Things I Make for Me: Nesting Instincts

What is it about a rainy Sunday at home that inspires a certain range of activities for me? Reading, relaxing, snoozing, and today, nesting. Post late morning coffee and a few magazines, I found myself drawn to clean up and pretty up a little corner in my bedroom. This corner was already a spot that held a nightstand and a little gallery of elders. A sort of abstract family tree of parents, grands, and great grandparents, arranged in a manner loosely guided by feng shui (courtesy of Google University) to watch over and inspire me. Today I carefully disassembled most of it, cleaned and dusted, and reassembled with some additions. I was already happy with this corner, but allergies and ideas motivated me to address the state of it. Here it is now, clean and reworked.

 

It is still a work in progress, and I hope to find more old pictures to add. As a bonus, I had the time to clean the dust off of the ceiling fan in said room. I'm NOT lazy about cleaning, lol. In fact, the control freak in me requires that I clean throughout the week. But, like pretty much everybody else, I'm always busy.

But home is my sanctuary, my escape. So I'm happy to have found time to make it even more comfy. And now back to my regularly scheduled Sunday stuff. Which, after I wrote this, involved me concocting an apple pie cinnamon roll cake thingee from my overactive imagination for my sister-in-law's birthday. So much for a lazy Sunday (what is wrong with me?), lol.

Throwback: A Rare Repro

Recently I did a rare recreation of an old watercolor painting for a customer. I say rare, because I almost never revisit paintings. I guess I feel I might not be able to capture the spirit of the original. 

But I took this on partly because this is a long-standing loyal customer, and partly because I wanted to see if I could do it, maybe improve on it armed with greater experience and knowledge. Of myself, the subject matter, and some of the natural elements in the composition. 

For reference to the original, I used the only print of this painting that I have in stock. My approach was to block in things just like the original, then see if I felt like adding a little something as far as color, lighting, form, etc. Here's the process in a few photos.

print next to new sketch

starting color wash

details

fleshing out the background

finally, the hands

done!

I have to say that I was surprised that I didn't end up altering much. Given more time, I might have done so, but since there were constraints and a budget in place, I had to find a stopping point. Also, I could now imagine recreating other versions of this concept. Learn more about the inspiration behind this piece and purchase the print I have available in my store at the link below. 

{Sharp} Silver Linings

gaahhh!!!

Whether it is apparent or not, it feels like I am constantly working on making progress in some aspect of my art or my business around my work. It's really an almost daily commitment for me. But sometimes things throw me off track, only to set me back down even further along than I planned. For example, about a week ago, this happened→

I was sitting at my desk in my studio editing pictures, and I kept hearing a funny tapping sound. I ignored it at first, but it kept up, so I got up to investigate. And I found that one of the two windows in my studio had somehow shattered, or buckled, or imploded- whatever. Glass dust and particles were slowly falling in. 

Good thing (and I warn you there are a number in this post) I've had enough years of mishaps that I've now trained myself to bypass the freak out and the thoughts of inconvenience, productivity setbacks, general pain in the..., etc. (at least initially). Yes, I finally learned what a waste of time and energy moaning, groaning, and getting all upset is. Instead I used the energy to quickly move things away from the window and focus on making things as safe as possible. So I dragged out the ladder I keep in my studio and rigged this up until someone could come and take a look at it.

 sidenote: A few weeks back (with skepticism) I bought a roll of duct tape from the Dollar Tree store in my neighborhood.

It had a chance to prove
 itself here, and it did.
Not only does it have a snazzy
print, it seemed just as strong as the
more expensive stuff. #yestothat

pardon my dust

Later that day, a guy showed up, took measurements to have a new pane of glass made, and complimented me on my studio and my tape up job. I felt better knowing that things were moving towards a fix, and once he left, I added a tarp to catch any stray glass. I really didn't want to spend the next few weeks making bloody discoveries of tiny pieces of glass that had fallen in and on things. Once the tarp was up, and the place where my white box (that I use for picture taking) was cleared and covered in plastic, Good thing #2: (3?? I don't think I've included them all) I was able to go back to working on things that don't take place in that corner (no excuses!). 

After a few days of not being able to work in that corner, I decided to take the white box outside to try getting some pictures done.  I set it up on a plastic deck chair in the sunlight, and it worked like a charm (yeah, another good thing!). 

My new pane of glass was installed a couple days ago, and much of the broken glass cleared by the glazier. I still had the task of removing the plastic shield I had created, which had a bunch of scary pieces still just hanging there in it, all sharp and stabby. I finally got my mind to the task, got up on my ladder with goggles, dust mask (just short of a hazmat suit), and the long hose on my vacuum cleaner and tackled it. Once I had removed all the glass I could find, removed the tarps and all the plastic, and given the whole spot a good obsessive compulsive vacuuming, I was ready to start putting everything (especially my white box!) back, so I could get back to photos, etc. over there.

And once you start (here comes another one) something like that, it often just snowballs. And this case was no exception. So I ended up putting things back better than they were before, including some bonus cleaning and purging things I don't need any more. And now I am sitting here typing this, and looking at that corner thinking of what else I can do to make things more efficient, neat, and productive. That stupid broken window helped me fix something else! #Perspective, my friends. Perspective.

PS: It is so true, that a clean, organized work space is very inspiring (time to make some messes!)
PPS: I never figured out what broke the window. Meteor maybe?
PPPS: I got my white box years ago. You can find a similar one (plus links to other tools I use) in my tools storefront on Amazon.

Before and Afters

Believe me when I say that I am a total nerd. So when I tell you that I think I had to squelch a little excitement over what I'm about to share, you don't have to laugh- you already know.

 

Not long ago, my dad suddenly decided to gift me the monstrous Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary he has had for many years. I may have had to wipe a little perspiration from my brow as I got over the surprise and excitement (go with me here, okay?) of this unexpected gift.

 

This is a mammoth book that I have cherished and coveted for my own library since I was a kid. Not just an epic dictionary, this thing contains the U.S. Constitution, practical business math, popular names and abbreviations, presidents and vice presidents of the U.S., foreign words and phrases, - well, let's just say everything you will ever need to know in your entire life (or a round of Jeopardy). In the age of digital access to any info we desire, this thing still rocks.

 

Anyway, as major as this beast is, it was definitely showing its years. The cover was a true testament to the old cliché (don't judge a book...), because it had seen better days. So prior to giving it a permanent spot among my other books, I decided to give it a minor makeover. Here's the before:

 



Beautiful on the inside

I gathered some funky, patterned duct tape and some brown wrapping paper...

 

keep it cheap

And the after:

 

word.

The Webster's has now officially become a part of the Renée Parker library.

 

 

Just a note: for my friends who like to borrow books and "forget" to return them (you know who you are!), this puppy is non-circulating reference, thank you very much. :o)

Before & Afters

I've loved makeovers since I was a young'un, long before they became a thing on reality t.v. and elsewhere. I love a good transformation or upgrade, and am always looking at things from houses to clothes with an eye to their potential. So I'm starting a new series on this blog called "Before & Afters" to share transformed things that I'm excited about. I'm thinking it will be a lot of my own projects, and with any luck, I'll be able to toss cool stuff transformed by other artists and companies into the mix.

So for my first official Before & Afters post, I'd like to share a piece from a series of vases I'm working on. I've been taking standard small vitamin bottles and sculpting papier mache pulp over them to create working wet vases made totally of recycled materials. Because of the plastic bottle inside, these can be used with water and flowers like a traditional vase. Here's the before:

an empty vitamin bottle

And the after:  

it's paper, but water is a-okay in it!

This is also a sneak peek for posts I'll be publishing soon, revealing my super simple papier mache pulp recipe, and the steps I took to create the vase above. Hope you're looking forward to this series and the technique posts. I am!

Almost forgot- if you wanna find out more about the vase, go here: http://shophandmade.reneezanceart.com/collections/sculpture/products/small-handmade-paper-mache-vase-green-and-orange-papier-mache-decor