Ten years ago my son was an 18 year old Marine. He was among the first troops into Iraq and went back AGAIN and AGAIN for a total of three deployments.
Three. Combat. Deployments.
I spent four years being batshit crazy because, you know, I didn’t raise my son for that.
Ten years after shock and awe, Dubya is shocking us again with his godawful paintings. His teacher says he’s going to go down in history as a great painter. Mawhahahahahah. Give. Me. A. Break. You can check out some of his work here. Be sure to scroll down to see the nudes. Self-portraits. Damn, you know those suckers will sell just because. And that is so not fair because they are truly mediocre. If that isn’t enough to earn him a place in hell than I don’t know what is.
Oh…maybe his war.
His goddamn effing war, the one that left 4,488 American service members dead, 32,021 injured. And well over 100,000 Iraqis but no one has the exact numbers. Many of them innocent civilians. Children. And then the coalition forces…
The war we BORROWED to pay for, the war that set our economy and our national reputation, straight into the toilet.
Ten years later GWB is painting pictures of himself in the shower. In the tub.
At the end of the day he’ll be able to wash the paint from his hands but there some things he’ll never be able to scrub from his soul.
Been so busy lately my head is spinning. Round and round just like a ball bearing. It’s enough to make a girl dizzy. Been finishing moving out of the old studio into the new.
But Susan, didn’t you move into the new! improved! Studio Grande six months ago?
Well, yes, I did. In a half-assed sort of way. Just the necessary stuff, you know. But stuff I had no immediate use for or didn’t know what to do with, I left behind hoping it would magically go away on it’s own.
But it didn’t. And now it’s time to rent out the cottage (ka-ching! ka-ching!) so I’ve been sorting, cleaning, donating and moving things from one place to another. Now that the old studio is nearly clean enough to rent out, the new one is TOTAL chaos. Every counter, every inch of floor is covered with S.T.U.F.F.
By this afternoon I needed a sanity break. So I stopped moving and cleaning and started stepping around and over things, poking through things, finding things… cranked up the music and began PAINTING!!!
YAY!!!
Oh, YAY!!! again.
I started with the piece I showed you last time. You can see and read about it here.
Well, the first thing I did was slap some paint on that puppy. I wanted to warm it up so I grabbed some Golden Open Acrylic in Titan Buff. I glopped it on with a palette knife and then spread it thinner using all sorts of arty tools. Brayer. Squeegie. Foam brush.
I am an equal opportunity spreader.
I began adding one of the golds. Not sure which one this is, it’s a darker one, at least straight from the bottle. Lightens up when you spread it tho.
And I continued scribbling using caran d’ache and plain old pencil. Oh, pardon me, graphite.
This is where it stands tonight. More layers still to come but I’m happy where this is headed.
As always, I would love to hear from you in the comments below. I will even blow kisses to you from afar and leave you with a happy face.
Scrolling down my FaceBook newsfeed last night I came across a photo that showed half a dozen sculptures carved from bananas. A few of which, on closer inspection, were rather, umm…rude. But cleverly so.
As an artist I could appreciate the skill and the idea so I shared the photo on my wall.
And within minutes I was challenged…CHALLENGED…by FaceBook friend Donna to make my own, specifically, a banana pony.
So I did. I like a challenge. And I like bananas. And if you’ve been reading this blog for any time you know how I feel about ponies.
First I carved.
Then I kissed.
Then I ate it. Yummm…
But I still had more than half a banana left. So I made a self-portrait, complete with coconut hair, saggy boobies and banana seed age spots.
And I ate her too. She was extra delicious. Mmmm…mmmm…coconut.
Now that I am an experienced banana carver I can pass along some advice. The banana should not be too ripe. I think a greener one would allow for a bit more control. And a paring knife is not the best tool, it didn’t allow for any detail. Something along the lines of clay tools. And a word of warning: what you cut off doesn’t want to go back on. It just gets all mushy, which is why the pony had weird ears.
So there you have it, my first adventure into edible sculpture since art school. I think cream cheese was involved in that one.
If any of you peeps want to try your hand at this, send me your photos or include the links in the comments below.
I like this photo. There’s an edginess to the composition. It’s…arty.
Almost staged. Like there’s a story behind this…but what?
Like, why is the mare looking so bored frightened? What evil intentions lurk in the donkey’s mind? And WHERE is the gelding in all this???
The word noir pops into mind. Bleak, sleezy 1950’s hardboiled detective novelesque noir. Maybe the glimpse of flesh in the lower right corner is a clue. Maybe it’s the hand of EEEEEEEEEE! SCREAM……..
Or maybe it’s just my own hand holding up the iPhone.
BINGO!
Okay, now that we’ve established that I have an overactive imagination and am easily distracted, let’s get to the meat of this post. Let’s get to showing you more photos of this same photo arted up.
Question: Why do you art up your photos, Susan?
Me: Because I’m not a photographer, I’m a photographer’s nightmare…a painter with a camera in my hand.
You: Ohhhhhhh….
Here it is with an HDR filter. HDR standing for high dynamic range o’light. Or o’something. There are MANY to choose from, this just happens to be the one I chose today.
And this one is a combination of effects all piled on top of one another in Photoshop.
This is an oil paint filter. A bit softer than the others.
And another oil filter, this one reminds me of the Crazy String stuff the kids used to play with. As bizarre as it is, this one is growing on me, especially when you see it larger.
Watercolor. You see me use this one often. Or some flavor if it.
And last one for today…Vintage. One of my personal favorites. Definitely adds mystery….
There are many many many MANY variations and layers to all of these filters. I’ll be exploring them, one at a time, in future posts. Look for them under Cool Apps in the Photography Menu.
Meanwhile, I’d love to hear which of these is your favorite. Let me know in the comments below.
And a challenge for my writer friends (or anyone else). Come up with a plot for Barnyard Noir. Sort and sweet, like a haiku. Oh yes, please do. We could have a lot of fun with this. As always, in the comments below.
And here’s another look at Perry, in case you need more inspiration.
