The Fruits of my Labors

Remember this?

Work in Progress

It turned into this:


Lighter Than Air, fabric, thread & paint

It's my rendition of our local Marine Corps Air Station LTA Base in Tustin, done for the "Scenes of Tustin" exhibition at Chemers Gallery. I used a vintage photograph as my starting point for this one, although it makes for a much better story if I tell people I chartered a helicopter and hung out the side with my camera to get the ariel shot...There are these two huge wooden blimp hangers there, and I've always loved them, so when this exhibition came around again (it's an annual show with the Tustin Art League), I decided to just do it and see what happened. It's a big departure from my usual artwork, which is photography, so I wasn't sure how it would turn out or if anyone would even like it, but surprisingly, people did! I'd like to do another one of something else once the inspiration strikes. I basically took an old photo, drew it bigger, made a pattern out of it, and hand-stitched a lot of fabric onto a stretched and painted piece of fabric.
Also, I went to Peters Canyon and wandered around with James and my camera and took this photo:

Boundary, digital photograph

This is much more typical of me as an artist. I like to photograph things that look a little lonely, for some reason. I like this fencepost, although I did overhear one person say "Well, I certainly wouldn't hang this in my living room!" but who cares. You can't please everyone!


Show Layout

 *Unfortunetelly I am waaaay behind the 8-ball and "Scenes of Tustin" is already finished. Hopefully next year I'll be a bit more organized in my personal life. I do think that any organizational skills I have are put to use at work and then I have nothing left by the time I get home.  




Ringing, Dancing, Raining, Drawing

Wednesdays are my day off from everything. It's the one day a week I can sleep in, where I'm not committed to being elsewhere, and can just spend the entire day reading if I want. I can even go on day trips with the hubster, which we just don't do enough of. The rest of my week is taken up with work, choir and handbell practice.

Yes, handbells.

Here's a visual reference for you if you don't know what handbells are. The smaller the bell, the higher the sound. These, for example, are rather high, although not as high as you can go.

To play handbell music, you need a group of people. Each person plays certain notes in certain octaves, and the goal is to ring when you're supposed to and for the correct amount of time and make music. For someone who has to circle every note to play and write in the name of the note above, this is slightly terrifying when it comes to playing for an audience. (Reading music is not my forte...haha.) But, every Sunday for an hour, I slog through handbell practice with the hope of not losing concentration and therefore count of what measure we're playing.


Balloons & Dancers in the church hall

As a run-up to Valentine's Day, the church I belong to had a dance. Neither myself or James are terribly skilled dancers, but there were lessons promised by the friend who'd been organizing it, and besides, it was something different to do on a Friday night. Plus it was semi-dress-up, so people showed up in all manner of outfits, from '50s poodle skirts to 20s flappers to cowboys and '80s rockers.


Dress, Shoes, and Aqua Toes

We tried to learn to swing dance but failed when it came to actually finding the beat in real music. We did much better at line dancing. I ran out for the acapella Hokey Pokey that was sung loud and proud from the youngest to the oldest, and I think that's the only time I've ever danced the Hokey Pokey not on roller skates. 

Dishevelled Rainy Backyard

Back to my free day. It was delightfully cold and rainy today, and therefore the perfect day for starting an art project I've been mulling over for far too long. It feels really good to be working on something, and it will feel even better as I see the project taking shape. I won't say what it is just yet, but I will say that it's for the annual Tustin Art League "Scenes of Tustin" open exhibition hosted at Chemers Gallery. I've entered my photographs before, but never any other media, so we'll see.

Sneak Peek

And yes, in case you're wondering, that is a wind up robot pencil sharpener in the top right!