Tag: art

Gearing up for SOAK

Dear Liza,

It is just a few days until I head off to SOAK, the regional Burning Man event, with Auntie Katie and the Cousins. There is a lot to get ready!

First, I have volunteered to buy juices and mixers for the Limbo Lounge Tiki Bar that will be near our camp. I will get reimbursed, I just needed to pick them up and get them to Auntie Katie’s house for storage. I drafted Auntie Bridgett to drive.

The Chef’s Store had everything we needed at pretty good prices. It is huge and full of all sorts of goodies. We will be back for Halloween candy!

Still, seven and a half gallons of pineapple juice is a lot to deal with!

Another chore that needed doing was mending the camp chairs. Since Katie uses them at Burning Man and SOAK, they get a lot of hard use. Fortunately,
she has lots of cool patches that are perfect for, well, patching. I used the heaviest thread I own, doubled up.

The patches all have a sense of humor, as well.

Along with shopping and mending, I am finding all my own gear. My old recess whistle will come in handy, as well as the pocket knife Great Grandpa Lowell gave me years ago. I am sure having fun getting into camping mode!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Eris, Our New Friend in the Neighborhood

Dear Liza,

We will soon have a new place to eat and drink here in Sunnyside!

Tony Pepe is opening a cocktail bar called Eris (named after the goddess of chaos p, and also the dwarf planet) right where our Rendez Vous used to be, just a block down on 34th.

Tony is a very friendly fellow who showed me his progress and told me his plans. He will have some wine and some food, but is mostly a creative cocktail maker. He also, much to my appreciation, loves cats. His own cats are called Victor Babitch and Dante.

Tony was painting today, hoping to get the ceiling done before his furniture gets delivered.

Since he is the sole owner and designer, the place will be a direct reflection of him…. Which means it should be delightful, intelligent, quirky and fun.

I’ll tell you all about when we get to visit Tony and Eris next month!

Love,

Grandma Judy

Building a Page

Dear Liza,

I am still playing in the journal Ruthie Inman got me started on a month ago. The cover is made of tissue paper built- up on fabric with thinned white glue, and has these pinks and greens.

I got quite a few of the pages done,

and then it was time to sew it all together. Using the awl and thread Ruthie sent me last year, I followed her directions and pierced and sewed the pages into the cover.

But I still had the center pages, the double page spread, completely blank. I wanted it to reflect the soft pinks and greens that are in the rest of the book, but couldn’t find collage materials I liked.

Finally, I painted them myself, using watered down acrylic paint. A sea green and a phthalo green gave me the look I wanted.

I kept building up layers of tissue paper, tissue leaves from napkins and such, trying for a sort of dreamy landscape look.

Then I made a mistake. I thought these pink worm-like bits of magazine paper would fit in, so I glued them down. The next morning, I realized that they were a bad choice. It took a few days for me to figure out how to fix it.

I got brave and used an exact-o knife to trim to awful pink bits away and repair the scratches with bits of deeper pink tissue. I like that every layer shows the layers underneath.

Now I have the dreamy landscape I wanted. I might find something else to add to it, someday. But for now, I love it.

Love,

Grandma Judy

A Few Chores

Dear Liza,

We have had so many fun, busy days lately, there has to be some days to just do the stuff that needs doing.

I made an appointment for my annual “Wellness” check-up. That’s when the doctor makes sure my old brain and old heart are still up to snuff. It’s going to be a busy summer, so it’s good to get a tune up.

We are also predicted to have a solid week of sunny, over 70 degree days, so I spent some time in the garden, pulling out the invasive mint that climbs through the fence and (TAA DAA!!) putting zucchini seeds in the ground! Their packet says they should “emerge” in 5 to 8 days. I will hold them to it!

After I had washed up, I pulled your Daddy David’s oldest stufftie out of the cupboard. VIP TLC, as your daddy called him way back in 1981, was one of the Shirt Tales cartoon characters. I sewed this one from a printed fabric panel back in the days when money was tight. He was very cuddly!

It’s been 40 years or so since VIP TLC has been washed, and I want to bring him with us this summer. So he got unstuffed and put into the wash. While he was getting clean, I fluffed up the old stuffing. When he was dry, I put them back together. Now he is ready for a flight to Denmark!

My last ‘chore’ of the day was to bring my garden journal up to date. The last time I made a picture for it, the day was grey and wet.

But bright, sunny days inspire bright, sunny colors!

Pages for The New Journal

Dear Liza,

Once we had the journal cover made, it was time for pages. Since this isn’t a journal for writing, but for doing art in, we were free to experiment.

I started gluing images down to scrap paper, which is always fun. Making THIS piece of junk mail look spiffy by sticking on THAT piece of old napkin is very satisfying.

When the pages were dry, I lined them up with the butterfly cover. I love the way the greens and soft pinks go together.

But wait a second! That cartoon dude is SO out of place! He looks like he got into the book through an unlocked window. He’s adorable, but he’ll have to wait for another project.

I kept looking, and more images kept showing up. This little girl and part of a watch face came together nicely. It needs something else, but it will come.

The Zoom Art group got together again this morning and I added this landscape over the splattered page. Not bad, but as it is here, it felt unfinished.

I put it aside and went on with the day. When Cousin Kestrel came over this afternoon, I asked her for advice. She suggested a setting sun with some rays, and I gave it a try.


I love it! Thanks, Kes!

This page of text strips goes with the color scheme and looks suitably cryptic. The splatters add a little character. As I told Ruthie, “Splattery will get you anywhere!”

And that’s the newest art journal so far.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Easter Day

Dear Liza,

We had fun on Easter, but not much of it shows in pictures. I’ll show what I have and tell the rest.

Easter Day was sunny and warm (almost too warm, for some), and we got everything packed into the wagon and headed for Laurelhurst Park.

We found a table in the sun just above Firwood Lake. Someone had recently drawn a cute cartoon of a bunny jumping over an egg, with the words “In the name of the moon”. Very nice.

We enjoyed the sunshine and people watching until everyone else showed up.

Then the food came out, and we all had good bread Katie brought from Grand Central Bakery, turkey, cheeses, fruits, veggies and cookies.

We met some nice folks who name the ducks at the park, just like we name the trees! We may all get together and make a map of the park with all our silly information….wouldn’t that be fun?

As we were walking home, Jasper and Kestrel taught all the adults about a new kind of music, called “Vocaloid”. It is made with synthetically generated voices and sounds, mostly, like a video game. But I am always happy to learn something new, so we listened and chatted while I worked on the CrazyQuilt.

Having clever grandkids is like having clever kids! Always keeping me on my toes.

Love,

Grandma Judy

New Story, New Pictures

Dear Liza,

A few years ago, I wrote a story about our cat, Mouse. In the story, Mouse steps out of her comfortable routine of napping and lap-sitting to help solve a mystery.

I found it the other day and liked it enough that I want to share it with folks. For me, that means printing it out, putting on a cover, and of course, illustrations.

I started sketching, and once again realized I was way over my head. But I kept at it. Turns out, if you do something long enough, you get better. I drew one piece of the drawing at a time, cut it out, and then traced it where I wanted it to go.

The dog in the picture is our neighbor, Trevor, who is a main character in the story. But of course, once I had the characters cut out, they wandered elsewhere, as well.

For a while they were part of a bizarre pet-juggling story…

Then they all seemed to be on a hamster wheel.

Eventually, it got drawn, colored, and some text got added.

I’m pretty happy with how this one turned out.

Love,

Grandma Judy

Figuring Things Out, Again

Dear Liza,

Once I got the hang of making these three-dimensional paper sculptures, I couldn’t stop! The Zoom Art Group I do with Ruthie Inman was still working on theirs, so I started a second one.

This time, I wanted to play with interlocking shapes. I chose the yin/yang symbol. It was tricky to get the shapes right, but with some tracing and flipping, it all worked out.

The supplies aren’t sophisticated… just cardboard from cracker and cereal boxes, paper headed for the recycling bin, and Elmer’s glue.

I kept making shapes! A big circle became two halves, and then a bunch of medium and smaller circles got assembled and dried. Tiny blocks kept them together while they dried.

Covering the curvy shapes is tricky, but clipping the curves and going slowly makes it more successful.

I used Mod Podge as the adhesive for this part because it is less slippery than Elmer’s. I tried a bit of flour paste, but it takes too long to dry and I am impatient.

Here are my shapes. Next step: Color and assembly!!

Love,

Grandma Judy

This Year’s Garden Journal

Dear Liza,

Since there is a garden, there must be a garden journal. For a few years, I made mine from scratch, delighting in learning a new process. Last year, I re-used a found day planner. This year, I looked in the box of books that we are giving away.

I found a book I bought years ago, called “Film Listography,” by Lisa Nola and Jon Stich. I enjoyed it very much, but I haven’t touched the book in about ten years, so I was ready to re-use it. To start the transformation of the cover, I laid down a leafy page from a magazine, then dabbed on some acrylic paint.

This softened the colors so they would be a background for the words. I love how they look all summery together! (And the bugs add a teensy creep factor).

For the back cover, a page from the PAM magazine and a holiday napkin from Ruthie Inman go together for a proper autumnal ending to the book. I used a technique Ruthie taught me to get a nice soft edge on the napkin image. It’s just a little water and a gentle tug.

It still looked a bit empty, so I hunted up a gardening quote I like and gave it the “ransom note” treatment. I added few more flowers and a bit of paint. You think maybe it’s too much?


But I made it for me, and I like it!

Inside the journal, there will be some decisions everyday about how to manipulate the interesting images that are already in the book and include my own news and art. I can’t show you much of the unaltered art, because of the “no use without written permission” rule.

I am really looking forward to a garden-filled, artsy summer.

Love,

Grandma Judy

The Art of Figuring Things Out Part 3

Dear Liza,

Some things take longer to figure out than others. The last time I worked on the stacking hearts paper sculpture, inspired by Ruthie Inman, was March 7.

I laid some colored paper on it, and it wasn’t turning out like I wanted. I got to what Auntie Bridgett calls The Picasso Stage, where you sort of hate your project. I set it aside to work on the Crazy Quilt, work in the garden, and make pies for Pi Day.

By Saturday, I had some time to spend and hated the project less. I added some acrylic paint, then some sparkly papers, then ink, then more paint. I started stacking them while on a zoom call with you and your Dad.

And by the end of the day, I had the hearts the way I wanted, and even had a solid base for them to stand on. I got the Elmer’s Glue out and stacked them up!

When it was dry and strong, I gave it all a shiny coat of high gloss medium and varnish.

I like that this piece has a front and a back, and that it stands all by itself. I like a lot of things about it. Still, I know I can make a better one, and maybe I will sometime.

But for now, here are my Stacking Hearts. Eight inches by five by three, light as a feather and finally done.

Love,

Grandma Judy