look a little closer blog

I love color~ my paintings are usually full of color.
This is one of my favorite colorful pieces – it’s now proudly owned by a couple in Queens.

In this week’s Art Explorers class, we’re going to talk about color. I have found so many awesome art blogs for inspiration and project ideas – like this edible color wheel. We’ll be doing this project tomorrow, I think it will be fun and a little crazy!

Wish me luck!

Last night I had my volunteering at Visions and we started putting the pieces of our mural together. Our goal is to assemble the entire thing by March 23, so it’s ready for the “class party.” The team leaders and I will hand stitch the pieces together. We each took a “finished” row and will stitch all the sewn rows together before the last class.

I am so excited about the way this project turned out and think it was a huge success! I’m constantly amazed at the creativity of the students and am so happy to work with them. I’d like to do this project again, but this time painting “mini murals” so the students can take them home (this was their request!). I know it’s a big goal, but maybe I can finish them before the next semester begins.

Here are the latest pictures!
Enjoy!

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*It all started with this sketch…*

*And then turned to a watercolor…*

*Then to the painting…*

*Once the pieces were cut, we had lots of creativity!*

*Now we’re putting it all together…*

*Good thing we numbered these!*

I love how creative the students were!

*birds, suns, stars, moons, hearts, and glitter for buildings*

*trees of buttons, surrounded by flowers*

*Rainbows, boats, and lots of moons!*

*But it’s really coming together!*

*You can really see their personalities in each piece*

**Sorry for the blur, I was just so excited!**

I can’t wait to see what the finished piece turns out to be!

Yesterday was a stressful day. I’m pretty sure I drove my colleagues crazy with my popping stars, but the day ended on a much better note *literally*! Once a month I volunteer at a nursing home and sing/laugh/forget-the-words-to-their-songs-making-them-mad-but-still-having-fun to the elderly. It’s a really awesome project, but sometimes it can be overwhelming, especially when it comes to learning all the hits from the 1920′s, 30′s, 40′s, and on. Well, last night I had help and it was great! We traded off on the guitar and song leading, and I was able to lead the residents in dancing with the egg shakers. “Left, right, up, down” all to the tune of Sidewalks of New York. Needless to say, volunteering lifted my spirits.

On my way home, I skipped and danced through the snow…

Left little reminders of love… (i gave every car on 96 street a heart!)

Considered sitting in this lovely throne…

But decided I’d rather snuggle with the kitty..

We stayed in and watched the snow globe…

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On my morning commute, I thanked the guy that made a path..

And the guy with the snow blower! (I have not seen one of these since the cornland!)

Looked at the pretty trees..

And decided to leave more reminders of love..

Happy Friday!

Last night we introduced the project to the students and they loved it! It was well received by the volunteers and the students! I’m really excited to see how the final piece will look. It will be much different than the original.

The students have asked that I create individual murals for them all to take home. They loved the fact that it was already painted out and that they could just add elements on top. We will also be stringing beads to wire, which I will add once the mural is stitched together. These will be used for the bridge.

I love the creativity the students have!

Here’s the latest on the Visions Mural!

My original plan changed a bit. I actually decided to paint out the entire mural on the canvas and outline everything in puffy paint. This way, it’s easier for the volunteers to help the students with adding the colored tactile material on top.

I was up until 4:00 painting this out, in my shoebox room (under the quilt is a full size piano, and my bed is rolled up against my clothing rack). The cat helped, you can’t see it, but there are paw prints everywhere! I’ll take some better pics soon.

The plan *modified*-

• Paint the mural out on canvas with color and puffy paint
• Cut up sketched mural into squares (this will be a large mural, probably 3 x 5 feet)
• Number the squares, so we know how to piece it together again
• Give each student individual squares with guidelines on colors to paint
• Students can add tactile objects on top with the same colors (beads, ceramic pieces, fabric, sand, etc)
• When the mural is completed, I will sew it together
• Final mural will be sewn onto a bar so it can be easily hung

They get to see the piece tonight! hopefully they like it!

I am lucky enough to do some awesome volunteer projects. For those in New York, NY Cares is one of the best volunteer organizations! You can practically do anything you want–from walking dogs to knitting for homeless. I am currently actively involved with three projects:

1. Monthly music with elderly
2. Weekly art with blind
3. *coming soon* monthly recycled art/environmental education with kids! which I’ll be team leading!

Friends, if you’re interested in any of these projects let me know! Sorry for the shameless plug, but I love getting people involved!

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In any case, I really enjoy doing the art class with the blind. The class meets weekly and students get to work on projects. While they may not be able to “see” they still enjoy working on art.

Class favorites include:

• Trivets - ceramic tiles placed inside gray goo that hardens into a nice square
• Wooden Boxes - painted baskets which can be decorated with anything
• Leather impression things – a really loud project in which the students take a hammer and stamp and smash the stamp to make impressions into the leather. did i mention this is a really LOUD project? bad if you have a headache!
• Place mats - sewing, gluing, painting onto fabric to make a place setting. or a small hanging piece.

When the team leaders found out I did murals for NY Cares Day, they asked me if I could help design a tactile mural for Visions.  So this spring semester the class will continue with the craft projects, but we’ll also be working on this fine art piece.

Inspiration- Last semester I worked on a lovely place mat with one of the students and made it as tactile as possible. She wanted a scene with a tree and fruit. We went through and picked out fabric for the background of the scene, the birds, and the fruit. The whole class loved the piece and they were able to feel and imagine each different element of the piece. This was a bit of inspiration for the larger mural we’ll do this semester.

New York Tactile Mural- We asked the students what they would like to have as a mural and they asked for elements of New York. Here is an unfinished painting of the mural design, but keep in mind it will be tactile. I’m also going to add in some animals and the students will have creative control of adding in any elements they wish to.

The plan-

• Sketch the mural out on canvas with puffy paint
• Cut up sketched mural into squares (this will be a large mural, probably 3 x 5 feet)
• Number the squares, so we know how to piece it together again
• Give each student individual squares with guidelines on colors to paint
• Students can fill in the colors with various tactile objects. (beads, ceramic pieces, fabric, sand, etc)
• When the mural is completed, I will sew it together
• Final mural will be sewn onto a bar so it can be easily hung

We start tomorrow, and I’m really excited! I’ve never done something like this, so I look forward to seeing the finished piece. I’m also happy with the design and think that the students will like the challenge.  It’s my typical “scene” with trees and a cityscape, but I’ve tried to “enhance” it. (thankfully, I’m sure ht would say! )  I tried incorporating things inside overall elements. I plan on finishing the sketch tonight and will add it. I’ll also try to post pictures as we work on the mural and I’ll also add the finished piece!