So the Shiva oil sticks arrived, and I had a shot at playing with them, using the leather/ette scraps from Judy, which I'd squared up a bit, thinking future little key tags or scissor tags, or phone purses, or book covers or something.
The oil sticks are a cool invention, self sealing, so they develop a waxy skin between uses, and never dry out. The hitch is that the skin when you first get them is pretty resistant to being rubbed or scraped off, but I did manage it. Not as neatly as the man did on YouTube, but okay.
I got metallics, gold, copper, blue and green with a purple that might or might not be saturated enough. And I tried a playtime with bits of leather, just experimenting.
The black, on the suede side, is by far the best background, no surprise there. And I wonder if acrylic is at least as good as oilstick on this surface. Might be. Tried a bit on watercolor paper, but not worth continuing. Wood might be good, though. What shows here as a kind of red is copper in rl. And the iridescence doesn't come though on pix.
I also found I'm a little bit allergic to the outgassing. Sniffing and coughing and generally a bit sensitive, so that's an issue you might want to be aware of. On the other hand, I am sensitive to simple white glue, too, so there's that.
Nice bit of fun here. When the paint is totally dry, I'll see what I might make with the decorated bits. This is more a decorative than a fine art kind of adventure, like decorating fabric.
Regular meeting of the Plainsboro Artists group, large turnout last night, and a lot of art shown.
Just a few glances here. Many more artworks in progress shown, in media ranging from modeling, to printmaking, to encaustic, to abstraction, to watercolor, to ink drawing.
For a small town, we really have a great reservoir of art talent.
Reception today for ceramic artist J. Marion Simmons, a great technician in the art of ceramics, and in explaining it to the group. She's a member of the Plainsboro Artist Group, but this was a chance to see her work in much more depth than at the meetings.
The artworks ranged from low to high relief monochrome wall pieces, freestanding large egg shapes with intriguing glazes, and brightly colored glazed works. Some are portraits from life, some refer to early art. A real tour de force of what the ceramic artist can do.
Here's the artist talking about her art and approaches
And artist Art Lee caught in the act of photographing her in front of the outer wall of the gallery
Here she's discussing this beautiful egg-shaped piece and explaining the processes on the way to this result
And here are some of her other works
This is only a sampling, my own faves, but there are many more in
this satisfying exhibit. It will be up till late November, so if you're local, do go.
This morning, I organized the artist book display in the glass case in the lobby of West Windsor Library, NJ, do visit if you're local. Anyone who wants to meet me there and get a personal artchat let me know. I offered to do one for the library staff, and we'll see if they take me up. It will be there for the month of November 2017.
Anyway, with the help of library employee Mrinanini, who opened the case, cautioned me about the sheer weight of the glass top, and closed it safely again once set up, here's the process.
At home, the crate of goods.
Smallest amount of material I ever had to take out to show. And even then one large book didn't make it into the show.
Here's the case, which I windexed, though it was clean, and lined with a piece of figured fabric to soften the base a bit. Fabric a gift of a stitcher, by the way. Thank you Ginny. Then I fiddled about for ages deciding on placement, how to make it visible, interesting, coherent. And finally decided it was Done. Otherwise I'd be there still, not quite content. Usual situation.
So here are views of the open case
And the closed case, ready for its closeup.
Do come! Most of the display is for sale, including all the handmade paper books. The portfolios are there for ideas, rather than sale, since they contain years of my paintings and drawings. Likewise the accordion books.
As always a lot of people were involved in this project. Mrinanini at the sharp end, helping me safely navigate the case, and securing it again, Girija who gave me her red onionskins, Gary donated flowers, Helen more flowers, Ginny gave me the fabric I used as a base, Liane who long ago gave me the book of mulberry paper from which I created a lot of the drawings in here. And endlessly encouraging Jody, who creates poems for me as part of her support. Art is a cooperative work in progress!
Now to kick back a bit! but I have a lot of other ideas, not book related, that now have room to happen...watch this space.
