A Roadrunner Is Not a Cartoon (But It Looks Like One).

Roadrunners are not pretty. They are all legs and beaks and scrawny bodies. They rarely fly, but run like track stars especially when chased by the poodle next door.

I had an opportunity to watch a roadrunner when I was walking Homer. I watched this oddball bird, his movements and habits, approaching as closely as I could, hoping Homer didn't decide to chase it. Being dragged through  a field with by a 70 lb. dog is not my idea of fun.

After several observations, I realized the roadrunner would make a great paper mache project. I studied some photos of roadrunners. I used a combination of materials for the armature: 12 gauge wire,  cardboard, newspaper, and masking tape. After finishing the armature I covered the armature with Creative Paperclay. I realized I need to lengthen the legs, which became a problem I'm still dealing with.

I'm still working on the body sculpting.  Here's what I have so far.

 

Crystal Bridges, Revisited

It's been a year since Crystal Bridges opened.  Since we had no schedule conflicts we decided to take a day to revisit the museum.

The aluminum tree in front of the museum gives a wintery feeling. I don't have any information about the artist or the piece itself.  I need to do some research.

 

The exterior of the facility has changed.  The water feature has been installed. 

 

 

 

 

The entrance is an example of conflicting directions: 

 

 

 

 

 

There were less people in the museum on this visit,  but it wasn't empty by any means.  There was a class field trip and  some families and a number of individuals.  Each room had one or more volunteers to help answer any questions visitors had.

Claes Oldenburg's Alphabet/Good Humor is in the coffee shop-restaurant.

Thomas Moran painted  scenery from the American West. I saw an exhibit of his work at the Philbrook Museum in Tulsa  years ago when I attended an exhibit of Turner watercolors.

Kindred Spirits by Asher Brown Durand

Ecorche Relief of The Horse Josephine. 

Thomas Eakins. Eakins' bronze horse is very different compared to the more contemporary Redstick (see below).

Redstick. Bronze.  2007. Deborah Butterfield

Red Flower by Joseph Stella.  The image seemed much brighter then it appears in the photo.

Dale Chilhuly. Neon Sculpture. This was part of an exhibit featuring works of light.

Old Barn of Sheephead Bay Oscar Bluemener.  For some reason, this work reminds me of Van Gogh.

 

The Modern Art room had  works by Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, Roy Lichtenstein.

Another exhibit featured works by  Crystal Bridges architect Moshe Safdie. This is a model of the National Gallery of Canada.

New Projects

New Projects

I've been busy with several online classes. I just finished Cindy Moyer's Violet Shadows .  It was a three week class and gave me an opportunity to experiment with Glimmer Mist and Creative Paperclay.  I had most of the basic materials on hand (a benefit of doing a lot of  projects.  

More recently I've been involved in a 5 week class with Susan Barmore,  Steampunk Wenzel.  It's been a lot of fun.  I am still working on the truck, a task involving foam core, poster paper,  a soda can, wooden wheels, acrylic paint, alcohol based inks,  metallic tape, and spray paint.  Here's the project about two weeks into the class:

I enrolled for Noel, Lillian and Max, and Making Animal Pull Toys. Each class teaches me something new and I've enjoyed them all.

I'm Finished Horsing Around

My Equestrienne 2  is finally finished (almost)!  I am still uncertain about the white base.  However I did promise an update  and here it is: 

I think it turned out well, but then I've always liked horses.

The Elusive Butterfly is almost finished.  But I haven't  worked on it in a while.  

My Yvette project is still where I can look at it and think about what I need to do.  I won't say I'll never finish it, but I have other things that have a higher priority.

Quilt Festival Pet Project Postcard

International Quilt Festival/Houston, launched the first of three Festival Pet Projects, so last week I stopped working on dolls and took some time to do a fabric postcard:

 

The project was fairly simple. I copied a sketch of Fluffy,  one of our rescue cats and reduced the image so it would fit in a 4" x 6" fabric rectangle.  Next I traced the image on freezer paper,  heat set it on the light blue fabric,  and fused the trimmed image to background with Pellon Wonder Under.  

I created a "quilt sandwich": muslin backing, thin quilt batting and the cat image. The embellishment was a combination of free-motion qulting, hand quilting and an embroidered outline.  The finished quilt was backed with another piece of dark blue fabric.

I mailed the postcard to Houston on Friday. Here's hoping it arrives in time and someone likes it enough to buy it.

Update on Projects

I've been working on my three art projects for a while now and felt it was time for an update.

Equestrienne 2:  The doll is finished, except for a touch-up on her Lumiere shoes.  The muslin face I made worked well, just as well as the Dolskin I should have used.
 
                       

The horse is still in construction.  I've been covering small areas of the armature with Claycrete, then letting it dry, so I only work on it every couple of days. There is still several more days of work.



Elusive Butterfly: Almost done.  I made the sunflowers with cheesecloth dyed with Sun Yellow  DyeNaFlow,  then glued jute circles in the center. The flowers were glued to florist stems.  The finished flowers were set in the base.  The hat was decorated with ribbon. The doll was glued to the base.


I still need to finish the shawl and add the butterfly.


Yvette: No pictures for now.   I haven't done much with Yvette... just a quick glance when I pick up one of the other projects.  Each time I look, I realize I am not happy with the face; so I plan on redoing the head.  After some searching, I did find some fabric I think will make nice clothing, but I'm still a long way from finishing her.

Demon Cat, one of a group of feral cats living in the neighborhood sit atop of a dilapidated garage, watching the activites and waiting for someone to feed him.

Horsing Around

      

    Here's the horse armature, the wires filled out with 

   aluminum foil, secured with masking tape, and glued to 

   base I bought at Hobby Lobby, after deciding none of

   my scrap lumber was suitable.

     It's ready to paper mache!

 

Horse of a different color--eventually.

To go with my Equestrienne 2 doll, I have to sculpt a horse from wire, aluminum foil, masking tape and Celluclay.

 

Here's my early steps. I'm interested in how the finished horse turns out.

This reminds me of Dan Reeder's  Paper and Cloth Mache projects.  His works are quirky,  fun and good for all ages. (Oops, the teacher in me is trying to sneak out.)

Joggles has listed Fall Online Classes!  Now I can pick the classes I want to take and whittle down the list to one or two. Looks like a lot of fun!