after a break, I'll do something sort of personal to start, and this one morphed from the generic use of Marianne Willliamson's quote, to a piece about me and my mother (who passed away in 2002).

I used two smaller papier mache "frames", plus some wooden pieces with the quote, which I painted. I added the sort of creepy garage-sale ceramic angel at the top. (All from the original ugly piece.)



Viola! As Robert Stelson used to say...

Artwork-A-Week #1, in Process

I've been up for awhile, looking at various other artist blogs. I found a few interesting ones, but from there, you can look at their list of artist blogs that THEY read, and you would be sitting at the computer for the rest of your born days. Who ARE these people, this uber-race of artists, who have time to blog AND read oh, about thirty other artists blogs on a regular basis? Certainly, I am not one of them. I do plan on updating my links as I go along. At the moment, the only blog I read on a semi-regular basis is Luann Udell's. She rocks.



In the meantime, I've been working on my first "Artwork-A-Week" piece. (This may turn into a separtate blog, or I may end up devoting this blog to the project.) I plan to have it done, and pictures posted, on Sunday evening. The two pieces I described in an earlier post have now morphed into one, partly because of the juxtaposition of the photos I posted on the blog, and partly because I was working on them at the same time...


When my mom died in 2001, I always thought I would do some sort of a shrine to her, but it never came together. It looks like this might end up being that piece. I'm using these words that I printed on wood from that famous quote (by Marianne Williamson) that begins: "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate..." and a tacky clay angel I found at a garage sale... Here's a rather out-of-focus photo of the work in progress. This is just me trying to figure out how to finish it and hang it, not the actual piece.


I took myself on my Art Date yesterday (a holdover from my Artist Way days) and went to a local used book store. I found a senseless old book called "20,000 Words". That's it. It's basically a list of 20,000 words. Whenever I visit a used bookstore, I'm reminded of Vik Muniz. If you ever get a chance to watch the movie made about his art, "Worst Possible Illusion", see it. It will remind you what life and art are all about.