ARTPRIZE 2012 is a little less than a month away. You'd think I would be sick of paper but naw, still love working with all the shapes and sizes, colors and then setting an Australian crystal on each piece.

It's beginning to get harder and harder to go to my day job the closer I get to finishing this piece.
When I finish I will have put in countless hours, thousands of butterflies and flowers and hundreds of crystals. Many thanks go to a handful of friends that have given me encouragement along with sought after opinions but none more encouraging than my dear husband, Geoff. He has watched me painstakingly deal with every step I've had to make on this project, and ever so lovingly told me when I did something that just sucked. LOL I'm gonna dedicate this piece to you, Geoff...thanks for telling me the truth when I needed to hear it.

muah!!!

The Next Step Toward ARTPRIZE

The Next Step...I can't begin to describe the feeling when I saw the outcome of the terrific paint I got from JoAnn's, called Glimmer Mist. Tattered Angels is the company that produces this exciting new paint and has many tutorials on Youtube on how to apply it. First gently move the bottle in a circular motion to mix it, never wanting to shake it, you don't want bubbles in this...then you spray it onto your surface then place Saran Wrap over top and bunch it up a bit with your finger tips. You will begin to see a mosaic pattern. Let this dry, it took my piece over night before it was completely dried.

I took the plastic wrap off this morning, and then took three pictures.

Here is the blue section, I wish my camera could have picked up the shine. It's really interesting. Of course this will be the sky where the butterflies will take over, to form a rainbow...I'm going to also add some off the canvas like they are going to join the rest of the butterflies to take part in the color fest haha.

I have to say here that the green turned out quite nice, but most of it will be covered in flowers.

Now to begin the arduous task of adding thousands of pieces of paper to this project where there will be more pictures to follow.

I need to find just the right kind of glue, one that doesn't stain, give up in the heat, that will stick to canvas and not soak through the paper. Today is a work day...No. Today is a PLAY DAY. :)

Here's a little glimpse into what is to come...

A DRAWERING (LOL) OF MY ARTPRIZE "HOPE BUTTERFLY"

Hello! I thought it best to catch up on my blogging so decided to begin with a sketch of my entry for ARTPRIZE. The flowers have been taking on a life of their own as I am getting ready to attach them to the canvas. A lot of these will be on long green wire, curly cuing throughout the piece mostly coming from the bottom. There will be some directly placed on the canvas and also attached to the back winding hither and yon (I've always wanted to use that phrase haha) around other paper flowers and insects cascading upward toward the base of each side of the butterfly rainbow.
The butterflies will be of the correct colors of the rainbow but some will be printed paper, some solid and attached will be crystal beads to the backs of the butterflies for that added bling feel.
I thought it would be fun to have small crystals, resembling raindrops dangling off the top in front of the piece. In doing so when the sun shines it will scatter beautiful sparkles of light across the front delivering just the right touch. But we'll see. These are my thoughts, would love to hear from you.

  

One foot is in a wet spot made of freshly spilled coffee. The other is dry. I began this morning by painting the sky. The pearl sky blue paint came out in shimmers as I poured it into my glass bowl. Stirring with a straw I mixed it with some water to make a wash; I wanted a light cover of color which while wet made circular motions with a lint free cloth to show a whispy affect. I took a short break then had to choose the color for my "grass" and settled on an apple green. With the same technique as I used with the sky, I brushed it on the canvas, taking care to dab up any runs. Next I went to a website to purchase this wonderful paint called Glimmer Mist. If you get some time check this Youtube video out on the basics of using this kind of paint. It's gorgeous when it's done. I chose the same color just a lighter tone for each color. Now it's time to begin making my 3D flowers and butterflies.

HOLD THE PHONE I WOKE UP WITH A THOUGHT!

I woke up this morning with the most interesting thought in my head regarding my ARTPRIZE project. Instead of painting all my flowers on, why not just give the piece a splash of background color and then achieve the look I want with 3D paper flowers too! Not only will this project have a huge rainbow full of a thousand butterflies but it will be hovering over a field of 3D flowers. It's going to take me much longer than I had originally planned however the outcome will be a lot more interesting in my opinion. Oh stay tuned people, stay tuned...

THE EVOLUTION OF MY ARTPRIZE EXPERIENCE

THE EVOLUTION OF MY ARTPRIZE EXPERIENCE

 

The second installment of "The Evolution of My ARTprize Experience"... I did think for a while (thought it probably doesn't look like I put any thought at all into this piece haha) on what I wanted my entry to look like. I knew I wanted to go with it being very colorful and eye catching, and I also wanted a design that didn't fit inside any box. Especially not any box of mine. I wanted to push myself outside of my abilities, so I could learn new things as I go. So far, I have. I learned that you really want to pre drill. You just do. Less splitting of expensive canvases. Then thanks to my dear husband, clamping is a must, just do it, you'll be a lot happier when there are no gaps. So I purchased several different sized premade canvases and began to join them together.

Then you need to think if you have a wall big enough for your piece to hang. CUZ THERE AIN'T NOBODY GONNA BUY THIS LOL aw come on....laugh at yourself. Yes. I have learned to laugh at myself A LOT. Unfortunately I find humor in almost anything. I laugh at myself the most. I'm always shakin' my head and laughin' at all my projects because they are all such a hoot and I usually end up suprising myself. Just after I got all of my canvases together, joining them with little steel brackets I wanted to hang it on the wall and get started. I found that the whole piece wanted to make a circle. It wasn't wanting to lay flat against the wall. So after talking with my hero (Geoff) he told me I definately needed a brace and not only one but two. Oh dear and I thought this was going to be easy. Nope. So yesterday we picked up more wood to make the cross pieces needed to keep my art piece flat. It's at the point here in the above picture right now because I'm waiting for the screw driver to finish charging up after laying down the first brace and re-positioning most of the steel brackets.

This would be a good time to talk about re-purposing. I've decided to make my art piece using as many materials that I already have on hand. Hence, these old wood screws.  When I found these I knew I needed 15 and do you know that that's exactly the number I had on hand? YAY! No second trips to the hardware store, it's all here. I'm so happy I saved these when we first moved in to this house. 

So I sit here and wait for the screwdriver to charge, and share with you all the progress of my artprize entry and the shop front where my artprize entry will be displayed. It's called God's Kitchen where many hungry people are able to have a meal and be given hope. It's still such an honor for the opportunity to be able to call this venue, my artprize venue.

AND THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING!

ARTPRIZE "HOPE BUTTERFLY" WILL BE AN EVOLUTION

Artprize. I've been interested in getting involved in Artprize since the first year it began. I've attended, looked at the art, but always had a dream to just enter. Not to win, but to make someone smile. To take part and be apart of a group of people that love art, and like to articulate their thoughts and feelings through something tangible.


So this year on the very last day to sign up, I took the plunge. I was nervous as I didn't have a venue, wasn't sure who to connect with and so began looking for some place to put a piece of art. I knew what I wanted to make, and reached out to 3 venues and waited. I waited. Waiting....and after hearing nothing back from any of them, decided to prayerfully choose one that I could make a difference in. I clicked on the venues and the first one I laid my eyes on was God's Kitchen. I didn't know they were going to offer up their place for a venue, but I knew right then, I had to ask...


I only waited one day; they wrote to me, happy to have my art in their venue and I now have a signed contract to put my art at God's Kitchen for Artprize!


My piece at it's highest is 72 inches; it's shortest 18 inches; it's widest will be just short of 84 inches as I have to stay within a 7ft area square. This is a brick wall; I will either have to pay someone to drill holes (provided the venue ok's this) or with their permission hang close to the wall from the ceiling.


My design will resemble a rainbow, made out of thousands of paper butterflies, sprayed to a shine, with rainbow colors of tears for the back ground and the words "There Is Hope." I wanted to do more however more may be less in this case; I'll have to take a look and see as I go as this has been an evolution of a project. 


I plan on documenting the work as it's done, step by step so that those that would like to see how it's going can follow along, until the final installation.


At this point 500 red butterflies have been cut; and my canvases have been ordered. Once they get here I'll be attaching them in an abstract way for interest. The next step is the rainbow colored tears. Once they are dry I'll begin attaching the butterflies, one by one. I anticipate having to cut about 3000-4000 butterflies for this project.