Illustration Friday: Fleeting

rise above 8"x16" acrylic, wire, glass & friendly plastic on canvas

He had a hard time concentrating on work when fleeting thoughts of escaping his humdrum routine took him away to dream of other things...

Day Olds - Sept 9 '07-Moose Custom Piece

This was a custom Mirror of Positive Affirmation for a store called The Finds in Huntsville, Ontario. It's a great store, full of all kinds of great stuff. They love the moose and all things moose, as do I, so I wanted to create something just for them. While I was ruminating about this, the Rolling Stones were getting ready to perform in Toronto. Mick Jagger was all over the news. So, naturally, I put the two together ending up with a moose posing a la Mick.

If I were to make this today, I would really exaggerate the arch in the back and push the hips out more aggressively. I'd like to make it again.

Angels in Hot Water

Heaven 30" x 20" acrylic on canvas 2007

Recently I was asked to do a piece for someone's birthday. This is what I came up with. They wanted an angel in a bathtub, and they wanted a quote with it.

Besides trying to find appropriate words to go with this image, I had to figure out what to do with the angel wings. Are they in or out of the water? Believe it or not, this really bothered me, as I kept picturing birds and birds don't get wet. Their feathers are waterproof/resistant (not sure which) but you know the saying "water off a duck's back"... And angel wings are big, where would they be? How would they be positioned? It's funny what you have to work out when making up a totally imaginary composition. I was especially pleased with the shade of pink for the bathtub. It just says reeellllaaaaxxxx to me. And she's kind of sassy which I like as well. My anatomical dyslexia reared it's head in this as well as her heel also looks like her anklebone giving this a Byzantine perspective of a couple of views at once. It seems a year of art school has not irradicated this from me, at least not yet. Though she doesn't have two elbows which I have often done in the past and not realized until I was done and wondering what looked "off".

I am assuming that this went over well as a gift. I haven't heard back from the giver or the receiver as of yet. I did enjoy making it.

Day Olds - August 15th, 2007 - Lady Frame

Hey Lady!

I used to make picture frames with friendly plastic. I haven't in some time. I made the whole thing from scratch. I didn't feel very satisfied by making them. But if someone asks, I still make them on request.

A friend of mine just rescued a picture frame I'd made for a client years ago from the Salvation Army. It was a Harley Davidson, (I remember working to get the rims right and the handlebars), and a rabbit with a caption that said "Joanie you're a wild thing!" or something like that. This isn't the first time something I made ended up at a second hand store. It's kind of a back-handed compliment in that it wasn't wanted anymore but it wasn't something that someone was going to throw out either. I have seen pieces of work done by fellow artists that I know at the Salvation Army myself. After years of making and selling things, it's bound to happen.

Today's image is from my archives. The brown used in this composition is no longer made by the manufacturer of friendly plastic, though the heavily patterned, and generally unusable, red and gold colour still is. Go figure.

I really enjoy making women. I especially love giving them little purses and big hair. These are two things that I don't sport myself but I can fulfill that side of me through my art.