Deep Frying in the Crockpot of Life

It's more than obvious that I've been absent from posting for close to two weeks now - and to my faithful reader I send abased sorries - but I am most certain that for each and every one of us, living as best we can upon this lonely blue planet, there are times when you are just plain old tired of it all and seriously just want to go home and draw bunnies. 

Add to the mix a heavy-duty soupcon of disconcerting health issues along with a real slog in the Art choice-of-lifestyle and we pretty much are burnt out right now. Meanwhile back at the ranch, the good ol' PC has developed the most irritating glitch of refusing to type the same letter twice unless you develop a Gandhi-like time out and wait for the frickin' thing to do the deed. And the backspace button is following along in blind devotion.

It's beyond the pale. 

Even the act of creating seems fraught with dire omens. Take this past weekend where I was a vendor again after about a 5 year hiatus from the local BIG celebration of UKEE DAYS. This is a weekend long event of a mini festival taking place on the local Ball field and it's really a joyous occasion of food, music, local crafts/art and smiling happy people. I decided since I had failed the cut in the Sooke Art Show, that I'd go in and participate and maybe sell some of my prints of the Ice Cream Ladies and cards of same along with my Art dolls. ( Everyone seemed really enthusiastic about them.)

That process started with a huge bollox of the prints not getting done until Friday (set up for Festival was 8:30 am on Sat) and the fellow who usually builds the frames and stretches the prints had to leave town to attend the funeral of a family member. I had to build and stretch them myself. Ok, I DO know how to do this but I wasn't really prepared to add that onto getting the last two dolls done along with folding and stuffing all the cards , sorting the items to go and the usual slog of packing tent/screens, hangers, tie-downs, easels, boxes of art stuff, paintings, chairs, tarps, food and something to do while sitting there for two days, into the van.

Then when I arrived on site I found that the good folks had not read my entry form where I told them I had my own tent that I wished to use. I mean, it was great to not have that incredible gymnasty feat of setting up this 10 X 10 tent but mine has a hand painted roof that really looks cool and does add to the feeling of ARTIST on site. 

Then we sat for 2 days and sold 3 items; 2 cards and 1 doll. 

Now, I've done this and other festival/art market/craft fairs so am - at least I hope so - cognizant of knowing you cannot go into them with the preconceived idea of selling out...you're asking for big unhappy to do so. Still and all, I reduced the prices on those paintings and even those fleeping dolls that take 3 days to make and I probably made 5 cents an hour at the price they were.

So I'm tired. I'm just plain old tired right now of the whole damn shooting match. 

And I'm going to take some time to recharge.

And am considering an extended visit with those chocolatey chip cookie ice cream sandwich thingies. 

Of course with the way things go, something fabbo will occur and I'll be back in the saddle again sooner than you think.

Ah, Art. 

There's no life like it. 

The pics: The first one is self explanitory. The name of the artist was posted as "Snowboy" . That is not self explanitory . Unless you know something about said artist, I guess.

Pic number two is at Ukee Days with my friend Mo from Ukee Bikes poking her head into the shot making for a very fine juxtapose. The company at the fair was top notch may I add. Taken by Randy from Little Beach Cabins. Seek them out for a great place to stay here. 

Oh and PS....along with the peevingly annoying  not-typing-same-letter-twice glitch, the spell-check won't work. 

......sigh bloody sigh......

Um, Hi? It's us, your next door neighbor?

Ah, hello good people, wherever you are. 
In the world of stereotypical behavior, there is nothing to compare to the oft-times irritating one that exists between Canada and it's neighbor to the south, the US.  And that adage is: The States knows absolutely nothing about us - we who have lived peaceably ( well apart from those earlier days when we all were hot-headed conquering rampagers) beside each other for oh, almost 150 years, give or take those murky waters way-the-hey-o-back-then. I was brought up against this the other day when reading one of my favourite Blogs: Lines and Colours (I have a link)
The very esteemed author is one of my favs when it comes to illustration and this is truly one of the BEST blogs out there about Art and Artists. However, and it pains me to say this, he did fall into the above category when in his post about the 4th of July  he made a somewhat sarcastic comment about the fact the US celebrates it's Presidents and does not defer to some old lady in a strange hat. 
Ah geez anywhydon'tyoucheckyourfactsway.
OK yes and all, Canada was a British colony for a goodly # of years  BUT ! has had it's Independence for 145 years now. ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY FIVE.
For crying out loud. Get past thinking we're still a British colony already Uni-States. 
Now in the author's defense, I may be jumping to conclusions about thinking he was referring to Canada with that remark but since we celebrate our 'Independence' on July 1st, so close to July 4th - it does seem an inference is applicable.
But then we all know US people are rude and carry guns, right? 


The pic is a New Yorker cartoon and there is nothing that compares to the awesomeness of New Yorker cartoons.


Also may I add that I have a gazillion relatives in the States and they are the finest folks I know. Please accept that I write with a tongue firmly in place.

BUT.....is it ART?

This is "BIRDIE". 

The 'Art Doll' I made while bemoaning/whinging to myself about Sooke and etc etc bla bla yadda. 

(I think those branches-as-hair is just a touch of creative genius)

Yes, well.....we may be down but we're not out. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Gallery Guy from the town where I've had my month long show at calls to ask for more dolls please as all the ones I put in the show and made to bring in as the show was on, have SOLD.

ALL of them, folks. 

And therein lies the dilemma of today's post.

Anyone who has a smidgeon of cognizant awareness can put this together and realize that the ART DOLLS  are what people are buying and so, ergo: make more. 

(this is what you'd call :the pregnant pause)

BUT IS IT ART?

Oh, sigh bloody sigh.

In every Artist's life there comes a time when you are smack dab up against the evil of creating something 'kitschy' as a what-the-hell-why-not moment that becomes 'vogue-ish'. Large eyed kids and velvet Elvises aside, you know what I mean.  

I originally made the art dolls as a break/recharge from my regularly scheduled  serious painting sessions. They were fun. They were cool to invent. They used up a lot of fabric/beads/junk I had lying around.

And people liked them.

 Consequently, they have grown into their own thing and garnered a whole section of studio space, but moving on with the sad tale oh wah.

Anystillplayingwithdolliesway, the Gallery Guy in the next town, wants to do a whole show based around Art Dolls exclusively. He's thinking @ 70. Or so. 

And I am really (really) happy to have had this success but somewhere in the way away place of my head/soul/whatever, is the little voice sneering about the whole "not really Art, is it" thing. 

I have a good friend that lives very far away - NY to be exact - whom I met cyberly. Actually he was the ONLY  guy that was decent from my rather 'here be monsters' excursion into the hell of cyber dating services. I don't know what it is about me - maybe it's the 'artist' label - but for me the whole dating site thing was a colossal failure. While everyone else got the-mate-of-their-dreams, I got the guy who sent pics of his goodies with a sock over it and the other jewel who talked 2 hours non stop about himself and another prince that wanted to stay with me right away, forget coffee. (can we say "desperation" ) And so forth. 

The problem with J. is that he is beyond phobic to the nth degree about flying; he says a boatload of Valium won't help;  and I'm poor - so we have never ever met in the physical plane of existence. Perhaps this is why the relationship works. Who knows.  

The thing is J grew up in a life of the silver-spoon-in-mouth kind...never mind silver, it was Titanium. I am often just gobsmacked by his tales. And meeting the rich and famous? De rigeur for that boy. 

Ok all that aside, J and I often talk about fame and what makes it work. He says; and I quote:

 "hell, if it is good enough for Barbie it is good enough for you.

you need to invent a pet rock, hoola hoop, whoopee cushion. what the hell?

you public needs you, Girl!!! you must feed your public!"

So the whole question of Art versus crap just becomes moot. And I am not ashamed of these dolls I make; far from it. They are unique and trippy and full of creative genius and if they weren't, people wouldn't buy them. 

And what is Art anyway.

"BIRDIE" is made from fabric from my own pattern. Her clothes are from Designer Fabric swatches and from my own patterns I make up. The little Birdhouse Hat I made from Paperclay. She stands about 14" high. 

Oh, as a last thought, the following comment from Banksy:

 

This was an actual 'painting' he put into a show. On a piece of cheap plywood. And will probably get thousands of bucks for. 

The art world is full of pretentious bullshit, no?

Well...shit.... anyway.

Did NOT make it into the Sooke Fine Arts Show. 

Maybe I shoulda listened to my Ma and learned to groom Poodles. 

That or I doomed to make 'cutesy' crap forever. 

*   *   *   *   *

...give me a couple of days and I'll snap back, I'm sure. 

Painting is "Hotel Room" by Edward Hopper. No one could capture bleakness like he did. That's me : bleakness personified. 

Multitasking With A Magpie Mind

I have a good friend coming up ...over?....down? - can never figure out what direction is right - from far away for a visit and this means that I had to get around to that 'studio cleaning'  chore that's been hanging over my head. Because that's the 'guest' room. The thing is, I live in a very small space...@ 650 sq ' and that means a royal Rubics Cube has to happen. You know, move A to living room while you reposition B in the Studio. To make room for A moving back. Move the things in the living room to the kitchen to make room for A and then back again. Vacuum and dust and wash stuff too. And so forth. That's all well and good except for this...um...quirk I have.....The Magpie Mind. 
The Magpie Mind, for those of you who don't know, is the tendency to be easily distracted by bright and shiny things. For that matter, any bloody thing at all. It is at times, a curse. 
Let me illustrate.
The studio is jam packed with various projects and all the multi media accoutrements they engender. Collage papers, magazines and ephemera; Doll making supplies and boxes of fabrics; paints, brushes, canvases, old paint rags; framing and stretching tools; hardware and power tools and! the most important! >  interesting stuff I'm gonna use someday.
It's a miracle I can get in the room at all.  
Well because there is so much stuff I can sometimes forget what I have. You're starting to see the direction we're going, huh? Indeed. As we are moving A to B, we come across many things that need sorting and collating and reorganizing from 4 boxes down to just 1 handable one and things that obviously have passed their use by date or just plain why-am-I-saving-this and need to be tossed. Problem is, there is so much to go through. And I get bored with doing just one thing and it occurs to me that I need to get the books up off the floor in the living room and restack them in the bookshelf to facilitate the moving of A (remember 'A' ?) to the living room so we'll just take a small detour to do that and oh ya, the laundry needs to get started because those are the jeans I need for town and we might as well change the sheets and hey-yo, Jams is shedding so much we need to strip the chair covers off and wash them too as 'the friend' is allergic to cats and look at all this freaking dust where's the vacuum cleaner! and by now we are hungry so let's boil up a wiener and oh yeah! put the things in the washing machine as it's going with only water in it and wait a minute we forgot to get those books in the studio to put back too and what the heck I forgot I had this and this too! and oh shit! I need to get this project started and let's get the paint back on the shelf while we're here anyway  and THE WEINERS! 
You see what I mean. 
It's exhausting having this brain. 
The good thing is that after 4.5 days of this frantic behaviour the place is beyond spic and span. It's all sparkily!! A baby could crawl safely across the floor except that I'd need to move all those Art things I have.....back into the Studio.
GAH! 


The painting is :" Multitasking" by Mary Catherine Starr. I love the bright colours and absolutely right on feeling of frenetic action. But my favourite part is the blissed out face.
If only.

WHOA! Just about snapped your jaw off there, huh?

Great Gods of watching paint dry but I'm bored. 

I'm trying to 'rest' my abused digits and tendons from the aforementioned spate of creative stitchery for a couple of days until I have no soreness and >

a: get inspired to paint some more cool 'pet' pics 

or 

b: get that box of goodies from the doll supply place to start it all over again. 

This is not the artist's 'happy' place. 

You'd think I would like an excuse to sit on the couch with a good book and beaucoup the bonbons but no. I loathe not creating something. Even chowing down on those divinely awesome (and so bad for you ! yea-as !) chocolate ice cream chocolate chip cookie sandwich thingies I just discovered you'd think would soften the blow but uh uh. 

By the way, what brilliant genius invented that particular culinary bliss? Thank you for the next 10 lbs. 

Anystuffyourfaceway, moving forward, I find it hard to sit or fill my moments with 'other' pass times instead of creating. What a curse to have! I suppose I could troll the Internet for ideas/things/humanidiocy but that seems to lose it's charm pretty quick as well. I need to straighten up the studio. Like that is going to scream fun at me....

Golly! How whingy can you get?

I think we need to take a hot soapy bath and watch some movie by Studio Ghibli, that god of animation superability. 

That will get some creative juice flowing in the brain at least. 

 

The painting is: "The Boredom" by Russian artist A. A. Deineka, 1936

I pretty much feel like that only not so nicely dressed. But she just about could be holding one of those chocolate chip ice cream cookie thingies. 

Now there's a thought......

The Assembly Line Stops Here, Sunshine!

Front

Head close up

Back

Bird detail

Well there she is all done and that is what I am too. I've stabbed my right index finger so many times it's now unusable (I'm typing with the middle finger) and my knuckles and joints are swollen from all the stuffing and stretching and cutting and yadda yadda yadda....I need a break from Art Dolls. 

Who knew Art was so tough?!? 

Mind you famous last words and all that. I've sent away for a real treasure box of assorted goodies from a doll supply place and as sure as Jams will want to sit where I do, I'll be all hot to get into the new stuff. 

What do I call her? Well, "Elf Imp" came to mind first because of the look and feel and amount of crazy it caused but I think I'll go with:

"Releasing The Inner Child".

That works, huh?

Materials: Head is sculpted Paperclay and hand painted. Body is polyester fiber stuffed cotton, dress and hat and shoes are designer fabric swatches. The Bird is a 'fungus' owl and it and the hat accessories are from my ephemera collection. The owl is sitting on a dried kelp branch - cool or what! Oh, and all the clothes and doll parts are my own patterns.