Notice, too, the rag rug pieces waiting to be completed and several mixed media works in progress. :~)
I'm not exactly sure what has made me resist writing these last two days for AEDM2013. I plan to do a wrap up post tomorrow and then rush right into posting for the Creative Every Day challenge.
Today I worked on functional art. Very very practical and for organization sake, I painted a simple shelf my friend, Stacy, gave me at a great price - free. I can always use places to put my stuff so I can see it, so I took the shelf and painted it a Winter Grey and then added some ballet slipper pink as well, speckles (and in some cases more than speckles - ooops!)
I stacked up the majority of my fabrics including a lot of vintage 70's as well as linens which I have been using for rag rugs and as accents on other pieces. I have a tendency to forget what I have. I find myself at a rummage sale or estate sale - where I purchase most of my fabrics, especially vintage - and I can't remember what I have on hand.
I figure this will help me a lot.
On the top of the shelf is a piece of iron from a building built in 1912 very close to my home that is getting demolished. I've been poking amidst the salvage (yes, you will see some other art there, too, that I actually create!) I have no idea what this piece of iron was, but it intrigues me and deserves to be out and admired.
Also on top are my book sculptures which people have been enjoying a lot. Yesterday I worked on an abstract and decided to do a series of abstracts inspired by the writers of Concord, Massachusetts. This first abstract (no photo yet) is named Louisa and Henry and Laurie and Jo. Little Women might catch the reference: Jo is Louisa and Laurie is reported to be none other than Henry David Thoreau.
Come back tomorrow for the wrap up... or at the latest, Monday. I must get over my resistance! This has been such a fruitful month with so many great people I've come to know - I want to be sure to memorialize it!
Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
Last Spring, my son Samuel waited patiently while I snapped a series of photos similar to this one: that was when my shopping cart love affair began in earnest.
I can’t remember exactly when I noticed it, but sometime last Spring I noticed an empty lot on the road to my daughter’s high school – which was adjacent to an old, rundown neighborhood and the county hospital. This empty lot faced a carneceria and.. a "tobacco and discount store. The second store was a bright green color, almost matching one of the visiting shopping carts.
Maybe that is what opened my eyes to this particular subject and art form.
This is a Dollar General Shopping Cart. I like how it looks near this particular tobacco and discount store.
Not many people would think of it as an art form, but I saw it both as beautiful and a study in community cohesion and also perhaps a game someone who appreciates order was playing while the other neighbors saw the utilitarian nature of the enterprise.
I started calling the vacant lot “The Shopping Cart Lending Library” because some days it would have more shopping carts than other days. The first day I went there I got close up to the carts, noticed the trash in them, the broken mirror on the ground one of the carts rested atop.
One day I noticed all the carts were organized by color.
I had a rule, in these photos I would not rearrange the carts, I would only rearrange myself as I clicked my camera to get different perspectives.
I drove by the corner again today - my daughter transfered to a different school - and the lot was empty except for the expected trash. There were no shopping carts in sight.
After I found the shopping cart library last Spring, I started noticing abandoned shopping carts.
I started to hear their story.
A rare sight: an abandoned shopping cart in the northwest. In a vacant lot, naturally and oh, so Bakersfield to be from The Tractor Supply Store.
Here in Bakersfield I found them downtown and on the East side of town, perhaps because this is where I spent the most time. I also noticed they did not appear in the Northwest, which my son calls “Casper-land because it is so white!” and more uniformly affluent.
I realized many people in my town didn’t know about the shopping cart lending library or its cousins, the shopping cart collections at highly frequented bus stops that neighborhoods shared as they got off and on the bus.
I saw abandoned shopping carts as a sign of cooperation or a sign of apathy or perhaps a little of both.
Until the night before last, I only photographed my shopping carts incognito, but when I stopped downtown Tuesday night, I couldn’t help but notice the most eccentric shopping cart yet. I was almost angry when the owner showed up, I thought the photo op was gone but it was simply too good to pass up.
“Hey,” I said to the glasses wearing man with the ‘CAT’ short for the agricultural caterpillar tractor, “I love your set up!”
This is John, the Sculptor and my new friend with his work of art.
He smiled wider than I could have imagined, showing his lack of teeth. I smiled back when he said, “Why thank you! I was on the news the other night, did you see it?” I explained this was the first time for me and he immediately pulled the greatest attraction – a mannequin head and a teddy bear– off the rolling sculpture and posed with it.
“Can you put it back?” I asked “That was what attracted me the most at first.”
He told me his name was John and he was quite congenial. He posed for me in several shots and laughed and we talked and I snapped a few more photos and he confessed, “I’m not even homeless! I live at the Decatur!” He showed me his room key.
“That’s great – you stay there at the Decatur! It’s an ok place!” I reassured him. It is a welfare hotel but it does provide him warmth, protection and a consistent shower.
He told me he took odd jobs sometimes and basically was one of the happiest people I have seen all week.
I suppose artists usually are the most happy and sometimes the most miserable people I encounter.
I had no money to pay John for the photo, but I forgot about it as we both just lived the moment fully.
I have thought of taking photos of people with their shopping carts, but I wanted to bring along payment in food and small bills. John and my friend, Kimberly taught me there are many kinds of currency. A conversation and a smiling face is one kind of currency that is never emptied from my pockets.
Like the shopping carts scattered around less affluent neighborhoods which I have taken to documenting, people like John are usually the ones people ignore or turn their heads when they are seen walking down the street.
I have committed to not ignoring the shopping carts or the people who use shopping carts as a different form of recreational vehicle. When we choose to see beauty, these metal contraptions become beautiful and the people who use them for shelter and as a larger and more grounded back pack may even become our friends.
This is one of the shots I took this morning. See the laundry, hanging on the fence in the background? The white house has a very neatly kept yard. We can not make generalizations. Just because someone hangs laundry to dry on a fence doesn't mean anything except for what we make it mean.
I certainly didn’t expect to meet John-the-Sculptor with a great personality. I expected an angry perhaps drunk man who wouldn’t let me take a photo without giving him money. I was surprised and I would bet John would be surprised, too.
What public art have you seen or appreciated lately?
Perhaps it is time to look again and see beauty where perhaps you used to see shame or humiliation.
Remember John and his sculpture, unique and profoundly perfect, instead.
Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
I decided all this paper from all these sources indeed would have been Emily Dickinson's friends. I still believe she was (and is!) highly misunderstood!
I have often referred to writing as my “anchor art.” It is
the artform I turn to first most of the time.
In fact, I learned through writing not only to love
language, but to love the silences between the writing. (Tomorrow’s post will
get more deeply into that!)
These two pieces I played with – and yes, one is absolutely
finished and the second is still a question mark.
The first one, the Emily Dickinson Collage – is complete.
The poem of hers is inside the heart and the other paper are from a variety of
books in my collection: an atlas, an old music book, a textbook and a novel.
There are times when I will just paste strips from a variety of paper sources
onto backgrounds for hours.
I also realized via Art Every Day Month 2013 how much of my
art also serves as meditation practice. I don’t usually have a plan on much of
my artworks’ earliest stages, I am following the lead of the Unknown. In both
cases today, that was where I started. I find taking the hand of the Unknown
and agreeing to follow usually births my best work.
I need to get out of the way in order for the best work to
be done. I make me laugh, but the truth is right there!
When I take control over a work, not so great – which is why
the second collage remains unfinished – I was using a preface page from an old
Random House Dictionary. I loved the language so much… yet I didn’t ever completely
let go. Now I am waiting to get word from the work where it wants me to focus
next.
I’m having WAYYYY too much fun this month!
What is happening along your adventures in Art Every Day land?
Julie
Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media
artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each
month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her
on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find
the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
Yesterday I sat on my front porch waiting for Samuel's school bus.
While I was doing this, I was covering a hanger with dictionary pages. Doesn't everyone wait for a school bus on her porch wrapping a wire hanger with old book pages?
Nonetheless, this is what I was doing. I was also creating paper beads in assorted sizes.
In my attempt to be organized, I decided to make my origami boxes useful. I took one of the boards I had painted (from the upcycled 1930's desk) and five of my origami boxes of assorted sizes, and glued the boxes to the board.
Instantly I had a sorting device for my beads.
My friend was visiting and he reached for one of the boxes to inspect it more closely. For whatever reason, people love handling my origami. I don't mind at all, I enjoy the artful interaction.
Anyway, he reached for the box and attempted to lift it up and said, "Hey, this is glued down!"
These beads were an experiment for another project. I've since edited that idea but I'm sure I will find some use for these!
I smiled and said, "Yes, this is one of the ways I am putting all my paper folding into good use!" as I dropped a bead into one of the boxes.
I still want to add a gloss finish but for now, theses sweet boxes on board are the perfect small, pretty containers for my itty bitty pieces of other works of art.
Oh - people ask me how I make origami boxes and dresses. Very simply: I watched YouTube Videos and followed along. This is the exact video I watched to learn how:
What is happening along your adventures in Art Every Day land?
Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
I am forever seeking more organization and a more artful home, filled with pretty things. With this creation, I managed both.
It is a pleasant goal to have and achieve: a more organized AND a more artful life. I think I hit some serious paydirt with this pinterest inspired project.
I have seen this assemblage - the art term for it - made as a dollar store craft.
I evolved it to become an upcycled, repurposed, family heirloom, story telling prompt work of art all in one piece.
Would you believe it took less than ten minutes to assemble?
Naturally, I am not including the time collecting the bits and pieces when I visit thrift stores, yard sales and estate sales. I have chosen different colors and textures of plates and cups and vases knowing I wanted to build an assemblage or perhaps many assemblages if the first one turned out well.
This marvel was made this for my daughter to put on her dresser to keep all her hair accessories, rings and earrings organized but the same idea is used to serve desserts at parties or as place to store an artist/crafters tools in order to use space wisely.
All it took was some E6000 glue, two thrift score plates, one thrift score vase, one thrift score watering pitcher and an heirloom plate from family china.
Taking the time to shuffle & reshuffle dishes makes a better final outcome. I actually set several different arrangements and left the room in-between before making my final choice.
I took my time in stacking and re-stacking, trying different combinations of dishes. I ended up with what I did because I took my time and made several wrong choices before finding exactly what worked the best for me in this project.
The Glue Begins: My final decision was made because I thought my teen would like having a "secret compartment" in which to put small things (perhaps money, too) her younger siblings will leave alone.
What took the most time was waiting for the glue to set. I linked to some E6ooo instructions above in case you want to replicate this assemblage project.
The middle plate was originally an egg plate, I think. The indentations make it perfect for rings and earrings to nestle where deviled eggs once waited to be eaten.
My daughter was thrilled with the final result and immediately put some of her hairbows on top. Once again, she won't have to ask me in the morning where her bows and elastic bands may be found because they will be right here, where they are meant to be.
Finally, a place for everything and everything in its place... well, I'm getting there.
Watch for a blog post about how to use such functional art pieces to keep your family stories alive for future generations. This aspect of this brand of DIY delights me endlessly.
=====
Julie
Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her
word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday each month in Downtown
Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different
social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus
particularly enticing.
I look into these photos from this morning and think, “This could be my self portrait.”
I showed my art in process to Emma and she cocked her head to the left and said, “They don’t really match.”
I cocked my head to the right and responded, “Yeah, that’s sort of the point.” Or perhaps I should say one of the points.
It started with the tea cup.
I bought it at an estate sale for several reasons: first of all, she was without a saucer, which I learned in kindergarten from my teacher, Miss Wick, is a horrific faux pas. I didn’t want to leave the poor tea cup all alone in a sea of teacups with saucers there being offered to other estate sale shoppers. I also noticed the insects she was wearing on her sides. Having never seen a teacup with insects on her side, I knew this was definitely my tea cup.
Her throne base comes from my daughter Katherine’s watch box. Well, it was my daughter Katherine’s watch box. She left the box on the kitchen counter so I snatched it up, realizing it would be perfect for some future project. I fetched some Asian book pages – foolishly accepting they were in Japanese because somehow to Universe would send me characters to match the Nippon on the bottom of the teacup which I learned gives my sweet little friend a birthdate between the 1920’s and 1930’s.
My twelve-year-old son, Samuel, who has become our family expert in all things Asian language related looked at it and declared it to be Chinese. Ooops. My poor not yet assembled art piece had another flaw even before I “stitched her together.” I got the paper from one of the Friends of the Library book sales. I still have more that is becoming more art as I type. Art-in-progress: how I adore that, too!
The saucer where she sits was bought as a prop for a play I was in last May: The Nerd. I broke lots of sweet saucers so I had to have plenty to mash up. The only problem is this particular saucer and her sisters were apparently made to not break, so I saved them…. for whatever perfect project happened to appear. She is covered in book page leaves because of the insects, naturally. They need some “leaves” to prance among, right?
You add together all these mismatched, misshapen remnants and get a sum total of… very close to me and perhaps, close to you, too.
I made this for all of us who feel mismatched or unmatched at all – certainly too much to be understood or appreciated by anyone.
Who would want a cracked, stained tea cup from two generations past sitting atop some Asian language that can’t be understood and grass leaves made of a children’s text book from the 1970’s and a English composition book from 1934?
I would. So I took her pictures and imagined what it would be like to gather with a bunch of other mismatched souls who by some miracle match me enough that we can fully appreciate the quirkyness of one another.
Oh, can you imagine the reflection of that crew if you held a mirror to us?
I’ll take that view, and that cup of tea, anyday.
*****
Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at First Friday on September 6 in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different mixed media channels, especially if you relate to being mismatched and/or living on the island of misfit toys, teacups and people. You are love!
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