NEST

Perhaps a cuckoo's nest?  Supposedly, Native Americans learned basketry from watching birds make their nests.  It was interesting to make while waiting for my crops to bear and reading GONE GIRL.  Summer fun.

This Man Has the Best Job Ever

Keith Johnson does have the best job ever. He is the head buyer for Anthropologie and travels the world for iconic pieces of art, furniture, textiles and on and on. His show, MAN SHOPS GLOBE, is on Wednesday nights on the Sundance Channel at 9 central time. The things he finds are really incredible, but oftentimes, he shrugs them off (he says he's jaded) till he finds the thing that speaks to him. I love this show. If this clip won't play straight through, you can watch others at youtube. Meanwhile, don't miss tonight's show. It is that good. By the way, just heard Tulsa is getting a new Antropologie store at Utica Square. Yes!

Picasso Can't Have A Dog

Congratulations to Jo, A Brit In Tennessee and Cindy of Cindy's Clipboard. They both answered the question of what was this dog's name which is Picasso Can't Have A Dog. If you can enlarge the pic you will see a spiral on its shoulder. I wrote around the spiral like the 'Beats' did; a sort of stream of consciousness style. It says "Picasso can't have a dog, no Siddhartha he. Manipulator manipulated, whatever..." That's how the dog got his name.

Kinda Crafty

Here is something you can do with those old peeling mouldings and shelves. This hangs over my bed. It is pink painted over green. Most of these primitives have been painted many times. I scratched out the United States with OK in the middle. Then, the African continent with Saudi Arabia and India and lastly, South America. Maybe someday, Australia.

Picasso Redux

Here are some pics of one of my paper art sculptures titled Picasso Redux. It is stored in a back room of my barn and being a big girl (she's over 8 feet tall), I couldn't photograph her in one shot without hauling her out of the barn which I wasn't going to do. Anyway, here are a few views of her. These sculptures start with a roll of chicken wire and sometimes a tomato cage. Also, I use newsprint, Elmer's glue, roofing paper, paper towels, foil, styrofoam, wooden dowels, paper clay and acrylic paint with a satin varnish to finish it. Other times, I am at the plumbing section of Lowe's, gesturing and trying to explain to the help that I need a little thingy that goes into another little thingy... Believe it or not, these large sculptures take longer to make than clay sculptures. I really do like Picasso, though historically I have been into realism. She was fun to make and after trying to photograph her, I am thinking I might chop her up and add some more angles, a new base, maybe use a pallet knife to load on some more paint for texture...It never ends.

To see some other paper sculptures of mine, hit the arts and crafts index to the right. I hope this post doesn't put me in the naughty category or anything like that.

Arts and Crafts

I'm pretty prolific in the arts and crafts department - all over the place really. I draw, paint , sculpt, make jewelry, do gourd art using turquoise inlay, burn images on them and also do oil painting on them. They have been at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Ok and sold at retail outlets. I've done a few art and retail shows. Currently, I'm working on life-sized mixed-media paper art sculpture. Would you believe I have a life-sized horse sculpture in my dining room? I don't know why I like doing life-sized pieces as they take up a lot of space and even longer to make. Craft wise, I've just about done it all - at least it seems that way, but I have been doing it for many years now. If I ever get this blogging stuff down, maybe I can share some demonstrations/techniques.
In the pics are some of my paper art. The red dog is titled Picasso Can't Have A Dog. You'd have to read the text on the dog to understand the meaning. His tail wiggles. A couple of months after I finished it, a book about Picasso came out and on the cover was Picasso and his beloved dachshund. Who knew? The spotted dog on the ground pointing is titled Good Dog. I wish you could see his expression; his top lip curled back slightly. It's too funny. The basset hound on the bench is a work in progress. Some naughty boy tied the goose on its back with a rope and I still have to fashion a working pinwheel onto its tail. I am interested in automatons, but after researching them I couldn't get past the physics (pulleys, levers, etc.) You have to be an engineer to figure it out and I'm too old, er young to start a new career. Anyway, will the twosome be able to become airborne and fly away?

This is a pencil drawing of mine.