Day 31: Paths

Title: Minotaur Maze
Assignment: Make a path for people to follow and invite others to try it out.
Materials: paper, pencil, ink, colored pencil, PS
Inspiration: Well I wasn't about to go out and build a ruddy path, so instead I learned how to draw a maze (http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Draw-a-Maze) and drew this homage to the Daddy of all Surprises at the end of the Path.

Day 30: Playtime

Title: Weltschrei

Assignment: Work with toys.

Materials: one of those annoying paddle ball things that I always end up hitting myself with or breaking a vase, acrylics, an orange bag for the background.

Inspiration: Well, this one is pretty obvious. ;-) But I extended the metaphor to the snapping point by painting the world on the rubber ball, in order to constantly smack Edvard Munch's man in the kisser.

Thirty days and thirty pieces down! Can't believe how quickly it has gone, and how much fun I've been having. These assignments are indeed pushing me to try new things, to use familiar materials in unfamiliar ways, and to make me seek out the art that is hidden inside and around me.

Day 29: Disguise

Title: Mardi Gras Princess!
Assignment: Make a disguise for yourself, a friend, a pet or an object. See if you can fool anyone with it.

Materials: Playdoh, an antique button, mardi gras beads, skull.

Inspiration: Working in the theatre, I'm not all that big on disguises in real life, so instead I gave Yorick here a mask to wear so that he'd fit right in with the festivities that are just around the corner. The smell of Playdoh took me back just as the fingerpaints did last night. Why do we stop playing with all this cool s**t when we get older?

Day 28: Back to School

Title: WAKEY WAKEY
Assignment: Use traditional school materials to make something nontraditional.

Materials: Fingerpaint, colored pens, a little PS touchup

Inspiration: Who DOESN'T love clowns?? Just about everyone, this girl included.

But I loved using fingerpaints as a kid, even though I still remember being obsessed in nursery school with the color red and using my beloved dog Fritz as my subject. Come 'Parent Night', all the other kids had a wonderful happy variety of colorful scenes from our weekly art sessions up on the walls - my poor parents must have thought they were raising a serial killer when they saw my 26 pictures of a very red Schnauzer on a very red lawn under a very red tree and sun. Luckily for them and me I grew out of my 'RED FRITZ' period. Not sure what they'd make of today's piece, though. ;-)

I'm thinking few things are scarier than clowns, and waking up to see one LOOMING OVER YOU?
First one is my imagined young child's version of this nightmare, and then a more detailed rendering.

There's a fabulous artist, Dave Devries, who takes kid's drawings and makes them into realistic pieces-
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mathieus/what-would-a-childs-drawing-look-like-if-it-8q4
Absolutely inspiring - I wish I had an ounce of his talent!

Day 27: Dreamland

Title: But I Don't WANT Any Meatballs.

Assignment: Use a recent dream as inspiration for what you do today.

Materials: Street maps of Chicago, San Francisco and NYC, acrylics, crayon, pen, a picture of a bus driver and one of my friend Anne.

Inspiration: I wish I could remember the exciting, exotic dreams, the ones about flying or vanquishing my foes, but when I'm directing a show I get...stress dreams. Being out of control dreams. Dreams of being lost in a city that doesn't make sense, on the wrong bus that is taking me miles out of my way, unable to get to a phone, or get change for that phone or remember the phone number, or every piece of modern technology I have with me goes on the fritz so I can't get ahold of a friend who I'm supposed to be meeting and time is ticking away. And the bus driver is cheerily insisting he's now taking us over to his house for meatballs.
Ah, the subtle language of dreams - whatever COULD it mean?

Oddly, I had this dream last night after a particularly GOOD rehearsal!

Day 26: Portable

Title: Baggage

Assignment: Make something portable (or that seems portable) that normally isn't.

Materials: Colored pencil, pen, watercolor, some PS for retouching.

Inspiration: I went less literal on this one, wanting to get back to putting something on paper rather than doing a 'craft' type piece. The worst monsters I know are the ones inside, and wouldn't it be sweet if we could just pack them all up and dump them on the side of the road?

Day 25: Nature

Title: Seasquatch

Assignment: Work with nature. Go to your yard or a nearby park and collect materials to work with.

Materials: Seaweed, sands, clam shells, rocks, drift wood.

Inspiration: Decided to work at Carkeek Park beach and brave the wind and cold long enough to build the piece there with whatever I could find. The seaweed struck me as looking like matted hair, so a rather goofy looking monster was born.

Day 24: It's not easy being green

Title: Verde gris-gris

Assignment: Work only with green-colored materials today.

Materials: Green fuzzy headed pen, alien bendy, dental tape, plastic thimble, a ribbon (looks more green in real life than in pic, and in first shot, my green Jimmio cap.

Inspiration: Needing to throw some voodoo around to prevent any more crises in my current show.

Day 23: Waste not.

Title: Recyclobot

Assignment: Dig in a recycling bin for all of today's materials

Materials: Plastic milk jug and cap, paper towel roll, wine bottle, tin foil, egg carton, 2 paper bags, kleenex box lid, 3 tin cans, some yarn off an old Michael Kors bag. No glue or tape used, only what I found in the bin. I did use my Swiss Army Knife for cutting.

Inspiration: In the future, the recycling nazis will be all be robots.

 Recyclobot mans his post.

Recyclobot happily contemplates world domination.

Recyclobot reflects sadly upon the inability of carbon-based lifeforms to separate plastics, metal and paper.

Day 22: Bridge

Title: Heeeeeelp MEEEeeeeeee!

Assignment: Connect two things in a creative way.

Materials: Yarn, a bookcase, cottonballs, scissors and the Vincent Price magnet handmade for me by Mr. A. Anderson. Utilized my Dracula book collection shelf as a backdrop.

Inspiration: THE FL, (even though I know full well that Vincent was never THE Fly ;-) )
and thinking of  how much I hate spiders, and that it should be possible to knot together a spider web, right? Sure enough, thanks to the Great God Google:

http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Build_a_Giant_Spider_Web

Mine is on a much smaller scale obviously, as it is way too early here for Halloween, even for me.

Day 21: Love Story

Title: A Consummation Devoutly to be Missed.

Well this one was quite an experiment, and definitely a rough attempt. For some reason as a kid I never made one of those claymation films, and now that it should be easy, it still isn't! I just wanted to see what it was like, hence the super rough clay figures. Tried powerpoint and a variety of slideshow assemblers, but still can't figure out how to make the stills move as quickly as they do in my camera slideshow.

But you get the idea, at least. This blog site doesn't like the movie files much, but it may work better if you expand it to full size by clicking the little screen icon in the lower right corner.

Day 20: Claytime

Title: What's in the Basement of the Old House?

Assignment: Buy or make some clay, then use it in a way you never have before.

Materials: Black and white sculpey, various utensils for cutting and edging, a rolling pin, staples for the handles, an old necklace for the chain and a bit of black ribbon for the lining. I put a real-sized ring next to it to show the size.

Inspiration: I've never tried making something with edges in clay before, I've always done figures. So this was a challenge figuring out how a box would go together, then how to make it look 'coffin-ish'. I'm a big ol Dark Shadows fan, so the hand struggling to get out is a very dear one to me. ;-)

WILLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!!!

Day 19: What floats?

Title: "So...NOT a witch then?"

Assignment: Create something that floats on water.

Materials: Annie Bonney action figure dressed in a robe I made out of some old black tights, a witches hat made from cardboard, paper and paint, a rock, water in my bathroom sink and a little PS to blend two shots together. (I'd also tried carving a tiny little carrot nose with strings attached to it, but that proved to look too large and phallic-like!)

Inspiration: The 'witch trial' scene in the movie Monty Python's Holy Grail. I rather like the creepy monster face that seems to come out in the reflection on the water.

Day 18: What you find in your car

Title: Vladragon

Assignment: Work with the things you find in your car.

Materials: Wine bottle opener, scratch ticket, casino card lanyard, Census glove, wrist band from Mt. St. Helens, screwdriver set from Helen and Chris's Christmas cracker, leather straps from my new gloves, ear jack for my cell phone, Salvation Army thermos and a business card from HerbalLife that was left on my windshield, taped with a bandaid from a box of them that I think Don left in my car.

Inspiration: My car is named Vlad, so only appropriate I create something from his detritus representing the Order of the Dragon.

Extra Credit - Still snowing, still going cabin-crazy...
Entitled: SNOWGRE

Day 17: Eye cover

Title: Icy U

Assignment: Make something inspired by and/or that goes over an eye (yours or someone else's)

Materials: pair of old sunglasses, tin foil, scissors and a turkey lacing pin for the holes. Placed on a skull sculpture out on my front railing.

Inspiration: I've been snow-bound the last couple days - always a traumatic, unexpected event here in Seattle.  It sure is pretty to look at until you have to actually GO somewhere...

And just because I AM going a bit bonkers, stuck here...

Day 16: Stamp

Title: Vlad

Assignment: make a unique print by cutting up a potato or sponge and use it to stamp on a material of your choice.

Materials: kitchen sponge, paint brushes, scissors, pen, ink, acrylic paint, on paper, a little PS.

Inspiration: Playing around with the initial sponge stipple pattern, it reminded me of a swarm of bats. Chris Lee's Drac appearing out of it was an easy choice after that.

Day 15: Dollar Bill

TITLE: Washington Needs BRAINS

ASSIGNMENT: What can you do with just a dollar? Use a dollar bill as your medium or inspiration today.

MATERIALS: Dollar bill, white-out, pencil, red ink pen, red sharpie.

INSPIRATION: I first wrestled with a number of origami shapes out of a fun present I got from Chuck and Brenda - a book titled ZOMBIGAMI, but I need a heck of a lot more practice before I can even make a lousy pickaxe! So I kept the zombie theme and altered George instead.

Day 14: Microscopic

Title: Snowmoeba


Assignment: Make something microscopic. How small can you work? Can you make something that requires a magnifying glass or microscope to see?


Materials: Snow on Magnifying glass, looking through it into the lights over my kitchen table, taken with my Casio Exlim and modified with good ol PS.


Inspiration: Our first belated snow of the winter. I cheated a tad on this one, used the 'letter' of the assignment more than the specifics. After a few failed attempts at teenytiny art, I  just played around with the magnifying glass and the weird Rorschach images I saw in the melting snowflakes, then tried to emphasize the hands and face that were monsterish.

I do like the Steampunk colors and shapes, but he does look rather like a drowning Pikachu.

  

Day 13: A calming cup of tea

Title: Screaming Banshee

Assignment: Use tea leaves or tea bags, used or unused or even just liquid tea to create something.

Materials: Lipton and a fruity red tea, tea leaves, paintbrushes, black Sarasa pen for accent. I used a bit of the Lipton label for the pupils.

Inspiration: I think this one'd have to go more into the category of therapy than art, attempting to get past a disturbing encounter with a woman who suddenly went all banshee on my ass.

It helped, but I don't think I'll be keeping this one around. ;-)

 Buh-bye, bad ju-ju!

Day 12: Camouflage

Title: Chayote Snake


Assignment: create or alter something so that it disappears into the background.


Materials: Photos, PS using Watercolor, Liquify and Blur.


Inspiration: When I shot the Chayote at the asian market yesterday, I noted then that it looked rather like a snake. He doesn't DISAPPEAR exactly, but he could hang out long enough to GET you.

Day 11: Work on the other hand

Title: Fish Sinister

Assigment: Pick a medium you are comfortable with, then work with your non-dominant hand.

Materials: Pen, Pencil, Colored pencil

Inspiration: I love strolling through asian markets and looking at the unusual (to me) foods. Shot a lot of pix of exotic fruits and veg, enjoying the colors and patterns of the seafood and thought I might be able to use them today or for future projects. Sure enough, this guy crawled out of my very lazy left hand.

 

Day 10: Water

Title: Ugly Bags of Mostly Water

Assignment: Use only water as your material/inspiration

Materials: a fogged mirror, my bathtub, my eyeball and a lot of Photoshop.

Inspiration: I went through a lot of possibilities, thinking at first I'd go down to the beach, but taking my shower I thought there might be something interesting in using the drain in the tub (which is always scary...) As humans are 75% water, I shot a photo of my eye in the fogged mirror, then played around with PS and the image of what exactly all that DNA eventually grows into when it goes down the drain.

Day 9: Play with your Breakfast

Title: Oatmeal of the Damned

Assignment: Make something with your breakfast before you eat it.

Materials: Bacon and a bowl of oatmeal

Inspiration: My favorite moment in any cinematic graveyard scene.

I discovered two things - bacon is a tasty but terrible medium to work with, and oatmeal makes a decent glue.

Day 8: Transform a book

Title: Care and Feeding of Children

Assignment: "Transform" an old book into something new by cutting, folding, gluing and so on.

Materials: A ghastly book on child rearing from 1916 that I pulled out of the library's garbage. Scissors, sharpies and glue. And one Anne Bonney action figure there lying behind the cover for her boot.

Inspiration: "To Serve Man"

This one was hard for a lot of reasons, but mainly because it goes against every fiber of my being to deface a book, ANY book!

These assignments are getting tougher, not only for inspiration and manipulating the materials, but in terms of time. I don't know how people can whip up masterpieces in only one day! I'm now reading the assignments the night before, and find my dreams are helping me a bit with ideas.

Day 7: Use a Stencil

Title: Eyescape

Assignment: Use a stencil in your work

Material: Paper, spraypaint, exacto knife and a coat hanger.

Inspiration: For some reason, one of the things I doodle a lot are eyes, and I thought of trying to keep them confined behind wire, but of course being monster eyeballs they are about to escape.
Making the stencil was very tough, but the assignment did make me experiment with using photoshop to create the stencil template. I realize I could have used a premade stencil that I simply downloaded, but I wanted more of a challenge. I originally thought I'd just use the spraypainted images, but the bold red stencil cut out turned out to be more effective. So that is the 'head' monster, leading the escape.

Day 6: Strange Fruit

Title: CthuluMusa Sapienta
Assignment: Create something out of the first fruit or vegetable you see in your kitchen.

Materials: One banana, a few toothpicks, a little white-out and pen. Used my swiss army knife for the cutting.

Inspiration: Cthulu, obviously, but I think he looks more like a cross between a heffalump and a woozle. ;-)

I did think the inside of the peel made nice wings.