I'm Awfully Fond of You...

Today I wanted to post something done in acrylic as an example of other work I like to experiment with. This may be a work in progress but it's close to completion.

Detail 1

Detail 2

"Wayward Ducks" 24x24x2 acrylic on canvas

Bouncing Back...

As you can see, I haven't blogged for a while. 'Been happily busy doing many new creative projects!

Today, my AGH friend, Allan Brockenbrough invited me to be on his local cable show, aptly named "The Painting Show." I did a short demo of one of the techniques I employ to paint circles. The painting below, "Bounce" is an example of this. It was great fun!

"Bounce" 18.5x18.5x1.5 encaustic on wood panel

(detail)

Apologies for the low quality lap-top photos!

Girl Full of Dreams...

Recently, I have been clearing out and going through my work space in hopes of finding a better spot to create in but this little piece piped up and said she just couldn't wait.

"Girl Full of Dreams" 9x7x3 Sculpture with encaustic, vintage stringing beads, vintage Fisher Price Little People doll, vintage doll house furniture (high chair and crib), vintage wooden Sorry pieces, nails

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.