Illustration Friday: Hoard

One woman's hoard is another woman's stash.

Illustration Friday: Punchline

Q: Why Did the Rubber Chicken
Cross the Road?


A: To stretch his legs... nyuk nyuk nyuk...

Need Some Got Some -- Friendly Plastic For Sale

After some thought I decided that I would be willing to sell some of my friendly plastic to those of you out there who want to try it.
Five 3"x7" sticks for $10.00 plus postage unless you are local and we can arrange pickup.
I can send you a list/chart of what I have available.

If you want some you can buy it from my Etsy store, specifically this Etsy listing

You can also click on the Etsy section of my blog at the top right and it'll take you directly to my Prisstyfistspress etsy shop where all my offerings reside.

Thanks.

Etsy... you are a dream! New Etsy Up

Hello Etsy. What a dream you are to post on. After using ebay for many many years with ever more complicated forms to fill out and a longer and longer wait to get from page to page, etsy is a dream. It's clean, it's fast, it's friendly.

Wow.

Etsy you did good.

I started my Etsy shop today. It's listed under my press name: Prissyfistspress.

Address http://prissyfistspress.etsy.com

I have a link to the side of the page here that will take you directly there.

Fellow Ottawans and other locals

If you live near me and you see something you want in my Etsy shop I will be pleased to bring it with me to one of my local markets or shows for local pick up. Just email me or convo me at my Etsy shop.

And here's a sample of some of the things in my shop. If you click on their titles it'll take you directly to that item in my etsy shop. For the rest, pop by and take a look.

Unwanted: tipping cows

8x10 acrylic on canvas

Unwanted: idling
8x10 acrylic on canvas

Play - blank greeting card with detachable magnet

Wishing machines - friendly plastic angel earrings

Devine Swine - friendly plastic piggy with googly eyes brooch or magnet

O Bruthr... Wurdz

Lately I keep hearing this word "staycation". It really bugs me. Staycation is just trying to dress up the fact that you're staying home. As in not going anywhere. Staying in. Might as well build a fort.



And what's left unsaid is why. Most probable answer: can't afford it.

Alternately: Eek! and Ho Hum.

And then there's glamping. That's glamour + camping. I knew something was up when in the Canadian Tire flyer they were advertisting a full portable kitchen for camping.



A kitchen. Sink, counter, formal garbage space, cupboards. All on wheels. How much space does that take to pack? So you have a tent and a sink now. I thought our blowup mattress was decadent: double thick, inflated automatically, no huffing and puffing on our part, just plug it into the (former) lighter area of the car.

I am not a glamper.

Walking through the ByWard Market the other day I saw this through the flower stall



and this is a closeup



2 dumb 2 steal
2 ugly 2 prostitute
spare change

Sleeping bags rolled on top of the sign, 2 young guys sitting beneath it in the shade. No glamping here. And they aren't on a staycation either. Here they are, on the pavement in the market. And as permanent as they seemed, as I watched they disassembled their lair and were off, sign disassembled and discarded. Did it make it to the paper recycle bin I wonder?

Illustration Friday: Forgotten

I have often made soup and forgotten whether I added the salt or not.... well at least you can taste the soup. It's much harder to remember when baking a cake for instance.

Made the local newspaper :O

At school today I was told the Ottawa Citizen had a picture of my work from last weekend's Art in the Park...and here it is.

It was shot by Pat McGrath for the Citizen and here's the link to the whole gallery of pictures he took from Art in The Park.

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/photogalleries/template.html?topic=08-06-07-artpark&g=8

Thanks!

Ottawa School Boutique: New Paintings

I'm submitting these into the school boutique shop today. I think Bob may become a series....

Peagreen Boat with Rubber Chicken

9x12 acrylic on gallery canvas SOLD

Up

8x10 acrylic on canvas

Come closer Bob, I'll tell you the real story...
8x10 acrylic on canvas SOLD

Art is....

What is art? Everyone has their own idea, many expressed here by cute little creatures.

Love this. Love the animation. It's art in itself.

Day After the Weekend Before

Art in the Park in the Glebe is over for another year. This year? HOT. We went from 18C on Wednesday to 21 Thursday to 29 Friday and 31's Saturday and Sunday for the show. There wasn't any time for any of us Northerners to acclimatize to the hot, hazy and humid conditions. Summer is here. And as I discovered when I unpacked the car a few minutes ago, summer stayed with us overnight and we're in for another day, same as before. There was one Art In the Park where the humidex got to 46, (we reached 39 and 41 this weekend) and then it rained, and then it was like a steam bath. So, this weekend could have been worse weather-wise. The severe thunder and lightning never materialized and we had a fantastic spot with shade in the morning, then a bit of sun, then shade again. Very enjoyable.

The show was big.
Here's an overview of all the tent-tops looking down into the park.
You can't see them all in this shot... There were as many booths behind me.














This was my tent and my view looking out.














Every year it grows. Many Ottawans had a glazed over look. A show this size and this interesting is unexpected in this city, especially in a city park. Couple that with hot hazy and humid and many people were just overwhelmed, looking for the tent where they can get a cold drink and take a breather before heading off to see "what else is here", and trying not to miss a row of booths in the meandering booth layout. There were a lot of first-time visitors this year. It's a good sign of a healthy show.

The mix of things is changing. Used to be almost all paintings at one time. Now many types of art are represented. For me this is the show that really grounds me in my life as someone who goes out there and sells their work. It kicks off my season and I saw many people who I may only see once a year and that's always good.

This guy is only at this show. But I see him every year. What you can't get from the pictures is he has a musical soundtrack with him. Some medieval music for the knight and some marching song for the Mountie getup.
He came as a medieval knight on Saturday.
And a Mountie on Sunday.


Since we were beside a food tent, I saw him without the horse for the first time ever. He was bathed in sweat. As we all suspected, his costume is really hot.

If you didn't get there this year there are two more Art's in the Park coming up: In Minto Park across from Jack Purcell in mid July and Strathcona Park in mid August. The Glebe Art in the Park was the first one and is by far the biggest. Come and support the new ones too. Meanwhile see you at the farmers' markets...

Art in the Park 2008 Tomorrow and Sunday

Tomorrow is one of the best art shows in Ottawa: Art in the Park in the Glebe.

Saturday and Sunday June 7 & 8 10am to 5pm

I am in NORTH 7

Details here http://artinfoboy.org/

Every year I try to create a series of works just for this show and often it springboards me into new areas and it's happened again. I am really happy with what I came up with and I'm going to do The Big Reveal here on my blog. It's not everything that I will have there but my main pieces. I've been nose to the grindstone getting these done.

Relax acrylic on canvas 24" x 36"

Sing acrylic on canvas 24" x 36"


Storms Pass acrylic on canvas 24" x 36"


No Expiration Date acrylic on canvas 24" x 48"

Patience acrylic on canvas 24" x 36"

Show Your Love acrylic on canvas 24" x 36"

Soar acrylic on canvas 24" x 36"

Expect the Good Stuff acrylic on canvas 24" x 36"

I Saw Don Rickles-Casino Rama - May 29, 2008

This has taken me some time to compose. I had a lot of images and quite a few drawings and immense time pressure on me but here it is at last, my review of Don Rickles.

First off, when I told people I was going to see D R they'd either say "I wouldn't pay a dime to see that guy! He's so mean!" or "What? I thought he was dead?! He's still performing? Cool." I was in the latter category of course as I actually had tickets to go. It's all a part of my quest to see the "classics" whoever they may be, whether I actually am a fan or not. I just want to see them perform, see what they do, try to get an idea of why they are famous.

I did laugh during the performance. I did not "go into a coma" as my guy Chris predicted. I am partial to old feisty folks and he fits that bill to a T. I thought he was on the ball, very sharp. I thought he improvised a bunch of stuff but C, who was at the show with me, did not think so. he thought it was well honed and nothing was left to chance. He also said "I think he's been telling some of those jokes for a long long time."
Perhaps.
Who cares.
I love that he's out there doing it. he sure doesn't have to. he was on stage 1hr and 20min. Pretty good for an 82 year old. He sang (he sings great!) and danced (complete with high kicks) and told some stories about Jimmy Cagney who gave him career advice at age 18, frank Sinatra, Anthony Quinn and Dean Martin. I have to get his recent autobiography. He really has stories to tell.

The audience was all age groups, 20's to 80's and more. And the theatre was full. He received a standing ovation and came back for one encore, though he hadn't really left the stage yet.

I read a review before we left for the concert that he looked like a lizard with neck wrinkles. I did see the resemblance to a prehistoric predator for sure, but the shape of his body, which was led by his head and his head by his nose made me think hawk, raptor of some sort. He stalked the stage walking slowly, back and forth, mic in hand, waiting to point out someone in the audience and get them. He did his regular act, the one I knew him for from TV in the 70's-- the insult comic stuff. He was different from the comics now though, sticking to religion (Jews and Catholics mostly) and ethnicity to term it politely. He'd do his bits and in between there was a low rumbling dialogue almost apologetic or backtracking by saying "Don't get mad folks, don't go away mad, I treat everyone the same, everyone equally, I'm just being honest just saying the truth..." That was odd to me and I had no clue if he has always done this or if it's a sign of these politically sensitive times. To his credit he still does what he does. He's true to himself. And if you can;t be that at 82 when can you?
What he made me think of was he's like the relative that everyone has, your mother, grandmother,uncle, brother, cousin, the one who just says stuff and doesn't censor or isn't able to censor what they say and you kind of sort of wish they would but they won't and so everyone goes "oh well, that's just the way they are...." They'd embarrass some people and amuse others. That's what he reminded me of.

At the communal continental breakfast the next morning I heard several tables comment on the fact that D R could sing.."did you know he could sing?" "I never knew he could sing!""Wow what a great voice he had who knew he could sing?!""Yeah, and Don Rickles sang!" "He did?" "Yeah and it was good." I hope I am as lucid and full of life as he is at that age.


A word about my drawings. I drew Wayne Newton in the same theatre but the light was much brighter for his show than the Rickles' show. I was pretty much doing blind contour drawing and could only occasionally see what the heck I was doing on the page. I was also going back and forth between the pencil and the camera when I got really frustrated. I was surprised by the drawings as I just sketched continuously going from one pose to the next when it grabbed me.
Again, as with Wayne, I had the feeling that I learned something about my subject through the act of trying to draw him, more so that just sitting and listening or snapping photographs. I'm convinced of this method and hope to go see more acts and try to draw them too.


This is the official caricature
of Mr. Rickles that cycled on a giant preview screen of what other acts were coming to casino Rama (Bob Newhart, Blondie, Creedance Clearwater Revivial, Donna Summer, Diana Ross &etc.). I kept trying to draw this and I never really caught it.



Pre-show set-up drawing and real thing. He had really busy backgrounds, like 60's OP Art.
But while he was onstage the background was solid pink, red when he first started and then deep pink.


Started out in amongst the crowd then climbed these giant oversized ridiculous stairs to the stage, hoisting himself up step by step. Made you wonder... "can he do it?" Yesssss......


Don onstage, looking into the crowd, getting ready to get you...


This was one of the last drawings I made. I feel like I really captured him here. he was sitting on a bar stool chair beside the piano telling a story. I could have sat listening to stories of his life for days. I'm going to have to get his book soon and read up. It'll be my summer reading book.


Tough to get his face in 3seconds in the dark. Amazing I had lines connecting at all.

My attempts to capture the caricature off the big screen that flashed by. I think the image was held for about 5 seconds at most. It's the shape of the head--I made it either too tall or too squat... plus it's wide. Interesting.


Standing up facing the crowd.
Trying to capture his distinctive shape. He had a bend to him that was really interesting. I know it's a fact of aging but it carried an emotion with it for me. Bent over, head leading the body, nose leading the head. He was like a predator, a hawk, or a dinosaur, looking for prey as he prowled the stage. And he moved slowly, deliberately... not just an age thing, but even if it is, he is using it to his advantage.


I actually am very fond of this small drawing. He's sort of loping across the stage here.

Not too bad. Some resemblance here.
Not sure if this is from the side or the front. I think the side.
Upright and functioning.
Just focusing in on the distinctive shape of his body as he walked. A hooked top and straight stick legs. Interesting. Tough to get it just right. I resorted to the camera trying again and again to capture what it was I was trying to draw. I finally got it at the very end of the show as turned and walked off stage.

Here this is the shape I was drawn to... This is the best image I have of that bent shape and how he looked walking the stage.


Stage shots:

Bowing to the crowd

standing ovation.