Iron

One of the recent weekly themes in my class was "iron".  Most of my fellow students chose to create a collage incorporating the appliance "iron".  I did not.  I checked the thesaurus and among the synonyms were words like strong, hard etc.  With that in mind I decided to use metal screws and nails and decorated a box that I first painted silver.  I then thought of using an action hero and placed him in the box as my little twist on a more serious piece.  I call it "Strong Box."

The Affordable Art Fair

"Dream State"  (Sold piece)

Saturday, the day of the fair started out damp and wet but improved dramatically as the day wore on.  The show had 25 exhibitors with varied work such as photography, collage, painting, pottery etc.  I thought that the quality was very good, but unfortunately the attendance was smaller than expected I think due to the lack of advertising.  However many of my friends came to support me and I did sell one of my pieces.  I also think the troubling economic condition gave people pause before plunking down money for artwork.  However, I am really glad to have had that experience and I especially want to thank Chloe, Sophie and Jennifer for sticking it out and offering me a lot of help and advice on setting up the show.  I am now ready to enter more art shows and get my work out there.

Using the Computer to Create

One of the weekly themes of my art class was "Mirror."  Using this concept I decided to make a mirror image of my head using the photo booth app on my MacBook.  The result is very strange and depending on how one looks at it, it can resemble me or a weird Asian person.  I titled it "Me Too" as a play on words.

Using Words

I recently visited the Museum of Modern Art  www.moma.org where I saw an exhibit entitled "Exquisite Alphabets" which uses words to express ideas, concepts, beliefs etc.  Words have always been an important form of expression and using them in an artistic way is what I chose to do in this next project.   The theme of my last class was "Knife" and I immediately came across the words "Knives" and "Kill" in the newspaper.  That was the beginning of an idea.  I painted a small canvas black leaving a red line representing blood.  Then serendipity happened...I came across a stamp with the words YOU SHOULD KNOW... A new mixed-media piece was born.

A Day of Art in NYC

Today I went to a lecture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art about the iconic painting "Madame X" by John Singer Sargent painted in 1884.  It created a huge scandal at the time.  She was a woman who was very concerned with her appearance and wore a rather risque gown.  Sargent was  determined to paint her as he saw her..a rather haughty woman who was unafraid to defy convention.  Notice the ear...she rouged it!

I also created a painting of a woman who is concerned with appearances.

A Theme

I have been working on a theme for some of my assemblages using well-known fairy tales in a different way.  "Rapunzel and The Tiny Prince" is featured here.  I used a head from a broken old-fashioned bathing beauty doll attached her to a hand-painted birdhouse and found a tiny prince to place at the base.  If you notice, her hair is tied up...perhaps she is not that interested in that little prince.

I also worked on a piece I call "Sleeping Beauty Awakes".  In this one I used an old doll,  put her into a hand-painted book box, covered her with a fancy blanket, and added pearls.  The prince (actually the head of a Ken doll) is attached to the lid and lo and behold 3 babies are in bed with her!  A lot has transpired during her years of coma-like sleeping.

A Visit to the Museum of Modern Art

As a member of the MOMA, I try to go fairly often and recently I went to view several exhibits.  I have always been interested in photography and the Cindy Sherman exhibit is a must.  She is the subject of every photograph changing her persona each time.  Another fascinating photographer features an exhibit by Taryn Simon who was being interviewed while I was viewing her work.  You can check out these and other shows on the MOMA site.  Below is one of my favorite photographs by yours truly.  This photo was taken from my window one morning.