April 29, 2011

April 27, 2011

Microphone sign in felt


I have a friend who asked me to make a microphone sign for her band Cascada De Flores


This is what I came up with.


It's a little flower heavy...but that is implied in the name I guess.



It's also a little bigger than we were planning...but I guess they could just put it on a wall somewhere if it doesn't work as a microphone sign, you know...the kind they had hanging from mic's in the '30's. Do they have an actual name? Because, it was really hard  to find an image of one once we were trying.

Man - the letters look unfinished but I've run out of time. Maybe you guys can add to it on the road! :) Or, I can when you get back.

Have a great gig Berkley guys!!!



April 26, 2011

Working with or on...


This is my daughters Toucan diorama. She made it yesterday in-between bouts of arguing with her friend, smoothie sips, jumping jacks and half naked giant bubble blowing in the back yard. "Hey, come here please - we need to do this!"  I must have said 30 times. When I finally got her to draw, her friend started chiming in with facts about the platypus or other animals she was finding in her animal encyclopedia while acting as my daughters un-solicited Toucan research assistant. "Holly - what are these saggy bits hanging off this bat?" and similar questions kept my daughter (and me) well distracted.

When we finally got smart and enlisted her friends artistic abilities things got easier - for a while. She happily painted a fly and an egg and the girls worked side by side...until the fly needed to be placed. "I painted the fly Holly, I don't want it to go there!" the friend said, tweaking it to the right and left, head cocked studying the desired composition carefully. Then my daughter would angrily protest - "Well it's my project, I get to decide". The fly in question is the one on the right of middle. Finally I told them to go eat their dinner and I would place the fly.

Not only did I place the fly, but I cut everything out too. Cardboard is hard to cut and I thought this was a legitimate interference on my part as she had drawn and painted everything first, decided on placement after. But then both my boyfriend and the father of my child said within seconds of each other (without having heard each other), that the project looked like a Holly project. I was liking it rather...but was it mine? Surly not...

How much does a parent help with these things anyhow? I will be interested to see the rest of these projects due today.


April 24, 2011

Happy Easter!


Felt Easter necklaces and hair slides for the girls...




We shopped at this AWESOME candy store in Ojai Kingston Candy owned by friends Holly and Wiley Thrasher. IT WAS SO FUN!!! I got this groovy easter pail there too.


HAPPY EASTER EVERYBODY!!!


April 21, 2011

Spaces - Pretend...


Pretend its dark out and you're all alone. You've been walking for miles without food or water....in the rain and there is a big black lump where your heart should be. You are sick with loneliness and hunger and cold. Pretend then that in that bilious moment you see a little light and a door and something moving inside, slowly.


You stumble into this place...with some people...and every corner is alive...


with something antithetical to that cold night and your heart starts to beat again.


The dark is gone and every surface is screaming to be licked or rubbed or squeezed or scraped.


Outside and in....


Warmth and beauty grow like fungus


on every surface...in every corner something is wrapped or cradled 


look...look 


the quiet and outrageous sit side by side...confident in their individuality 


there are distinctions 


There are colors


and materials


The edges of these distinctions, of the colors and materials - everything at those thresholds become highly viscous 


and the places to play sempiternal.


Tea and paint and dog and lights


rules are broken and made with great love, and humor and great attention to taste


....


I want to eat many of  the surfaces in this house.


I want to know all it's corners


I'm in love with all it's details










April 19, 2011

Instructions - The Recycled Rainforest


 The Reused Rainforesta two part workshop. Ideally allow 1.5 -  2 hours for each session. 

MATERIALS for workshop #1
1. Have the children collect recycling such as: yoghurt, cottage cheese, humous containers, TP rolls, plastic bottle tops, corks, plastic canisters or jars, soy, rice or almond milk containers, egg cartons etc.
2. Brown paper bag - one for each child
3. Scissors for each child
4. For a table of 5 children: 2 Elmer's glues, 3 glue sticks, one stapler, 1 roll of blue or brown tape
5. 1 glue gun and hot glue sticks and a glue gunner
6. Pens - just a few black markers or pencils for tracing templates if they use them 



MATERIALS for workshop #2
1. Tempera paint - (not really watery, un-pigmented stuff) - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black and white
2. Paint brushes - a fat and a skinny one for each child
3. Water - for each table to clean brushes in
4. Newspaper or other table cover
5. Paper towels or rags for wiping little hands and brushes on
6. Elmer's glue for using with glitter
7. Glitter and a tray for each glitter color
8. Recycled colorful bits, pieces of tinfoil etc. that they could attach AFTER the paint dries
9. One hot glue gun and hot glue sticks and a glue gunner
10. Pallets or paper plates - one or 2 for each table with the paint in for the kids to share




MATERIALS for adult prep of plants to be painted
1. Primer - enamel spray paint (water based) or gesso (spray) or regular gesso or water based primer 

DIRECTIONS

Workshop #1
1. Introduction - ask them about the 3 (or 4) R's (Refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle) and then what they know about rainforest plants, shapes etc. Let them know that their own recycling bin at home is an EXCELLENT source of free art supplies.
          a. Show them how to cut certain shapes and use templates which you may or may not choose to use. Let them know that leaves and petals can be all different shapes, as can plant structures.



   
          b. Ask them to clean up as they go and put recyclable scraps in the bottom of the bag you will have left over.
          c. Encourage them to be imaginative while also using some of the things they know about rainforest plants. These plants will be their own hybrids, and or small ecosystems...let them get really wacky if they want, encourage innovation. Let everyone find their own way.

2. Show them how to "skin" a bag. That is BEFORE they go cutting out shapes, have them cut it open and turn it into one big sheet of brown paper (otherwise many of them will be cutting through 2 or 3 layers of the bag simultaneously and getting frustrated.


  


3. Tell them how to adhere things (in order of preference) staple, tape, glue, hot glue (only the adult gets to hot glue).

4. Tell them that between workshops you will be "priming" IE painting completely white, their plants so any color added now will be painted over white. We will think about color next week. (We prime because of the differences in materials - tempera doesn't stick well to plastic and looks dark painted over brown paper. It is possible to go without "priming" but the white paint undercoat really helps the painting process)




5. Have one adult manning the glue gun and children take turns as needed getting bit's hot glued that won't stick otherwise.

IN-BETWEEN
Adults need to "prime" the plants (that is - cover them with a white surface sealant/ paint) in order for the tempera paint to adhere to all the weird and different surfaces. You can use spray primer or hand paint them. The spray method is allot faster. 
(Remember - you can use water based paint over water based paint, and oil based paint over water based but NOT water based paint over oil based paint.)
You can try not priming too...it will probably just be a little harder for the children.


Workshop #2
1. Cover desks with something like newspaper
2. Place 1 or 2 pallets or plates with all the colors at each desk
3. Put 2 paintbrushes - one fat and one skinny - at each seat
4. 1 sturdy water glass for cleaning brushes and a few paper towels at each table
5. Introduction: We will be painting the plants. Again, be creative and think about designs and patterns (i.e. polka-dots, stripes etc) that might adorn the plants.
     a. Ask them if they know how to keep paint pure (cleaning brushes between each color and mixing colors if necessary on a separate dish)
     a. In the last 1/2 hour of class they can add glitter, but their plants have to be pretty dry first so that the glitter doesn't stick to everything. Have an adult or two manning the glitter table.












April 17, 2011

This is...


This is my body. This is my time. It lives in my body like your's lives in yours.