Tumbling After...

It has been a busy summer to say the least and I am finally finding the time to blog some more about my installation for our summer community art show Art Grows Here.

To create the larger whole house-sized installation I made several smaller works out of toys and toy parts. Some of those were were influenced by childhood stories, nursery rhymes, and fairytales. The piece below "Tumbling After" was my version of Jack and Jill. Scroll back into the archives to see it placed beside the big blue ball inside the Radio Flyer wagon, which incidentally was installed train-like riding down the "tracks" of an old antique ladder.

"Tumbling After" 20x12x6 Multi-colored wooden vintage Playskool blocks, children's metal sand pail

This piece can be hung on a wall (or in this case my jelly cupboard) or displayed on a table or shelf.

Art from Art...

photo Kimberley Hincman

I included a little vintage watering can as part of the Mary, Mary Quite Contrary part of my installation "Serious Play" for Art Grows Here (also see previous posts). I made it kinetic by inserting the wire into a tube and installed it high over my garden on a pole. It spun around in a circle, rocked and "watered" my tiny waxed doll dresses or "pretty maids" who also rocked back and forth when the wind blew.

I just love the child's-eye view of the deep blue sky and the way Kim caught the roof off in the distance in the corner of her photograph.

A Review from the Neighborhood...

photo Barbara Smith

It's been a week and a half since the end of Art Grows Here, our self-guided tour of outdoor art installations. Our work was so well received by the community that we are making plans to do it again next year!

Our mission for Art Grows Here is "to make art and artists more visible and to engage and inspire the community." So, with that in mind, I chose to literally bring my work out of the attic studio where I work and down onto the street of my community. Below, I have included some words that my neighbor and fellow poet Brooke Mackie-Ketchem wrote about my installation "Serious Play". (Thank you Brooke!)

"Where Art begins and House Ends has no defining moment. Books cascade out of an upstairs bedroom window and down over the porch roof, reminding the viewer of all those bedtime stories others have read to you, or stories one has read underneath the covers by flashlight."

photo Kimberley Hincman

`photo Barbara Smith

"Probably the central moment of joy for me." ("Jill -in-a-box")

photo Kimberley Hincman

"Trikes and wagons in perfect on-slaught positioning. Like children, the installation is irrepressible. It balances precariously, defies gravity, threatens to fall out of windows, dangles off the roof, hides behind bushes, yells surprise and runs out into the street without looking twice. "Serious Play" shows how childhood is a pell-mell and raucous carnival experience."

photo Kimberley Hincman

"Little Miss Muffett's blue bowl of curds & whey ...and surely, all that's left is the spider, the dress, and that bowl. Miss Muffett herself has been frightened away! Children's story books tumble out onto the ground, begging the viewers to pick one up and turn their pages. Reaching out to grab hold of the childhood pieces comes naturally to the viewer. This installation is tempting and tactile, alluring, amusing, beguiling the viewer like so many colorful pieces of candy in a display case. Isn't childhood about "just one more, PLEASE?"

photo Kimberley Hincman

Tah Dah!...

I love the explosion effect of this photograph (below) of my Jill-in-a-Box taken by Kim Hincman. It's as if the crank was turned and the box flew open and the camera went "click!"

"Jill-in-a-Box" 3.5'x4'x14" waxed and wired polka-dot baby dress, vintage toy airplanes, vintage army paratrooper, vintage blind spot mirror, assorted vintage toys and game pieces: paddle ball, metal checker board, dominoes, dice, ping pong balls, rubber ball, bingo pieces, scrabble letters, two vintage toy ducks, toy hairbrush, whistles, tin horn, squirt guns, plastic snakes, ball and jax, wiffle ball and bat, golf ball and club, stacking donut toys, tinker toys, wooden stringing beads, antique wooden blocks, toy puzzles, child's scissors, toy tools: hammers, ax, shovels, rake, hoe, wire, wooden dowels, metal springs... I think that's it!...

"Jill-in-a-Box" in my installation titled "Serious Play" from Art Grows Here.

The Polka-Dot Girl on the Twirling Trapeze...

... from my installation "Serious Play" for Art Grows Here. (www.artgrowshere.com )

(Photo Kimberly Hincman)

"Polka-Dot Girl" 24x12x12 altered child's dress, wire, wax, chain, metal tube, red square block ( at top of chain, not shown) She swings and twirls!

SOLD!

They're Back! Part 2...

...Only this time it's Kewpies! This pair in the wagon "Kewpies in a Bubble Bath"with the 3-d repeated circles (marbles) are included in an outdoor installation I am doing for Art Grows Here. www.artgrowshere.com

(photo Kimberley Hincman)

"Kewpies in a Bubble Bath" 24X12X6 Two vintage Kewpie Dolls (posed), marbles, small radio flyer wagon

SOLD!

Below are two Kewpie mixed media with encaustic pieces I posted here a while back; "Observatory" and "Elevation." I never tire of Kewpie... It must be true love!

They're Back!...

Some one once told me, when referring to my artwork, that I had a consistent vocabulary and today when I stood back to look at my lastest work, an outdoor installation titled "Serious Play" for Art Grows Here (pictured below), I understood what they meant. I am re-posting an encaustic painting (above) I did a while back titled "The Three Little Muses" so you can see how they evolved into three-dimensional form. Notice the repeated circle forms as well. I'm sure it will be no surprise to know many of the components in this installation spin and twirl. Sometimes girls just wanna have fun! For more information on Art Grows Here go to www.artgrowshere.com .

(photo Kimberley Hincman)