WIP Sweetgum and Susan

So, I did not intend to recreate the Giving Tree but when I showed the beginnings of my newest painting to some 11 year old, who shall remain nameless, he said "looks like the Giving Tree. If the kid was a girl". Damn!  But kid!  It's in my head and I can only get it out if I make it. 
Really, I was reminded of the Giving Tree myself.  Maybe that's where the inspiration came from, well partly.  I love that book and anything Shel Silverstein did is wonderful to me.
But I am fascinated by trees and I have been wanting to sculpt one into a painting. 
My neighbor has a sweet gum tree that has this wonderful bend in the trunk, like it is leaning over to talk to someone on the ground, so here is where my story begins.....

Sweetgum and Susan  are greeting each other.  they are old friends.  Well Sweetgum is old, Susan's 9.  The well meaning guardian of the woods is counciling Susan, warning her about children going off into the woods on their own. 
He insists on calling her child even though she has told him her name several times. Susan used to be exasperated by this but now she thinks of it as Sweetgum's nickname just for her.  He doesn't call any other kids Child. He doesn't call them anything.  In fact, no one besides Susan even knows about Sweetgum. When anyone else walks this path they don't see, or can't see.  But Susan is different.
And that is why when her old friend tells her "Child, you should not enter these woods on your own" she just smiles at him, gives one of his low hanging branches an affectionate squeeze and continues on, unaunafraid.

WIP

I' ve been making a lot of flowers lately and have been itching to do something with these 3 small canvases I have on my work table for awhile.  So I broke out the paper clay.
After gessoing the canvases-they were a very boring triptic of polka dots and circles- I applied the paper clay.  I love the way Creative paper clay feels and how easily it can be feathered into the canvas.  I've got all 3 done with a floral design, 2 of the 3 are dry and ready to paint and now the second scary part. (The first was the blank canvases staring at me as if I was looking at a wall that dared me to pass, not a blank page that could be filled with whatever I wanted.)  Now I have a white page staring at me.  I have an idea of what to do but where to begin and what if the vague idea in my head looks like mud on the canvas?!  Crap!  I will just dive in and hope for the best.  So what if it looks craptacular.  So what if I really suck.  That's why I got that huge tub of gesso,right?  I could just white it out and start all over again. Besides this is Hardly the Sistine Chapel and I am very far from DaVinci and if I don't just dive in I won't get to that magic moment when I look at the canvas and can't help but smile, that what was in my head has come out, maybe not entirely as I planned, maybe different, maybe better.  Besides,  discovering the picture is what makes this so much fun....here goes......

A Resolution!

I know, not exactly an original title for a post this time of year.  But I really mean it.  No, really!  I even looked up the word to make sure I know what I am getting myself into. 

From dictionary.com-  "firmness of purpose, the mental state or quality of being resolved"

This was the 4th definition and it was my favorite.  I like that idea- firmness of purpose.  It sounds so confident.  I figured posting about my resolution here would help me to firm up my firmness of purpose.  Once something is written down, especially out here, it seems more real.  If I say what I am going to do it's one thing.  If I put in writing I have to back it up.  Firmness of purpose, out in the open, for all to see.  And by "all" of course I mean me and the poor,bored soul who has made it this far into my post.  So maybe it is more like a diary entry that anyone could potentially happen across by accident.
I just realized after all this blabbering I haven't even mentioned my resolution.  Oh well,  this may be a letdown but I am really excited about it. 

I am going to make something new every week and chronicle my progress, discoveries,  ideas and mishaps (which I am told are wonderful learning experiences, though many do not feel so wonderful while they are mishappening) Not an original idea but one I am excited about. 
So, here goes....wish me luck (she says to herself and that poor soul mentioned earlier). Good luck-says herself

Flowers from another Planet

I have been making flowers lately.  Not your ordinary, run of the mill, grown here on Earth kind of flowers.  These guys are different.  They definitely give you the idea of flowers, the colors, the shape, but they are not anything Mother nature has come up with- Enjoy

Calla Lillies- polymer clay on wood frame

Calla Lillies- completed

I love the way these two look together.  The picture at the top shows them in the hanging vase I made out of a cigar holder covered in paperclay and painted.

This is a closeup of the base of my extraterrestrial pionies-I was playing around with a polymer clay technique I saw somewhere with paint.  I applied a very thin sheet of green clay on top of the brown clay.  Using a heat gun I semi cured the green clay ( as soon as I could see that the shine was fading on the surface of the green clay I stopped the heat) then ran the layered sheet through my pasta machine and the green cracked as the brown clay stretched.  I love the effect and am definitely going to try it again on something.  So many possibilities.....

Here are the finished extraterrestrial pionies.  Like the ones grown on this planet these are very top heavy.  I had planned to make a vase for them to display them but I am afraid they will not hold up.  I have them laying on a pile of books on a shelf and I think they look great like that, so that was really my plan all along I just didn't know it

 a Better look at the bud and stems here....these lovlies had at least 7 visits to the oven, adding another element each time, before they were finally done.  I am happy with the result. 

We moved from Brooklyn several years ago,  10 years ago this August to be exact.
I like having a little more breathing room in NJ, but there are a lot of things about Brooklyn I miss.  Since there were shops that sold pretty much anything you needed from fresh produce to underwear within blocks of our apartment, you didn't need to get in your car to go anywhere.
Sometimes I only got in the car to move it from one parking spot to another!  Alternate side of the street parking rules...."Is this a Monday spot?  What time is it?!"
Also, it was a great place for someone like me, who loves picking up other peoples trash and turning it into treasure. My husband would tease me, by humming the Sanford and Son theme song, when I came in with a new find....He's a real comedian.
Of course when I say trash I mean things like pieces of wood, old furniture and anything I think has potential.  Searching the streets on the night before trash pickup you can find lots of great stuff. 
One of my favorite finds is an old heavy wood door. I knew I would find something interesting to do with it but had no idea what that was at the time.  I just knew I had to take it.  The guy getting rid of it was more than happy to help me get it in the car.  He probably figured the sanitation department wasn't going to pick it up anyway and I just saved him from figuring out how to get rid of what he thought was trash....some people miss the beauty right in front of them, oh well.  His loss.
I got it home and my reluctant husband carried it up the stairs for me (he is a good sport). It sat behind our sofa in our apartment for a few months before we moved to NJ.  I swore I would find a home for it once we were in our new house.  Of course in my head the house was a lot bigger than it really is and I had all these grand plans....
Anyway, the door spent the next 9 years and 4 months behind the sofa here in NJ. 


A few weeks ago while driving to work I saw a pretty interesting  headboard on the side of the road.  I drove passed it a few more morning, debating whether I should bring yet another stray home or if I really could do something interesting with it.  Then I remembered the door and thought  I could make something using both.  The next morning I took my usual route to work so I could pick up the headboard. I was worried that someone else may have seen it and taken it.  After all doesn't everyone drive with one eye on the road and the other on the curbline, searching for treasures amongst trash?  But it was there and now I had what I needed to finally do something with this old door-  The first thing my husband said when I told him of my plans was "where is that going to go?"  hahaha....he was relieved to hear it was going outside the house.

Here are the pictures of the process and how I , with my vast carpentry knowledge and  skill with a hacksaw, made a pretty decent treasure out of someone else's trash.  It may be something only a mother could love, and I do.

 Taped up the windows so I could spray paint, yes I am lazy

 here's the headboard before I took it apart

 All the pieces.  The rails will be the table legs and the board is the tabletop/shelf

 primed and ready for paint- since I am also cheap, I used paint I already had.  Yellow, red and green.  Very bright but I like color

 I have been waiting to use this too,  I think this was a store purchase though

And here it is!  Added brackets under the tabletop/shelf for additional support ( I am not really a master carpenter), painted red...oooohhhh
As soon as I get a better pic (not from my Cheapy-DeMatello phone) I will post it.
I love it.  Thanks for listening

The finished painting!
Lots of color, Lots going on.  It's a bit Chaotic and it was alot of fun to make.

"The Universe at Play inside Your DNA.

You're a Billion Years Old Today"

I have had these words in my head for awhile now.   

They are lyrics from George Harrison's (my favorite Beatle)song
"Rising Sun"

It's is such a wonderful idea to contemplate.  We are all part of everything and everything is connected to us.

The following are WIP pictures of my meager attempt to represent George's words, or at least what they mean to me and what I feel listening to his hopeful, uplifting song.

 Paper Clay sun, sea , bubbles and star on wood

 Acrylic paint.  Started to look like the image in my head (Of course what is in there never comes out the same, but that's OK, I just have to get it out)

Close up on the star