BCAW 2018-FIRST PLACE

This post is quite late...I thought I had already put this on my blog. Back in September of 2018, I once again participated in the Brush Creek Artist Walk in Kansas City. I was fortunate to win one of the first place ribbons for my painting of one of KC's famous fountains down on the Plaza. In the photo above I'm flanked by our judge, Mark Alan Anderson, and Alex Hamil, BCAW Director, who is holding my blue ribbon.

Below is a close-up of my two submissions...a Sycamore tree and the Indian on a horse battling with an alligator.

The surprising thing about my first place win was that the original painting was a "nocturne" that was a complete "bust", because the fountain lights that were usually turned on, were NOT on for some reason. But my Mother had suggested that I use that work as an underpainting and to head back to the same location during the daylight. I did that...and Mom's suggestion paid off!! You can see the two phases of the painting below.

The next photos are of one of the "quick paints" that we did during the weekend. I'm in the middle of the crowd below.  I decided to tackle a painting of a big sycamore tree with the sunlight coming through the branches.

Below are two other paintings I did that were not entered into the show. The first was an early morning attempt...other two locations were done in late afternoon.

It was fun to hang out with some artists I have not seen in a while, and to make some new friends who had also come to paint.

SCULPTURE: "Grandma Puppet"

I'm so happy to have creative friends to collaborate with! I spent the month of December 2018 working on a large puppet for actor/dancer Karen Lisondra and her husband, multi-instrumentalist Amado Espinoza. This puppet is a bit of a caricature of Amado's 102 year old Grandmother in Bolivia!! We all were inspired by the works of master puppet maker, Amelia Madeline. I studied a lot of videos on YouTube online about the process of making a puppet out of soft polyfoam, fabric, and latex rubber. It was a blast to work on...my first ever using these materials. Karen is working on a story to perform with Amado in the future using "Grandma". Stay tuned!!

SCULPTURE: Pirate Puppet

Ahoy, Maties!  Once again I return to my love of pirates to create my most recent project...a puppet! I have always loved marionettes. And while this puppet is more like The Muppets in format, I was definitely thinking of old-school paper mache construction.

Below is a series of photos showing the various stages that the head went through. I made several changes along the way, figuring it out as I went. I found the beard and hair at some hobby shops and a costume shop. I also found the soft-foam pirate's hat at a hobby shop. No need to create from scratch, if the props work.

After I got some comments that the pirate looked scary, I decided to soften edges a bit by adding more "skin" around the mouth to cover up the teeth a bit more. I think it helped some.

 

A couple of weeks after I had completed the puppet head, I was able to focus on building the pirate's body. It had been decades since I had used a sewing machine, so my skills were virtually non-existent for this project. I also had a lot of hand stitching to pull this thing together. I thought that using used children's clothing that I got at a thrift store would make things easier. Wrong. At least I had fun making the tiny little pirate shoes out of cardboard and paper mache! The hand was created with epoxy "Magic Clay".

 

Here's a view of the stand I made to hang the pirate on. The head of the puppet is VERY heavy, so I added a little "hook" to hold the weight of the body. You can also see the rod that connects to the "hook hand"...it nicely holds the arm forward a bit when on the stand.

Aaaarrrgh...that be the end of the tale of the Puppet Pirate! (Or is it just the beginning?!!!)