The Heart Progresses.....

Yep, it's wild. I hope the sponsor will be pleased and not horrified. The original design I submitted showed only one side of the heart and I have incorporated some of those original motifs into the product. However, I've wandered a bit and added other motifs that they did not see, so hopefully, it will not be something they do not like. That element of suspense adds an unwanted bit of anxiety to this whole project. If not for that, I would be having a ball. Most of the time, you just make art and hope someone will like it and buy it. This is already paid for, so I just hope the sponsor realizes that artists have a hard time working within too many constraints. So much of the time, I see things in my head and then re-create them. I do pre-plan designs, but most of the time my finished work resembles the original intent to varying degrees.

I am trying to finish this up within the next week so I can get it clear coated. I think the clear coating will bring out the color more and give it a much more completed look. That's the goal before the heart is scheduled to be "unveiled" in the first part of July.

The Big Heart - The Beginnings

I am painting a big heart in my dining room. It's a fiberglass heart about 5 foot high, 4 foot across and about 2 foot deep. Here's what it looks like right now.

I have until the first of July to get it completed and between now and then I will be gone for 1-1/2 weeks for vacation. So, I will be working diligently to get it done.

My heart design was one of six chosen this year for the Engaging Loveland hearts around town project. Last year was the first year and I submitted this design at that time, but wasn't chosen. A sponsor decided they liked it this year, so here we are. This is going to take more time than I figured. I will be covering the heart with all sorts of colorful abstract motifs. There will be lots of texturing. I've decided that I will look at every painting I've done so far in this style and use something from each one. That will help me complete it more quickly as I won't have to come up with something completely original. Nevertheless, it will be original to almost everyoyne else.

I'll keep you posted on the progress. My diningroom is messy and I wish I had a better place to do this, but we have to keep the cars in the garage at night, so no room options there. The heart won't fit through most standard doorways, so I can't really put it anywhere else, like my studio/office. So, for the duration, we will have a bit of messiness in the middle of our home.

Once completed and clear coated since it will be outdoors, there will be an "unveiling" champagne event where, as I understand it, the artist will speak about their design. I had to do this once already at the "unveiling" of the designs and it wasn't easy, so I don't look forward to doing it again. Ah well.............I'll just have a couple of drafts of champagne beforehand and who knows what creative musings I might emit.

Cabinet Fun

It is finished and hanging in my bathroom. What fun! There are monkeys hanging by their tails from the towel bar and of course my circus/carnival decoupage. Now to fill it with things like all of my vitamins that are now sitting in an open bowl on the sink counter. Must be removed to prevent little grandson hands from ever getting into them. I'm on the hunt for a unique glass container for the pills. One that is open topped so vitamins are easy to access.

In addition to practical contents, there are and will be frivolous contents (my favorites). I already have a little Kewpie doll, other primates, a blue glass bunny from the flea market and a small elephant onto which I painted a little read mask around his eyes. My favorite perfume also now resides therein.

In review: This cabinet was purchased for $20 at a flea market. It was brown and had a glass mirror in the front. I repainted, decoupaged it and ordered a piece of glass for the door. I made my own door knob using a wooden ball from the hobby store that had a hole already drilled in the bottom. My hubby helped me find the right size screw to fit the door. I painted it red and added googly eyes.

Books, Books, Books and Books

I love to read. I have always loved to read.

I remember some of my favorite Golden Books from before I could read them myself. There was "The Very Best Home for Me" about the woodland animals that lived together in cozy disharmony, mostly over food and who went in search of homes where they could have food that better suited their particular appetites. Another was about the Campbell Soup Kids and the main thing I remember about that book was a recipe that consisted of a leaf of lettuce on a salad plate, topped with a pineapple ring into which half a banana was placed (pointed end up), a dab a mayonnaise on the banana tip and a maraschino cherry on top. I remember making and eating that salad. Now that I think about it, it was a weird salad, to say the least.

I went to the library as soon as I was old enough to go and got piles of books to read. I don't remember what they were, but there were piles of them. I still do that. Once a week, I take my library bag to our local library and fill it with books. I don't read all of them, but I figure if I get enough of them, I'll find one or two that I'll enjoy. Sometimes, I don't particularly enjoy any of them, so I have to go back and give it another try.

I favor mysteries, particularly short mystery stories. I think I've read all of the Mystery Writers of America best picks for every year since the beginning of time. Other times, I love true adventure stories about mountain climbers, shipwrecks, being stranded somewhere and other exciting stuff. I think I've listed some in my Favorite Books list here on the blog.

I'm reading a book right now called "A Girl Named Zippy" by Haven Kimmel. I just picked it off of the shelf and it's good - sort of. I've been pretty absorbed in it for two days and I have to say that it is kind of starting to wear on me. It was the author's first book and so it is somewhat too clever and I would say, a little unpolished. However, it has kept my attention for long periods of time, so it must be pretty OK. It started out as a small town memoir and then somewhere along the line I feel the author began a subtle and sometimes not so subtle campaign to really put down her religious upbringing. Once that started, it sort of lost it's charm for me. I just wanted to laugh and be entertained, not assaulted by her need to purge. I don't imagine I'll read another of her novels.

Occasionally, I like a good western. However, I really only like one writer - Elmer Kelton. He is just wonderful. His stories are simple, good hearted, well written and keep your interest. My husband is also a fan. I got him started and both of us have read most of the Elmer Kelton in the library. My favorite Elmer Kelton character is Huey Calloway - a tough old cowboy who works hard, loves his horse, requires little maintenance and doesn't want to be tied down. Elmer Kelton has written a few novels starring Huey - they are super.

There was a time when I wanted to marry Sherlock Holmes. This was a long time ago before I realized that he was a little to anal for my tastes. Plus, he strikes me as probably not capable of any type of romantic feeling, although I think there was one story where there was a woman of interest......... Whatever the case, my love interest in Sherlock Holmes has long been dead.

Think I'll go peruse my bag of books and read.

Bathroom Cabinet Transformation

I wish that I had taken a picture of this little cabinet when I first picked it up at a flea market for $20. It was dull brown and had a glass mirror in the door. You can't appreciate how much different it is without that to compare it with, but whatever the case, I neglected to get the "before" pictures. This is what it looked like after I painted it, including the back wall piece. I removed the mirror and got a piece of glass cut to the same size for the door so that after it is completed you will be able to see inside of it, including the cool painted back wall, originally brown also.

It's circus/carnival themed and I've still got a long way to go before it becomes the work of art that I intend it finally become.

I painted the top piece with a blood red velvety looking curtain in front of blue sky and white clouds. I then started looking on Google images for circus or carnival related pictures that I could use for a collage. Over the past few weeks, I've been revisiting the project on and off as I also completed another abstract painting (shown at the end of this post. I found several images that I printed out on the computer and then painstakingly cut out with little scissors. Today I arranged them on the top piece and glued them down. Here's what it looks like now including a couple of pictures showing some of the image detail.

The original aqua color of the cabinet was too bright and I wanted a more aged look, so I brushed/wiped the cabinet using a watered down mix of acrylic Yellow Oxide and Raw Umber. In addition, on the door frame, I added dots and then brushed/wiped it with the same Oxide/Umber mix, but also a bit of Cadmium Orange.

I'll keep you posted as I make progress. I've got some little people I ordered on Ebay that I may paint and put somewhere. I'll look to find a very ornate circus knob for the door and will decorate the cabinet sides. There's a little towel bar along the bottom that I am thinking about in terms of something or things hanging down - we'll have to see what evolves.

Here's the painting I completed - well, almost completed, I think I may do something more over in the left hand corner area in lime green.