Art from Left Overs??

Hope all you folks in the US had a great Thanksgiving. I'm still in Florida with the Sweet Hubby and his huge family not only celebrating the holiday but also his aunt Lu's 90th birthday.  We had Thanksgiving dinner at the community hall of her mobile home park along with 30 of the relatives and some of the other residents.  But instead of the traditional pumpkin and fruit pies, we had chocolate birthday cake!

As you can tell I wasn't the only one taking photos...

When we get home, late tomorrow, I'll begin preparations for "another turkey dinner that couldn't be beat" (lyrics from Arlo Gutherie's "Alice's Restaurant").  No matter how well something is catered, there is nothing like roasting a turkey at home and making gravy in one's own kitchen, for the aromas if nothing else! When I checked on my email this morning, I found THIS - which is making me think differently about the left overs. 

It also reminds me about one of my favorite artists,. Joseph Bueys, who sometimes worked with food-type substances.  In looking for an image to illustrate that, I stumbled upon this great blog (Art, Life, TV, Etc.)by Cheryl Bernstein.  Thanks Cheryl for making my search so easy and for your great post!

Video Art

This morning was the day to shoot Renee Rhodes' video art piece up at the Bernal Heights park.  Luckily it was only drizzling, not pouring rain.  Out of the 30 people that had said they were GO  on the project, only 20 showed up.  Ever moved as The Borg with 19 other people?  It's quite an experience and perhaps not one that I'd like to repeat in the near future. 

Perhaps it's because I'm a director and used to bossing people around.  I really had to bite my lip a couple of times when some of the group spoke up.  After all it was Renee's project and I was only there as an "actor".  Here are some shots that I took with my camera phone of the site and the people I was working with.

Renee looking over her notes before the shoot.

Renee wanted everyone to wear either yellow or orange.  Of course I don't own any clothing that is yellow or orange so thankfully she brought some bright yellow plastic raincoats.  I would include her website URL, but when I went there some dumb asses had hacked it!  I can see hacking a corporate site or something like that, but why hack the site of an artist?

Figuring out the Art Market

It's difficult at times and varies from place to place and event to event.  This past weekend, I was at the St. Mary's Art Fair in East Sacramento.  I had only sold one print last year, so this year I thought I would be a smarty pants and make some special art specific to the event.  That worked when I did the NadaDada shows these past two years! 

So I made some kanji transfers onto 4 inch square canvases that were about 2 inches thick... think blocks.  Then I painted into the transfer and over the sides.  I (under) priced them at $35 each with a $5 discount for each additional one you bought.  Did they sell?  Hell No.  What did sell were my digital floral woodcut prints and canvases.  OK, please remember I just took these photos on my dining room floor so they're not the best.  I will have to take some better photos for the Etsy site sometime later.

 

 

Please no comments on my bad photography, but what do you think of these? 

Such a Deal

Yes, I'm talking to all my local friends (sorry everyone else) about a special deal just for blog readers - get 25% off any framed art or print at the St Mary's Fine Art and Crafts Fair this Saturday, Nov 14th from 10 am to 7 pm.  The only thing you have to do is to print out this blog post.  And I'm working on being able to take credit cards!

Peace

It's the Blog Blast for Peace today.  You might wonder about the reason that I designed my peace globe with the image of a Muslim woman on it.

Peace be upon all Islamic women in this day and age of fear, anger, hostility and rage toward them.

I have a facebook friend who is not religious and is a student from the United Arab Emirates.   She shared a scene about her mother and father with us.  This scene showed how women are not treated well in the Islamic world because of how some Imams are using religion in the name of politics. 

I think that women must lead us to a world of peace, even if Barak Obama did receive the peace prize.  After all, the men haven't done such a great job.  Or should I say the men who have not recognized their female side.  We all have differing degrees of male and female sides, and it's in the balance that we will find peace.

Moving bodies through space

This Saturday, it's off to San Francisco, Bernal Heights Park to be exact for a rehearsal for a film project I'm involved in.  Not your run-of-the-mill narrative film, but some actual  video art!!!  Whoo Hooo.  Can you tell that I'm really jazzed about working with Renee Rhodes on her new film?  Got an email from her today with this LINK

Pretty exciting that we haven't even had a rehearsal and she's getting some major press on the project.  I don't think she'll have too many problems getting this into festivals etc.  She's a very interesting artist, who shares my love of movement, photography and video.  This is a LINK to her website.

I just might have to bring my little video camera with me and maybe shoot as I'm moving around at rehearsal...might create some interesting footage to be used at a later date.

And don't forget about new afforably priced art that I will be offering on Sat, 11/14 here

The Legend

How does one become a legend in one's own time?  One way is to make a movie about it, as my friend and NadaDada artist cohort SK James has done.  He promised me that my scene will be in the next installment.



But this also brings up the topic of artist promoting ourselves.  It's hard to do I know, but the more we do it, the easier it gets.  Maybe I can get sk to help me with a video one of these days...