Nashville Tiny Art Gallery #2

Works by various artists to be featured in the Nashville Tiny Art Gallery #2

My piece "Tiny Industry" has been accepted into the Nashville Tiny Art Gallery #2. It will be installed in time for the Nashville Art Crawl this Saturday, May 2nd from 6pm-9pm. Can't give a location, you'll have to use the website to scavenger hunt for it. Also, not sure how long it will be on display, more details to come. :)

Gamayun

A second in my Mythological Creatures series, the Gamayun is from Russian folklore and is described as a "prophetic bird with the head of a woman".

My Gamayun began as a foam bird and a chunk of clay. I molded the lady head onto the bird body and was mildly impressed with my skills (I can't remember the last time I seriously worked with clay). 

I painted the clay to have her skin match the bird's belly tone and added some red doll hair to match the feathers. Although it is not super realistic, I am pretty happy with it. 

I attached her to a stick and attached the stick to a round wooden base. As with the Wendigo piece, I added a copper name plate to the base as well. 

Wendigo

This is the first piece in a new Mythological Creatures series. I'll be tagging them under the "Literary" category if you are searching by theme, since they are all based on stories. 

The Wendigo is a fairly common creature in folklore, originating from stories of the Algonquian people. It is supposedly what a human can turn into when he practices cannibalism for an extended period. While images of the Wendigo vary, they usually include elongated limbs and antlers.

Mine began as a small plastic skeleton. I added red clay to build up areas as skin and to hold things in place.

I added two twigs as antlers on his head.

He is affixed to a wooden circle base with a copper name plate.

I love the faux taxidermy element of this. It's like I snatched the little guy from the forest and mounted him on the pedestal. :D

Vintage Sewing Theme

This piece is a small assemblage made for Luna Girl Moon Beams challenge vintage sewing. 

Finally getting to use my old McCall's sewing pattern sheet and some other pieces like my spool and mini dress form. 

Bombus

This is a simple piece using an old rusty tin circle, a fake bee, clear wax, and some shines embellishments. He is adorable. 

Burst

ever have those pieces in your studio that you absolutely love and want to put in every artwork, but it just doesn't work? and those others that you keep because it's okay and you may use it sometime but it's not that great? well, that's what happened to create this piece, Burst. I was in love with the large gear and wanted to use it in everything, but it never worked with anything. the little canvas (3"x5") is something that I've had since I was...10? I had drawn some smiley faces and things on it.  turns out, when you put them together, they are perfect for one another!
Simple process: I wrapped the canvas with a dictionary page, then cut out a hole for the gear with a craft knife. then I screwed the gear in and it held surprisingly well, no need for any adhesive. so that's it. took about 15 minutes, and it's one of my favorites. I may go back and do an encaustic fill on this one..not sure yet. it would be a great addition to my Rust & Wax  series...

reach

this is a small mixed media piece. it has four basic parts: a doll arm, a 3"x4" piece of wood, a piece of vintage lace, and a random rusty metal piece. 

the scrapbook paper is from a Tim Holtz paper stack. i did an encaustic fill over that and set in the metal piece and arm.

so that's it! Reach, a small and difficult to photograph piece.

Quench

i finally found how to use this rusty old faucet! 

first step: i covered a wooden plaque with some floral scrapbook paper.

then i started layering the metal pieces. the metal butterfly came first (warning: assemblage art is very dangerous. that wing went inside of my finger, sliced open my knuckle).

after the butterfly of doom was nailed down, i added the faucet. it's turned at a weird angle so i could use the parts of it differently. it is held on using nails that run through gears.

after that i added the glass gem with the eye drawing and the light bulb. i originally had a clear bulb, but i decided this was better. and that is it! this one is called Quench.

tonight is the last night of my encaustic workshop at the Murfreesboro Art League. i will be completing this piece. the sculpture is complete, now it just need to be mounted onto the background, a simple text collage. can't wait to see how this turns out!

so...where is the art?

this is where the art is. it kicked my ass about a month ago. i went on an art making spree (On the Wings of Industry, Magaritte, The Magpie, and my favorite, Sequence), then i hit a creative wall. i started a piece using more of those lovely doll parts. this one will be called Jane, if ever i get to finish it. but for now, she is stuck here, while i try to recoup and satisfy my other creative needs (home and clothing, thank you Pinterest).

also, i have noticed a huge influx of page views in the past week (by huge i mean i went from an average of 17 to 237, yikes!). so let me know who you are where you're coming from and what you're interested in! i'd love to hear from you!

humble beginnings:the magpie

this piece began as a bargain piece; a coffee relief picture. i took the coffee piece out to use the frame (the coffee may come up again later, who knows?). 

the nest is a leftover decoration from my wedding. i lightly sprayed it with silver spray paint and glitter. 

this piece is inspired by the magpie, a bird that collects shiny and fun things for its nest. i added some buttons (for eggs), a feather, tiny clock, a pin, a gear and a key on the inside.

the frame has a used paintbrush head (new favorite thing?) and a silver $1 Michael's key with a handwritten Home.

on the inside and the back, i used some of Tim's Tissue Tape to cover the blank areas, it fits into the color scheme pretty nicely.  

this piece has been in the mental works for a while, coming from an old sketch. it's so nice to see your ideas come to life. here is the original frame and sketch: