My obsession with wire hangers continues.....

.....I had made these to show off jewelry at a craft show: 8 wire hangers twisted into a tree. It's almost 2 feet tall! Now they sit as centerpieces on various tables in my house. Excellent for displaying ornaments for the holidays. Or pictures...or notes....or anything, really. 

These are not hard to make, just awkward, and a little hard on the hands. I ended up with more than a few blisters! 

A quick and easy way to use up the multitude of wire hangers lurking in my studio. 

And a shameless plug: there are several smaller versions for sale on my online Etsy store,

www.watercoloredwindows.etsy.com! 

I love trees. I may have mentioned that a few times already.

The Life Cycle of a Dragon

My friend's son loves dragons. He and I have that in common. I love dragons, too. When he asked me to make him something for his room, he wanted dragons. My friend gave me free reign over the project. Sometimes, that's not always a good idea; I can come up with some outrageous stuff.

This is a 2'x2' mixed media piece, on plywood. It's damn heavy. I used all kinds of materials: raw wool, brass sheet metal, stones, wire hangers, an oval canvas, fabric. It was a blast to make, and his reaction when he saw it was priceless. 

I really don't know what to do with all this crap sometimes!

I really have a lot of random junk in the studio. People are aware of having an artist in their midst, and like to drop stuff off on my porch, or hand me odds and ends, assuming I will come up with a use for it. Most of the time, I can.

But not always. 

To make things worse, I have a tough time throwing anything out. I'm not a hoarder (I think), it's the guilt. I hate the idea of chucking stuff into a landfill, destroying the environment, killing off the bees, we'll end up with no strawberries, the world will starve,  Monsanto will create genetically engineered bees to pollinate plants, but they mutated into a superflu, kicking off a zombie apocalypse, all because I threw away some old paintbrushes. 

........

What? It could happen.

Below is my effort to prevent the annihilation of the human race:  the shamrock storage box.

A small, clear, 12 compartment storage box with a decorated lid. Tissue paper and glue, my friends. 

This tiny project barely made a dent in the amount of materials in my studio. Not to mention that I can't find this box anywhere. Thank goodness I had pictures of it stored on my hard drive.

I'm pretty sure the box is under a stack of canvas, to the left of the exercise ball, behind the paper making kit. 

Maybe. 

Allow Me to Introduce....the Wire Hanger

I have developed an unnatural attachment to wire hangers. I use them for many purposes they were not intended for (admit it, you've hollered "no wire hangers!" a time or two). My fav way to use them is to bend them mercilessly into trees. 

This piece is made of chair legs and wire hanger trees. 

The chair legs are glued together with Elmer's school glue (a surprisingly excellent bonding agent, who knew?) and hand planed. A friend once asked me if it would be easier to use an electric planer, but that would take something out of the process, don't you think? And, besides, I don't know how to use big power tools, it's safer that way (long story). Trees were drawn onto the wood, then filled in with black ink. The background is brown ink. The wire trees are stapled (I also have a love affair with the stapler) onto the wood, and a wire hanger is used for the hanging mechanism, held in with drywall screws. 

This piece hangs in my dining room. It's heavy, it's three dimensional, and it's really cool. Also, it could put your eye out. Good to know for the holidays! 

For the Love of Trees

I am fascinated by trees. A tree takes carbon dioxide, and creates oxygen. A tree also houses countless flora, fauna, and insect life. Paper, fabric and a variety of dwellings are made from their branches. Some are edible! when the tree falls or dies, it continues to be useful through decomposition. Such an amazing testament of a life cycle. My favorite part of a tree is their shape. And I am fascinated by their shape in winter, against a white, sunless sky.

To honor my friends, the trees, I used wood that was from a previous project, and fabric that was not much more than rags. I found jeans to be a really great canvas material; so are old dish towels and tablecloths. Fabric was stretched and stapled over the simple square frames, then primed with white latex semi gloss paint. 

I traced the branches using a projector onto the canvas, then filled them in with black oil paint. This turned out to be one of my favorite projects to date. The paintings really pop against a red wall.

I enjoyed the task of canvas making so much, I gathered the rest of the miscellaneous wood and fabric and made about 35 "new" canvases. How's that for environmentally friendly art?

"Mooooommmmmm!!! I'm Bored!!"

Nothing strikes fear in the hearts of mothers than hearing her children shout "I'm bored!" twenty minutes after school lets out. This year it took a full 90 minutes before I heard the dreaded statement, sung in my daughter's dulcet tones. But I was ready for her. Bring on the "I'm Bored" bucket. 

I am far from the first mom to think of this; a quick search on Pinterest will reveal dozens, if not hundreds, of versions of this concept. Mothers everywhere, rejoice. It's filled with such wonderful activities like "call a friend" or  "create a collage." There's also "organize your toys" or "clean the toilet." Come, child, put your hand in the bucket, and choose. It fills me with glee. 

My daughter stuck her hand in and came out with "practice guitar in your underwear." Needless to say, she found something else to do (after chastising me for putting that in there in the first place. I still think it's funny). Summer might work out after all!

Creating the bucket was simple. It's an old paint can, cleaned up and de-labled. Scrap paper covers the inside and outside of the can in blocky designs. Repurposed paint can = happy mommy.

Emma's Guitar

The members of the Pocono Arts Council (Stroudsburg, PA) participate in an annual exhibition. I usually enter the watercolor category, but so does everyone else. It seemed a good strategy to enter a piece in a lesser used category. Mixed media it is. I won second place in my category, YAY for me!

My daughter plays an acoustic guitar, and this has heavily influenced my work recently. Building these pieces is like composing music; the materials are the notes, the canvas is the staff paper. I have a new love affair with mixed media because of this.

Mixed media is a work of art combining two or more mediums. I think I covered that here! I used as many as I could add in. Wood, fabric, crushed glass, beads, brass sheet metal, embroidery thread, and the all important wire hanger. Where would I be without wire hangers? Third place, probably.

Back to Blogging: So Much for the 1 Year Challenge

the studio, 2012

4/2012: the challenge: to only use the materials found in my little back bedroom studio to create art for 1 year. The rules: (1) don't buy any new materials; (2) blog the heck out of it.

6/2013: the result? one deleted blog, a roomful of frustrating odds and ends, and several small purchases from the craft store.

Was this attempt a failure? Yes and no. I created plenty of interesting art (some of which is for sale on www.watercoloredwindows.etsy.com). I also created plenty of crap (most of which is dismantled or can be found in the trash). I have decided to try this challenge again, but with a slight change to the rules. (1) Limit the amount of new materials purchased. I found out very quickly that hot glue and staples are very necessary when attaching stuff to other stuff. (2) Blog the heck out of it. I simply didn't blog. What's the point of having a blog, if one does not blog?

the studio, 2013

I'm also eliminating the time frame. That's where the pressure came in, the calendar pages kept turning, and it felt as though I was getting nowhere fast. In reality, I was able to come up with some interesting ways to upcycle or repurpose (you know, the hip new way of saying "reuse") all kinds of stuff. Old jeans and dishtowels make interesting canvases, and wire hangers are more than just a cliche. 

The journey begins.......again.....