Assemblage Art: For the Birds

I've been looking at some "found object" assemblage art recently, for my students to refer to during an upcoming project in the 3D Art class that I will be teaching this year. One of the things I have been looking at is work that involves dolls in some way. Here are a couple of nice examples:





Then I came across the following image, and at first I thought, Cool-- someone took a Barbie and stuck some birds on it!



I soon realized, however, that this is an official Barbie produced by Mattel in 2008!


Alfred Hitcock's "The Birds" Barbie Doll



I've never bought a Barbie doll, but this one is so cool, I could almost go for it.

Inherent Vice

The image above came from a review of Thomas Pynchon's new book, Inherent Vice. Sorry, I forgot to bookmark the site, and the artist was not named, as I recall. Anyway, I like the picture, so here it is. BTW, I am currently reading this book.

Inherent Vice at amazon.

It doesn't look good for the Arts in Michigan

GRANHOLM KILLS HISTORY, ARTS, LIBRARIES. Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed Executive Order No. 2009 - 36 officially closing the Department of History, Arts and Libraries. The closure of the Department of History, Arts and Libraries is just another step in Gov. Granholm's plan to get rid of arts and culture and arts education in Michigan for good.

http://metrotimes.com/blog/reckless.asp?perm=812

Work in progress

I haven't posted anything lately because I haven't really had anything much to say, plus, I've been out of town a lot and jut generally busy with other things. Anyway, I figured I had better post something so folks wouldn't think I had croaked or something........

The images below show the progression of a painting that has slowly been developing over the last several months. I've been trying to work more out of my subconscious mind lately, and thought that it would be interesting to do a sketch with my eyes closed, using both hands simultaneously, drawing more or less symetrically. Some additional drawing was done with eyes open, after the initial "blind" sketch.


black Prismacolor stick on newsprint, 14" x 17"

Next, my old illustrator tendencies took hold. In other words, I dug up some photo reference for the various facial features. Next step, Photoshop.



Work on the painting began with a black line drawing on canvas board, drawn with a brush.


acrylic, 18" x 24"

More black was added.



Next came a glaze of transparent dark cool red.



Green was added.



I spent a couple hours on it tonight, no photos yet. I'll post again when it's a bit farther along. Hopefully this piece will be completed before the school year starts. Stay tuned......