And After The Reception Part 1

These images are from before dinner, during the ‘wine and cheese’ portion of the gathering.

The Chandelier. I liked it!

Grandma and Mom

Robyn and Anne

Jason and Lauren (right side)

Jason, Lauren, Robyn

Mom showing Grandma My Thesis

Reception & Banquet

I woke up at noon. I’d wanted to get a good amount of sleep in, but I’d had another bout of insomnia and was up until nearly 4am. Yes, I know, that’s still a good 8 hours, however, I just don’t function well on less than ten. I’d been trying to figure out which of these pieces to bring, it just wasn’t coming together. And I had no idea what to wear. I have a closet full of clothing, but most of it was too warm to wear on such a nice day, and the other half didn’t fit. I’ve gained a bit of weight as a side effect to the estrogen, it left a few things that just fit too snug around my middle and hips to be comfortable.

As Robyn and I were discussing moving the 3D Tree into the truck, she was also trying to replace the deadbolt on our door, and it just wasn’t cooperating with her. After moving things around I realized what I should bring with me. It dawned on me I’d been going around this the wrong way. My maternal grandmother, mother and daughter were coming with us.

What I needed was Grandma’s patterns, and the dolls with the clothing she made; the afghan my mom made for me; a painting or two that Gabrianna had made, along with a few items made by me: both trees, the beads that Monica said I should bring. Every person in my family tree who would be there, would be represented. They’d feel special, and everyone there would think it was great to have the maternal side represented by 4 generations.

Robyn and I started loading the 3D tree into the truck. It didn’t go at all like I expected. We ended up laying the tree partially down proper up with pillows to avoid damage to the branches and the artifacts hanging of the branch ends. And of course, the flowers themselves. I knew I’d be able to fluff them back up- tissue paper can take a beating! Once we got the trees into the truck I realized that one of the branches was missing a flower. I grabbed a ‘fix-it’ bag, with scissors, the box of tissue paper squares, pipe cleaners and a bottle of Aleene’s glue. I figured with these I could fix anything that could occur. We got the other pieces loaded and had 45 minutes left. I jumped in the shower, while Robyn got dressed to go.

We left on time, and arrived at Nazareth to find the gate we needed to open, was just that- open! We drove right in and up to Medialle Hall. The first door we came to was open. I parked and went right into see who was there. Only the caterers were there, they said I could do whatever I needed, and then asked if I needed anything, I said, “no thank you! I’ve got it!”

It was just about 3:45, I had plenty of time to set up. I was glad to see the table I had was actually two pushed together, and there was a great place for the 3D tree, almost front and center.

Robyn left me to set it all up. She was running to Fairport to pick up Gabrianna. My mom and grandmother were on their way as well.

Now which ones should I use?

So, a few days have passed, and I have been trying to work out what items to take with me to this dinner. I’ve been throwing around ideas. Grandpa’s pictures, definitely a My Sky. The dolls that Grandma made the doll clothing for. And pictures by Gabby. And definitely my other Grandfather’s cherry coffee table. But  how could I not include the stained glass pieces? I have so many great pieces of artwork done by my family members, and so many images I could show. I have to remember though, Monica and Anne both said the 3D Tree and 5-6 other pieces, that was it. No more. So if I wanted more pieces, I’d have to be creative about it. I could bring in my computer or iPad and have a slide show going in addition to items I bring. But about those items, which ones? Which ones speak the loudest? Which ones bring something to the project?

I had to go back to the beginning on this. I was going about it the wrong way.

*From Digital To Hard Copy

With a due date sooner than I expected, I am attempting to do some of the easy stuff quickly to get them out of the way. With the art pieces all created, the focus is here, tying up loose ends, and figuring out the order to things, and then making sure everything is checked for spelling and grammar. I wrote the foreword and introduction, and put in all the page breaks. I also had to go through and check font size, type and color. When I printed out the first section for Anne to go over, I noticed everything copy and pasted from here was in a deep plum purple color, where as everything I wrote in a Pages document was black. It took quite a while to go through, but it was definitely needed.

I sat down to write out the last few blogs, and realized I didn’t have the images to work with, so stepped away again from the computer, and went into our spare room with all the art work waiting for me. I spent well over three hours taking photos of each item. I then came back and uploaded them from my memory card, and then set them to upload here to the site overnight. With nearly 85 images, I knew it would take a couple hours, so I went to bed so I’d have a clear focus in the morning.

Morning:

Great news, all the images uploaded! Today, I will drop them all in. A new page will be started, it will be misc work that I have done from high school to the present. And, the Family Trees page will have images added by each family member under their name. Of I go to get the work done!!

Ready Or Not! First Thesis Presentation~

With just a few weeks left of the semester Jesse, Cathy and I had to do our first thesis presentation. Our instructions were to share something of what we were doing, and to keep it to about 10 minutes. For the few days before I tore through all the art portfolios that stored my own work work and then went through the boxes and portfolios that I  had collected from my family. I needed to figure out which pieces were the most important. I kept changing ideas. I knew for any part of this, keeping it to 10 minutes would be difficult. After a few late nights’ practicing run throughs, I decided to share the internal and external influences that created an environment that lead me to become the photographer and artist that I am. Here are my written notes. I used them to help stay on track.

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Notes: Part 1: Presentation

Notes: Part 2: Presentation

Notes: Part 3: Presentation

2D Tree & Procrastination

When I first got together with Monica to go over my ideas for a thesis, I literally wrote down 25-30 things that I found interesting. As I was listing them off, she took notes on the ones that stood out to her. We then batted around some more ideas, pulled in a bit more information, and then I was off and running to flesh out the project. One of the parts that I wanted to do, I had never done before… I wanted to create a blog! I wanted to do one for a couple different reasons. The first was because I had heard of so many that became  known, and made money. Yep, that’s right, I had this idea that if I could create something on the internet, that I may just may be able to come up with a way of earning money at the same time. The second was because I knew I needed to make myself accountable some place. Sure, we had deadlines with the thesis, but honestly, there were hardly any given. I knew that I’d wait until the last minute for everything, and though that worked for  some projects and papers, I knew I couldn’t do it with this one.

Why do I mention all this? Think 24×36 primed stretched canvas waiting to be painted on… Literally the canvas has been waiting for nearly a month with paints all near it, my ideas thought out… but not worked on. I kept saying that I could do it tomorrow- oh, it’ll just take a few hours- I’ll do it before Wednesday’s group… That is the procrastination that lead to me finally realizing that this first presentation we are giving is less than 48 hours away.

***WHAT?!?! 48 HOURS???***

Yep, that’s right! Just 48 hours! I’m to have a 10 minute presentation ready for Wednesday’s class. We meet at 5:30 as usual, but there will be more people there than just our class. All of our teachers and mentors have been asked to come as well. I am trying to figure out what to focus on. I have so many pieces…

Back to the 2D collage!

Working Space: 2D Tree

Background Sky: 2D Tree

 

2nd Sky Layer: 2D Tree

2nd Sky Layer: 2D Tree

3rd Sky Layer: 2D Tree

 

Trunk & Branches: 2D Tree

 

Collaged Tree Trunk

 

Close-Up Collaged Tree Trunk

I finished up the layering in of the trunk late last night. I immediately took another picture. This afternoon I jumped right in to adding the leaves. I should have stopped now and then to show the progression, but completely forgot until the very end…. So, here is the picture I had taken of the leaves I had cut up from old magazines and specialty papers, card envelopes and scraps of fabric from my grandmother.

Cut Out Leaves

Leaves On Tree

So here it is! I don’t have all the leaves on it- I think I have about 10 or so small ones left. I have a few places I want to fill in a bit with more leaves, so I am in the process of cutting more while I wait for these silly images to upload! Photographs to come will be the additional leaves, family first names, and then the lost children. I will be adding a bit more to the sky, and some sort of grass to the bottom.

 

 

Personal & Family Values…

So in art therapy today our directive was to think about our values and the values of our families. We were supposed to create something with those, I think perhaps also how they help us, though not positive on that part… It was interesting to see what everyone did. Another girl and I both did trees, very different from each other, but trees none the less.

As soon as I heard the directive, I was excited because it meant I could add more to my family tree theme… I didn’t take pictures all the way through, I wish I had! And then, I attempted to use salt on the water color, and it didn’t work like I had hoped. I’ve never done that combination, but have seen it, and loved it. I hope to be able to learn it soon. I have read in several blogs, and pins on my pinterest account that it takes the right timing of applying salt as well as the correct saturation of water on the page… I’m guessing this will be like when I learned out to drive standard… all at once, something will *click* and I’ll get it… let’s hope it doesn’t take as long as the driving thing did! *lol*

Anyway, here are the pictures I did take to share with all of you!

Family Values: Inked & Watercolor Pencils

Family Values: Inked & Watercolor Pencils w. Water

Family Values w. Background

Family Values: With Salt

Family Value: Finished

Like I said above, I’m not really seeing the salt effects at all… could have been any number of things however, so I’ll be giving it much more practice in the weeks and months to come!

Oh, and I didn’t say above, but those values are within the inner rings of the tree… family values can keep families strong. The strongest part of a tree is its core. The values I listed include: loyal, respect, passion, creativity, reliable, positive, love, honesty, truthfulness… and love again… I could have done so many more…

3D Tree In Color!

This tree has literally taken over my studio. Thankfully we have a table for just the laptops and homework, and whatnot!  I have brown craft paper taped to the floor, paints in the cups so I can recycle them when done, and paint brushes galore. I forgot to take a picture the first night I was painting. I had painted purple and blue. As the days have come along, some of the colors have shifted in an effort to keep the natural flow of a growing tree, but also to create more of a balance with the colors. When I first started the color process I honestly had no idea how the tree would be exactly… I had a pretty good idea, but I knew it would figure itself out as I went through the process.

In Process-3D Color

I decided to start the tree while it was on its base so I could work out the color flow. Red insistently was the overwhelming color.

3D- Different Angle

 

Base Paint

Once I did a couple coats of the tertiary colors, I tackled the ‘dirt’ section which, you may recall is an upside-down papasan chair foot stool. We had bought the papasan in Washington State at a Goodwill Store. My son Rook and I are the only two who use the chair, and neither of us use the stool, we put our feet on a giant blue yoga ball… or we don’t use anything at all for our feet. In the image above I mixed five or six of my 2oz paints again to get the brown. With the light would underneath, it is having a variant all its own. Some parts were shiny and needed to be gone over a couple times. I’ll be doing one more coat to make sure I have it all before I weave in some papers and colored pipe cleaners.

I am working on what types of tissue paper flowers I want to have blooming from the tree. I found this cute Dahlia tissue paper flower while on pinterest, that I think I will use. I’ll link to it if I do decide to use it!

 

The Interviews and The 3D White Tree

I have received back a couple of the family interviews. My grandmother, mother and father have sent me theirs. Mom printed hers out, and hand wrote her responses to each of the questions. Grandma and Dad’s are typed. I had thought the week before I’d received someone else’s, however it was a letter letting me know they would get to it, and send it along. There is one member I would love to hear from, so I can’t wait to see if it happens!

As I’m waiting for these to come in, I’m continuing to work on painting the 3D tree. It is finally looking like a tree!

Tree base with basic white paint.

Tree trunk/limbs painted white.

All Three Parts with paints lined up.

The Mediums We Work In: Part Two

With the production of my 3D tree nearing the end, and painting have started, and on its way to nearly done, I felt I should be giving some serious considerations to what my hanging items would be. They are listed like this: {Medium (item to hang) #needed}

Acrylic Paint (Paint Palette) 3

Altered Arts/Altered Books (A Mini-Handmade Altered Book) 2

Collage (Mini Sheet Collaged Front and Back) 3

Drawing/Pen &Ink (Drawing Pad/Pen) 5

Fibers (Small Bolt of Fancy Yarns or Fabric on a Hoop? ) 6

Jewelry (Tiny Beaded Bracelets) 4

Oil Painting (Paint Palette) 3

Photography (Polaroid Film Sheet) 3

Rubber Stamps (Rubber Stamps) 6

Sewers (Fabrics/Needle) 5

Woodworking (Chisel) 3

These mumbers are based on how many partake in that particular art medium. Some members of the family are fairly prolific and use a wide variety of arts. An example of this is my Aunt Barbie who as an Art Therapist must have a variety of talents to work with her clients. Some of them draw, some collage, some color… it all depends on their capabilities and what they may be interested in. There are vast overlaps, as these are based on 13 family members.