Ten Artists, Ten Items, Ten Days

When my friend Mel Kolstad posted on Facebook that she was excited to join this challenge I jumped right in the fray with her:

"On 09/10 this call goes out to artists everywhere.
The first TEN artists to sign up by 09/20 (TEN days) will be accepted.
There is no fee.
Accepted artists will have until 09/30 (TEN days) to receive one of TEN boxes
containing TEN items. Those TEN items must be used, in some capacity, to create an art piece.
There are no rules.
Artists will have TEN days to complete and return their art pieces. An auction will be held at Creative Studios on 10/10. The sales will be split between the artist and the gallery.
The guest auctioneer for this event will be Sherri Columbus."

The challenge is sponsored by:
Erika L. Block, Owner/Director
Creative Studios
5199 Townline Rd
Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235

Then the US Mail cursed me and I did not get my envelope of stuff until Wednesday, October 16th.  So I thought maybe my ship had sailed but Erika said "you have ten days to create your piece from receipt of the materials. Let me know when you have it complete and we'll get it up for auction online. We decided to do the auctions online for ten days per piece to give them maximum exposure nationwide."

So--it is go time, baby!

DAY ONE

Here are my ten items:
1) a sheet of white alligator skin paper
2) a sheet of black alligator skin paper
3-7) sheets of advertising
8) a button
9) a shoe string
10)  8 plastic circles

I needed a frame for my effort.  Being an assemblage artist, I went for the Joseph Cornell box thing.  

Then it came time to select the elements from the collage items that I felt I could use.  

DAY TWO

Now it came time to decide what would be the feature of the box.  Because the items sent to me did not have a dominate item that could establish a theme I went head hunting a selected the plastic half-head shown above.  

The idea I wanted to express was some type of deity displayed in a retablo.  I thought the box had a altar-like quality to it not unlike:

I decided to develop the head using a technique taught by Michael de Meng called Pin Heady in his online class Distressed Disturbed Disintegrating Dollyheads.  The first step is to use Aves Apoxy Clay to get the head in the frame I had selected.  Then I had to set that aside to harden for about two hours.  

I next prepared the substrate of the box for collaging.  

After the clay had harden, I added some nails into the doll's head.  The last act of the day was to gesso up the head in preparation for painting.

DAY THREE

Today's task was to paint the face using acrylic paints.

DAY FOUR

For day four, the first main task became to collage the elements cut out of the pages into the box.  To get this accomplished, I used a technique taught by Andrea Matus deMeng.  Andrea taught me to think in layers, colors and combinations.  

Then I added the plastic dots.  

The shoe string became the border around the outer edge of the box.  Unseen here, I added the alligator papers to the sides of the boxes in two different shapes.  

As the last step of the day, I attached the head to the box.  For thematic purposes, a nice snakey tongue was added to give the head a folk spirit / religious feel to it.  

DAY FIVE

I had an opportunity to work on this piece at an event that I helped throw at Valley Ridge Art Studio called Make What Ya Brung #3.  This was a four day event where artists could gather and work on whatever they wished. (Unfortunately, this is probably the last art gathering to occur at Valley Ridge as the Studio is closing.  However, remote workshops are still being offered and you should consider joining one of those--they are great).

My goal on day five was to add something to the dimension of the project as I felt it was too box-like.  My friend Kelley Clarke offered up some screen she had brought and I loved it for this project.

DAY SIX

After I got home from the play dates, I was done.  Or so I thought.

In looking at the piece, I still felt that it lacked something dimensionally despite have added the screen over the weekend.  Could the solution just be more screen?

So I made the decision to add some on the east and west sides as well as on the surface of the box.  That's it.  I am done.

And, so we have, Live Totally.

So, if you are interested in my piece or want to see any of the other nine artists' efforts, then head on over to the Creative Studio Facebook page.  Let the bidding begin.  

A Dog's Life

My friend Susan Fiebig is curating an exhibition at the Langdon Divers Gallery in the Fond du Lac Public Library in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

From the Library's website:

'A Dog's Life' all month in the gallery

This year, the annual Fond du Lac Reads program celebrated the memoir, Thunder Dog: The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust at Ground Zero, by Michael Hingson. The subject matter has inspired the November exhibit, A Dog’s Life, in the library’s Langdon Divers Gallery.

Through November, the gallery will showcase works in a variety a media, including collage, photography and watercolor, submitted by 12 local artists that bring viewers up close and personal to the noble canine.

The public is invited to an artists’ reception at 4:30 p.m. Friday, November 15, as the first stop in the downtown Tour the Town Art Walk. Refreshments will be served.

The library’s gallery is a showcase for local and regional artists. The space is curated by volunteer artist Susan Fiebig, who can be contacted at sfiebig.moondance@yahoo.com.

About the photo: Rise and Shine by Laura Schneider.

My four Oaxaca photos will be featured in the exhibition:

Thanks, Sue!

Magna Cum Murder 19

(ALL PHOTOS ON THIS BLOG ARE BY IDEN FORD--thanks Iden for documenting this event)

 Kathryn Kennison

I have been taken a hiatus from attending crime and mystery fiction conventions for some time now.  My best friend Theodore B. Hertel, Jr., henceforth known as Ted the Elder, talked me into signing up for Magna Cum Murder, the 19th mystery convention hosted by Kathryn Kennison and Ball State University.

This year, for the first time, the con moved from its previous home in Muncie, Indiana, to the confines of the Columbia Club in downtown Indianapolis.

I volunteered to drive so bright and early on Friday, October 25th, Ted and his wife Maggie Ley showed up at our house with their special house guest, Ted Fitzgerald from Boston, henceforth known as Ted the Younger.  Ted has flown into Milwaukee to join us on convention excursions before so this definitely added a sense of old home week to the experience.  Our fifth for the weekend was my lovely bride Denice.

The drive from Milwaukee to Indy is five hours if you do not get held up by Chicago traffic.  We made a short stop on the campus of Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana, for lunch.  Arriving in plenty of time to attend the afternoon sessions, the first thing I did was blow off the programming.

 Terry Faherty

If I miss anything about the cons, it would be the people.  On Friday I was able to touch base with some very special long lost friends:  Indiana author Terry Faherty and the Florida plucky couple of Sandy Balzo and Jerry Healy.  That night, joined by Terry's wife Jan, the nine of us dined at Palomino's in downtown Indy where we had a great meal and plenty of conversation.

To my great surprise, once registered, the convention decided to use me up on programming.  I was a tad reluctant going in but as it turned out, being on panels is like riding a bicycle.

 Parnell Hall

The first panel was called Why PIs Are Still Cool.  I got Ted the Younger to join the panel in the hopes that I would not have to be on it, but the moderator Parnell Hall talked me into staying on in the hopes I would have questions as he (kidding) claimed to have none prepared.  The rest of the panel was made up of Canadian author Anthony Bidulka, Minnesota's Carl Brookins, and Jerry Healy.

 Hank Phillippi Ryan

The second panel was in the next time slot and was called Manuscript to Movie.  This was another panel I was shy about being on but decided I would take the librarian/viewer perspective and talk about films were the book and film matched, cases where the film was better and, of course, instances where the film sucked and people should just read the book.  The moderator for this panel was Jerry Healy and the fellow panelists were Boston's Hank Phillippi Ryan, Canada's Maureen Jennings and John Gilstrap.  Hank and I hit if off on this panel as she and I were the two who had nothing to do with Hollywood, screenwriting or film.

After this panel I blew off my signing session as it is rare that anyone brings $75 reference books to be signed.  However, my bud Sandy Balzo came and fetched me because someone had brought Make Mine A Mystery (a $75 reference book) to be signed.  Cool.  I also ended up signing my essay in the book They Died in Vain as well.

 Steve Hamilton

The lunch was spiced with an interesting interview of the conference guest of honor, Steve Hamilton, by Hank Phillippi Ryan.

In the afternoon I took part in a scheduled round robin discussion called Continuous Conversations:  Choosing Victims.  I was assigned to arrive at 2 with Terry Faherty and moved out at 2:45.  This was a unique "panel" and I had fun participating.  However, I was too shy to say anything (yea--right!).

The next panel slot was my time to moderate.  I was the host of a panel called Critics and Reviewers: Friend or Foe?  When I first got this assignment I wondered if the conference programmers meant were critics friends with reviewers (ha ha) but I did manage to think of a series of questions that keep it flowing.  My panelists were Kate Stine, owner and editor of Mystery Scene, Molly Weston, and Ball State student named Brendan and both Ted the Elder and Ted the Younger.

The banquet this evening featured a very moving speech by Hank Phillippi Ryan in which she encouraged all to tell their own stories.

This was followed by a gameshow called World's Second Greatest Detective in which the number one slot is conceded to Sherlock Holmes.  Hosted by Parnell Hall, the panelists were John Gilstrap, Dorothy Cannell, John Desjarlais, Carl Brookings, Ted the Elder and me.  The idea was that in each round we were given an era, a location and a weapon.  The panelist were then given two famous detectives and asked to opine about who would be the better detective and solve the case.  While some might have tried to take this all serious, I found myself acting like a hard-boiled detective (Shell Scott), showing everyone where Amelia Peabody would have a tattoo of an Egyptian cat and speaking in Swedish (Lisbeth Salander). No, I do not speak Swedish.

Terry, both Teds and I then retired to the bar to watch the World Series.

Sunday was a lazy day for me as I had fulfilled my role on all the panels I was assigned to.  I went to hear by friend Sandy Balzo on her panel, Is Cozy the New Romance?  Then Ted the Elder, Sandy and I (the former members of the writer's group, The Noirsketeers) sat around and talked the rest of the morning away.

After the last lunch banquet, we were on the road and back in Milwaukee by supper time.  After a pizza party in a local restaurant, it was time to put Magna Cum Murder to bed.

All the photos in this column are from the Magna Facebook page and were taken by Iden Ford, husband of Maureen Jennings.  He is a good photographer, isn't he?

P. S.:  This is a photo from the camera of Terry Faherty and it shows 

Sandy Balzo, Ted the Elder, Gary the Grey and Ted the Younger

Walker's Point Center for the Art's 21st Annual Dia de Los Muertos Show 2013

The Walker's Point Center for the Arts has been doing a show related to Dia de Los Muertos for 20 years.  This year, their 21st, features a show curated by Juan Jose Lopez, that opens on Friday, October 18th, from 5:00 p.m  to 9:00 p.m.  The Walker's Point Center for the Arts is located in Milwaukee at 839 S. 5th Street.

When I was picking up my two pieces that had been exhibited in the previous show, the Annual Members' Show, I had a chance to speak with Center Executive Director Gary Tuma.  Gary mentioned that the upcoming Dia de Los Muertos show matched my art and they like to have some member involvement with art to dress the walls around the featured exhibit:  the ofrendas built for the annual event.  

I boldly asked if the show would be interested in any of my gazillion photos I took while on a trip to Oaxaca during Dia de Los Muertos to study with Michael deMeng.  Gary Tuma gave my website address to the curator of the show, Juan J. Lopez, who selected the four photos below:

Under terms of full disclosure, I balked at the idea of submitting these photos.  They might represent Dia de Los Muertos well but they don't do much for me except for the shot of Jesus wondering over the devil child.  That photo I like because it has a theme.  Theme is important to me in a photo or it just becomes a snapshot.

So, what to do?

Buy four cheap frames.

And then I assemblage the crap out of them.  The series is called Oaxaca Quadriptych.  This one is Numero Uno.

Numbero Dos. 

Numero Tres. 

Numero Quatro.  

Now I am happy.

I am hoping if you are in the Milwaukee area you will consider stopping by the Walker's Point Center for the Arts for their 21st annual Dia de Los Muertos show.  The opening of the show is this Friday, October 18th, from 5 to 9 p.m.