Monday, June 12, 2017

Crystal Neubauer

Most of the time when we take classes we just throw our art into a drawer.  Crystal Neubauer is an artist we've both taken classes from and Crystal makes sure you see examples of ways to display your art.  These are small collages done on 4" squares of mat board that she provides in class, along with lots of ephemera and papers.  Susan finally painted the edges of some 4" canvas squares (on sale from either Michaels or JoAnns) and glued seven of the collages on.  There are still about 8 more to be done but we are out of canvas squares for the time being.

The magic tip from Crystal on that idea was to use a 25-pound bag of rice from a Chinese grocery store to smush them down while the glue dried, as the soft bag molds itself over the surface. But living in a small apartment doesn't quite lend itself to having a 25-pound bag just hanging out with you.  Susan improvised with a baby pillowcase filled with about 5 pounds of rice, not so big that it can't be stored in a large ziploc, and did them one at a time. The collages hang over the open area between her workroom and our living room.  Which, by the way, is so small we don't have a couch. Yet.  And probably never will.
By the way, Crystal is a waaaaay cool artist and one of the calmest, nicest, most helpful instructors we've ever had.  And her work is special.  Check out her website, blog and facebook.

As for the collages, neither of us remembers which of the collages we did.  Great minds think alike?

Trivia for the day:  Article headline from May 26, 2017:
FDA Chief Aims to Curb High Drug Prices
I have to laugh over this because I just paid for a medication that is 1) generic and 2) has been on the market as generic for 10 years.  For 9 years I paid the over-the-counter price of $10.40 for a refill. Now, magically, the price has gone up to $17.  I'd like to say WTF but it is beyond that. I'm just thankful there I'm not talking about $17,000, although I wouldn't put it beyond the drug company to do that...

Monday, June 5, 2017

Chirp, Chirp

Or is it Peep, Peep?  Anyway, this birdie has the metal loop in his back because he's going to be suspended from a tree branch somewhere in our neighborhood.  His wing area is textured but I'm not sure I'm going to do that again.  But I like the way his beak turned out.

From the Smithsonian Craft Show, an interesting ceramic artist, Paula Shalan.  I'm always attracted to ceramic artists who focus on hand building their work.

Recently our Netflix choice was Alpha House. about 4 Republican senators who shared a house in Washington DC.
We laughed out loud at some of it and shook our heads at parts that accurately depict some of the political dysfunction we see today, even though it was filmed in 2013.  We'd like to have seen Season 2 but Amazon, in all its wisdom, won't let Netflix have it and won't let you stream it unless you sign up for Amazon Prime.  If I was an actor in that show I'd be a little ticked off about that.

Anyway, there is no Season 3 and I'm guessing it's because the show hits a little too close to home for those politicians who don't have a sense of humor and have no idea about the concept of satire. If you do watch it, look for bad-boy Anthony Weiner in a 3-second cameo appearance in the last episode. He wasn't listed in the credits but there he was.  Actually, there are a lot of cameo appearances in this show.

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Bye Bye Birdie

Here's looking at you, kiddo.  I used dimensional accent glaze for the black and white dots.  Eventually he will either be left casually somewhere in the neighborhood or maybe go for sale at the Student Art Show at Christmas.  Right now he's just keeping an eye on me.

When we took our big road trip in April/May we made sure to schedule in time in Washington DC for the Smithsonian Craft Show.  We collect cards from the artists whose work catches our eye and then we come home and dump the cards in a pile and  they just sit there.  OK, Susan is gradually looking at them and telling me to take a look at their websites.   And she's promised to eventually share them with you.

This guy fascinated Susan:  Phil Feinberg of RockinOneKnives.   Here's a picture of one of his incredibly elegant knives.  One of her favorite movies is Lucy, starring Scarlett Johansson, and I'll have to admit it's a pretty good movie.
She tried to explain to him that Lucy/Scarlett whipped out knives in the movie and really did a number with them but I don't think he got it. If you watch the movie look for the knives in this scene (but they aren't as good as Phil's):