High school artists make beautiful mandalas

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to teach two workshops at the PAC 8 Art Conference.  This is an annual event for a league of high schools to the west of Portland.  My friend Richard Shearing is the art teacher at Glencoe High School in Hillsboro, and he invited me to teach at the event in the rural town of McMinnville, OR.  It was a fun day and it actually snowed, as you can see in the photo below:

Here are some pictures of the students' beautiful work:

Here are some of their finished pieces propped in the window to dry:

It is such a great thing to be surrounded by talented young people who are creative and free.

This last photo is one of my favorites.  This particular student decided to draw on the paper covering the table instead of on a record, and that is just fine with me!

Valuing Experiences More than Stuff - and other thoughts on Reuse Conex, vintage record players, and traveling 'round the world

Last month I had the opportunity to participate in the Reuse Expo at Reuse Conex, a three-day conference on reuse and sustainability put on by national group Reuse Alliance.  My friend Joanna Dyer (co-founder of SCRAP) invited me to vend at the Expo.

At one point during the day I noticed there was a rack of reusable shopping bags for sale (did you know that in my city of Portland, Oregon, single-use plastic bags have been BANNED from grocery stores?) and they were printed with a very interesting legend.  They said "I value experiences more than stuff" or something like that - wish I'd thought to snap a picture because I found it so intriguing. I could not agree more with that sentiment and I think it sums up the goal of the whole reuse movement.  If you haven't seen it before - go watch The Story of Stuff right now.  (It's only 20 minutes.  Seriously, go watch it.  I'll wait.)

It was a fun and inspiring day.  I was between Oregon Breakers (they fix and rebuild circuit breakers to keep them working and out of the landfill), and Long Way Home (they reuse plastic bottles and tires to build schools in Guatemala).

I also gave a little presentation on "10 Ways to Repurpose Vinyl Records."  Dont' worry - I will be sharing those tips in an upcoming blog post!

Here are some pictures of my table:

It dawned on me that I can and should use old record players in my display!  The one you see in the above photo is my old "Linoleum Hogass" record player. 

Long story but once upon a time at St. Vinny's in Great Falls, Montana, there was a roll of beautiful psychedelic vinyl, and we called it Linoleum.  One day Chuck said he would build a wall from this linoleum to make a room divider in our studio apartment, and I called him a linoleum hogass.  The wall was not built.  The linoleum came back to Portland.  I liked the pattern a lot and named my business Linoleum Hogass Records when I started selling mandalas at Portland Saturday Market in 1998.  I painted the pattern on the record player and used to have it on display at the market with a painted record spinning on it (every booth came with electricity) until something happened, it fried the circuit for all the booths surrounding me, and the lady who made knitted hats yelled at me.  The site manager for the market even attempted to fix the record player for me (maybe he felt bad for that one time he had my car towed after we left it too long in the loading zone) but the fix didn't last (and I do value that experience).  I think the cord is broken.

SIDE NOTE.  Interestingly enough, I have discovered the word hogass in the urban dictionary. And here I thought Melodie made that up in our 11th grade economics class to describe the horde of students descending upon the box full of magazines from which we were to cut images for a collage on the joys of consumption in a free market system.  What a bunch of hogasses.  (Or, hogii.)

Anyway, the record player doesn't work anymore but I can still use it in my booth!  I might never have thought of this, but recently an old friend of mine from high school (not one of the above-mentioned high school hogii) gave me another cute vintage kids' record player - which you can see here:

This particular old friend was in the process of getting rid of all of his belongings in order to embark on a journey around the world with his wife and daughter!  Now THERE is a family who values experiences more than stuff!!  I am honored to be gifted with his childhood toy record player.  I remember many an afternoon hanging out with friends at his house in downtown Oregon City...wishing them all the best on their big adventure!

(They have a blog and you keep up with their journey at www.travel-junkies.com.  There was a great article about them in the Oregonian this week too.)

What you see above is some cool new packaging I've come up with for my Vintage Record Clocks.  YES!  Finally, a solution for the boxes and boxes of album jackets (they can't ALL be made into coasters), the lack of wall space for displaying the clocks, and the difficulty of storing them in between sales.  I am making the boxes out of 12" album jackets which make a perfect package for a 10" record clock. 

Obviously the jacket used is not for the same record as the clock that's inside (that would not be possible) but I did have fun matching them up loosely based on a general theme.  (You can now buy these at Tender Loving Empire and SCRAP's Re: Boutique.)

Ad don't forget, PORTLAND RECORDS!  Because Portland rocks!  And PORTLAND is still the secret code you need to save 20% off everything in the Eye Pop Art shop during the month of November.  Not that you need any more STUFF...but there is a big gift-giving holiday coming up, and if you're going to buy stuff, may I suggest you buy stuff that is handmade by an artist from reused, recycled, and repurposed materials?  That way, you can value the experience and the stuff...at least, a little bit more than when you buy something from the mall. 

More Custom Black Light Love

I'm currently having a really groovy time working on a special custom 16" black light mandala.  It's for a DJ who tells me that he plans to make a custom rotating display for this piece.  I hope he sends me a video when it's done!  I think that's such an amazing idea for creating a kaleidoscopic, psychedelic visual experience. Just imagine it spinning...

It's hard to paint with the black light reactive paints because you don't really know what color they are going to be until you look at it under a black light.  I've set up a spot inside my closet so I can check the work in progress.  This is what it looked like after I finished filling in all the colors. 

Here's what it looks like in natural light (I am almost done outlining with black):  

Click here to learn more about my black light mandalas.   You can also check them out in my Etsy shop here and here, and even more mandalas here.  I'd be happy to make a custom mandala for you, or maybe for the DJ or record collector in your life?  This is a great time to place your order for holiday gift giving, and you can get 20% off everything in the Eye Pop Art shop during the month of November with coupon code PORTLAND.  Have a groovy day!

Portland Records

Greetings from Portland, Oregon, USA!  Last month I had some fun revamping my painted mandala "turntable art" and transforming the pieces into Portland Records, which you can purchase here.  Fancy cut-out action!  Keep Portland Weird! 

Some people say they look like saw blades, but they are actually made from 12" vinyl records.

The record is easy to hang with a nail through the spindle hole. You can also spin it on your turntable (without the needle) for an eye-popping psychedelic treat. Or leave it on the turntable to make it look awesome when not in use!

My mandalas are all drawn freehand without the use of any special tools or measuring devices. These are original designs, hand drawn (NOT computer generated).

Do you need a one-of-a-kind handmade psychedelic Portland souvenir or gift?  Order one of these or anything else in my shop during the month of November and get 20% off with the coupon code...you guessed it...PORTLAND.   Because we love this town. 

I Have a Shipping Room! (Before & After)

After being in business for 9 years, I now finally have a dedicated room for my business.  It's mostly a shipping room but I'm also using it to store inventory and extra supplies, and to do my product photography.  I had to kick my eldest child out of the house to make this happen, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do! 

Okay, the truth is, I didn't really kick her out.  Her smart brain bought her a ticket to a bright future.  Can I just brag for a minute?  Tangereen graduated from high school in June with the following honors: International Baccalaureate diploma, Honored Scholar Award, Salutatorian, Distinguished Scholar, National Honor Society, University of Portland President's Scholarship, co-captain of Cleveland Cannibals OSAA state champion speech and debate team.

She earned enough college credit during high school, including classes at PSU through the LINK Program, to earn her bachelor's degree in three years instead of four.  Tangereen is now attending a great University and majoring in physics. She has already been invited to do research in quantum mechanics next summer - how's that for a first job?


So basically, she moved to her campus and is enjoying the dorm life.  Because she's still in Portland, we see her every weekend, and she either crashes on the couch or makes herself a nice blanket fort underneath my shipping table in her old room.  It works out just fine for everyone!

We spent a good amount of the summer working on the big transition of having our child graduate, turn 18, move out of the house, and start college.  It was a pretty intense and emotional time.  I really jumped on the excuse to keep busy by completely cleaning and organizing pretty much my entire house.  Things were getting crazy anyway because Chuck got a computer and we decided to make him a little office space in the kitchen, mostly so he can listen to people reading history books and Tolkien lore on youtube while he cooks.  This meant the kitchen table was moved out to the living room and by the time that happened the house was upside down and there was nothing for it but to throw myself into a complete and total overhaul of the whole place.  I dusted every nook and cranny, organized every closet, set a fresh "free box" on the curb every night for a week, and still took a large haul to Goodwill. 

Once Tangereen had vacated her room (with the exception of a shelf in her former closet where I'm letting her keep her personal craft supplies - of which she has a TON, mostly beads), I set about moving everything into the room that needed to be in there.  I previously had shipping supplies, craft materials, and finished products stored in various places around the house, including my closet and some areas of our basement.

The key was to consolidate everything into one room and have it be nice and organized without spending any money.  My actual studio is still located in the nook in my giant master bedroom/home office.  That's where I do all the creating.  But now instead of having to clean up my art mess in order to have space to pack orders, I have a completely separate room for shipping and I could not be happier, especially going into the holiday season. And, I did not spend hardly a dime.  I was able to incorporate Tangereen's dressing table, wardrobe, and bookshelf, and Chuck let me have the 6' foot table, since we don't really need it in the band room anymore, as well as the record player, which no longer works as a record player but does have a radio and CD player built in, so I can get my NPR fix or crank up Social Distortion while I'm in there.  And of course I can spin a mandala on it any old time.

I bought baskets for garbage and recycling from the dollar store (a total of $2) and scored a really great desk lamp on clearance at Office Depot for only $5 (normally $55!  I got it after these pics were taken but trust me, it's amazing).  That's all I bought!  I found a drawer unit on the side of the road which I cleaned up and am using to store odd-sized records.  I had originally thought about going to Ikea to get some really great shelving units and matching bins and things, but ended up not having to.  I didn't have to paint the room either, because it was already done in a great reddish pink with purple accents and matching curtains and that cool faux stained glass vinyl decal.  I decorated the room with things from my collection of children's art, jazz posters, Dartgun stuff and Eye Pop Art stuff.  I know it looks really cluttered but that's the way I like it: constant visual stimulation.

BEFORE:

You might notice there is a sewing machine in this picture.  It was given to me several years ago and needs a tune-up. At some point I would really like to take up sewing again.  Most people don't know this but I used to love sewing.  I did a lot of hand-sewing but also have made clothing and quilts with a sewing machine.  One of these days I'm going to get that machine working and start playing with it.  At least I was finally able to liberate it from the hall closet.

In case you were wondering, the painted TV is a piece by our old friend and former Dartgun drummer Billy Brahm.  Many years ago we did a trade in which I painted his acoustic guitar in exchange for the TV art. It was only in there while I was cleaning and is now back in the living room where it belongs. 

What you see in the photo above is the majority of my collection of Psychedelic Coffee Cups (not all of them - there are still plenty hanging from hooks in our kitchen ceiling).  I have a gazillion of them.  I can't even believe they all managed to fit in the living room.  Well, I decided that I really wanted access to my books.  The cups were all over the bookshelves, collecting dust and keeping me from ever being able to put a book back properly after reading it.  So I ran them all through the dishwasher (4 or 5 loads) and put them in boxes and crates to await their next adventure.  (And yes, I completely organized all of our books too.)

I have been saying this for years - I really want to open up a vintage shop on Etsy for my groovy vintage cups.  I don't think it's going to happen before the holidays, but I'll definitely be ready to get started on the product photography and everything in the new year.

Here are a few more "before" shots of the room as it got more and more filled with stuff:

AFTER:

Here's what the room looks like now.  I covered the table with brown kraft paper and left space on the other side so that I can utilize light coming through that window for photography purposes.  Most of my small supplies are stored in the drawers and in various little containers scattered about the surface of the tables.  Shipping supplies are stored under the dressing table and to the right of it.  Primed records are in a crate under the table, and inventory is stored in bins on the shelving units. 

I found this drawer unit on the side of the road and it is now perfect for storing records - 45s on top, red records in the middle, and 78s on the bottom.

I put up that bumper sticker that says "Small Business Creates Jobs" as a reminder to myself that this is, in fact, my job, and the only job I have, so I better make it work! (I was laid off from my nonprofit job in April so I am truly 100% self employed now.)

Johnny Teacup just loves that brown paper on the table, and he likes to look out the window.

See that psychedelic painted trunk?  It is crammed solid with my collection of gorgeous vintage fabrics that I have been accumulating for about 20 years.  Oh, when I start sewing...

I finally found a home for my collection of crafty buttons!

Oh the joy of having enough space to assemble 18 clocks at one time!  It's like a dream come true.

Now let's bring on the holiday orders so I can make full use of this room!  Order from Eye Pop Art in November and get 20% off your entire purchase by entering the coupon code PORTLAND at checkout. Thanks for your support, and happy holidays!

Sasquatch Cross Stitch! Crafty Wonderland Dec. 8 & 9

Only in Portland will you find a Sasquatch doing a cross stitch while being gently nudged by a skunk!  And so much more.  Is that a possum in the tree?  Well, these kindly urban/woodland critters have the right idea.  They are telling you to mark your calendar for Saturday and Sunday, December 8 and 9 - it's CRAFTY WONDERLAND!

All ages
Free admission
Goodie bags to the first 150 shopppers
Free craft activities
250 vendors of amazing handmade goods, including Eye Pop Art and lots of my local crafty friends. 

Join the facebook event here. Can't wait to see you there!

It's the Holiday Season :: Come see me at SCRAP and Crafty Wonderland!

The holiday season is upon us and I know you are going to be looking for some eco-friendly psychedelic gifts! 

I will be doing two holiday craft shows this season and if you are in the Portland area I would just love to see you there! 

Come find Eye Pop Art on Saturday, November 24 at SCRAP's Annual Holiday Bazaar.  This is also Small Business Saturday!  What better day to support microenterprise?  All items at the show will be locally made from at least 75% recycled and reclaimed materials.

AND...I'm super excited that on December 8 and 9 I will be vending at the Crafty Wonderland Super Colossal Holiday Sale!  I splurged on the full 10' x 10' booth and I will be filling it with amazing and groovy items for your holiday shopping pleasure! 

To recap:

SCRAP's Annual Holiday Bazaar
Saturday, November 24
10 am - 6 pm
2915 NE MLK Jr. Blvd.

Crafty Wonderland Super Colossal Holiday Sale
Saturday and Sunday, December 8 & 9
11 am - 6 pm both days
Oregon Convention Center
777 NE MLK Jr. Blvd.

Hey, both of these events are on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd!  That makes me happy.

Here are some other ways to shop this holiday season:

Order from my Etsy shop at eyepopart.etsy.com!  You can use the coupon code PORTLAND at checkout to get 20% off your purchase through the end of November.

You can also find my work at various stores around the country.  CLICK HERE for an updated list of locations that carry Eye Pop Art. 

Thank you!