Saturday, October 08, 2005

The past week and artist's statements

This past week has been difficult for me as I have not had the chance to do much work. Monday and Tuesday and Friday I took care of my grandson who, at 11 months, now wants what he wants when he wants it and is very determined...as well as pretty strong! But he is so funny!

Wednesday I took my dad out and about and went through stuff in the basement and cleared out some but that took the entire day. The only day I had to myself was Thursday and boy did I try to get a lot done then.

Of course, when time is short, nothing seems to work right. I had picked up strecher bars on my way home from my dad's. Started putting them together with the idea that I would take some of my small pieces that I had done on timtex (which had then been sewn to a plain black quiltlet so that the piece would have more presence and decided to wrap them around to the back of the stretcher bars. Well, I had bought some tacks and that was a real pain in the rear and wasn't working very well. My husband brought up two different staple guns for me to use but I just don't have the hand strength to work those. Then he brought up an electric staple gun. The staples just would not go in all the way. Don't know if it was because I was doing something wrong or because my dh had purchased it at a garage sale and that is why it was up for sale.

So here I was with only one day to do some work and nothing was going right. Couldn't get the corners right, couldn't staple, couldn't tack them down and now I had a pile of stuff sitting around and nothing finished. Boo hoo is me.

While I was babysitting Friday, my dear husband spent a bunch of hours running around to find a pneumatic stapler. I am now the proud owner of my very own pneumatic staple gun which will shoot these babies out about a mile! Just one small pull on the trigger and POOOOOF! in goes the staple right where I want it. Am I a happy artist? You betcha! And, then my dh pulled out the air drill so I can drill the holes for the screw eyes real fast and with my pooooffffs of air!

So today I got them all done and really like the way there are. They have a large satin stitch border around the art work which is then on a quilt backing which is wrapped to the back of the frame (stretcher bars). It looks good. Will get some pictures posted.

I had also picked up some stretched and primed canvas with the idea of painting it and them mounting some small pieces directly on them. Next stop is to Tap Plastic to pick up some flamed plexi to mount small pieces on.

I also have a bunch of shadow frames from American frames which my husband has been putting together for me. I have been doing a bunch of 6x 8 pieces on timtex and them mounting them on 8 x 10 black mat board and then I put them in the frame...boy do they really look sharp! However, I am trying to decide if I want plexi on the front or not and if I don't, then I need to order some other metal frames that aren't the shadow box style. Also have to decide if I want to use UV protected plexi or nonglare plexi in them...I guess I could order some of both and see how they work.

Most importantly, I have been working on identification of parts of my artist statement. The work is broken down in to four different sections and I am just writing down the thoughts without making it in to a statement.

The questions are: 1. Who? are you 2.Why? do you make your art 3. How? do you make your art and 4. What? does it mean to you. It is really a great exercise, however, now that I want to find it so I can share the source with you and the other info on writing an artist statement, I can't find it.

It'll turn up and I will share some of my who, why, how, whats with you another day, along with some pictures of these things I have been doing.

TA-ta

3 comments:

Gerrie said...

I do postcards on timtex - duh! - had not thought of doing small art quilts. Great idea!! Can't wait to see this work.

Deborah Boschert said...

All great ideas for mounting. I can't wait to see pictures. I mounted some small pieces on stretched canvas and was pleased with the results.

Sonji Hunt said...

Artist statements are difficult to write, aren't they. Since I love to ramble, I really have to pointedly limit what I say and continuously ask myself if what I wrote answers the question it is supposed to answer...not six other questions that weren't even asked.

I finished mine last week because I was applying for a local artist's grant. I was pleased with what I wrote. After I sent the application package off, there wasn't anything that I wished I had stated.