Garage Sales

I am loving taking photos of items at garage sales. Here's one from today - a friend's aperitif glasses reflecting on the white plastic table. The hot sunny day made for some good photos.

And here are a few more from a sale I had in 2008.

 

A Photo for Today

Sunny Photo for a Sloggy Day

It is "raining" in HMB. Not real rain - but they heavy soupy fog that makes everything wet. I call that sloggy.  It is pretty warm though. But not hot or humid. Just not freezing.

So here's a "sunny" photo to remind me that the sun is shining somewhere today.

Sunset Magazine Open House Menlo Park

Flogged with people, right at opening time of 10 am. It was warm and muggy, and lots of fun things to see. I concentrated on cheese tasting and photo taking.

Here are a couple of shots of the event.  Nice to get out of the house and fog (House of Fog?) and be around some people. Lots of people. (Notice how I avoided taking photos of the crowds?)

It's Saturday, and I'm a bit exhausted, but in a good way. I've been working - at work stuff and art stuff - pretty furiously since I got back from Italy in mid-March.  I submitted to shows I forgot I'd applied to, and got accepted into things that I thought were a long shot, so why bother. It's not a lot on the grand scale of life as an artist, but it is starting to feel like traction. 

My art refresher a couple of weeks ago with Eileen Goldenberg was a good reminder that success doesn't usually fall out of the sky into your lap. My favorite saying - Luck is When Preparation Meets Opportunity - reminds me that though creating new work or applying for a show, or putting a posting on Facebook about my latest goings-on may seem too small to matter, these little things start to add up.

I saw a friend yesterday I hadn't seen in 15 years. We had a nice time chatting at Starbuck's and she asked me to send her information about what I was doing. When I put the email together I realized "whew," that's a lot going on (each one has a link to images):

Italy Photos Book

Current Monotype Print Show in Half Moon Bay May 3 - July 30

Photos for Eco Art/Blue Planet show in SF June 24-27

Fins, Feathers and Fur Show at Pacific Art League June 2010

25 Boxes (SOLD OUT)

 So today, I'm celebrating. I'm taking it easy, catching up on reading and surfing, puttering around the house a little, and enjoying this brief plateau of art success.

Thanks for hanging in there with me. I'm going to keep up the good work. And maybe have a little nap!

Props to Bay Photo

Ok - if you haven't ever done this (photos printed on metal), please consider it. Wow. They are so amazing.

I started on this journey Thursday 6/3, at about 9:30 am. I had a migraine starting to go into overdrive, so I worked fast on the computer by uploading Bay Photo's ordering/management software. I had sized my photos on Photoshop using Image Size for 30" x 20" and saved them as .jpgs. I uploaded the files (~14-16 MB each) using the BayROES software. They uploaded like a breeze...so fast!

Then, I went and had a power nap with a towel wrapped 'round my head and ears to block out noise and light. I woke up around 1 pm feeling a bit better, but still off. I worked some, and rested some more. Then, around 5 pm I got an email from Bay Photo saying the order was at UPS!!!!  The website promised processing within 3 business days, so this 6 working hours was amazing.

Today - Friday (6/4) (one day later) at 6:30 pm, UPS showed up with the prints. They were packaged beautifully, and they matched what I ordered to perfection. Very professional job all the way around and an excellent example of underpromise and overdeliver in action.
 

I would highly recommend Bay Photo in Santa Cruz - the totally on-line aspect of the system will work for anyone, anywhere.

It is hard to appreciate how amazing these are in a photo of a photo. Bay Photo made it so easy that I already feel like a metal printing expert!

On the Water II Accepted for Blue Planet Show

Wow - they emailed today to say they'd forgotten to tell me that the companion piece to On the Water I was also accepted into the Blue Planet show. Too (two) cool!

On the Water II

30 x 20"

Digital Print on Aluminum

On the Water I Accepted for Blue Planet Show

On The Water I

30 x 20"

Digital Photo Printed on Aluminum

 Laura D McHugh

Eco-Art Blue Plant Exhibition

 SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco

June 19-26, 2010

 

Eco-art often carries a layered meaning that aids in the understanding and appreciation of the environment, addresses community values, and/or inspires activism on behalf of the ecological systems of which humans and their cultures are a part. For the Blue Planet Exhibition, work that examines and explores the social, political and economic issues related to water will be exhibited. Given that water covers 70% of our “Blue Planet, this exhibition is an opportunity to re-envision, reclaim, remediate and restore our relationships with this most precious resource.

ORGANIZED/PRESENTED BY: Women’s Caucus for Art-Pacific Region 
JUROR: Eco-Artist Kim Abeles

EXHIBITION DATES: June 19 – June 26, 2010
LOCATION: SOMArts Cultural Center 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco 
RECEPTION: Saturday, June 26, 2010, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.


We were pleased to receive 270 submissions in a broad range of media from 117 artists throughout the United States. It was a time-consuming and difficult task for the juror, Kim Abeles, to evaluate submissions for this show. In the end, she selected a range of pieces from 50 artists that spoke of our precious element, water, and eco-art activism.
 

Panels 1 and 2

I think these are complete. I'm happy with them except for the pink on Panel #2 and that there is an empty spot on that same piece.

I'll see how I feel tomorrow. 

I keep adding progressive pictures on this blog entry.

Progression of Four Paintings

I'm doing four related encaustic paintings. They started as four nicely made 12x12" wood panels onto which I put magic encaustic gesso (Holy Grail) on each panel. Then I used Elmer's glue to adhere the background text.

This is the same text I used on four large panels from my work at Women's Art Institute three years ago. Yesterday, I typed it all from the panels into a document (11 single spaced pages!), the printed it out in 11x11 squares on 11x17 paper. (I love 11x17 paper.)  I went out for a little while today to see the Children's Art Walk downtown, the fired up the wax when I got back and started on panel #1 (0-10 yrs).

Here are three shots of the process. Tomorrow - ah - a day off. I'll be able to work on Panels 2-4.

Paint a Little Every Day

And it starts adding up to that 10,000 hours. Today, I did a diptych. Two 8x8" panels that I had scraped some gawd-awful art off of earlier this week (remember when I had a bad day and used the torch and scraper when it arrived in the mail)?

The panels cleaned up nicely, so I experimented with colored wax, taped off areas, and image transfers (gotta love those image transfers). 

I put the panels right up against each other so they are "fused" together because the wax bridges them. It is a tentative connection. Not sure how long it will last. At least as long as I can keep the panels from flexing. I put a large binder clip on the back to hold them together. Optimal would be to hammer a piece of wood across them more permanently, but that might screw up the front.

Here is the whole piece:

and two detail shots.

4 Women x 365 Days

I take a photo that gets posted every day with three other women's photos on this blog. Some days, the photo I take is just with my iPhone because I don't have my big 'un with me. 

Here's one from yesterday.

Another Encaustic and Prints Framed for PAL Show

Art for today was the following:

I'm loving working in wax. Here's a 12x12." The working title is "Burned." It incorporates a print I did last year as the base, with several layers of images from other sources.

And here are my two fish prints. You may recall that I wasn't too happy with them - the yellow color didn't do much for me and the two watercolored fish on the right seemed too much on the surface. Last night I decided to put a light blue glaze over them as an homage to the fact that they are fish, in the water.

The technique allowed me to make scrapes in the surface of the yellow painting, though it didn't seem to change the yellow too much. On the painting on the right, the blue added a depth to the piece that was nice. Also, just putting them in frames helped so, so much. They now look quite professional and I'm ready to put them in the PAL Show that will be up in June.

Packets Ready - Check!

The packets for my next mixed media class are ready to go! Expecting 20 attendees. Yay!

On the Playground #1

Today's art. Encaustic. 12x12"

Two Isotropic Light Point Sources

I did this print in the printmaking class last summer. Now, with the encaustic, I have a new version of it.

Watching Wax Cool

Step 1 in doing encaustic - making the wax.  Here is some of it cooling in muffin tins. When these harden I can melt them and make colors. The bigger pans will be for the plain (non-colored) wax.

In a Group Show - Fur, Feathers and Fins at Pacific Art League

Some of these prints of my fish just got accepted into the upcoming show at Pacific Art League - Fur, Feathers and Fins.

It opens in June.

Back to Encaustic - The Urge

I took a nice refresher workshop from Eileen Goldenberg on Friday. Wow - I'd forgotten a lot. Enough that I just wasn't jazzed working with encaustic. Well, thanks to Eileen's tips and tricks, I'm back in the game. Whoo hooo!

Photojojo #183

Photojojo #182 - Fish on Stools

I'm behind on posting a backlog of photojojos. So busy with work, volunteer opportunities and teaching the last of my mixed media art classes. Here's #182. It's fishy, where these came from :)

Mine is a shot of the yard through a stool I bought at IKEA; my partner's is the fishy part.

Website for Mixed Media Collage Workshops Now Up

If you are a follower of me and my art, you may know that I'm now teaching mixed media collage workshops. I LOVE teaching these workshops. It is so fun to pass along to others what I've learned on my own and from books and workshops I've taken.

Here are a couple of quotes from recent attendees:

I love your class - your approach to teaching, your work and your willingness to share your secrets.  All of it.  You're such a excellent teacher and I'm so excited to share you with my friends!!!  

--PS, Spring 2010
 
This class has been so wonderful. I’ve learned so many new techniques and it is something I want to use to take my photography in a new direction. 
 

-- NW, Spring 2010


Mixed media/collage is such a wonderful technique. You can see the website for my workshops here.

Please be sure to pass this along to anyone who might be interested. The next workshop at Accent Arts will be some time in the late summer or fall. I'm also offering private workshops for groups - details are on the flyer.

4 Women 365 Days - Get Together on Debbie Kolm's Birthday

We had a little union* of the 4 x 365 girls this weekend. Ann was in town from Houston and we got together in my garage to take a photo of all of us with my little Fuji polaroid clone (instax) camera. Left to right: Nancy West, me, Ann Schroeder, and Diane Costello.

Thanks to Diane's longer arms, we were able to get us all in one shot - no one but the little dogs were home so we had to "do it ourselves." Anyway, it was a great meeting, and we look forward to doing the rest of the year, a photo each per day, and possibly going into 2011 again.

We are also thinking of putting together a book of all the photos using Blurb or something similar, so stay tuned on that front.

Here's a link to the blog, with a photo posted by each of the four of us every day since January 1, 2010. Enjoy! 4 women 365 days *since this was our first meeting, I won't call it a reunion. That will be next time we get together.

This Week's Mixed Media Class - Boxes!

I'm so sad - we only have one more week of the mixed media class. Next week, we'll be doing finishes and embellishments. This week, we did boxes. Here's mine:

Photojojo #181

Policeman (theirs) in the shadow of the garbage can (mine).

Photojojo #180!

I've been busy with art lately and distracted away from my photojojos, but here's #180.

Dolls taken by my partner along with a photo of a rose blooming in my front yard. Today would have been my grandma's 106th birthday. She loved these roses. Happy Birthday Grandma!

Installed, But Do Come See It In Person May 3-July 30

No Pics to Show for It...But The Show is Now Up

and I'm exhausted. After a long day out with family at a fun late - Easter party, I went to the salon to hang my show. All the planning paid off and things went mostly as planned. At one point I set the hammer down and looked for it for a good solid 15 minutes. Finally found it then could finish what I started.

I forgot my camera, so I'll take photos of it tomorrow morning and post them. Now - bedtime!