Archive for May, 2008

It’s like jellyroll, like sculptchah!

My college professor just sent me a link to this video about artist Arthur Ganson who creates moving sculptures. It is very inspirational to see an adult who has managed to keep such a sense of wonder, add to that a bit of grown up engineering knowledge and you’ve got some amazingly beautiful pieces of artwork. I kind of felt a kinship to his way of work. It seems to me as if he has an idea in his head, wants to see how it would be to create it, doesn’t ask himself too many questions about it’s importance or significance and just creates it.

Here is a video about using resin to create jewelry, since we were just speaking about it at our art meeting/sushi dinner at Ju Rin. It seems that I was tagged by my fellow C.A.D.er Stacey, to post 7 interesting or weird things about myself. There are a bunch of rules, but as always, I like to throw caution to the wind and wing it. Here is a link to Stacy’s etsy shop.

  1. Earlier this decade I had a pet parakeet named Olive. My friend Elaina caught Olive on a Chicago street. Elaina had a pet canary and the parakeet and canary did not get along so I took Olive. Olive was not social, which is pretty unusual for parakeets, which leads me to believe she was probably a wild bird. I’ve heard lots of big cities have wild colonies of parakeets and tropical birds that have escaped or been let go and find each other and thrive. When I moved into “the dungeon” the lease had a specific rule saying “no parrots” which are not the same as parakeets, but I did inquire and they asked me to not bring it. My father found a coworker who kept parakeets and I was glad to know that she would once again have social companions of her own sort, which I hope is what she really wanted because I knew for sure she wasn’t crazy about humans.
  2. I am a music fan and pride myself on knowing all the lyrics to most songs, or as matt would point out to me - that I know ‘most’ lyrics to almost every song. I occasionally wow people with my recognition of songs in only the first few notes, although I am horrible at remembering the titles of tracks or album names for that matter. If they brought back that game show “Name That Tune” but used the original music (not an orchestral version of the song) and instead of title or artist, they just wanted me to sing the rest of the song, I could make a killing.
  3. I wear almost all my shoes without socks, and I’ve got pretty sweaty feet, so basically all my shoes stink . . . badly.
  4. Genealogists in my dad’s family have tracked back our family heritage to include Button Gwennet, Abraham Lincoln, and Charlamagne.
  5. I started my first blog in 2001. It was kept private, locked down, and eventually was deleted after neglect. My second blog was public, on textamerica, and after years of continual use, deleted without any notice after the company decided to start charging their customers and never notified me. Fortunately, I had backed it up and was already in process of creating this site and blog.
  6. I hate driving and didn’t get my driver’s license until it was absolutely necessary. It was a week before my senior year in high school and I was also starting a new job and would need to be able to drive myself from school to work. Granted, I was still only 16 years old at that time, but when most of my peers were anxious to get their driver’s license, I was more than glad to let them drive me around :)
  7. I have an addiction to tchotchkes. I can’t stop myself from buying useless little things to place all over my living spaces. You got a garden gnome? I’ll be happy to take it off your hands. Old steel coin banks, I’ve already got a couple, but I could always use more :) The worst is junk stuff, like when I discovered Kinder Surprise Eggs. I might throw out the chocolate egg, but I will hold onto that little smurf toy inside forever.

Okay, so that’s it for now. I’m supposed to tag 7 other people, but ya know…the rules thing, yeah you remember. If anyone reads this and would like to participate, be my guest. Please leave a comment and a link, I’d love to read your zany factoids.

Friday Archive

archive drawing, originally uploaded by robayre.

It’s that time again, Friday Archive!
This piece was done in kindergarten, I remember the teacher transcribed my story and then I drew the pictures. My mother jokes that already at such a young age I was broaching spicey topics in this book titled “Girls Meet Other Girls”. The book ends with “Lisa and the other girl went back to bed” and had a picture of two girls holding hands.
The book is hilarious though. Very train of thought, especially for a kindergartener, or even an adult Robyn to this day. My favorite part is when the main character comes inside and puts a twig next to the door. That’s it. She puts the twig there and later on in the book you are wondering what was the significance of that twig by the door, but you’ll never know.

mitten progress

7.28 spun, originally uploaded by robayre.

You might recall this mitten from much earlier this year. Well, this weekend I finally got around to dyeing and spinning the fiber for it’s pair. The original plan was to have a green mitten with one pink stripe in it, but the green did not turn out as I’d hoped. In my mind it was going to be a darker green with some light highlights and blue highlights, but instead it turned out just light, bright green. I might try and dye the yarn with some darker greens and see what happens.

Just a couple more things to share: Here is a tiny little rhubarb plant growing at my parents house. It was planted with just one tiny leaf now it has three leaves, perfect for making one miniature rhubarb pie, lol.

lily of the valley

I picked this huge bouquet at my parents’ house. I love lily of the valley, the smell so wonderful, plus their little bells fit perfectly in with my obsession with all things miniature.

I mowed at my parents’ house this weekend and yep, it finally happened. I mowed right over a little toad, fortunately that little sucker stayed close to the ground and didn’t get hurt. That was a relief, until after I passed it and it started to head back under the mower as I tried to scoop it up and move it. Please little creatures, stay clear of the twirling blades of death, it is not the safe refuge you might think it is.

 

I just finished talking with my friend Nikki, pictured above. Tonight she starts her intense chemo sessions, which she has humorously nick-named Camp Chemo, because once again chemo will be sucking away her summer break. She seemed to be in high spirits and we had some laughs while she waited in her hospital room for the fun to begin. If you are interested in reading about her, please check out her Caring Bridge page, she is a great writer, much more organized and thought out than my messy, train of thought written blog.

picture heavy post

I don’t really have much to say, so I think I will let the images speak for themselves, with minimal commentary on my part. This weekend we, my brother, sister, sister-in-law, matt and I went to Indiana to explore and play on some beaches and dunes. I had such a wonderful experience last year and wanted to get a bit of that back again. Funny enough, the day after, I saw a number of commercials on TV advertising for people to vacation in Indiana for the dunes.

Have you ever seen so many pale feet and legs? Above, a picture of each of our feet when we first reached the dunes.

dunes
Climbing the dunes

geoff
My brother created this zen garden and even though he’s never heard of Andy Goldsworthy, I think my brother could become the miniaturist’s version of AG. He was playing The Maker’s game “What would Andy do?” and he’d never heard of Andy.

geoff's creation
This lady bug chilled out in his garden for a long, long time.

sunprint from beach findings
My sister and I made sun prints from our beach findings.

sand
And Dacia and I took on the enormous task of separating out grains of sand and other cool findings.

Now if only the dunes were closer, I’d probably be there everyday after work. A year ago, I never would have thought of myself as a “beach type person”, but now, I think I could easily become a beach bum. Just not in the ‘lay down my towel and tan’ or ‘makin babies at the beach’ kind of way, like all the other beach goers we saw that day.

Friday Archive

polaroid sky, originally uploaded by robayre.

Once again, last minute. Friday’s are definitely busy, because I get off work and then have my art group meeting which usually goes pretty late.

Last week I got a new polaroid camera, and so for today’s archive piece I decided to choose an old polaroid picture I’d taken in 1998. Polaroids have long been a love of mine and have found their way into many pieces of artwork from mailart, to intaglio prints. The idea and image of polaroid often creep into my work. I was of course sad to hear that polaroid was discontinuing production of their instant film, but still hopeful that another company will pick it up. After getting my recent camera, I’ve found that fugi already carries an instant pack film that supports my new camera.

This photo was used in an illustration piece that I can’t seem to find right now, maybe I’ll be able to track it down and post it tomorrow? I had cross hatched with my fine rapidoliner pen, the entire positive space of this piece. The picture was taken out my parents back window, out into their yard.

Anyway, I’m excited to try out my new camera. The film arrived the other day and I haven’t even had a moment to try it out yet, but I’m sure you will see more of that coming soon.

No Spoilers below

home-made marshmallows, originally uploaded by robayre.

I just got back from seeing Indiana Jones. We enjoyed it , no spoilers I promise. I just wanted to comment on the “Exclaim the Obvious” lady sitting next to Matt during the show. He really would have enjoyed destroying this woman.  Afterward, he said that he actually felt he had grown as a person after having to endure sitting next to her throughout that…and still he was able to enjoy the movie. I’m so proud of him. Plus, she provided us with plenty of fodder for new inside jokes for quite some time. I’d love to share some with you, but I did promise no spoilers, sorry.
Pictured above, Erica and I did something a little different the last time we made marshmallows. We dunked them in chocolate and caramel and then dunked them again in either toasted coconut, crumbled graham crackers or sprinkles. mmmmmmarshmallows.
And, before I hit the hay, (because unlike others -matt, yes, I’m looking in your direction- some people still have to work on Friday, I wanted to share with you an interview I did on my CAD friend, Bri’s, blog. You can view it here. Thanks Bri!

Scores and Found Art/Street Art, Yo!

polaroid colorpack II land camera, originally uploaded by robayre.

This weekend I scored this polaroid colorpack II land camera from Erica’s Grandma. I have already purchased a fugi film pack to use with it. I’m so excited to use it. It’s like brand new and came in the original box and everything.


I also bought myself this hibiscus plant, my favorite flower. I just hope it is as cool as my mom’s, which blossoms all winter long.
Both the above pictures were adjusted using picnik, recommended by Rosa on her blog. You can do all sorts of effects with your images right on flickr.

 

Today I finally left my found art piece from last week. It was set on top of a lotto machine at Matt’s suggestion. I was so afraid that the guy at the register was going to get testy with us for messing around near the machine, but I think he was too busy helping customers.

Lastly, today I got some mail from my sister. She sent me a couple pages from her page a day calendar that she thought I might like. I liked ’em, thanks Chris! The top one says “Compose a poem and leave it in a public place to brighten up someone’s day” and the bottom one says “Stick a message on a fruit”. I love both of them, but the bottom one really has inspired me. It reminded me of two things:
  1. When I was trying to fill up my Wreck This Journal page with fruit stickers, I totally cheated by covering the back of my hand with the stickers off of fruit I didn’t buy at the grocery store. One time I was checking out and wasn’t paying attention and the cashier saw my hand and asked “Are those our stickers?” She didn’t seem too upset so I showed them to her proudly and she just laughed.
  2. I used to do this thing when I would go to Walmart where I would pick up fake plastic fruit from the craft department and strategically place them in the real fruit bins. They blend in amazingly. I never stuck around to watch as people picked them up and immediately were shocked at their lack of weight and delicious juiciness. Ha ha, I crack myself up.
Anyway, I think the next natural step in messing around with the produce department in grocery stores would be fake labels. I’m a graphic designer after all, how come I didn’t think of this idea sooner?

circle series green leaf



circle series green leaf, originally uploaded by robayre.

Ahh, I’m so tired. It has been a very busy past few days.
I just finished this Circle Series piece and took this picture on my camera phone. I’ll have better pictures tomorrow and will post it to my esty shop then.

Friday Archive



ivory bar and towel, originally uploaded by robayre.

Phew, just in under the wire at just minutes before Saturday.
This is my Friday Archive piece. Student illustration work from 2001. The assignment was to do a still life using two techniques to show texture. I loved the scribble technique ever since I had a life drawing class where we had to use the scribble technique to create a piece using up an entire bick pen. The linework on the soap is not so great, but the scribbling technique worked so beautifully on the towel, it more than made up for lacking in the soap.
Anyway, this piece to me is just another symbol of my college experience. Taking a class in this and then a class in that, which resulted in a Bachelor’s degree in Art, rather than a Fine Art degree in any one area. It was perfect for me because I really love to explore and want to know how to do everything. During my college career I took, photography, ceramics, art history, design, drawing, metalwork, watercolor, bookmaking, illustration, serigraphy, intaglio, lithography, relief, sculpture, 3D fiber arts, illustration, aesthetics and I’m sure I’m missing more, especially the non art classes like the anthropologies, and italian, but you get the idea.
I’m sorta jealous and always impressed with people who have a passion for just one area of art which they can focus their entire attention to and refine and master their skills. But that’s just not me. One minute I want to be spinning yarn, the next moment I MUST paint and it is a never ending cycle. I guess I do have a single passion and that is to be creating, creating, creating non stop and that is fine with me.

Drawings and Found Art, Luck

Last weekend I was downstairs looking for something in storage when I found these empty frames I had bought a couple years ago. They are small, cheap, IKEA frames, and I had bought a bunch of them, not knowing how I would use them. Well, all these years later, I see them down there and that was all it took. I think to myself - pencil drawings of posed arms, watercolored and framed with striping ribbon. A lot of my ideas come to me like this “aha! moment” but frequently I’m at a time or place where I can’t immediately drop everything and start working on my idea. Usually I will write and sketch out my idea, but often, by the time I can get to it, the magic is gone and I’ve already moved on to another “aha! moment”. Well, this weekend I was able to drop everything and work on my idea and these were the resulting pieces, the last of which will be used for Found Art Tuesday.

I could really see these pieces being something I would have done intaglio prints of, but I also like the idea of them being individual handmade illustrations. It makes them more precious.

Tomorrow I’ll post more about where I leave the found art piece. Matt thought of the idea, and I’m excited about it.