Today didn’t work out the way I thought it would.

It went more like busy, nap, busy, nap… playtime.

I did manage to get the (future) studio floor painted.

Tomorrow I will be tinting cement and using it to fill the  holes.

The kids and I also glued a bunch of glass globs to the foundation of the house over one of my flower beds.

That was just for fun.

I like things that are just for fun.

Kaffe Fassette’s studio door.

I love his work.

All in all a good day.

I’m thinking about my favorite things again.

Hmmm…I may have to do a picture post.

Tell me one of your favorite things.

I got to go to the ARTOMAT!!!

It has a new temporary home at The Dancing Eye Gallery.

Just what is a dancing eye?

Can you imagine? I would never be able to talk to someone with a dancing eye. I would be absorbed in the bouncing and jumping of their eye, I’d never hear anything they said.

I went with Cooper, Sam and Mat.

I got to pull the knob myself this time… wokka! wokka! Cooper did the other pull and I promised Sam that next time we went he could do one. *sigh* Everyone wants to pull the knob.

The gallery had a lot of cool things but there wasn’t much time to look. Little hands that aren’t being watched are grabbing hands.

So you wanna see what I got don’t you!

Aww come on, you know you do!

Well I’m going to show you anyway!

So here… look.

HEY OPEN YOUR EYES!

Aren’t they cool? They had so many neat choices this time…

Coming to you exhausted from The Motor City…

ANG

Oh the exhaustion isn’t about to get better since I am joining the mobs rushing to get my Harry Potter book this evening at midnight. Why wait when I can be stepped on, pushed and deal with rude people… that’s what i always say.

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Harry Potter celebraton is not meant for me… ahh well. I guess I will be rested up tomorrow.

On a bright note I get to watch Monk and Psych… ummm… and I went to a wonderful church ice cream social.

THE REQUESTS’ ROLL ON…

Okay, So my workshop/studio is a complete mess… it’s in transition. Right now it is patiently waiting for me to fix the floor in the building outside, and then I will need help disassembling my work benches and carrying them out there. So instead of showing you all of it right now, I thought I would show you some bits and pieces of it  and then when the outside is all settled I will show you the wonderfully organized and well lit studio that it will become and you will all think I am an amazingly neat creative person instead of an incredibly sloppy one. I know there are those of you out there who know me in real life and know the latter to be true… bite your tongues please…

Glass globs, magnified glass, mirrors and small bevels waiting for projects… never know what I will want to use.

 Glass that is too small to be put with the big pieces and a pile that needs to be sorted into mosaic boxes that I haven’t done yet. The plastic tubs are glass scraps from my finished projects that are to big to throw away and waiting for mosaics… Some of them will be used this weekend because I will be going to the annual mosaic weekend at my friend Rosie’s.

Of course I will be blogging on it.

Miscellanious things I find that seem like a good idea at the time… Plastic animals and people, keys and bottle caps, all of these things can be used some where believe it or not… really, they can!

Acrylic paints… used by both me and the kids, can never have too many.

Okay so those are some of the tools, Let me show you some of the pieces that are waiting to be worked on. These are things I’m doing for myself. It always seems to take longer to do those because I set them aside and work on other things for other people, that just seems easier to do.

Frog panel. I am actually considering putting some three dimensional glass wings on him… I think they would look good. He’s kind of stuck right now because I cut the first piece of olive green glass for his leg and decided I didn’t like it so now I need to find a green I do like.

These are two panels from a six panel lamp, the other four panels are reeds only… It is going to replace the ugly lamp on my night stand when it is done… looking at it now I want to go finish it… hmmm… nah, It’ll wait.

Okay this is in our front door. I did this piece a few years ago when the kids had one of their frequent “Oop’s, I didn’t mean to do it Mom.” Moments…

I have to find some time to sit down at the scanner to show you all any more since most of the pictures I have of the things I’ve done were taken before I had my digital camera. Also… I have requests for baby pics, grad pic, etc… I’m working on it … really I am.

Ang

Oh Rach, I promise when the studio is all in good working order again I’ll do a nice post about it… Sorry for the cop out. Ang

Hey!  I do have a piece that is on here, I posted it awhile ago… when I first started blogging, I’ll put that up too… since some of you may not have seen it.

It’s a fish I did for my Pop for Christmas.

I like making fish.

Well, I’ve had my first Mail art casualty. Jess didn’t get her’s so a new one is in the works. It has forced me to rethink several other things because they are in the same types of slide boxes. I’ve come up with some other ideas though and their getting started this weekend. I hope to have everyone’s out by the end of the month.

There was a small cellophane envelope on the top with the care and feeding of an eyeball instructions…

It was fate I guess because I know I can come up with something better.

John William Waterhouse…  Apollo and Daphne

Maybe it’s the adolescent humor that I some times succumb to but this one gives me dirty thoughts.

It is actually quite subliminal if you study it… I wonder if John was hiding a little S&M fetish…

Opeliah

And his women always look so sad and needy. I still like him though… all except one, and it has nothing to do with the painting itself. When I was living in Utah I was a mat cutter for Provo Art and Frame… I loved the job, but there were certain pictures that I saw so many times coming in to frame that it would make my eyes cross.

This is one of them.

The Lady of Shallot

There is a lot of very cool symbolism in this picture, but i don’t think any of the girls hanging it on their dorm room walls ever noticed.

I’ll stop forcing you to look at morose women but their so well painted and beautiful…

Can you tell not much going on today.

What do you all think of Waterhouse?

So I’ve seen these posts lately where the subscribers (you) are given the chance to ask the blogger (me :-b)

to take a picture of something they want to know about in the bloggers life…

I’m considering it. It looks like fun.

I haven’t actually decided I’m crazy enough to try it yet… (sorry Gail and Bek) It’s true though. 

 I have to many deep dark secrets… and dirty laundry, literally, that I’m not sure I want to air on Xanga.

What about you? What would you hate to Show on Xanga?

I don’t want to SEE it… I’m just wondering if there is something out there you wouldn’t want seen…

********************EDIT***Because I wanna, that’s why************************************

 This is the mail ART that I sent to CJ… It’s a two part kaleidoscope. I call it the Wilde O Scope… for those of you who are The Importance of Being Earnest fans you might recognize the eyes. The larger part of the scope where the mirrors are is all papered in black and the white. The gems and doodads in the chamber are all black and white also… so when you look through it… black and white.

The second part of the tube is all papered in colored strips and the things in the chamber are all done in color… when you slip the second tube over the first… you have COLOR…

I really enjoy making kaleidoscopes, they are just too much fun to play with while I’m doing them… The glass ones are usually a little classier though.

I wrapped the instructions around the scope, secured it with rubberbands and off it went.

Now, On to the next batch!

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I put a frog in everything I do… So when you get your art… look for your frog.

 Glass works by Dale Chihuly.

Isabelle’s onion rings and chili dog.

She was thnking life was good.

More to come… depending on how bored I am. Ang                                           

One of the things I do that makes me feel good is MAIL ART…

I’m sure you all know the feeling of anticipation you get waiting for something to come in the mail. I love that feeling. I feel like a kid at Christmas when the mail comes whenever I’m expecting something from an exchange.

I wish I could post some of my works here but I haven’t taken any pictures of the things that I have done.

 I know, so unlike me.

I love floating objects in resin filled tuna cans and sardine cans. I have coated a piece of toast twenty times with polyurethane so that I could send it through the mail. That was especially fun because when the mail man said he didn’t think it would make it through the mail I thumped it on the counter several times and said ‘Sure it will.’ So he mailed it. He still gave me the disgusted look. I also like to make kaleidoscopes out of unusual things, soup cans and pringles tubes… their great fun to mail.

So…

I have no pictures of my work, but I do have pictures of some of the things I’ve received to show, so here they are.

Series of hands…

#1 Cookies

#2 Fist

#3

This was hands…

I was sending him brains.

 I like them what can I say.

 I also like eyeballs… don’t know why.

Most of the things I have received have been objects. I do like to send collages and prints.

The only requirement for mail art is that you mail it as is. The stamp and the post mark become a part of the art.

I once sent a piece to Hell, Michigan where a store was kind enough to post it from there with the post mark.

It was a clear plastic globe containing a floating domino with a painted skeleton on it and the saying :

Optimism is a mania for saying things are well when one is in Hell.

One of my favorite sayings.

The post mark just made it that much cooler.

There are things you have to be careful of: The post office will not mail anything that is smaller then 3″x3″… although recently I mailed something to a fellow Xangan that was smaller… you just have to smile really nicely at the postmaster and bat your lashes…

No glass items or items with liquid in them.

Pretty simple rules.

Lego’s… ick.  they did make for easy mailing though.

The SOUND O SCOPE

This is one of my favorites, the soundoscope. It came with directions on how to use the objects in it to hear different sounds. Very creative. It was sent to me after I had sent a soup can kaleidoscope.

Almost anything can be mailed, I have mailed a shoe, plastic lobster and plastic gumball machine bubbles.

Now to the point.

 I have a piece in progress sitting on my work bench. It’s a very cool one and when its done I’ll take pictures before I post it. I don’t have a home to send it to yet though.

If your interested in exchanging mail art with me, message me your address and I will send out a piece to you with my address on it, you HAVE TO send a piece back though.

For those of you who think it sounds fun but don’t think your ‘artistic’ Come on. You’ve seen some of these, you can mail whatever you want although, I do prefer things that have some effort to them. Even a drawing on an envelope.

SO the first person to send me their address with a promise to send something back will get the piece that is on my bench.

If I get more then one address I will make a list and start sending them out as quickly as I can.

Hope you guys are interested. This should be great fun. ANG