Masterpiece In A Day

It has been a crazy week, but really, just a continuation of non-stop crazy weeks. I'm tired.
Saturday was the Fountain Square Art Fair and the Masterpiece in a Day competition. I participated last year and had alot of fun; this year I was dead set on participation.
Except...

I fell backwards while shooting some video for my day job and wiped out. The camera weighs about 20 pounds and all 20 pounds of it was next to my head, on my shoulder, as I fell like a tree. I kept rolling! The video was actually quite funny. Part of the magic of falling with a camera on your shoulder is the wonderful twist technique you develop in mere seconds, not just to save the camera from getting broken, but to get the thing off of your shoulder and away from your head before impact. That's where the real pain can be. That and the pain of slamming your neck and shoulders against the ground with almost no way to brace your self. Ouch.
And, since I scraped my knee, the occupational doc decided I needed to update my tetanus shot. I'm right-handed, and, stupid me, I offered up my right bicep for the shot. OUCH. Over the next five days, I had just about every side effect possible of the stupid tetanus shot. My right arm was swollen, it hurt to move it, my whole upper body ached. I was dizzy if I moved to quickly. I was incredibly tired.

I was DETERMINED to participate in Masterpiece in a Day.

So, I loaded up a wonderful Radio Flyer wagon freecycled to me with a bucket, some water, my acrylics and brushes, a piece of foamcore board and my shower curtain drop cloth (better than regular drop cloths and excellent at stopping paint!). I tied Remy's leash around my waist, took up my canvas in my other arm and we walked to the commercial district of Fountain Square. We set up in front of Hero House, my local comic shop. They're dog-friendly (Remy is partial to the Pet Avengers comic and Dog Pool) and said they didn't mind. The contest got started around 10am, and I was done by 2pm! I was really proud of my speed, it wasn't that I was being speedy, I just knew what I wanted to do and executed it. And that was including the time it took for Remy to paint HER masterpiece. It wasn't too hot, but, if you're 50 pounds of fuzzy, it was a little to hot to want to hold a brush in your primary cooling unit: Your panting mouth. So, Remy went for a minimalist approach: We got a few turquoise and pink splatters out of her, on a mostly white piece of foamcore. Since she's a mostly white dog with black spots, we called it her self-portrait.



We turned in our work (Remy was allowed to participate, the only dog to do so, but was not allowed to win...I told them that was ok, since I didn't really want to loose to my dog). We found out that just a little while earlier, another artist that was working on a wonderful figure painting around the corner from us had a massive seizure and slammed his head against his painting, smearing the shoulder of the figure, before being taken to the hospital. An artist near him had ruined her painting leaping to his rescue. He had some friends come and put his painting into the frame he had built for it and formally enter it in the competition and was able to leave the hospital, with a clean bill of health, in time for the judging. I met him later, while we were all looking at his painting. I shook his hand and was glad he was okay. He looked completely fine and said that he just got so caught up in working on his piece, that the next thing he knew, he was seizing.

Since I had 2 more hours to kill, Remy and I went home and I sat on the couch, drank lemonade, and rested. Then...On to the Art Parade!



Clearly, it is not the average parade.

Afterward, I strolled the Art Fair booths nearby and waited out the fifteen minutes until the judging announcement. Honestly, I wanted to go back to my couch. In the end, neither Remy nor I were winners. The Best Of Show winner was a guy that made a neat video showcasing all the square shapes in the cityscape of Fountain Square. The other four winners were a large (wooden?) painted robot that hung from the edge of a 3 story building by painted (wooden?) balloons, like it was being carried away, a large portrait, a still life of some restaurant table settings and some decorative art magnets. All very cool work so I'm content. For me, I was just glad I pulled off my piece:



It's my hand. I took a reference picture of it the night before, for better lighting (I knew it'd be one directly sunny day that day) with all of my last names written on it. I actually wrote them on my hand with a Sharpie marker to just wear while I painted, but I sweated it off pretty quickly. My own last name is in the middle, wiht my dad's side of the family to the left and bottom, and my mom's side to the right. There's one from my dad's side on the right too, but it just fit better there. I'm happy with it. I'm going to fix the shadow side of the middle finger knuckle, its a little weird, but other than that, I'm pleased.

I had discussed the plan for that painting with my Gramma Weber a few days before she died. She thought it sounded like a good idea, and then she was gone, so I decided, come rain, hail or tetanus shots, that painting was going to come to fruition. It's not for sale. It obviously means more to me than anyone else, and to paint something so...keepable...is a departure from my normal work. I was speaking with the lady that runs the front desk at Clowes about attachment to my work. If I had a strong attachment to every piece, if they were all my babies, I'd have 100 babies! They don't do me any good, I painted them for SOMEONE ELSE to hang on their wall. After funds are exchanged, I care very little what happens to it. (I say that now, wait til I see one of my works for sale on craigslist or something...yeah). I can't care, because it isn't mine anymore, it's making someone else's house look good and they've attached their own meanings to it. But this one is MINE. It's called "For Gerva Dean Weber" and it will hang in my entry way, a sort of showcase spot in my house, for as long as I live here, and always in showcase spots in future homes. It's where I come from. It's her, it's my mom, it's my dad and his parents and my grampa and his parents and my gramma's parents and such, going back to completely other countries. My family is relatively young, American-wise, in some branches, and very old in others. I liked the contrast of all the different cultural names. There are some English ones in there, Spanish ones and some hardcore German ones. That is me.

So yeah, after the action-packed day, I wiped out on my couch. Completely drained of energy but satisfied with my work. Yay.

Next time: The first rendering of the diner project has been completed! Images! And my Event Photo Album has been updated! More images! And I just finished two more paintings! And I'm working on another for a breast cancer fundraiser auction!

Long time, no post. Sorry.

It's been a crazy, hectic last few weeks.

I got the diner project, I've got one drawing done, two more to go. I was hoping to have it done by now, but...

The weekend right after that, my grandma died. Her name was Gerva Dean Weber and she was 83. She had been fighting pneumonia off and on for most of her life and so now she doesn't have to fight anymore. She would watch my brother and me while our mom was at work. Most of the time, 'playing' at Gramma's consisted of goofy, creative activities. We would string rainbow varigated yarn around the living room to make a maze or to hang towels on for a fort, we would cut up and tape together Pepsi boxes to make little houses for McDonald's Happy Meal toys, or we would draw and color and play with a spirograph. She always had these retractible crayon things in her purse and would let us play with them during church. She was the preschool teacher's aide at my elementary school, so, basically, my first teacher. It was a blast. She taught me to sew and do latch hook stuff and stitch on plastic canvas. Alot of the crafty things I can do, I know how to do because she taught me. In fact, it was our crafty time together that got me my job at Hobby Lobby during college. The boss said one reason he hired me was because during the interview, I kept referencing "my gramma and I would..." and that would be most of our clientele: Someone's gramma. I'll miss her alot, but she taught me so much that it's like she'll always be around.

It did throw the week for a loop. I was supposed to go to Illinois on the Friday before Labor Day weekend. She died the Monday before. I rushed to Illinois, to help where I was needed. I stayed with my Grampa and hung out with him, kept him company and we talked alot. My throat hurt for days because he's nearly deaf and you have to yell. Loudly.

The BF joined me, on Friday, in Illinois, as we had planned and we had the funeral, my ten year high school reunion (that included a dancing pirate for no good reason other than there was one) and "Hog Days," the yearly celebration of the status of Hog Capital Of The World that Kewanee has enjoyed since the 1940's. It was a run'n'gun kind of weekend. I didn't really take many reference pics or get any really good ideas in the style of the windmills and such, but there wasn't really time for it and I wasn't really feeling it anyway. Some people paint when they're sad or angsty or whatever, and I'm not like that. I don't like doing that stuff when I'm stressed or sad, I paint when I'm happy, not to work out some profound emotion. So when there's crap going on, art gets put on hold so crap can be dealt with.

We got back last Monday, and Tuesday and Wednesday were like a recovery time. A MUCH NEEDED recovery time. No art, just lounging. Really, I was wiped. I did manage to get the one diner drawing done, I have to do the other side of the diner and a design spec-type drawing for this counter thing. And some hamburger-magnet designs, but that's kind of secondary. Maybe tonight, I'll take on another. After a while, especially after coloring in black and white checked tiles, my hand really really hurt!

Friday night I went to Greek Fest in Carmel. The Greek church there is AWESOME. It was a dark, clear night, and the church was lit up, very stunning. My friends, Kat and Bill, gave me the grand tour and I got to watch a guy (a priest?) painting Orthodox icons. Actually, one of the other priests said that icons are not painted, they are 'written.' So I got to watch him write an icon. It was really cool to watch (and he uses the same paint as me: If it's good for a church with a rich art history, its good for me!) He had been working on it all day and was about 75% done with it.

The Greek church has many domes in it, including a big dome right over head. The other domes were half-domes off of the main part of the roof. Kat said that, over the next few years, all of those domes will have icons written on the insides of them. I can't wait to see that. Whether you're religious or not, or Orthodox or not (I'm Lutheran), it'll be stunning to see. The care that's put into each painting and the fact that it's on a curved ceiling, pretty high up in the air. Awesome. I'm reasonably sure Indiana has NOTHING like that. The half dome behind the altar will have Mary, with her arms stretched out. It will be really really neat. Kat says that all Greek churches have some variation of icons on the inside of domes and that will be a really cool stylized Sistene chapel effect.

I don't know how often the church is open to just public viewing, and even if its only next Greek Fest, I encourage everyone to go check it out, if for its artistic and architectural aspects alone.

Sunday was the Gallery Tour at Clowes Hall. It went really great. I didn't really have any time to think about it too much, and that was ok. I wasn't really nervous, although sometimes I think I just jabbered. Like I said earlier, there isn't too much emotion put into my paintings, no angst, or that crap. I realized when I was jabbering, that there were more stories behind them. I'll tell my story and other people can make up their own. I like it better that way. I felt really confident about it all, and it was an overall confidence boost. I got to stand up there and pretty much say: Here's my art. Here's why I painted that. If you don't like it, ignore what I just said and make up your own. But I like it that way and I'm happy with it. I got a standing ovation...because everyone was standing and clapping. There weren't places to sit. I'm cool with that, I'll take a Standing O whereever I can get it!

I was glad so many of my friends came to see it. The artist that is the other 'book end' for the season, Freddie Kelvin, was there. His show is in the spring, he's a photographer, and I look forward to checking it out. This entire event has been a discovery session and I've shared my notes for what to do and what not to do.

I had some friends from as far as South Bend come to see, that was really great, and there were some random people there that I don't know. I think they were Butler supporters, and hey, that's cool too. I may be getting a chance, later this month, to do a similar session again, for a larger event, where I get to just come an hour early and hob knob prior to everyone taking their seats, pointing at the wall and saying "I did that." That would be great.

Satuday is the Fountain Square Art Fair. Masterpiece in a Day work starts at 10am and ends at 3pm. Judging is at 3:30pm and the Art Parade is at 4. I'll probably be set up near the Hero House comic book store. I'm planning on taking Remy with me; she went last year and did very well. If worst comes to worst, the BF can come and walk her home, it is our neighborhood. I got her to do some spatter-painting on foam board earlier this year, so I think I'll bring some extra board and some paints and brushes, so she can paint too! It'll give me something to do while waiting for my paint to dry. I think I'll even proactively register her when I sign up. "Rembrandt Hernandez." I was gonna get a little child's canvas apron for her to wear while sitting there (and in case she lays down on my paint!) and splatter some paint on it and call her my assistant. We have fun on these things.

After that, I still have a few paintings to finish for the next Muncie show, and am contemplating a booth at an Earth House event in November. The booth space is only $35. I sent an email to the people in charge, requesting the information and referring them to my website to see if I'd be a good fit. They loved the site and said I would. I had told the BF I'll wait on too many more of these events, since I've had so many this year, but a $35 booth fee is really a good price! And, each time I do one, it gets easier and easier as I work out my own infrastructure. AND, he likes the Earth House and has alot of buddies involved in stuff there... Hmmmmm.

Ok, this is a long enough post.
Next time: Hopefully some pics of the diner stuff- completed! Hopefully some pics of paintings done for Phoebe's and I'll also be updating the "Photos" section of the website with event pics as well! Really!