In Bloom Art Installed!

A little behind here, as usual: back in May I attended the awards Ceremony and Grand Opening of the "In Bloom" exhibit benefiting HCS Family Services at Oak Brook Center...I won a Merit Award which was a nice honor. The had a lovely reception and ribbon cutting ceremony followed by a walking tour and then an evening reception which I had to forego, to pack up for my Iowa Art Fair. It was a great afternoon.

I liked this frog a lot...

Another favorite piece, "Garden Song" sponsored by Sharpie.

The bee outfit seemed fitting for this event...

Fred DeAsis with his bench: "Our Green Earth"...we met at the event and he was kind enough to take photos of me with my piece...thanks again, Fred!

With artist,Carla Bank, and her painted frog: "Firebelly Ozzie"...turns out she owns one of my pieces!These were the top 3 award winners. You'll have to check them all out if you find yourself in Oak brook...they will be on display through August and auctioned off in September. I'd love to do another project like this...aside from the headaches of moving it around, etc. it was totally worth the effort.

painting the birdbath...part 3: re-line & deliver!

A week ago last Thursday night I finished painting the bird bath for the HCS Family Services 'In Bloom" public art project at Oak Brook Center.

..it was an evening of re-lining to bring the images back into sharp focus!

It got to be a late night...

...the bottom/underside took way longer than I expected, finally finished at 3am!

Made last minute touch ups in the morning then signed it with my top secret tool...

...time to deliver it to Westmont to Remes Auto Body for the protective clear coat, Rich generously took the time to help me transport this thing once again.

...was very glad to have these gentlemen unload and carry it off the truck.

Can you tell it's late afternoon on a Friday? These guys were very jovial! I just received an email all the pieces were installed today at Oak Brook Center and the big award ceremony, ribbon cutting and sculpture walk is next Thursday, May 19th...kind of exciting!

painting the birdbath...part 2: glorious color!

Here's the color portion of this story...spent a week deliberating if I should have 3 different color schemes/tiers and in the end stuck with it. In the past I would have done a coordinating border like the black and white bones I did in the 'Suite Chicago Dogs' set....but since this is one single piece and that was 4 separate pieces opted to try something different. It might look a little odd here, but wait until you see it with the black outlines painted in....stay tuned!

Actually going home to finish it tonight as I have to deliver to the autobody show in Westmont that is doing the clear coating...wish me luck!

painting the birdbath...part 1: chalk and black paint

The weekend before last, I finally started putting some art on the crazy fiberglass bird bath! I started by drawing on the composition with purple chalk - I had started with a title of "Canines'n Blooms" and a brief color rendering, but couldn't really figure it out until I was working full scale. Chalk is great, easy to erase.

I then went in with black paint and it suddenly started coming to life... 

This is great fun, I know I don't look thrilled here...but I was! ; )

I've captured most of it on video so stay tuned for the high speed painting synapses! Do you like my bike seat laptop video tripod?

And the underside...which few will see, was going to do bones, then all leaves, but settled for the swirl...I think it's a good solution: Almost forgot to show you my rendering...inspired by my 'dog park debacle' series of paintings:

CaninesNblooms

Stay tuned for part 2: color!

...and it won't fit through the studio door!

Drove out to Westmont yesterday to pick up the fiberglass hibiscus bird bath I've been commissioned to paint for the In Bloom Public Art Project on display at Oak Brook Center this summer...I knew it probably would not fit in the truck with the topper. Luckily an angel stepped in and was able to help us hoist it up to the roof and we bungeed it down. Made for a suspenseful ride back into the city on the expressways. Upon arrival at my studio, it came down off the truck easily, but no matter how we angled it, just would not fit through the door! It's currently sitting in my entryway...I had thoughts of painting it out there but am leery of vandalism, so will most likely port it home to my garage to paint. Stay tuned!

California Dogs

  I ran across these photos the other day, I hand painted this fiberglass chair for the opening of the Dogs Gallery in Westlake Village, CA back in 2003. Thought you might enjoy seeing some of my FUNctional Art! : )

This chair was also featured in the Italian Edition of Marie Claire Magazine in April 2006: