Craig McInnis posted a link to a cool video about CONTINUUM, the large pop-up gallery/performance space that was located in downtown West Palm Beach as a part of Art Synergy, as a part of Art Palm Beach and American International Art Fairs. A whole lotta art love and awesomeness is what is boils down to. My piece made a little cameo in the video at 2:32 so I was pretty excited about that! Also, there are some photos up on the Boca Museum of Art- Art School page from photographer Noemia Felipe, who was also nice enough to email me some photos as well. (below)
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It's no secret, summertime is AMAZING. (Yay for being a teacher!) I haven't been that great about keeping up with the ol' blog with moving and traveling, but I am loving every bit of this summer! For the most part I have tried to stay close to home, still organizing and unpacking and keeping busy with DYI projects and making my art. But it feels great to have the time to go out and be involved in the local art happenings, and not have to worry about how late I stay out...'cause I can sleep in! Even though I don't. Oh well. (Left side)...pics from the Boca Raton Museum of Art, I volunteered with their 'Sketching at the Museum' night with my fellow Art Hive Magazine contributor, Lucy. (Middle) Stopping by to support my friend Rolando...even if I missed the whole thing...wompwompwomp (Right side) Images from the Art and Wine event at Northwood...gotta support Turtle and JaFleu!! The other thing that I love about this summer...spending time with friends! Whether it is a quick trip to Orlando, or right around PBC, or just hanging with the furballs...this is just what I needed! And wherever I go I set up an impromptu studio to make my art...'cause that's what I do. Anyway...I love summer. That's all. Aside from the traveling, art making and napping...I have completed a few DYI projects that I am pretty happy with and wanted to share. Some I was able to complete by myself, some I needed some help from friends, but they are all very do-able and pretty low-cost...and most importantly I LOVE them! It's really starting to feel like home in our new place. A very CREATIVE home! Covered Bulletin Board I have had the same cheapo bulletin board for years. Now that I have my own dedicated art space I wanted to dress it up a little. My studio area is mostly white- trying to keep it nice and neat (for now) I am adding some black and white graphic accents here and there, and I thought that a chevron pattern was just what this bulletin board needed for a new look...and on a budget, of course! Supplies:
Pegboard for Necklaces Next up...dealing with my necklace collection. In the past I have always just used push pins, however, the collection is growing and I wanted to upgrade my organization. So...I decided on a pegboard! Supplies:
...me, marveling my talented friend Giselle and her cool machine...some of the decals..'do something CREATIVE everyday', above my studio window...my best friends initials by the shelf and pictures I have hanging up to remember her...msc. fun decals, like this 'love' decal, under some of our pictures Wall Decals
Another thing that I wanted to do in the new place was to add some wall decals here and there. Again, for this I needed help, so I enlisted the aid of my beautiful friend Giselle of GS Makeup Artistry, in exchange for help painting a wall in her studio. She even threw in homemade beef stew...definitely NOT an even trade! Wow! Supplies:
I seriously LOVE my new wall decals. One of my favorite areas that I used them was my 'art wall' above our tv. Makes me smile every time I sit down and look at 'em! I have been meaning to sit down and at least write a little bit about the trip we took back home to North Carolina for John's cousin's wedding, sister's baby shower and our niece's second birthday ...but...kinda never happened.
So I did sit down and make this little collage...and the quote is kind of how I feel about the trip. It seemed impossible that we would see so many of our friends and family...but then we did it. We were all over Moore County, in Lee and Harnett County visiting my family, making stops in Durham, our former 'college hometown' for many years- Greenville...then back to Moore County. We had birthday cake, wedding cupcakes, 11pm AMAZING dinners courtesy of John's father, chef...made trips to his woodshop...drank a TON of coffee, cuddled with pups, broke up parties at my Granny's nursing home...it was a full trip, but a good one... it was great to see everyone...I will keep the memories from this trip in my backpocket, and think on them when I miss all of you back home in NC, which is more often that you will ever know. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do for my July theme. I always like to check and see what the unofficial Creative Every Day theme is...even if I don't use it. Last month the theme was 'green' and I did Barbie art all month. Go figure. But the theme wasn't up yet, probably due to the holiday...so...I had to figure it out on my own. But I didn't know what to do. So for the first few pieces I just worked on faces. I knew I wanted to use watercolor pencil, colored pencil and pen since these materials are pretty portable. I made a face drawing each day...thinking to myself...'what should I do?' And it kind of came to me...really pretty much as a result of the Barbie series... For the month of July my series will be MAKEUP. Here is my train of thought, and I am typing it just like I am thinking it...while working on the Barbies this month I was looking at images from the 1980s so I was in fact setting the stage for this inspiration to come to me later...as I worked on each Barbie picture I focused on the eyes and differences in eye makeup, since the eyes are a favorite thing of mine to draw...I got side tracked by Jem and the Holograms, her makeup, the patterns and colors in the clothes, even considered doing a side series on Jem...I started thinking about the images in nail and beauty salons, specifically those from the 1980s...so I researched these images and learned about Patrick Nagel, who images of females have a strong influence from fashion and Art Deco....I even found a picture of Jem in Nagel's style...and I went to a drag show with some girlfriends and was blown away by their makeup application...which is kind of random, but that's how I roll. And then there is this little lady, (left). Giselle is my super talented friend who owns her own business, GS Makeup Artistry. She does makeup (including airbrush!) and hair for weddings and special events and also is quite the craftswoman, working with decals and other personalized gifts as an additional service for her brides and clients. I spent some time with Giselle on the 4th of July for a belated birthday lunch and it reminded me of how awesome she is. I have watched her do hair and makeup on my friends and have even been lucky enough to have her work on me! So all of this...that's how it came to be that I chose makeup for my July series. It may be a little hard to follow, but it makes total sense to me. That being said...err...typed...here are the first pieces in the series! I have been backdating a few posts...just 'cause so much has been going on and I am combining some things and leaving some stuff out since its on Instagram...but THIS...now THIS has to be posted. This is one of the most important and most meaningful pieces I have ever made. Let me give some background. In March I met Nathan and Michelle and the Downtown Hollywood ArtWalk. I was the featured artist for Muzart and they came to see my work...and BOUGHT a piece. Awesome, right? Wait...it gets better. Some more ArtWalks come and go...they stop by the see me at the May show, where I was featuring my 27 of my April 2014 Poetry Paintings. When I get home, I have an email from Nathan. He wanted to commission me to create a series of five pieces...TO PROPOSE TO MICHELLE. My eyes teared up. I got goosebumps. Of course I would take on the commission! So he started sending me reference images, quotes that were meaningful to the couple...The whole time I was working on it all I could think was...don't mess this up. And I didn't. On July 4, 2014 Nathan brought Michelle to Gallery 2014 with a group of friends to see a very, very special art exhibit- JUST FOR HER.
And she said yes. And it feels AMAZING to have been a part of this couple's engagement story. |
AuthorArtist and Art Teacher
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