bird of a different color

I bought two awesome pieces by this dude at the Cotton District Arts Festival this past weekend.

They are dishwasher safe and absolutely fabulous.

<3 <3 <3

incidental bird

Ah, the noble chicken. The Easter bird. Always depicted as a gallant creature.


Zach got a wind-up chicken for Easter (from me, of course). We were all so delighted by our new friend that we videoed it several times. This has now ended up on youtube. Where all such things should end up. 


Happy Holidays.

twenty-fifth bird

Make something portable (or that seems portable) that normally isn't.


I did a lot of pondering with this one. Not really liking anything that came to mind, I settled.


I call it "Bottled Water."

twenty-fourth bird

Work with nature. Go to your yard or a nearby park and collect materials to work with.

I went out to my back patio, armed with my trusty spray paint. I grabbed some leaves and, Voilà!

Art, or something like it.

twenty-third bird

Transform an old book into something new by cutting, folding, gluing, and so on.


I found an old Reader's Digest book with the most amazing cover, so I made a journal.

Since it had epic seahorses on it, I had to do a Jacques Cousteau quote. Here is the man himself, awesomeness personified in a red hat: 

twenty-second bird

It's not easy being green. Work only with green-colored materials today. Try working on a green surface for a real challenge.

I'm guessing the author chose green for the song. Here is the song for you:

Here is proof that I used all greenish materials, other that white glue. Which really doesn't count (although, my completist self considered dyeing the glue green. I resisted the temptation.)



Here is the finished product. It sort of looks like a bad Saint Patrick's Day picture.

twenty-first bird

Waste not. Dig in a recycling bin for all of today's materials.


Well, I couldn't think of a recycling bin that I trust that was easily accessible, so I decided that "recycling bin" could equal "Library Freebie Table." It's sort of safer.


I found four educational art prints:

Mona Lisa by Leonardo DaVinci

The Plains of Heaven by John Martin

The Grand Canal near the Rialto Bridge, Venice by Canaletto

The Water-Lily Pond by Claude Monet






















These four paintings have been altered and, therefore, reduced in value, aesthetic, and grandeur. But, I get a kick out of them.


I give you:

Ramona

They're Here to Take Us Away!

Casting a Large Shadow

It's the Code for Love.






Unfortunately, the pictures are all too large for my scanner, so I had to find a place in the cave (aka, my apartment) that had enough lighting. Brightest place: the washing machine closet. And I still think it could have been brighter. Most likely, it would have been best to wait for daylight. But, I was feeling impatient.

twentieth bird

Clay. Yes. I have finished. For now.


Make some clay and then use it like you never have before.
--By the by, that's really a ridiculous sentence.


Well, not being much of a sculptress, really anything I do with this clay is going to be "using it like I never have before." So, win?


"Baker's Clay" Recipe
--You can't really make clay. It sort of comes pre-made when you find it in the ground (or at Walmart). This is more of a homemade play dough.
--This recipe is found in 365: A Daily Creative Journal: Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life! by Noah Scalin
Supplies
4 c. flour
1 c. salt
1 1/2 c. water
Measuring cups
Mixing bowls
Cookie sheet
Oven
Paint or other decorating materials
Food coloring, optional


Directions
1. Put flour in a large bowl.
2. Mix in salt.



















3. Slowly add water (add more if the dough is too dry and crumbly).
4. Knead with your hands until smooth.

5. Create things that are under 1 1/2 inches (3.8 cm) thick or they won't dry properly.
6. Bake on a cookie sheet at 300°F (150°C) for 30-60 minutes to harden (just don't let it get brown).


I used whole wheat flour because that was all I had (low-carb diet means I'm not really restocking my flour reserves at the moment). I think this made the dough a little drier and a little harder to handle. It never really got smooth.


Also, it was rather frustrating that I couldn't make anything thicker than 1.5 inches. At which point, it was more like making cookies than sculpting. One batch makes a ridiculous amount of dough if you're making everything flat, so be advised.


I made an octopus,

some weird little pendant-y things,

and a bunch of buttons.

And I STILL didn't use all of the dough up. But, I threw the rest away. There's only so much extra clutter I need.


When they baked, they smelled like crackers. MMMMMMM...

Prepping to paint! 

I painted everything with regular matte spray paint. Then, I used acrylic paint on the octopus where I needed a bit more precision. I also used a black sharpie on some of the other pieces to make them slightly more interesting. 

After painting them, I varnished everything, which took about 2 hours to dry completely. I had two boxes that needed varnishing as well, so I knocked them out while I was at it.








In the meantime, I felt like I needed to come up with somewhere for my octopus to live.

I layered paint and scratched through it with a stick to make the effect. Just in case you wanted to know. Probably not.

I glued Mr. Octopus to the board,

and gave him some friends!

 

I'm not sure what exactly I'll do with these. Hang on to them for something. Until then, I can keep them in this fine and dandy little box.

nineteenth bird

Still no clay, but I'm looking at it and thinking about it--which actually does mean something.


Create a bridge. Connect two things in a creative way. It could be small enough for an amoeba or big enough for an elephant to cross it.


Well, rather than make a bridge, I decided to think about connections. After a lot of hemming and hawing, I remembered that music connects people. Rather than torture anyone with music that I made myself, I thought I would "draw" two different people connected by music.


I'm playing with mediums and styles. Crayon + detail = not so good. It looked (slightly) better before I colored it, but I didn't think to document it half way through. In any case, here you go.
 
I'll let you fill in which music you think they're listening to. Also, drawing seated people is hard.

eighteenth bird

Ok. The real eighteenth bird is Make some clay and then make something with it that you've never made before, which is a) sort of ridiculous and b) taking me a really long time to complete.
So, while I'm working on that I thought I would keep moving forward. Which, I admit, has the potential to completely slow down my progress. But, whatever.


Write a 10-word love story and illustrate it.


I thought about doing something awesome about God, but illustrating God is sort of tricky. As in, yeah, maybe don't do that unless you have a really good idea. And the really good idea is already taken (and is on the bulletin board at church).
So, I went with my second-favorite love story, which is mine.


Here is the back story: once upon a time I was sitting in Honors Forum drinking my Sprite and waiting for class to start. A classmate walked up with this really tall dude to say hello. He knocked over my soda, ran away to get paper towels, cleaned up the mess, and then ran away to sit on the other side of the room without looking at me. A few weeks later he asked me out to lunch when he crashed my Comp. I class. He didn't remember that I was the lady of the infamous soda, but I remembered that he was the tall dude of small shame.


The picture/story: