Paper Doll Study - Susie, Sharon, Sally and Sonia

I Want to Work More With Paper Dolls and Playgrounds

Here's a (photoshop) start:

Susie and Bear

Bad Art Night - February 25 2011

I just love Bad Art Night - it is so relaxing. Here's what I created last night.

Look Who Showed Up to Bad Art Night

Kristen, where changes have been made

The couple - he is just so blah, blah, blah

and

Rachael, the Hassidic Jew's daughter

More Funny People

I'm going to be posting my doodles of faces here. I'm working up to being committed to making some "portrait" type art using this method I saw somewhere on-line for drawing better faces.

I doodle the outlines in meetings, then color them with either watercolor or in photoshop.

Here are the first two: the Socialite and The Gym Teacher.

Being Out in the Studio Is Almost As Good As Making Art

This weekend was time for a long-overdue cleaning of the studio. Things have been piling up around my ears since October, when I returned from the Anna Corba workshop and got into that bender of creating things for the December craft faire.

I was in Bellingham and picked up a bunch more exquisite ephemera while there, then we have been doing Bad Art Night and that meant I could justify leaving art materials out because it was just going to be pulled out again in a few days.

Saturday, I just committed to putting a few things away. That quickly turned into everything getting re-stowed, sweeping the floor and tackling a large bag of yarn that my cat-like dogs had tangled together. I was kidding myself to think I was going to rewind these balls. It was difficult to sacrifice yarn to the garbage, but I just couldn't bear to deal with it. The only consolation was that I got a really good deal on the yarn to begin with.

I was rewarded with a spectacular sunset through the top of the garage door windows. Saturday during the day, I used the IKEA tool to design a new studio for the new house. I probably won't paint the walls pink, but it was fun to play with the wall tool.

Bad Art Night Press - Half Moon Bay Review

It's Good to Be Bad

The press on the first West Coast Bad Art Night at my house last Friday night is in and it's good, or is it bad? Because right now, bad is good.

Reporter Stacy Trevenon and staff photographer Lars Howlett did a great job of writing about the first Bad Art Night, in words and pictures. They really got what it is all about, which is the luxury of creating imperfect things and finding the beauty in the mistakes.

I love the quote they included in the box: 

“Some of the best art I’ve ever made has been because there has been an accident. Something unintended: I spilled on a painting, it didn’t go the way I wanted it to — it was exactly what the piece of art needed.”

Claire says I say this all the time. Must be true for me.

First N Cal Bad Art Night

Laura Squared: 365 Photos in 2011: T-Minus 364

Laura Squared: 365 Photos in 2011: T-Minus 364: "Mick Mailboxes Along Miramar Beach Mo Manzanita tree. One of Amanda's nicknames (minus tree)."

1/1/2011 - Photo a Day

Claire Bear Turns 16!

We had  a great day yesterday, doing 16 things to celebrate turning 16 years old. See more here:

Bad Art Night Starting Up in Half Moon Bay for 2011

We're starting up an N Cal "section" of Twin Cities' Bad Art Night.

Read on for more information. Contact me (Laura McHugh) to be added to the invite list.

Henry Darger - Outsider Artist b. 1892 d. 1973

I went to a South Bay Area Women's Caucus for Arts (SBAWCA) art circle today in Berkeley. I had a lovely critique of my art, by Susan, Starr, Rosemary and Victoria. And I got to see their art and critique it too.

I took these pieces, from my recent work in May 2010 and my show at Bamboo. What an interesting critique when several people mentioned that my pieces reminded them of the work of Henry Darger.

I had never heard of Darger before today, but when I see his work, I do see at least a striking visual similarity and reading about him has helped me appreciate how I might deepen my work and continue moving it in an interesting direction. Whee, this making art is fun!

Today's Jojo - 12/2/10

Lynn's on the right, mine on the left. Happy Friday!

Mine was taken on a mini-photo shoot outing with my photographer friend Nancy West. We shot down at the SSF train tracks for about 30 min this afternoon. Lots of cool graffiti there.

I'm back to truly jojo-ing. This was my fave photo I took today, and it goes well with what Lynn had on deck for today, but I didn't know that when we each picked our photos. Random. Curious. Coincidental.

Jojo of the Day

I'm going to jojo with Lynn's latest photos by putting my Daily 365 photo, whatever that is, with the photo Lynn sent me. This will be interesting!

Here's today's, in honor of my Dad's 84th birthday! Happy Birthday Dad!

Thanksgiving Jojos With Lynn

Curly (LS) and Straight (Laura)

Duck (LS) and Hall Lights (Laura)

Flower (LS) and Marsha's Shoes with Words (Laura)

Today's 365 Photo That Won't Load Over There

This is a photo from Mike's office this morning. It's an engineer's museum of failures. Wow. Love, love, love it.

Sunday Jojos with Lynn

Here are three lovely 'jojos on this blustery, rainy morning.

 

Cavallini & Company Warehouse Sale - The Full Report

 

Here is my field report from the Cavallini sale yesterday:

My friend Nancy came to my house at 6:50 sharp. I'd just seen an email from Barb and Bob that they were leaving from up north at 5:45 am.

We made our coffee and got in the car and headed from Half Moon Bay to SSF. I know exactly how long this takes (25 min) because I drive it every day. So we got to Cavallini's right at 7:30 am. Already, there were about 80 people in line. It was cold and blustery, but not raining. We parked next door in the Genentech gym parking log (Building 75!) and walked a very short distance through the landscaping to get in line.

The Cavallini's staff had a big tank of coffee with half/half and all the accoutrements, plus donuts on a cart that they brought down the line. Just as umbrellas started to pop up the large warehouse door on the left opened and the crowd literally ran in. Being short, I couldn't see what was on many of the tables that were swarmed. I later learned those were small "gift bags" like kids get at birthday parties. Then, there were tables of paper - oodles of them, calendars old and new, sets of cards in boxes and in tins, blank paper from the ends of card runs. Tip: look on the bottom of the tables - good stuff there for us short folks!  I just grabbed everything that appealed to me and it was very soon too much to carry. Luckily I'd thought ahead to bring a shopping bag or two. I checked out really quickly - no line at all - and took this stuff to the car. Seriously, I could barely carry it. The plastic wrapping combined with the rain didn't help - everything was getting really slippery. (My arms ache a little today; note to self - work out more. I kept thinking of that cute blonde woman in the red track suit and high heels on the Target ads!)

Then, I came back for Round #2 - ding ding. I loaded up again with smaller stuff and had more time to look at the papers. I ended up getting about 100 sheets of paper total. They are quite heavy, but by the second round, one of their staff had brought out a box of rubber bands so we could roll the paper.

At this point, due to the heavy rain outside, the line inside Cavallinis was wrapping in a spiral inside the warehouse. It was comical to see the end of the line keep moving around poles, behind stacks of boxes. Everyone was very cheerful and nice. Many temporary friendships were made in the lines.  One guy, smartie, had about four large boxes of things pushed to a little corner. Rather than waiting in the line, which in round two took about 45 minutes, I think he just waited until the madness subsided and checked out restfully.

Barb was shopping quite leisurely because smiling Bob was there in line. She was cute - kept taking more things back. He was cute - smiling and holding down the fort. Then, Anna and Bill showed up and had some sensible shopping where most of the people were in line.  My friend Nancy kept texting me wondering where I was because it was so packed we couldn't see one another.  The beginning did have a bit of a "feeding frenzy" atmosphere to it, but we were home by 10:40, and that included the drive and a short stop at the market.

Would I do it again? Absolutely! Though I have enough stuff to last a lifetime, it seems.

Afterwards, Nancy and I scooted home to get some things at the market, including the last croissant (one!) in Half Moon Bay and Barb/Bob/Anna/Bill joined us for a lovely brunch. Cream cheese and chive eggs, bacon, a selection of pastries, one croissant, good hot coffee, strawberries and raspberries with yogurt and granola, and some sourdough toast with Bon Maman jam I'd bought at the market in Revelle with Anna and Bill the first Monday. We hashed over the good times at La Cascade and caught up on what everyone's been doing. We missed you Toni, Doria, Sue, Valerie and Leslie, but you were truly all there in spirit, especially those of you who had sent me a shopping list!

Here are the only two photos I had the time to take.

Waiting to get in: open, open, open!



Polite mayhem at the paper table:



The eggs and strawberries, waiting for company to arrive. (Photo credit to Nancy West.)

Cavallini & Company Warehouse Sale

Today, I went to the Cavallini & Company Warehouse Sale  in South SF. Picked up some awesome paper, cards, stamp sets, etc. Some for me and some for my friends from the France workshop. Afterwards, Anna and Barb came by my house and we had a lovely civilized lunch. Bob and Bill were there too and Nancy.

We got there around 7:30 am (yawn!) and stood in the cold until 8 am when they opened the doors. It was just starting to rain. They had coffee and donuts for us and it was all very well organized.  

What a great day. Now I have piles of stuff to put away, mail, etc.