Old Growth, New Growth

"Old Growth, New Growth"
Vintage and newer wooden kitchen utensils, arranged on an oak barrel stave.

Would be great for a home kitchen or restaurant decor.
This is a wall hung piece.

Games

Over the last year, I have been 'playing' with several different found objects to create my assemblage work. I have a rather large collection of game pieces and rulers, dice, dominoes, jacks and other small plastic toys and I wanted to incorporate them into my art. 

When people see these assemblages, with these bits of game memorabilia randomly attached onto wooden game boards, they will often comment of the fond childhood memories that the finished piece will often evoke.

Here are 4 game assemblages I have made over the past year. I'm sure if you look closely, they will 'stir up' some childhood memories of your own.  Enjoy!

 

 "Game Changer"

* * *

"Games"

 * * *

 "The Games We Play"

* * *

"Fun and Games"

A Monkey On My Back

"A Monkey On My Back"●
An electric guitar body found at the flea market without the 'electronics' has been altered to tell an alternative story.
The "neck' of the guitar was shortened, and the entire piece has been covered in vintage sheet music
and bits and bling, front and back.

Although the guitar can no longer be 'played', the 'desk bell' attached to the front can!

Intentions and Consequences

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Take a moment and leave a comment to let me know you were here.

I enjoy reading what you think.

"Intentions and Consequences"
Constructed in a vintage sewing machine drawer, this diorama is full of interesting bits and mementos meant to challenge consciousness and provoke memory.  

Regardless of our intentions, our actions, ideas, proposals, policies all have consequences, some are good and some are not.

Champ

"Champ"  ●
This is Champ, he is an show winning Irish Setter.  Actually, Champ represents several, in a long line of show winning Irish Setters.

This piece was commissioned as a birthday gift for a dear friend's step-mom, Wendy.  
Wendy shows Irish Setters in shows, competitions and obedience trials. From what I understand Wendy has had a long history of "Champions'.

Not only are Setters beautiful dogs, they are energetic, intelligent, affectionate, loving, high-spirited and full of energy. They love family time, whether indoors or out, and they get along famously with children and other pets. They have no real  guarding instincts, however.

***

"Champ" started out as small wooden dog form found at a local antique store.  
This is what he looked like when I first saw him.

After few weeks with me, he transformed into a pup full of boisterous energy and whimsey. 
It turns out that Irish Setters want to be involved in everything you do. This one apparently got into a few of the 'stashes' in my studio when I wasn't looking . . . when he came out he was all "bling-ed up and fancy".

Champ sits on a silver trivet. The trivet sits atop a smaller silver tray, which sits on a mini turntable lazy susan, so he even spins!

The birthday celebration was this past weekend, and from what I understand, "Champ" was received with open arms, and he won the heart of the birthday girl!

Thank you Tracy!

The End (Parrot)

"The End" ●

"Everything will be ok in the end. If it's not ok, its not the end."

 I remember when I first read this quote, I think it was in the 70's. The Beatles had made a recent trip to India to meet with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and I read an interview with John Lennon in one of those 'teen' magazines that were popular then. 

I forgot about it until a few years ago, my friend and blogger Paula Guhin from Mixed Media Manic posted an image of the quote on her blog. I remember liking it as much that day as I did when I first saw it in the 70's.

I have researched this quote several times, and what I have found is that it has been quoted many times, by many people in many different countries and cultures. Although I have not been able to ascertain who originally said these words, I like attributing it to John Lennon.

 Alphabet blocks spell out the quote in a deep picture frame that has been covered in artist papers. A wooden napkin ring parrot that has been fitted with wooden drawer pulls covered in green tissues, embellish the piece.

Guess What? I just created my Obtainium Art page on FACEBOOK.  Click here to go there, and while you are there, hit LIKE would ya?

The Middle Child

 "Middle Child"

The experts say that middle children often feel left out and invisible, a contrast from their older and younger siblings. While older children get the benefits of all of the “firsts” a child accomplishes, younger children benefit from the emotional impact of being the baby of the family, often being spoiled and coddled. Middle children, however, often feel as though they have nothing special that is just “theirs.”

Over the years I find that I can often correctly identify a person's 'birth-order', by certain behaviors or traits they exhibit as adults. 

Myself, I am the youngest of 7 children, and I can say that even today, I clearly identify with the younger, coddled baby of the family, and thankfully a more independent, confident adult..

Which one are you?  YOUNGER?                    MIDDLE?                                        OLDER?

  

Vintage sewing machine drawer covered  on the inside with hand made papers and tissues. Three porceline doll heads representing the older more confident child, the younger, more independent child and the  middle child who often feels left out or treated unfairly.

Quagga

   "Quagga"●
    A friend, and a very fine artist herself, Colleen Werner, recently commissioned me to create a 'memory piece' to honor her sister Irene. Irene passed away one year ago this month.
    When Colleen came by my studio she brought with her a bag full of things that belonged to Irene and a few that belonged to their mother to be used on the memory piece. The bag contained bling and bits of this that were special to Irene, Colleen and their mom.
    While Colleen was at the studio, she also selected the perfect substrate for the memory piece.
The image below is of the wooden horse she chose. In this photo, I had already altered the horse's tail, the original tail was made of rafia grass . . . it is now made of black yarn.

     Colleen liked the idea of a carousel horse, embellished with bling, then she mentioned she really loved zebras, and wondered if I could make this horse a zebra . .  . humm.

      I thought about it for a few days, and realized I am not skilled enough to 'paint' the stripes on the horse, so I started to think about other options.  

     FABRIC!      A fat-quarter of zebra print!

But YIKES!  It was too much!

To tone it down, I used McCall's pattern tissue. As you can see in the image below, the tissue softened the boldness of the fabric.

In an earlier conversation Colleen mentioned a breed of zebra that had gone extinct in the late 1800's called "Quagga". We decided this piece should be titled "Quagga".

 Below is a bit of information on this exquisite creature:

 The quagga is a recently extinct mammal, closely related to horses and zebras. It was a yellowish-brown zebra with stripes only on its head, neck and foreboday. The quagga was native to desert areas of the African continent until it was exterminated in the wild in the 1870s. The last captive quaggas died in Europe in the 1880s.
A quagga was distinguished from other zebras by having the usual vivid marks on the front part of the body only. In the mid-section, the stripes faded and the dark, inter-stripe spaces became wider, and the rear parts were a plain brown.

Below is the finished piece, she is pretty special.
Colleen picked her up last week. She loved her. LOVED her!  I am happy about that.

 

A wooden horse, covered in fabric and overlaid with sewing pattern tissue. Embellished with bling and other fun objects. The tail is made of yarn, and the base is a teflon iron shoe, a flea market find. By the way, the base is on a swivel, allowing the horse to spin.

A Glass of Wine

"A Glass of Wine" ● 
  
"I ENJOY A GLASS OF WINE EACH NIGHT FOR THE HEALTH BENEFITS IT OFFERS.

THE OTHER GLASSES ARE FOR MY WITTY CONVERSATION AND FLAWLESS DANCE MOVES."

I had a lot of fun with this one.  I came across the quote while looking for quotes having to do with 'wine' or 'wine country'.  This one made me laugh.

Before I finished it I took a few photos of it, and forgot about it.

When I found the final embellishment, I finished it and took it directly to the Sebastopol Gallery for display, forgetting to take final photos of the finished piece . . . thinking I would photograph it the next time I went to the gallery, but I kept forgetting.  When it sold a couple of weeks later, I panicked just a little bit, because I didn't have a finished photo of it. . . . fortunately the buyer was kind enough to leave his email address and I was able to contact him, asking him to please take a couple of photos for me. . . . which he was gracious enough to do . . .  Thank you Carl!

This is an image of the finished piece. . . .

For this piece I used vintage embossed anagram wooden tiles from the 1930's - 40's, apparently a word building game.  These rare tiles are charming and have great character, with just enough wear to make them interesting. Some of the tiles are yellow some are cream colored. 

The tiles are set in a constructed frame that has been covered in tissue papers the color of wine along with wine labels from Sonoma County wineries (Kendall-Jackon and Smith-Madrone). The final embellishment is a pewter wine cork.

Hope it makes you smile!

Snake Eyes

"Snake Eyes" ●
 (or Dice Snakes)  According to Wikopedia, a dice snake is "a European nonvenomous snake. The colors vary from greyish green to brown or almost black, with dark spots on the back. The belly is sometimes vividly colored in yellow or orange, with black spots, very similar to dice, hence the name."

Several months ago I came across a wonderful image of vintage dice inside a wooden frame on Pinterest.

I tried to find the source, and I got nowhere. . . but the 'image' itself and the background, reminded me of a blog I follow called La Belle Brocante. I emailed blog's author Alwen Rambo, and asked her if she recognized the piece. She replied saying that it was in fact one of her creations, originally posted on her blog St. Patrick’s Day 2012. Here is the link to her original post: http://www.bellebrocante.com/2012/03/lá-fhéile-pádraig.html

Anyway, Alwen's creation was the inspiration. Thanks Alwen!

In my version, I attached 2 identical frames to each other, and in between the glass are 165 dice. My idea was to allow the dice to 'sway freely' between the glass. A surprise for me was the way the dice moved within the frames. They remind me of snakes.

The base was built using a 1"x3" piece of wood covered in vintage book text and overlaid with sewing pattern tissue, and a vintage wooden hotel hanger advertising the "Hotel America" in "Houston, Texas" cut in half to create a snug slot to hold the frame.

The piece, by the way, is meant to be picked up and played with.  It is very fun.

Ro Sham Bo

"Ro Sham Bo . . . how to resolve any dispute like an adult"●

It all started when I found this beautiful rock on a beach near Gualala, California.

I asked my archaeologist friends Bill Roop and Kathy Flynn to help me ID the rock.  

It is a low density rock, composed of dark gray/black, volcanic material, 
the small natural holes in the rock are filled with white sandy quarttz. 
The proper name is ANDESITE, a volcanic rock with a so-called average 
composition. It is more felsic than basalt and more mafic than dacite.

Apparently, it is just a rock . . . I was hoping they would say it was a very special rock, believed to hold very mysterious powers for it's owner, but they didn't.

Andesite is a common rock. Important in other ways, but no 'mysterious powers' . . .

I like my story better, so we will go with that . . . this is a very special rock, believed to hold mysterious powers . . . (my art piece, my rules).

I knew I wanted to use the rock in an art piece. The small holes filled with sandy silica made it easy to drill into the rock.

The finished piece is small (approx 10"x4"x4") so it's going to take a few photographs to show it to you

 

Top View

Bottom View 

  The rules to play RO SHAM BO (also known as Rock Paper Scissors) are simple. But as a reference, here is a brief explanation:

Rock breaks Scissors

Scissors cut Paper

Paper covers Rock

In my interpretation, a 'vintage'cigar box (?) holds a vintage pair of SCISSORS stabbing the 'very vintage' magical ROCK.  And yes, PAPER which is a €5 bill (a Euro bill) wins!

My art piece, my rules!  Right?