New techniques for Live Debris project

I'm working on some new Mandala Spinners for the upcoming Live Debris event which opens Saturday, September 19. The installations will be up through September 26.

For this project, I have collaborated with fellow Trillium Artisan Anitra Cameron of Coffee Pot People. She helped me figure out how to mount my painted records onto metal "stems" and provided me with a treasure trove of vintage radio knobs which I will be using to hold the records in place on the stick. She also gave me the idea of cutting and shaping the records to make them like pinwheels.

I've been working on this for the last couple of weeks and am getting very excited about it! It has been way too long since I've made anything totally new. If these survive the installation, I am hoping they will be a new product for Eye Pop Art - finally, I will have a garden art product!

I don't have any pictures of the finished products yet (because they aren't finished!) but I wanted to share my new painting technique because I am super happy with it. It is making it much easier and faster for me to paint the records.

After priming the record, I simply draw the design with a black Sharpie.

Then, I paint right over the design with my acrylic paints. I add gel blending medium to each color in order to make it dry slowly so that I can blend the colors together without them getting all chunky. Then I add a good deal of water to the paint to make it nice and thin and transparent. I am going for a watercolor-type "wash." This keeps the paint from obscuring the design underneath.Once I've laid on all my colors, I use a clean brush to blend the edges where the colors meet. This gives it a soft, blended look. It also makes the records look amazing when they are spinning, especially the ones with the swirling rainbow designs.



I love this process because it is SO much less time-consuming than my usual method, which involves drawing a design, painting it, and then outlining the design with black paint using a small brush. That takes forever. I'm really pleased about discovering this time-saving alternative.

The next step for me is to cut and bend the edges of the painted records to form them into pinwheels, and mount them onto the metal stems. I'll have 12 of them planted at the Eastbank Esplanade (east end of the Hawthorne Bridge) starting next Saturday.

I hope you can make it down to see them along with lots of other cool art and activities, including a Dandelion Bench by my friend Tim Combs of the Reclamation Project, and all kinds of other great stuff to help promote the wonderful concept of making art from discarded materials.

Check it out! All the info about Live Debris is here.

Here are some more photos of my process:

First day of school!

Here are my babies on the first day of school. Tangereen really likes to wear orange, I wonder why that is. Aren't they cute? I can't believe I have an 8th grader and a 10th grader.

Speaking of back-to-school - do your kids have any art classes this year? If not, consider starting a parent-led art program. Read all about how to do this in the articles I wrote for Etsy's blog last year:

Parents Teach Art - A DIY Approach to Elementary School Art Education
Parents Teach Art Part Two - Making it Happen

First Thursday with Urbana

On First Thursday of this month, I set up a table outside of Activspace where Kristin (aka Urbana) has her pottery studio. Here she is posing with the Oregonian article that featured her back in April.
Did I mention that Ms. Urbana is now in the band? She's replacing Emie, who replaced Kat, as the third Vignette in Dartgun & the Vignettes. This is a good thing. I've known Kristin for years in the local crafty community and am super excited to rock out with her. (She's a belly dancer too!)

Oh, by the way - we now have a facebook fan page for the band, please become a fan at http://facebook.com/dartgunandthevignettes.

Here's what our little First Thursday set-up looked like. Kristin's friend Ashley, a jewelry artist, was also there and we did a trade - I got an awesome necklace made from a vintage map of Amsterdam.
Here's some of Kristin's cool pottery:

Tender Loving Empire was having a party too, with live music.
Also, there was the added attraction of Emily Hemeyer from Spore Gallery, "a transient DIY exhibition space."
Kristin got one of her pieces:
Emily set up a tent with a black light inside it and a table with this amazing mandala on it - made from all kinds of nifty found objects, bones, and such.
...and she even performed some interesting vocal work!

Our show at the Twilight

Above is pretty much the only picture from our show at the Twilight on August 15, in which I played bass, where you can actually see my playing bass. So there you have it, proof that I did it. And I rocked, if I do say myself.

Also, Melodie played drums for us that night.

And Suzie Q was the lone Vignette. And she ruled.

More shots from the evening:

Cootie Platoon's set:

Corina and Andrew:

Primping in the ladies room:

The Hickmans:

Rico and Melodie:

Kathryn, Melodie, and Rico of Cootie Platoon, posing with a cool car:

Kathryn's awesome painted car:

I love it!

Have you heard? Dartgun & the Vignettes now have a page on facebook. Click here to become a fan!

An easy technique

I recently completed some new designs for fall. The colors were chosen by Jean at Grasshopper 510 in Chicago.


For this design, "Rose," I used a different technique than I normally do, and I thought I would share it here. It's super easy.

I wanted to give the background some texture and depth, instead of just looking flat. Also, I was getting tired of mixing colors and thought I would try layering them for a change.

Above you see the kind of texture that I ended up with. So here's how I did it:

First I painted the record with two coats of medium magenta (Golden brand), which is a good opaque color but not the pink I needed, and let it dry.

I took some permanent magenta (Winsor & Newton brand), which is pretty transparent, and mixed it with some water until it was fairly thin but not watery.

Then I quickly brushed this over the top of my painted magenta record. A bigger brush could have gotten the job done even faster, I suppose.

Working quickly while the paint was still wet (and watch out because it dries really quickly!), I dabbed at it with a crumpled-up paper towel which was very lightly moistened. (Sorry, my photos didn't come out so great.)

Dab all over the record with quick stabbing motions until you've achieved the kind of texture you want. But work quickly because the paint could start peeling off as it dries, and/or your paper towel could start sticking to the paint and leaving little bits of fuzz on the surface - yuck!

And that's that. Pretty basic, I know. But it gives the background some depth and makes it look a little more interesting, I think.

Anyway, once that has dried I proceeded to paint my mandala design and then transform the record into a bowl, as you see here:

You can find more of my bowls here.

Dartgun at the Twilight - Saturday, August 15

Punch and pie!

Saturday, August 15, 2009 at 9:00pm
Twilight Cafe & Bar, 1420 SE Powell Blvd., PDX

Dartgun - with Christine on bass (that's me! I'm excited to wield an axe again!), Melodie on drums and Suzie Q as a lone Vignette - our strangest lineup ever! Chad is camping, Emie quit (wah!), and we still don't have a freaking drummer!

COOTIE PLATOON will save the day.

With help from much-loved psychos the Hickmans!

The flyer says Advisory is playing but we're not really sure about that...

The Twilight is a cool rockabilly old-style diner so come hang out with us, have your beers and get up and dance for God's sake! Yeah SE Portland. See you on Saturday night!