4 posts tagged “artist links”

I forgot to cross post this earlier from livejournal, so I'm making up for the omission:

Mr. Imagination ( aka Gregory Warmack aka Mr. "I" to his friends) is brought you by the search term "multimedia art"- Chicago born outsider artist. Outsider artists tend to be sorta cast out by their communities but not so in the case of Mr. I, his current PA community is rallying behind him after his home burned in January of this year, and much of his art was lost in the fire along with his dog and several cats. Info on what is being done to help him can be found here.
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You can see more of his art here

For more info on Mr. I and other talented outsider artists check out DetourArt a roadmap of self-educated art discoveries found along the back roads of the world, (no it doesn't just cover artists in the USA). ON the site sites in danger of disappearing are listed in case anyone wants to donate to help save them. It's a really fun site to wander around on. They also have a blog, in case you want to follow their travels. I was intrigued by the number of outsider artists who had near death experiences before they found art and started creating.

While I am posting, I'd like input on the best portable GPS system out there, yes it needs to be portable, we all know how good I am at killing vehicles.... any opinions? My daughter Karina is offering to get me one, I guess she is tired of getting lost with me. ;)  IOW, the secret here is to act inept and she steps up to bat and helps out or throws money at the problem to fix it. Nice to know, I may start breaking dishes so she offers to load them into the dishwasher once in awhile.

Cross posted from live journal posts done yesterday:

I started this with very limited knowledge, even though I had several DIY pages to guide me. I somehow got the idea you had to leave the beads on the stick/straw/whatever while they were drying, you do not have to leave them as long as you are careful to not get glue on whatever you are winding them around. This means you do not put glue on the first 1/4" or so on the widest end, where you start rolling, Glue should be applied only on the strip after you have it around the stick/dowel once. They slide off if wound just right, not too tight, not too loose. A toothpick would work great and give a nice small hole

A good quality glue stick is your friend... tacky glue or elmers, works too but a glue stick is less messy to work with. I only used a dab on the final end to make sure it was secured well. Using a glue stick increased the speed in which I could roll beads, and made them less slippery while rolling. They dried faster too.

Folk art acrylic paints has this clear suspension with metal flakes in it called Gems...sorta glitter in clear nail polish.... you can paint it on over the bead and the colors show through, but it adds glitz in a much easier way than wrapping this little boogers with metallic embroidery floss.... trying to do that just made me want to scream.

I am playing with the dipping process now using 3 different options including Triple Thick by Krylon, a sealing glaze by Sculpty, and I forget the third. I am thinking of stringing a bunch of beads onto a string running them through the glaze, separating them on the string and then thumbtacking the strand into a window opening for drying, if the beads get stuck to the string no biggie, the center will still be soft. The idea might not work the way I think it will.... and I may have to resort to dipping one at a time and drying them on toothpicks stuck into something... that would be very sad, and very slow. We'll see how it goes...

So I dipped some beads in the Triple Thick Glaze by Krylon. I cannot post them yet it says to not handle them for 24 hours. It did okay I guess, it is drying very glossy, but it looks more like paper beads with varnish on them than it does faux glass beads. I'm not sure if Triple Thick is suppose to be water-y or not... but I was a tad disappointed. It's gonna take several dips of the beads into this glaze ( and probably me dipping into some vodka more than once or twice) to get these looking like lampwork beads I can assure ya. Personally I would not use the words triple or thick in describing this product. I was expecting milkshake THICK when I opened the jar, what I got was ummm.... sorta antacid thick, so when one is expecting milkshake creamy and they get Maalox instead... I hope you can appreciate my dismay ;) The last time I remember being this disappointed was age 8, I spent months drooling over a purple Stingray bike with a banana seat and rainbow streamers flowing off the handle bars and on Xmas what I got was roller skates. It's just NOT what you were expecting or hoping for, even if it also has wheels. I was hoping for THICK, and one dip and I'd be done... like magic, it's just not happening with this product.

Testing the other two options tomorrow.... for now here are the paper beads done with "Triple Thick"
One coat results ( the only exception to this is the green bead in the bottom row, I coated it with Tacky Glue first, (because it IS thick). I let it dry and then did a coat of TT on top of that to test how it would impact the end results. The paper ridges are a lot less obvious up close on that bead and the Tacky Glue did not get milky when I added the TT top coat.

The next picture is of a bead that has 3 coats of Triple Thick on it, ( sorry for the blur) it's getting closer but still no cigar IMHO.

I am not discouraged from continuing, I will not be beaten, I will figure out a way to make this deliver results that make me happy without resorting to investing in a melting pot and UTEE.
I am getting closer:

BTW I found more paper bead styles and options, as well as some products to use the finished products in:

Round paper beads:
http://www.astorybooklife.com/how-to/paper-beads/

Paper bead and safety pin bracelet:
http://paintedfishstudio.com/?p=76

Since Christmas I have turned out 5 art purses, they have been packed up for their new homes, but I do have pics on my camera and as soon as I figure out how to get them off there I will post them.

I am also painting a small cigar box style purse my daughter bought for me to paint along with a bunch of other stuff, she seems to feel I need to keep busy. Not sure if I am going to line the inside with fabric or just paint it, but the purse in general is coming along nicely. It will be going up for sale on my website as one of the first listings featured when the site goes back up on the new host in a week or so. Also going up it the memo board shown next to it below, an exact duplicate of the one I made for my own kitchen that everyone tries to talk me out of. The site is going to be a mix of things both painted and textile, plus some of the wearable art clothes I design and make. Neither of these cell phone pics is great, but they give you the general idea.

The memo board is done, the sunface purse is in progress, still lots of detail work and outlining to do yet on it.

In other news, I stumbled upon www.stumbleupon.com and I love this web search/ bookmarking site. It's free and I have found a ton of stuff I might have missed otherwise, the web is getting too big to search it well all by yourself  anymore. Some of my best recent finds are these:
A great tutorial on building your own EarthBox for gardening in.

A pictorial blog of links to recipes that made me gain 50 pounds just looking at it

A great "How to draw" site with tons of tutorials, lots of illustrations & it's free.

Susan Lomuto's blog Polymer Clay Notes... which happens to be about a whole lot more than Polymer clay.... in fact it is one of the best art blogs I have found in quite awhile.

Canadian Textile sculpture artist Miles Lowry who casts the human form in cotton and paints it.... his work is absolutely amazing!

Seattle bleach artist Deborah Gwinn

Paper Mosaic Fusion artist S.A. Schimmel

The absolutely amazing art of Tina Blondell

That's it for now, back to painting the purse for me....

With joy,The art piece I bought from Julia Sisi, came... and it is gorgeous! It left me breathless, truly. In case you forgot what it looked like.... here it is

  
The framing at 28"x55" is gonna be beyond spendy, I may need to get creative about it... but this is one piece of art that will be cherished by me for a very long time to come. Pics simply do not do it justice, we drew a crowd at the frame shop when I was getting an estimate on the framing.... (the framing quote left me rather speechless AND breathless....gasp)! The quote at Michael's Craft store was not much better even at 50% off....  it was over $200, anyone have any ideas?