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...