#9 Inspired by Nature

So nature certainly had it's way with me on this one. When I finally found the time to go out in nature and gather my materials... it rained for 4 days. So I found some nature in my house, in a box of Christmas potpourri. It had some sticks in it and little twiggy pine thingies. So naturally I covered the sticks with paper, and realized the little pine twiggy thingies were actually made of of plastic. Sigh. There are real sticks in there though.

So what the heck is this thing? Trust me it's so much prettier in person, it lights up, it sparkles! It's a faerie lantern octopus thing! Inspired by nature, built by me.

Kate Shea

So this took me forever, and it came out horribly... but finally here is my hat/nature project. I was inspired by some of the plants around my neighborhood that are have all different colored leaves. Then I thought of the wicken who worship nature so I made a witch's hat. The leaves in the front of the pictures of mint leaves from the jungle of mint that grows outside my front door. I'm just glad to be done with this one!

Beth Marshea

#Nine (9) Inspired by Nature

Go forth into the world of nature and bring back inspiration to create art. Take some physical piece of the nature world and incorporate it into your piece.

Best of Luck!

# 8 Opposing Words (Team Project)

I'll bet you are thinking this is a team project why do I see only one work. Well because life gets in the way and one of us is working, and it's not me, so stop judging.

So how did we come up with this crazy idea?

Well I always have wanted to

make a fantastic beast strictly to mount on my wall. I guess I like the kitsch factor of taxidermy, and the whimsy of making up animals.

My cousin Matt, hunts and has some truly magnificent stags mounted at his house. I imagine he had to kill them because they were nibbling on his tulips or something. Or maybe they had insulted his mother and he was defending her honor. You know how those stag parties get.

But this guy is my vegetarian. He's a mix between a few veggie eating animals, a cow, a gazelle, a hippo, who can say. I'll proabbly wear out his nose kissing him goodnight every night.

Don't worry the carnivore is coming!

Here's my carnivore! Finally! Sorry he's not actually on a wall but I'm still waiting for the glue to dry! Oops, guess I should have started this one a little bit earlier. Anyway, he's a flesh eating demon and he's so scary that my husband said I'm not allowed to hang him in our bedroom... that John... who knew he was afraid of the dark. Anyway, he looks a little crazy because he had a severe problem with blood lust and went a hunter fought him to the death... well, let's just say it got a little intense. I still love him though, hope you do too!

#Eight (8) Opposing Words (Team Project)

Since we're the only ones participating or reading this blog, Kate and Beth will be on a team. We haven't picked our opposing words yet, but the show had things like order and chaos, male and female, heaven and hell... so we won't use any of those (don't want to be influenced by what we saw them do), we'll just pick something in the same vein.

Good luck to us. Continue making art!

8/12/10

Words have been decided:

Kate Shea- Vegetarian

Beth Marshea- Carnivore

#7 Children's Art

I couldn't have been more excited about this week's challenge. The second they said children's art I thought crayons. I love crayons. I love everything about crayons, the smell, the price, the textures, the softness.

When I was in college freshman drawing class, we had an assignment to work in crayons, and more people than not stuck to their

color pencils. But I thought my crayon drawing far surpassed my color pencil work. Part of it could be that crayons take away any intimidation. No one is afraid of a box of crayons.

A friend of mine told me she didn't like crayons as much as colored pencils because you lack the ability to do deatail work. Crayons force you to draw larger, they soften detail, and

they are shockingly effective in terms of fine art.

So what's the piece about? I guess it's about dreams, and schemes, and plans. It's about planning, t

he way you do as a kid, and about not letting the world, or reality or what should be get in your way.

Kate Shea

I was also very excited for this week's challenge despite the fact that I didn't actually manage to get it in on time. I remembered that when I was in elementary school my art teacher asked me to do paper mache at an art festival and I was supposed to make "a person in action". I made a skier... since skiing is such a big part of my life now I thought I would recreate that experience for myself. Skiing for me is like becoming a super hero, when I fail at everything in my normal life I can go on the slopes and fly! It's one of the few things I feel naturally comfortable with.

So, here's my skier, she's a flying rockstar! (And yeah, I do think the one I made in elementary school probably was better but... what can you do?)

-- Beth Marshea

(yep, just got the new license yesterday)

#Seven (7) Children's Art

We keep rolling along. For this week, create art using only children's art supplies... tempura paint, anything made by crayola, construction paper, pipe cleaners, whatever! This is a fun one... so let's have a good time! Go forth and create!

#6 Non Permanent Art

Everything is temporary!

When thi

nking about this challenge, I tried to think of temporary things, balloons, relationships, life. But what really struck me was piñatas.

Here's something that is is made to be destroyed.

Like sidewalk chalk art, Tibetan sand paintings, cakes... damn I could have done something really cool!

Instead, I made a fancy bird piñata.

It's only temporary.

Kate Shea

I came up with my piece after having a mental breakdown regarding becoming a housewife (as I currently am not providing any income for my household). I don't usually do conceptual art, but my mind was so ill at ease with the affair I thought the "temporary art" format might help me realize that this state is indeed temporary.

So represented you will see little parts of domestic unrest: peanut butter and jelly sandwich, dirty socks, a child's drawing, a snack bag of pretzels, tissues, a loaf of bread, bandaids, and a makeup kit, all centered around my broom.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to document the few people who wandered over during the thirty minutes it took to set up, take pics, and tak

e down. They didn't have much to say, but their looks were worth a thousand words (I set up in a park near a golf course close to my home). One man, said... "ah... time based art", and said, "huh?" and there were quite a lot of long glances from across the road. My husband said, "I'm glad we're not leaving it up to long, I think people might be offended." I consider that success, I think.-- Beth