2024 04 Within The Immortal Spirit Willing Always To Flower

On April 13th Denice and I spent the day at the Lynden Sculpture Garden in Brown Deer, WI, taking the workshop Quetzalcoatl: the Feathered Serpent Caroneria (Paper Mache) led by Ceci Tejeda. 

Ceci Tejeda (photo from her Instagram)

Ceci is a Milwaukee-area artist who connects her Mexican culture to all by teaching the traditional way of doing paper mache from Mexico, caroneria. She also encourages painting in the style of the alebrijes.

Ceci's work brought as class samples

Ceci's sample for the Quetzalcoatl

Quetzalcoatl (Nahuatl: "Feathered Serpent") is a deity in Aztec culture and literature. Among the Aztecs, he was related to wind, Venus, Sun, merchants, arts, crafts, knowledge, and learning. He was also the patron god of the Aztec priesthood. (Wikipedia)

The base of the alebrijes was reeds and cardboard

We pasted newspaper on our forms with engrudo,

the traditional way of doing caroneria (paper mache)

This was a one-day workshop at Lynden so I never got to any painting. When I brought the Quetzalcoatl home I decided I would use techniques I was familiar with to keep working on the creature. 

Rheostats for eyes

A tail made from a fan shape off a fireplace decor

A butterfly wall decoration adds wings

I used plaster cast as my paper mache

16 spoons were sliced up to make scales/feathers

Then it was time to paint. 

Thus we have Within The Immortal Spirit Willing Always To Flower, a Quetzalcoatl made in the spirit of alebrijes and caroneria. The title for this piece is from The Sun, a poem by Charles Baudelaire with one word modified. It is 6"H X 9"W X 33"L. It consists of the alebrijes made in Ceci's class, Metal Fan, Spoons (16), Plastic Butterfly, Rheostats, Nails (10) and Roller Skate Wheels.

Thanks to Ceci Tejeda for the great class and the inspiration to create. 

2024 04 Make What Ya Brung

This April the art/friends group Make What Ya Brung held its 24th get together, the 20th in the Lind Pavilion at Shake Rag Alley in Mineral Point, WI. 

Denice and I do not always have the opportunity to attend these but we were there this year. Besides the art making and the good conversation, we had a group meal of tacos on Friday night. Also on Friday night, I headed over to Eliza's Lounge on High Street in Mineral Point with Diane and Gail to see Van Orman & Helwin who sang and played many different instruments including guitars, harmonium, concertina, hurdy gurdy, gourd banjo, mouth harp and harmonica.

Van Orman & Helwin (photo from the web)

Saturday night Denice and I drove to the Stoughton Opera House to see the slide guitarist Sonny Landreth. The opening act was The Iguanas. 

Sonny Landreth (photo from the web)

As for the art making, I worked three days on these projects. The first day I spent cutting circles out of my art journal and then randomly added them to a cradled board. This was a dream I had so I thought why not actually see what happens when I do the dream. I have no idea what to do with this but I had fun making it. 

I brought a decorative candle holder from home with the idea of using it as a substrate. 

This is as far as this piece got over the weekend. There is work to be done here. 

This round board eventually got a collage on it but I did not take a picture of it. Work to be done indeed. 

The group had a post card art exchange. I received a sewn postcard from my art buddy Kelley.

Here is my contribution: a post card college that went to Carole. 

I brought this unfinished collage from home. It is one I started in a class with Laura Lein-Svencer and uses the tack down method of gluing onto the board. 

Fly Away Blues, You Can't Eclipse Me No More

I was pleased when Sandy, owner of Longbranch Gallery, stopped by the Pavilion and purchased this piece for her personal collection. 

It was another fun weekend of art in Mineral Point with all of our art buddies. Thanks to everyone who make it possible and see you next year.