Spiffing Up the Backyard

Unveiling my latest creation! Garden decorations! How did I do it, you ask? Here’s the photo play-by-play:

You start with a bit of barn board and some old fencing, thanks to my art friends Preston, who happened to have a barn he tore down, and Vinnie, who happened to want to get an extra piece of fencing out of his yard.

I was limited to about a 5 ft. height, mostly because I drive a Toyota Yaris, and while it’s quite the little hauler, it’s not very long. It performed admirably, pretending to be a baby pickup truck, but 5 ft. was all it could go. No matter, that was all I needed.

I gathered 8 of the boards, laid them in my yard and put two screws into each one to connect them to a bracer board across the back. I put another bracer board across the bottom for stability. It pretty much looks like an old piece of fence, and that’s what I was going for: An old piece of fence that I could paint on. Vinnie’s was already fence-ified, so all it needed was paint.

I start with background color, orange for the barn board and a nice turquoise blue for the fence. I’ve totally fallen for this color of blue—it comes as a spray paint by Valspar at Lowes and I can’t find enough excuses to use it. I had them mix the color into an actual flat latex paint, and there are plenty leftovers for future projects!

I have day lilies (at least I think that’s what they’re called) surrounding my backyard. It’s a pretty dreary backyard, full of mosquitoes in the summer if I don’t fight them off, so this year, I’ve vowed to spiff up the place.  So day lilies went on the turquoise fence.

The BF and I have planted three raised garden beds in the sunny corner of the yard, and I’ve recently expanded to sunflowers on one side of the garage. The garage is white and just kind of there, so I figured it wouldn’t mind. A large sunflower blossom went on the orange barn board fence, for encouragement to my little plants.

I leaned both pieces against my garage, and in the strange empty spot on the day lily side, I’ll lean a (probably painted lime green) lattice to encourage the bird house gourd seeds I’ve planted there.  If all goes right, I’ll have a very productive, colorful backyard!

Thank you Preston Karns and Vinnie Oliveri!

The Artist Within

I really need to start writing about this stuff BEFORE the fact, not after, but March/beginning of April has been...one of those months. Little of it is art related, so I won't go into it here. But anyway.

I was the feature artist at The Artist Within in Muncie! (Yeah...I should have written about this sooner...)I was the feature artist at The Artist Within in Muncie! (Yeah...I should have written about this sooner...)

The Artist Within is a neato shop in downtown Muncie, where people can come and paint their own pottery. Then they fire it in a kiln for you and you get to keep it (for a nominal fee, of course). You can paint your own bowl or platter or lil puppy statue, whichever you please. They have this giant long wall and use it as gallery space for Muncie's First Thursday event! Yay!

So for the month of March, my art and only my art was on that wall. This was my first go-round as a feature artist, so I wanted to make it special. I marathoned 8 new pieces, and before I knew it, "Windmills and Middletown" was up and ready to go!

I'll admit, it was daunting, I was kind of winging it, but I've made some really great friends (including Debra Gindhart Dragoo, who had her Green Glam for sale there as well) that have guided me through the Muncie "art scene."

There was just one hitch: Apparently, there was some kind of event (ironically, also dealing with the Middletown Studies) downtown that night, and that seemed to draw away the usual First Thursday patrons. Soooo.... it was kind of dead. Great. But it's a great venue, and I had a blast, and would gladly do it again and learned a lot from the entire experience, so that made it worth it. Really. In fact, I'm in talks for a potential First Thursday in June, so there. (details will follow as soon as they're laid down).

And now, for your viewing enjoyment: Pics of the First Thursday at The Artist Within!

(From left to right: Debra Gindhart Dragoo taking a picture of "Rocket Corn," Debra again taking a picture (with bisque pottery in the background), and a close-up of my wall, starting with "Getting A Living")

(From left to right: My wall, starting with the latest "Turbine" watercolors, the entire long wall display area, and my sign-in table --apparently Francis Scott Key felt the need to sign in and relay the greeting "F U!" Classy, Mr. Key, classy.)



(From left to right: My pic and an article about my work in the First Thursday preview section of the Muncie Star-Press, Debra Gindhart Dragoo's Green Glam set-up.)

Next time: The latest projects! Because there's always more and there are about 8 half-finished canvases LOOKING AT ME.

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!

The Art Bank --FDIC: Fun Deposit In COOL.

Last Friday was First Friday in Indianapolis, and I had a chance to hang out at The Art Bank on Mass Ave. I've gotten to hang there a bit, the last few First Fridays, and this time I remembered to bring my camera (so, sorry if this post takes ten years to load).

The Art Bank used to be a bank. Really. A really really old bank that John Dillenger supposedly robbed back in the Depression. It's not your average gallery, either. Appearance-wise, they have left all of the interior walls up, all of the bank fixtures inside, this place really is an art...bank. The teller's windows are in place, even the 'drive-up' window on the northeast side of the building. If it weren't for all of the, you know, artwork around, you could easily picture yourself walking up to a teller and asking to make a withdrawl (or, in John Dillenger's case, demanding a withdrawl, seeee, put it right here in the bag! And no funny stuff!)



From left to right: 1) Carmen and Dan in the 'drive-up' teller window. There are a few art pieces in this small space, but it's more like an impromptu chill-spot for now. 2) The Book Nook, AKA the bank's old vault. A cozy space selling locally published books which are displayed using the drawers from the small safe-deposit boxes inside the vault. 3) Art fans examining Mark Patrick's work, as seen through the bars of the teller's window. Imagine me, the photographer as the bank customer, and one of these ladies as the teller. An excellent example of how every surface is utilized in The Art Bank.

There are some strong characters at The Art Bank. I didn't get a chance to snap a pic of amazing oil artist Kim Estes (she left before the camera came out!). It's to her credit that I 'discovered' this place. She was the featured artist this last July, with a show of paintings based on Hubble Space Telescope photographs. Of course I was a moth to a flame as far as space paintings were concerned and they were amazing! But for the double-win, I made some new art-friends and enjoyed the really wonderful atmosphere that is The Art Bank. This is not your average gallery with a 'stuffy' stigma. This place is more like an art-party on First Fridays, with bands and activities in the parking lot during warmer weather. There's alot of high traffic even in the winter, so the Bank is always hoppin'.

The first character I'll introduce (that I actually got a pic of!) has to be Carmen Hurt: The Internationally Unknown Artist and a true CHARACTER. On my first trip to the Bank, I was drawn to her dramatic colors. She uses alot of bright oranges, yellows, and that bright turquoise-y blue that I love to use so much, so, once again, about as moth to flame as I could be for not having space stuff around. She uses oils for her large paintings, blended and blended and smoothed until it looks like acrylic. She does use acrylic for her lil boxes and lil paintings. The lil boxes contain "round-tuits," perfect gifts for procrastinators.

From left to right: 1) This is Carmen Hurt. See her brightly-colored artwork over her shoulder? Crazy-dazzling. 2) These are Carmen's shoes. A lady this colorful, what, did you think she wore penny-loafers? 3) These are some of Carmen's lil paintings. They are minis of her "Some Flung Blue" series that features...blue paint flung around on orange and yellow backgrounds. These are acrylics and the larger versions are also in acrylics. These lil guys are displayed on the counter outside the tellers' office. 4) Inside the tellers' office, a large oil by Carmen covers a storage space and more lil paintings and lil boxes cover the top. 5) This is Carmen's wine, chilled in the snow on a table outside the Bank. Told you this place was hopping, even in the bitter January winter.

Next door to Carmen is Mark Patrick. He's a recent addition to the Bank, displaying his oils and watercolors on the counter and in the cubbies used by the tellers. I'm honored to say that Mark saw my show at Clowes this August, by coincidence, and, once he figured out it was me, said he had wanted to meet the artist behind that show. I was humbled and I marveled at how small the world is sometimes. I envy Mark's loose style, and all the colors that blend to form, say, just the petals of a flower.

From left to right: 1) Mark Patrick and his art. See how every space, every nook and cranny is used to display at the Bank? 2) A close-up of one cubby, used by Mark Patrick, with some of his florals displayed inside.

The last character I'll introduce this time is Preston Karns. Preston is a glass-artist based out of the Shelbyville area, so he has quite a commute to the Bank. When I first met Preston, his art occupied the space that Mark Patrick is now using. Preston's art involves fused glass, etched glass, glass-glass-glass of all kinds. This last First Friday, he showed me a photo of a counter top he created, using beer bottles (it was for a bar in Ohio) that were melted until they formed an interesting surface.

From left to right: 1) Preston Karns, glass artist. That's his artwork on the stand in the background by the window. 2) Preston's turtle, a close-up of the piece that's on the stand. This is a many-layered piece, with the ground looking like its in one spot, the turtle a little closer, and the fish a little farther away. A neat 3-D effect. 3) Jellyfish from the same piece. Some of the jellys are closer, some farther away, and a piece of sea-weed right up front.

There's something interesting about that room that Preston's standing in, on the second floor of The Art Bank. Very soon, some of my art will be displayed on a portion of wall in that room! I'm going to The Art Bank! I can't wait! I'll post details as soon as I get them, and dance happily around until then. Thanks Preston!

Next time: There's an issue out of Better Homes and Gardens and I'm totally captivated by it. Really. Tetris-themed curtains anyone?

New Art! Windmills! ...I mean...Turbines!

I have been freakin hard at work lately. My day job, of course, is usually manic in some form, but, in the middle of all the chaos, I've managed to produce these three beauties:

We have, from left to right: "Purple Turbine," "Night Turbine," and "Blue Turbine."

Yes, folks, I went back to the windmills, this time in watercolor. Again, these are "Illinois" windmills, located off of Highway 40, north of Peoria, basically. I took a different route home for Thanksgiving, given that I had to report directly to my grampa's home in Neponset, Illinois. I don't know for sure if that route was actually any shorter than how I normally go, but it was quite scenic! I mean, the first one, "Purple Turbine," is a based off a pic I took pretty much pulled over on the highway, leaning out my window, and puzzling a passing minivan of locals. I was RIGHT UNDER them--They were amazing! So lazily spinning out there and they were everywhere! Yeah, I'm a bit mesmerized.

Coloring wise, it was a cloudy day, so I figured I'd play off of that and make my clouds various colors (they were very very grey that day). I also liked how they were in silhouette, contrasting my earlier windmills, all nice and white against a blue sky. In "Purple Turbine," theres' actually a nice purple stripe/highlight down the side, like the blue feature in "Blue Turbine," but it didn't really want to show up when I was photographing/processing it for the web. Even more incentive to see it in person, right?

"Night Turbine" is the only one made up, with no photograph in mind. I was reading up on these wonderful creations (hence the name change from 'windmills' to 'turbines'--that's what they're scientifically called). I saw many references to seeing them at night. I haven't had the opportunity to do so, always travelling in the day, but I've been told its an eerie sight, will all of them blinking red in unison, to ward away airplanes (or land UFOs). I just decided to set up a bunch with my swirly representation of glowing and see how it works out. I'm pretty pleased. This one, in real life, is a bit darker than how it photographed, further proof that you can't win every time.

I found out alot in my research: North Central Illinois's past as basically an immigration mecca for Flemish folks, their use of windmill tech brought from their homeland (actually had Kewanee, Moline, Annawan and Atkinson mentioned on a Dutch website!). Illinois's windpatterns allow for expansive use of turbine tech, and some schools have even begun to build them on their property as a power/income source. One school mentioned, was of course, Bureau Valley (located in Bureau County, home of my windmill muses), home of, that's right, the sports teams: The Bureau Valley Storm. I know there's naysayers in the area, people upset that their country quiet has been upset, but you know what? I'm a Star Trek fan, and eventually people will just have to get used to flying cars and space travel and all that future imagery, and these turbines, to me, represent the first, small, step. (Or really really tall step--I've been told the next time I see the turbines has to be from above, via plane).

I'm prepping for my March show at the Artist Within in Muncie. I'll have 6 new ones, and possibly these 3 Turbines, if I decide they fit the show. Two of the new ones will be the half-painted acrylics looking at me while I type, two watercolors and possibly a pastel (if I don't decide last second to make it a watercolor). I'm excited, aaaaand I just need to buckle down and paint. But I wanted to share this post and two more and get back into the habit of NOT neglecting the art blog, so there.

Next time: First Friday, The Art Bank, and why I'm so excited about a Better Homes and Gardens magazine.