Not exactly "High Art" . . rather "cute art" instead.

It's been 2 weeks since my last post. One week I spent relaxing on the gulf coast of Florida . . ahhhh. The rest of the time I spent assembling art projects made by 79 kindergartners. My fingers are sore!

As a fundraiser at my daughter's elementary school, each class is making an art project to be auctioned. I volunteered to do all  four of the kindergarten classes and came up with the idea of creating lampshades. Do you remember making shrinky-dinks back in the 70's & 80's? You draw on a piece of plastic, pop it in the oven and it shrinks to about 50% of it's original size.  It's so much fun . . . until of course,you've shrunk over 200 of them.  

Each child made 2 drawings on clear shrinky-dink tiles that I had pre-cut and punched holes in.  I shrunk them all down, assembled them with jump rings and attached them to a lampshade clip-top wire.  I then made a light diffuser by creating a cylinder of vellum which attached to the clip-top behind the shrinky-dinks. And voila!  You have 4 cool table lamps made from kindergarten art! They'll be auctioned off at A Girl Thing on March 23rd. It's a night of shopping, silent auctions, hors d'oeuvres, drinks and desserts. 

Click on the photo for a larger view.

I dropped them off at the school today so the kids could see the lamps before they are sold.  The kids were so excited trying to find their pictures on the shade.

Lamps with their lights on.

Now I hope they bring in lots of dough!  I need to come up with a starting price for each - what do you think it should be?

Pushing and Pulling

After completing the Pully Paintings, I visited the Charles River Museum of Industry which had a great, although small, Steam Punk exhibition (which runs through May 10, 2011) as well as a fascinating re-created Machine Shop from the turn of the 20th century.  A system of pulleys with leather belts powers a variety of vintage machines.  This in turn inspired me to start this piece (which is a work in progress).

30" x 40"  Acrylic on canvas © 2011 Theresa Bricker

 It's been slow going since I don't have a clear direction yet.  I'm not even sure if this is the way it will finally hang.  But I am excited about it and am looking forward to seeing how it develops.

And we begin . . . again.

Art has always been a part of my life.  But there are times when it is not in the forefront, where it should be.  I am just emerging from one of those periods and am ready to create.  I'll be posting my progress and giving glimpses of the stages a work of art goes through before it is finished.

In December I was frantically working on piece that was commissioned by my friend, and professional photographer, Jacquie Spector of Spector Photography.  She, her partner Mike, and their daughter had Just moved into a new home which Mike had designed.  And my piece, which Jacquie graciously gave me complete artist freedom on, was to fill a giant wall. 

Ultimately I decided on a diptych which mirrored the sizes of the room's windows as well as took some small architectural details from the room.

70" x 35" Acrylic on canvas  © 2011 Theresa Bricker

 

22" x 35" Acrylic on canvas  © 2011 Theresa Bricker

It's content of the work is about the push and pull of family dynamics, and how ultimately all this tension helps a child to grow straight.  I was able to see the pieces hung as planned during a wonderful housewarming/holiday party.  It was a great experience for me because I was able to overhear people commenting about the work without them knowing the artist was present - very unlike an art opening. 

© 2011 Theresa Bricker

 I hope to get another photo showing work within the context of the whole of the room with it's vaulted ceilings and tree-high views.

Thank you to Jacquie for helping me to begin again.  This commission was the spark I needed.