Current TV Video from the Cradle Project: My Cradle @ 1:36 to the right

Old School Watercolors!

I found some watercolors I made over three years ago! It was kind of cool to find them, I totally forgot they were in my files. Looking at them made me realize I really miss painting with watercolors so I may get back into it.

New Clay Pieces

Here are some clay pieces I finished recently. I'm just experimenting with glazing and handbuilding in most of these. A lot of blue and purple, I know :)

Bid on The Cradle Project!

I got my first bid on my cradle I made for The Cradle Project.org!! I nabbed these pics from their flickr site with pics of all the entries. I've never had anyone bid on my art before, it's pretty cool...and mysterious. The bidding started over the weekend so it's the third day out of eight that the auction will run through. They got about 545 cradles donated out of the initial 1000 goal the project aspired to. That's pretty good if you ask me. The cradles are awesome too! The most well known artist to participate in the exhibit/auction is Judy Chicago! I was excited when I looked through and found her name as one of the artists who donated a cradle. However, there is no picture. So, I looked online and found out she donated a painting of a cradle, still very cool. I bet the upper ups decided not to let that one get away :) Also, this is my first time participating in something of this nature and this organization is very professional and appreciative of the artists. I even got a hand written thank you letter from the person who developed the exhibit. Darn nice! Good experience and will totally be looking to donate a sculpture if they have this next year :)
toodles

A Whole New Mind

I am currently reading "A Whole New Mind" by Daniel Pink and it is excellent! Pink is from D.C. and was a former speech writer for the likes of Al Gore. He has written business books too. His book is about how right brainers are going to take over the future in the 21st century in this high touch, high feeling, conceptual age of abundance. Um, that's pretty much what art teachers and artists have been saying all along. Anywho, he is doing a good job in his mission to convince parents, other teachers, administrators, and future college students that he's right.
Pink is by no means, some genius that just came up with this notion that right brainers will take over the future. He does however, come from a business perspective trying to show what businesses and employers want from their workers, problem solving creative individuals, and that's what makes all the difference. I think for so long the only back up art teachers had was to say art was a good form of self-expression, which it is, but I think it has been a struggle to convince people out there that there is more to it and art should be looked at as a core discipline. One author that I admire greatly is Charles Fowler who spent the better part of his life defending the arts and showing why it is relevent, relating art to raising the gross national product. However, we are now have backing in a different way, a more relevant way to our peers and bosses. Why you ask? because it's about money more than ever. The prettier something looks, the more people want to buy it and in today's world more and more people can afford it. The more people buy, the better off the economy is in this conceptual age. We don't need things today, we want things and in today's world we are able to get them. Employers are looking for creative individuals that will design, market and sell all the stuff for everyone to buy. All of this just makes the art teacher's job seem more relevant than ever. That's why his book has been swept up by millions of art teachers around the country.
At an inservice I watched a video of his speech to school administrators in our county. He's a fantastic speaker and just really makes his points well. My favorite quote was when Steve Jobs, the Apple megapower, was asked what he looks for in an employee, his response was "social skills and a good drawing portfolio." Need I say more. It's nice to finally have the backup of the business world. I remember my cousin once saying to me that I was crazy to go into art education and that I should go into computers. Guess I was right afterall.

Sharpie Line Drawings

I have been doing these kinds of line drawings for years. Most of them are back in Des Moines but over the summer I worked on some that I had forgotten about until recently. I love working in stream of consciousness. My mind races sometimes and for me, these can be quite calming to work on. I am able to really focus. Plus, practicing to be very precice and controlled in my drawings helps me be more precice with other art pieces. Also, while working on these drawings I tend to come up with other ideas for other designs and art projects.

Flowered Basket for The Cradle Project

I finally finished the sculpture for The Cradle Project. I used different colored and textured cardboard boxes. I just saved cereal, tissue, and other boxes for about 2 months. I used an oval base instead of my usual circles to be more representative of an egg in the mother's womb. Everything had to be scrap material so the stand is made from cereal boxes that are wrapped in grocery bags. Really, the only part I purchased was the oval base that acts as a stand and weight, which I wrapped in with grocery bag paper as well. It looks small in the photograph but the sculpture alone is 17 inches round and 7 inches tall. With the base it is 30 inches.