Hello Again.

So I can no longer blame my mom for anything as she had left North Carolina...

I picked up the gel medium and played with it last night. Nice glossy surface and it's, as advertise, an excellent adhesive. (I was unsticking stuff as much as I was glossing stuff over.) We'll see.

Walk? has also reached its destination and I have yet to experience any ridicule from that corner. Apathy for the piece or apathy towards communication? I can't tell.

Lastly. (God I have nothing to say but it's kind of a duh to myself as I haven't worked on anything new in days. Although, I have a few ideas, one with ribbon, one with fabric pieces and one based on the remains found in a hole punch...I'm thinking confetti)

(Shoot I forgot how I was going to wrap this up. I got all caught up in my asides.....)

(Ha. I remember now.) I spoke with MMC, who was supposed to get the hideously compelling Sleepless Night, Bedroom Ceiling. (Skype is pretty amazing, I got to actually see my friend for the first time in almost ten years...and yes I am now concentrating on the decision to buy a new laptop so that I have a computer fast enough to talk as well as see on Skype.) The piece most likely ended up at their old apartment, and she said it would be a surprise for the bachelor in residence there now. I think I will have to make something new for her (my mom also kind of ordered me to and since I love my mom...).

So, I'm back at work...I know, you are so very lucky to be able to bask in my brilliance again. (The wonder of the internet, I can say that and not worry about keep a straight face.)

Snags and Cake

So,
I've hit a few snags. Things have gone wrong. Not hideously, dangerously or even illegallly wrong but as they say in Meet the Robinsons : I just don't know how well this plan was thought through...or something like that.

First, my attempt to create a night sky piece has produced a very boring postcard. A total snore. In addition the person to whom this card was going to has some background in graphics and it was doomed to ridicule either way. Ugly and unappealing are okay but boring is completely unacceptable.

Now I am focused on trying to fix it. Add more to the original piece? Try same ideal in different medium? I can't really decide...I think I keep looking at it from other people's perspectives.

I have a thing for the night sky, it's like the ocean (actually large bodies of water in general), I find it calming and soothing but so awesome (Lizzie, please note the appropriate use of the word awesome). Anyways.....

Lastly, naturally, Sleepless Night, Bedroom Ceiling has the wrong address on it. Let this be a lesson to all: update your address book regularly. On the other hand, I left a note via facebook for the receipent (MMC) which led to a briefish IM run in where I directed her to the blog and caught up on old times.

That conversation solidified something that has been rattling around in my head (enter tiny philosophical bit): Individuals create. Doesn't really matter what your primary interests are or what job you do, there is some little bit of your life in which you make something. Maybe others don't consider it intellectually challenging or interesting or artistic or original but there's a satisfaction to be found in the making of something physical that you share with others.

In my friend's case, sharing is the best part! It may be the only green food I would truly enjoy eating...

MMC's Ben 10 cake for Alexander

I like it! Mostly because I can't even get a nice swirly pattern when I frost a cake, let alone manage to frost a figure...

Ugly but Compelling, right?

Okay so here is the first piece I'm able to post:

Sleepless Night, Bedroom Ceiling

I used two kinds of plaid ribbon and made some very rough squares with a black sharpie marker. It was a messy but simplistic project. Using Aleene's Turbo Tacky Glue, I wove and glued the ribbon strips right on to my index card. It ended up drying within a few days but I attribute that to the fact I went a little glue crazy (is there anyone who doesn't enjoy peeling strips of tacky glue off their fingers?). Being Turbo Tacky Glue it was suppose to be faster...

It also warped so the index card with ribbon strips spent days underneath the following tomes:

1. Van Gogh A Retrospective edited by Susan Alyson Stein
2. American Arts at the Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I distributed by Hudson Hills Press, New York
3. Monet A Retrospective edited by Charles F. Stuckey
4. America's Art Smithsonian American Art Museum by Theresa J. Slowik

That's when I added what was suppose to be black squares. My lack of patience produced less than perfect results. After which it became very apparent that while I found it endearing, it was pretty much ugly. Also, I don't think it has many redeeming qualities as an art piece.

On the other hand as representative work of what the bedroom ceiling of my childhood room (it's still my room really, who else would have it...) use to look like, it is spot on.

I mailed it out today to my best friend from high school, who spent the odd holiday vacation with my family up north, who lives in Denmark now.

Can't wait to see if it arrives without falling to pieces. Go, Go Turbo Tacky Glue!