2024 06 Board To Be Wild with Michael deMeng at Shake Rag Alley

This is the month of Michael deMeng's annual visit to Shake Rag Alley in Mineral Point, WI. This year's workshop is Board To Be Wild. Here is the class description: "Ah, the nostalgia of childhood board games! The anticipation of the roll, the quirky pieces, and those vibrant, intricate boards. Admittedly, in my early years, rules were more of a suggestion . . . who expects an 8-year-old to appreciate Monopoly without a dash of imagination? To be honest, Clue still puzzles me to this day. Now, Operation, that’s a game with no need for instructions—just lights, buzzes, and plastic bones! But I digress. In this workshop, unleash your inner child to craft the board game you always yearned for. From crafting pieces to intricate boards with an array of materials, the stranger, the better. Tweak an existing game or start from scratch with found objects, let your creativity run wild! Interested? It’s your move."

This year's trip began with me picking up Michael at O'Hare Airport in Chicago at 6:30 a.m. We had breakfast at Neli's Diner in Beloit, WI, and got to Shake Rag Alley at 10:30 a.m. As we are guys, we had both of our respective areas set up by 11:30 a.m. No fussing around here.

Michael needed to nap and I needed to go home to pick up the three things I needed to have a great workshop week. Back in Mineral Point by 4:30 p.m., Michael and I went to dinner and then called it an early evening.

On Wednesday, we headed to Madison to pick up our good art buddy Marilyn Werst who flew in from Louisville, KY, this morning. After getting Marilyn to Mineral Point, we were joined by Lynn Ovenden for dinner on the night before class.

Michael deMeng

Here is the class sample: Escape From Baba Yaga, a dice game for up to six players created by Michael. We eventually did play this game on Saturday night and I found it a blast of conflict with the monsters, conflict with my fellow travelers and finally--a victory by Kelley Clarke.

Class ran from Thursday to Sunday. As always, the highlight of the class was the Sunday critique led by Michael. 

Kelley

Marty

Lynn

Dianne

Cyn

Marilyn

Cris

My game for this weekend was as follows:

THE ASSEMBLAGE GAME OF CHANCE

Created by Gary Warren Niebuhr

OBJECT: To create an assemblage from found objects by the random drawing of a playing card

SUPPLIES:

One deck of standard playing cards

A substrate or found object of your choice

A variety of found objects

A variety of found paper including images or text

Paints (minimum colors: white, black, red, blue, green)

Brushes

Screws, Bolts and Nails

Hand Tools

Screwdrivers

Pliers

Power Tools

Dremel

Drill

Glues

Aves Epoxy Clay (or similar clay)

E600 (or similar glue)

Gorilla Glue (or similar glue)

Wood Glue

THE FATES:

Jokers: Players Choice

Aces: Chance To Choose Any Of The Fates

Kings: Add Color Red Found Object Or Paint (any secondary or tertiary color allowed)

Queens: Add Color Blue Found Object Or Paint (any secondary or tertiary color allowed)

Jacks: Add Color Yellow Found Object Or Paint (any secondary or tertiary color allowed)

Tens: Add Any Found Object With Screws, Bolts Or Nails

Nines: Add Any Found Object With Glue Or Clay

Eights: Add A Geometric Found Object (Round, Square, Triangle, Etc)

Sevens: Add Layers Of Two Or More Found Objects Or Papers

Sixes: Add a Value, a Shade or a Tint

Fives: Use A Power Tool

Fours: Add An Image Or Text

Threes: Add Three Details (Found Objects Or Paint)

Twos: Repeat The Previous Fate

THE ASSEMBLAGE GAME

Step One: Players Choice

Choose a substrate or a found object as the base

Step Two: Shuffle the deck of cards and cut the deck

Follow The Fate selected as your assemblage

Step Three and Beyond: Repeat shuffle, cut and assemble

Final Step: The artists declares Players Choice

Chance To Choose Any Of The Fates (if necessary)

 

In order not to go completely crazy playing my own game, I decided to bring robot making stuff to Mineral Point.

GAME #1

If you read the rules you know the first step in the game is a Player's Choice (Joker): choose a substrate or a found object as the base. 

Then it was time to shuffle the deck and cut for a card. I drew a 2 which is a "repeat" card, or essentially an Ace (Player's Choice). I decided to paper mache the ironing board with pattern paper.

Next I drew another 2. Because that is a repeat card I decided to paper mache the ironing board with some telephone book pages. 

Weirdly, I drew another 2. More paper went onto the ironing board, in this case a hunk of my overflow paint journal I keep at my elbow when I am painting anything. 

Next up, a ten which is attach a found object with screws, bolts or nails. This allowed me to grab this figure, sold to me as the inside of a Howdy Doodie mannequin. It got screwed onto the ironing board. (Here is how the game veered wildly off from how I have trained myself as an assemblage artist--I would never screw the object down without knowing how it was going to be resolved.)

A 9 card meant a could add a found object with glue or clay so on went the robot's head with some E6000.

The next card, a 4, meant I put the image of a fuse onto the earlier attached painted collage (no picture).

A Jack allowed me to get out paint for the first time as this card calls for the yellow family. I used Aureolin Hue.

A 7 was "Add Layers Of Two Or More Found Objects Or Papers" so on went some robot-y parts.

An Ace (Player's Choice) allowed me to choose 7, add layers of objects, so of course I build the robot a penis. Then a 10, found objects attached with screws, bolts or nails, I gave the robot some arms. 

An Ace let me choose a 9 so I could attach a foot to the robot. Then a Jack allowed me to paint yellow again, this time Nickel Azo Yellow. 

Yet another Ace let me choose the King which allowed me to paint the robot body a first coat color in the red family, Quinacridone Crimson.

A 10 allowed me to screw, bolt or nail an object so I selected the farm implement blade onto the bottom of the ironing board. 

Then time ran out in the weekend and this is as far as this project got. Perhaps some day soon I will get back to this robot.

Game #2

Any time I work on an assemblage I always have another one ready as there is nothing more frustrating than waiting two hours for some process to dry or harden.

The first step in the game is a Player's Choice (Joker): choose a substrate or a found object as the base. I decided to use the remnants of an Uncle Sam's Movie Projector with Durotone Sound System and Movie Tracer Set manufactured by Durable Toy and Novelty Corp., New York in 1935,

Not sure how this is even possible but I drew an A to begin the game. This is player's choice so I decided to do a 5: use a power tool. I did what I always do: figure out how this assemblage is going to hang when it is done.

Either I am the luckiest card player ever or karma was with me because I drew another Ace. I chose 9: add a found object with glue or clay. On went the head, a Hercules Red Dot Smokeless Shotgun Powder can.

A four meant I had to add an image or text. This made me think a bit until my art buddies headed into town to do some shopping and I ordered a yard of muslin. I knew this little wheel still turned and that a scroll would be possible and after some mixed media magic, the robot had a text scroll.

Another A!!! I selected a 9 and attached a base to the projector. (Just so you know, this eliminated the need to the hanger I put on in step 2).

A King had me painting the chest knob (after I assembled it--which might be cheating) Pyrole Red and some other colors. 

The collar around the head and the base got painted blue thanks to a Queen. 

I drew a 7 which allowed me to paper mache the body (not pictured). I took advantage of another Queen and some blue paint to fix the body. 

A 3 (add 3 details) found me attaching three small objects to the base for character. (These appear here in a later photo where they were painted--see below).

A 2 (the repeat card) meant I could add three more objects so on when the top and two arm. 

A 6 (add value, shade or tint) let me work details into the body with paint. 

A 2 (repeat) let me add the paint to the three small details mentioned above.

A 5 meant I had to use a power tool so I drill into the "hair" to add a gear.

A Joker meant anything goes so decided to paper mache the remaining parts of the robot body to get it ready to paint. 

I drew a 9 and had to attach something with glue or clay. I drilled into the dice to E6000 it to the gear. 

I drew another 9 so I gave the robot a power source. 

By now it was nearing the end of the workshop and I was nearing the end of my patience. I decided to take advantage of the last step in the game, "The artists declares Players Choice: Chance To Choose Any Of The Fates (if necessary)." That translates as "I finished the project."

Thus we have Hercules Red Dot. He is 10"H X 7"W X 8"D. It consists of a Uncle Sams Movie Projector, Hercules Red Dot Smokeless Shotgun Powder Can, Dice, Gear, Chimney Clearner, Pie Crust Trimers (2), Bicycle Lights, Metal Trims (6), Resistor, Wood Bulb, Muslin, Wood Base and Paint. 

2024 06 Mommy

In April I was able to register at the last minute to take a workshop led by Lorraine Reynolds at Shake Rag Alley in Mineral Point, WI, called Mending Hearts: Stitching Recycled Fibers Into Sculpture. Then on May 17th, my mother, Joyce Niebuhr, passed away at the age of 97 and 9 months. It seemed timely and right to work on another Mending Heart.

The first step of this project is to create the pocket of significance that will form the central core of the wrapped heart. In that I placed a poem I wrote about my mommy, her Dominos token which was a squirrel and a heart from a necklace she used to wear. All of these items were bagged up in a scrap from one of her blouses. 

Then the central bundle is wrapped. I used more of my mother's clothing including her favorite jean jacket. I supplemented that material with some colorful cloth from my collection and some sari ribbon. 

I decided to illustrate this mending heart with a collage I made while working on art with my mother way back in 2018. The piece was called Home of the Big Boy. 

Everything nested into an old box from the basement and was supplemented with some painting on the inside and edges. I also added some nails to the sides.

I have really found the creation of these mending hearts to be both spiritually and artfully fulfilling. I intend to make some more with this technique just to do it. Thanks to Lorraine Reynolds for the process. 

MOMMA’S BOY

Who is a geek now

You wonder as you sift through

The detritus of the lifetime

Of the one who loved you.

And return to the days of odd clothes

Like the dickey under the sweater

That got you sent home from school on suspension

Because of her Christmas gift

Or your Marcel wave hair

Set like stone on your head

With a grease that you are now convinced

Was the first step on the road to baldness

All of which was to make you into a little man,

Put your shoulders back against the winds of failure,

Set you on the road to white collar success

While the others were destined to wallow in the blue collar swamps

Whose denizens felt no shyness

At reminding you with their fists

That no matter who your protector was

You would feel the sting of their rebuke.

The sting remembered today

Each time someone asks if you

Want that with pepperoni or sausage

And you remember each time someone called you Pizza Face.

How some teachers rose to your defense

Like the shop instructor with the missing finger tips

Who let you take his class twice for credit

So you could be his class leader

Able to make the treasures for the queen’s tomb

Like the crooked wooden lamp you build

With stain so thick it felt like a coat of tar

That still failed to straighten Diogenes’ spine.

Artifacts so precious today

As you hold them again

That they recreate the track for your tear,

The same track carved years ago

But now it is for your love

And for your survival

And because you found the cutting board pig

Made in shop class all those years ago

Which still has your name stamped in it

Proving its providence for the one who preserved it,

She who loved unconditionally,

To be found one day by he who was loved.

2024 05 The Heart’s Clothed Data I Find Difficult To Name

Mending Hearts: Stitching Recycled Fibers Into Sculpture

Class Sample

This month I was able to register at the last minute to take a workshop led by Lorraine Reynolds at Shake Rag Alley in Mineral Point, WI, taught by Lorraine Reynolds called Mending Hearts: Stitching Recycled Fibers Into Sculpture. 

Lorraine Reynolds

The Class Supplies

I decided to make my Mending Heart a happy story. I decided to make it about my lovely bride, Denice. 

The first step of this project is to create the pocket of significance that will form the central core of the wrapped heart. In that I placed a poem I wrote, a nail for strength, a key for security, a bayleaf with Denice's name on it and a heart rock. All of these items were bagged up in a scrap from one of my shirts and tied with a pink ribbon (Denice's favorite color). 

This was as far as I could get in the workshop time

At home, I decided to assemblage the heart into a shrine.

This cool wood drawer with a unique handle was a purchase at the very unique Wisconsin location,

the Amish Flea Market

I covered the drawer interior with rust dyed paper

I took this photograph in the arboretum at the Biltmore in North Carolina

I removed the pipe handled, used it as a frame and reattached it to the drawer by rotating its orientation

I did a lot of extra sewing on the heart before attaching it in the drawer

I papered the outside of the drawer with a fiber paper

Thus we have The Heart’s Clothed Data I Find Difficult To Name. The title for this piece comes from a poem by Natalie Eilbert called The Lake. It is 15"H X 5"W X 5"D. It consists of Mending Hearts Project with a Nail, Key, Bayleaf, Poem and a Heart Rock. Also it consists of a Wood Drawer with Hardware Handle, Photograph, Mica, Foam Core, Waxed Thread, and Raffia. 

 

2024 05 Your Shadow Is A Land Of Birds The Sun Scatters With A Wave

It is time for another ironing board adventure. The first step after deciding what the substrate would be is to audition some found objects for the adornments. 

For me, its always about the nails

Remember the auditions? Yeah, well...I went with completely different things.

This former house decoration with a clock in it got painted, collaged and assemblaged. It ultimate destination is on the front of the shelf decoration.

After a lot of mixed media techniques, the board was finished.

Thus we have Your Shadow Is A Land Of Birds The Sun Scatters With A Wave. The title for this project comes from the poem The Arms Of Summer by Octavio Paz. It is 62"H X 15"W X 8"D. It consists of an Ironing Board, Nails (48), Wood Shelf, Wood Clock Frame, Watch Face, Light Bulbs (2), Heart Jewel, Blue Beads (9), Fish Beads (5), Paper and Paint.