Open Wide

Bathroom art to remind me to floss every evening.

What a Find!

I was gallivanting around on a lazy Saturday morning right after the sun had risen. I had noticed a garage sale sign so I decided to follow the direction of a hand drawn arrow on a piece of cardboard which led me to a junk filled backyard. There was an old typewriter, some vintage metal frames, a trunk filled with old letters and black and white postcards, a few ceramic bottles, some trinkets and jewelry, and a couple of used surfboards that looked dinged up. Good stuff but nothing that I would collect, I thought. Then I peered across the way to find this painting. The guy only wanted a $1! What a steal I said to myself, so I whipped out a dollar and secured my purchase!

Painted by Clare I. Tyler

Blue Jeans on a Dryer

This is the watercolor that I painted of the pair of jeans. It's drying on my dryer. Below is a close up.

Merry Christmas

 

 As Christmas nears, I'm behind schedule with gifts and cards. That is because I'm too busy painting and blogging. Ha ha ha! At least the designs are holiday cheer images. Perhaps I should print a stack and send them out as belated thoughts of season's greetings. Or should I send them out next year as early holiday wishes in 2011?

Chinatown Boardroom

 

 Enoki the Boardroom Bulldog

The Chinatown Boardroom is a neat little space that pairs artwork with surfing and surfboards. It may seem odd at first but the concept of putting an art gallery and a surf shop together does work well. Owners Eric and Jackie and their friendly Bulldog Enoki have splashed color in a small space that flow like the tides. Upon stumbling in, there are photos from local photographers, prints from local print makers and even a couple of signed pieces from Shepard Fairey the contemporary artist/designer. The prices are reasonable and the art depicts the culture of surfing. They have a wide range of gift items ranging from wallets with edgy designs to ceramics Buddah Butter holders. There is a modest selection of surfboards and fins for the surfing enthusiast and some jewelry too.  We met with writer Stuart Coleman from the Oahu Surfrider Foundation who was doing a signing for his books "Eddie Would Go" and "Fierce Heart" at the Chinatown Boardroom.  Yeah, what a treat!

Acrylic Print by Roan Bennett

We purchased the above waffle cone print by Roanah Bennett which will be a nice addition to the art in our kitchen. You can find different artwork nearly every month at the quaint space of the Chinatown Boardroom. They share the same philosophy as Apartment Art which is to live large and live rich in  small spaces by rotating art and being simple.

Shrimps in Oil

 

 This is the follow-up oil painting for yesterday's sketch. Below are three other views.

                                                View 1                                            View 2

View 3

This piece would hang perfectly for a small area in the kitchen. 

A Shrimpy Study

A study in watercolor

The three amigos did their last dance. They trotted and loped and squatted and hoped, bathing in butter they became smothered and so they all choked.

Sketch to be painted

The sketch above was painted with oil paint and is currently drying. Some details need to be added.

Stenciled Bow Wow

I had an Andy Warhol moment that flashed over my melon one morning. I fulfilled that yearning by cutting a stencil of a bow wow from a manila envelope, I applied acrylic paint with a sponge on the stencil onto square scrap pieces of wood to create these nine different images of my woof woofs (above). I prepared the blank pieces of wood by hand painting backgrounds on them. I drilled holes in select sides and glued barbecue sticks to join all of the images together. This fun piece was perfect for decorating my kid's room.
Another stencil work that I did at an earlier time is of nine framed rhinos. I built a frame to join all of the nine images together. This was the first piece of art that I made for my son's room.

Origami Folding

Crafted by Hiroko

I couldn't agree more with the saying, "patience is a virtue" especially when talking about Japanese origami folding. It is through intensive labor and precision that one must hand fold perfect corners for a thousand and one cranes to create strikingly beautiful framed designs for a traditional Japanese wedding. Folding them is the first step, the second is placing the cranes into a layout which also requires perfect hand and eye coordination, the last step is framing the design. The end result is a visually charming picturesque work of art for the newlyweds usually made by the bride or the bride's side of the family.

While usually framing two-dimensional designs are a way of displaying this type of origami, they may function as intricate statuesque designs as well.

Crafted by Judo Senseis

Death in the Afternoon by Ernest Hemingway

Bullfight

As a casual spectator of rugby, American football, boxing, kick boxing, and mixed martial arts, I quickly concluded that these are probably the most brutal sports and the most intense forms of competition since the risk of injury to the participant is high and sometimes accidental death is the end result.  Ernest Hemingway’s, “Death in the Afternoon,” shed new light on the subject of brutality and high risk for me. He describes, "the head, the tail, the whole damn thing," and all the details of the killing and death. 

I have never attended an event that places a willing person in an arena with a red cape and a sword to challenge a 1500 pound animal with raw power that is driven by high octane testosterone, to a game of death. The closest event to a bullfight that I have personally witnessed are rodeos, where grown men are whipped around in circles, tossed about like rag dolls, trampled to the dirt, and kicked by the iron hooves by enraged bulls. It takes bull size "cajones" for a man to muster up enough courage to step into a ring on a bull’s terms. In spite of the dangers, rodeos still fall short by several notches by the intensity of the challenge as compared to a bullfight. I've painted this subject not because I was inspired by Ernest Hemingway but instead for my own catharsis of purging the images that were burnt into my imagination by his words.

Faena

Pase' Doble' - A dance that uses the movements of the bull and the matador

The Labor of Art

Picture 1: Reclaimed wood from a futon bedrame

The unspoken truth about art is that it can be quite labor intensive from putting an idea together to the installation of the completed project. I happen to savor every sweaty moment. Take oil painting for example: one essential piece of material is the canvass or some surface to brush paint on. As a purist whose first choice is to paint on canvasses, it requires that I always have canvasses on hand. Purchasing them is one way to obtain them but it can cut deep into the pocketbook, especially if custom sizes are needed or if one does a lot of painting. 

Another alternative is to make them, which requires tools, materials, and a little bit of know-how. 

In this day and age of "Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle," I gladly report that I am constantly reminded to be resourceful and use reclaimed materials. Take for example Picture 1 above: a broken futon could have been thrown out to the dump but instead I decided to saw the wood into 3/4"x1"x 8" strips and mitering the ends at 45 degree angles to make the square frame. After assembling the frame a canvass is stretched over the frame with a pair of pliers and stapled to the back of the frame (Picture 2 below).
 

Picture 2: Staple the canvass to the frame with a staple gun

The benefits of making your own frames is cost savings and being able to customize sizes and shapes. The downside is the labor for those who don't find it enjoyable, and time must also be taken into consideration. The upside, however, is a finished canvass ready for painting whenever you want or need it. 

Picture 3: Finished canvass