I’M AT THE ART BANK!!!!

I officially have a wall at The Art Bank on Mass Ave and College, in downtown Indianapolis! Here’s what my wall looks like, it rocks:

It is in one of the three upstairs rooms at the ‘Bank. One already occupied room houses a tea company (really yummy!) and the other two have been recently opened up! Room #1 is “The Incubator,” a room for those of us “emerging artists” that have never really shown on Mass Ave, or aren’t really established in Indianapolis. So far, there are 6 of us. Mine have the orange tags under them. They are to be seen and purchased…so go!

Room #2 is now the “Art Lounge.” Fellow incubating artist Miranda Gabbard and I painted it…
all the colors I’m sure our parents would never EVER have let us paint a room. We even painted the floor and some of the furniture. Ideally, we’ll get a couch and some comfy seating up in there, for proper lounging, but it’s a place where artists can hang, appreciators can hang on First Fridays, and seniors from the local arts college (Herron at IUPUI) can show their work as part of their senior credit. Yes, that is tomato-soup orange on the walls, with one wall grey and black, and school zone yellow on the floor with a gold circle. We accented it with bright blue furniture…because bright blue spray paint was on sale.

Next up, we’ll tackle the look of the gallery room, with nice ‘neutral’ shades of grey on the walls, and brick red with a silver circle on the floor! AND the Art Bank is doggie friendly, so let’s just say Rembrandt does enjoy spending time there as well! (Because the biscuits flow freely, for the most part!).

The Latest Works

I have been slammed. Sorry. Real life stuff, one thing after another, and best of all, most of them dealing with art. So I have quite a few new pieces to share with the class. I’ve been busy. BUSY PAINTING.

First up is the turbine trifecta:

We have “Blue Turbines,” “Purple Turbines,” and “Night Turbines.” You guessed it! One’s blue-tinted, the other is purple-tinted, and the third is my rendering of the turbines at night. I’ve never seen the turbines at night, but I’ve been told they pulsate in unison, like an alien landing pad. Now THAT would be cool to see.

All of the reference pictures were taken in the same location as the previous windmill series (through research, I found out they’re actually called turbines, but hey) except I got MUCH closer: Right alongside the highway. These were on my drive home for Thanksgiving, again in Illinois, and, if you’re curious, just drive north on Highway 40, from Peoria, and they’re near Bradford, Illinois. Mesmerizing.

This next set is from my Middletown Series.

(From left to right: “Using Leisure,” “Training The Young,” “Getting A Living,” and “Engaging in Religious Activities.”)

It’s funny to me to even HAVE a series, given the whole short attention span thing. For me, I guess, a series encompasses 3 media (in this case, watercolor, acrylic, and photography, although those two aren’t pictured here) that all have a general theme: The Middletown Studies.

The Middletown Studies were originally done in the 1920’s in the most scientifically “average” town in America: Muncie, Indiana. Middletown was the city’s codename for the study. There were six categories for the study, with fun vintage titles like “Using Leisure” (having fun, I guess), “Training The Young” (education) and “Getting A Living” (employment). I loved those titles, so I did a piece for each category and titled it correspondingly. Both these and the windmills were part of my first Featured Artist show in Muncie, at The Artist Within (gallery and pottery shop).

This last little one is already sold. Sorry. It was a commission, a birthday present for a friend’s wife. It’s titled, “Just Try To Take It.”

The little toughie in the painting is Velcro Whisner, a yorkie with a lot of attitude. The photo was emailed to me by his “dad” and the Double Bubble is a squeakie toy, not the real thing. I loved his li’l “I’m soooo gonna bite you now” look on his face. It made for a nice challenge. Yorkies are tough to paint, given their coloring and their long hairs. I had to be careful to work backwards, 3-D-wise, to make sure I did the ears before the forehead and such. And, with anyone’s pet, I wanted to capture that ‘look’ that makes this Velcro and not just some random yorkie. I know every spot on my dogs’ faces, and I’m sure other owners know their pets that well too!

hehe, Also, word is, a tear was formed when this lil pressie was given. Win!

Why I Bought A Better Homes and Gardens

OK I don’t usually do this. I swear. Well, I have been known to read a Good Housekeeping, but believe me, I’m better at reading it than keeping house. This issue caught my eye. I’m pretty sure it was the brightly painted furniture on the cover. That was it.

You have until April to pick this one up, it’s a seasonal issue. It’s AWESOME. And when you’re done reading it, you’ll want to paint everything in sight.
Some highlights:

The Hand –Painted Lamp!
It has been a long time since I’ve seen such simple, yet wonderful things done with a paint marker. Not since I took an orange paint marker to our security guard’s mug at work and changed the “Indystyle” to “Andystyle” (his name—he appreciated it!). I wanna try!

The Lace Pillow!
This one reminded me of my art buddy, Debra. She does marvelous things with lace doilies and aerosols, so I challenge her! Bring on the lace-sprayed pillows!

The 8-Bit Painted Lamp! Robot Napkins! Tetris Curtains!
Part of the nerd collection, these are all done with fabric paint (and, in the case of the robot, resist made of Elmer’s glue). I think, should I ever have a formal dining room, the table will be made up with robot napkins. I mean, how could I not? Now, if robots are not your taste, these you could pretty much plug in whatever design you want. Me? I’m kind of partial to nifty robots.

AND THEN THERE WAS THE SPRAY PAINT SECTION

These people spray-painted their door! With yellow farm paint! Really, it says right there on the can! (And verified by a farmer friend as John Deere Yellow). The rug, that was sprayed!

Then, inside, the walls were sprayed, although I’m skeptical of that technique. It looks more expensive than regular rolled on paint, you run the risk of crazy drips and uneven coverage. You could probably get the paint tinted to whatever you wanted and just rolled it on for less than the cost of so many cans.
Now, the spray paint zinnia on the rug, I think I’m going to try that this summer on my front porch grass rug. In yellow. It will be pretty.

DISCLAIMER: TO BG&H: Hey! Don't get mad that I took pics of your magazine and put them on the interwebs. It's free pub for you guys and I just encouraged all of my closest and interest internet buddies to go buy it, so there. A free teaser, just for you!