Lady Bug Circus

Super Nice Interview by Create Whimsy

Thanks to the recommendation  of a glass artist friend, Carol Milne, I was approached by Chardel at Create Whimsy to be their Spotlight Artist.

Check out the interview here.

I Went To The Price is Right

I did not get called to "come on down" at The Price is Right. This is a souvenir photo, and yes I am butt hurt over it. But then I am someone who when I buy a lottery ticket I'm sure I have the winning numbers, check them twice even though the first number is wrong and then scratch my head in disbelief. So small wonder. I tried for two days. Had a ticket for the third day but was too tired.

Basically it's a lot of waiting. You wait to get checked in, then wait some more. Then you get "interviewed" by a man who makes the decision on whether you are good TV material or not. His name is Dan and he spends about 20 seconds or less with you. "Where are you from, what do you do for a living?" I watched him as he was interviewing the group ahead of us and saw him spend a lot more time with one older gentleman in particular, I knew that man would be chosen and he was. You are told that you are being watched while you are in line and in the audience and that you never know who will be called. So naturally I was doing my best to look happy and engaging with all the people around me. That's the most exhausting part. I waited next to a woman and her sons, who had flown out from Iowa. She was so boring and I'm smiling and asking her questions about her minivan as if I was interested. It was almost painful. When I would try and interject something about myself she would look straight forward and not respond. So I'm pretty sure she thought I was just as boring. Imagine?!

So after more waiting, they take your cellphone away and give you a ticket to pick it up after the taping (another long line to wait in after the fact). Smart watches are to be left in your car, so don't bring one. You go through metal detectors twice so forget putting it in your pocket. Then you are seated, and contemporary pop music is being blasted to get everyone hyped up. I was seated next to a toothless, long gray haired, bearded senior in a ball cap and puffy jacket. He looked like he might be homeless. He said it was his 8th time being in the audience.

The studio is much smaller than it looks on TV. Monitors are on the ceiling so you can see what's happening on stage. Mostly the view is blocked by 5 cameras. One woman gives you signals when to stand, when to clap, when to make more noise, when to help contestants with bidding and when to be quiet.

The best part of the taping is Drew Carey who pretty much riffs off the contestants during the commercial breaks. He is naturally funny. He asked one person what they did for a living (I couldn't see them). Then pretending to smoke a cigarette he says "So you're a buyer? Hey, we're all buyers. Welcome to America bitch". It was hilarious to see him being more himself than he is when the cameras are rolling. Drew and the announcer George Grey have some pretty good banter, mostly lost on the majority of the audience. George said he's getting married in May to a woman ( I thought he was gay) that had been in the audience during a taping. She happened to be at a bar he likes and they ended up drinking together and became friends and the rest is history.

The next day I wore my hair differently, changed my glasses and tried to get more banter going with Dan. When he asked me what I did I said I had just quit my job as a removal technician for an after care center. He was ready to move on and I said "Do you know what that is?" He was already so done with me but said "No". So I said "It's picking up dead bodies, and after 10 and half hours I had to quit". This did not help my chances one iota.

 

Northwest Designer Craftsmen Art Exhibit at the Washington State Convention Center

The members of the Northwest Designer Craftsmen are showing their work for the next 3 months at the Seattle Convention Center's Phyllis Lamphere Gallery on the second floor. Pictured above is my tin art, Fandango. Photo by Daniel Fox

 

 

The Northwest Designer Craftsmen are pleased to be exhibiting
The Contemporary Art of Pacific Northwest Crafts
at the WA State Convention Center

September 29 - January 6, 2019
705 Pike St, Seattle, WA 98101
7am to 10pm daily
Level 2 Main Galleria
Everyone is welcome

Our Daily Homage , a group show at ArtsWest

Our Daily Homage

Mar 12 – May 02 2015

Eric Carson, Mark Daughhetee, Jenny Fillius

Reception and Artist Talks Thursday April 9th 6-9pm

With sculpture, drawing and painting, Eric Carson, Mark Daughhetee, and Jenny Fillius each work with found mythology to suggest themes of reclamation and devotion in our contemporary world.

Eric Carson uses the format of the mandala [the Hindu/Buddhist ritualistic design that organizes a spiritual experience in visual terms] to symbolically connect the world’s religions to each other, and to comment on the intersection of those beliefs with political and cultural issues. The way these line-based drawings are made—as well as their content—suggests a hybrid of references, from Western cartoons to Hieronymus Bosch to Hindu devotional painting. Carson writes, “These pieces present insight traditions around the world as petals of the same flower, not creeds to divide by or kill for.”

Mark Daughhetee’s Stations series of assemblage sculptures pay homage to old TV shows like Bonanza and The Lawrence Welk Show. Plastic cowboys stand stoically among clumps of hobby shop moss under a peaked roof. The format is reminiscent of compositions from the Renaissance and inspired by roadside memorials, as well as Thai spirit houses. Humor, child-like reverence for TV, and manhood (as defined by old Hollywood) are the main characters. Daughhetee writes, “Like one’s journey through life, each television program, in its turn, occupied center stage for a while and left when the curtain fell for the last time.”

Describing her process, Jenny Fillius writes “Being observant, anything can trigger an idea—an overheard expression, something on the street, an experience, the metal, a broken tin toy; literally anything.” Fillius finds and repurposes decorative sheet metal in the form of broken toys and used tin food containers to make sculptures suggestive of the retablos of Mexican folk art. Since most of the metal Fillius uses appears to have come from one’s childhood, or one’s parent’s childhood, the narratives that ensue are partly-articulated hints that nostalgia has gone awry in some way that we in 2015 are privy to.

Susanna Bluhm

For more information click here

Bainbridge Island Museum of Art - Cut & Bent

 

"Tin as an artistic medium is fairly unusual even though it has surrounded us for many decades.  With the surge in interest in environmental conservation, it is no wonder artists have found their way to contribute by recycling tins into artistic expression.

Each of the artists in this show have their own stories of becoming attracted to tin, discovering their own very personal methods of dealing with a difficult material, and, in the process, developing their own styles.  In learning more about these artists, it seems most of them are “obsessed” to some degree with the material. They seem to love the process of searching out tins and collecting them (hoarding?). They see some promising detail or color scheme that resonates with their personal vision, but not sure when or where any particular tin will come into “being” as an artwork. 

Tin Art, in the hands of these artists, while already being manufactured with bright graphic images, comes through as a reflection of our cultural and social past, though filtered and projected by each artist’s individual vision.  We all have a relationship with tin. As we look closely at these artworks, we will also tend to find our own past buried deep within these works."

- Bill Baran-Mickle, Guest Curator

 

 

Exhibit runs until June 7th.

 To listen to a podcast interview of  Jenny Fillius click here

Austin Kleon and Me...

Meet Austin Kleon, author of Show Your Work, Steal Like an Artist and Newspaper Blackout.

Austin is really smart, engaging and insightful, not to mention funny. I saw him talk about his book last night at Town Hall in Seattle. Before it even began he was talking to the attendees and moving about the floor greeting people in his casual manner. He also played the piano, which of course made him ever more endearing in his All Stars.

Show Your Work  -10 ways to share your work and get discovered (Workman publishing) is caulk full of excellent advice for artists of all ilks.

Click on the link above to buy your copy.

Thank you Austin!

 

 

BAM Art Fair 2013

This was a very good experience for me as I learned a lot. Art fairs are a ton of work. First you have to enter and in some cases pay an entrance fee. Then if you are accepted, get going! Make art so you have enough to fill your booth--you do have a booth, right? That is something else you'll need to come up with, along with lighting, flooring, walls and some sort of support to display your work on. Then there is the booth and storage fee. I also chose to rent the curtains, carpeting, table and bar stools. I bought bags, tissue, bubble wrap, and business cards. I have great admiration for the artists who make their livings doing art fairs, it's a ton of work for an unpredictable outcome. If you want to give it a go be sure to Google "art fair advice" so you can learn as much as possible. Had I known what I know now, I wouldn't have done it, but then I'd have always wondered what it would've been like.

Photographs by Christina V. Thank you!

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Thank you to the jurors and The City of Auburn Arts Commission.