Composition In Red: Art from Trash
February 28, 2012 at 8:07 pm | Posted in Art Studio, Considering Ideas | Leave a commentTags: collage, recycling, red, repurpose
©2012, Joan Desmond, Composition in Red. Collage.
This art piece uses only two things: Styrofoam from a take-out container, and cut magazine paper. While the previously posted fish mobile is much about organic shapes, this one is about geometric ones, and numbers. Since these four works will be displayed at a school I kept in mind the various curriculum subjects. Art can be created in any class to enhance learning.
Fish-Go-‘Round: Art from Trash
February 27, 2012 at 8:51 pm | Posted in Art Studio, Considering Ideas | Leave a commentTags: Alexander Calder, brainstorming, fish, Imagination, kids & art, kinetic art, mobile, recycling, repurpose
©2012, Joan Desmond, Fish-Go-‘Round. assemblage.
Fish are patterns, stripes, dots, chroma, shimmer, and flashing movement-darting singly, or en masse. Fish fascinate me and are recurring subject matter, so the idea of “fish mobile” came readily when thinking of something kinetic.
©2012, Joan Desmond, Fish-Go-‘Round-detail.
Although this piece doesn’t go ‘round & ‘round, the fish shapes bob and sway easily with a puff of breath or nearby vibration. Created from wood scraps, wood dowel, a kitchen appliance part, colored bubble wrap, button, cardboard, clothing catalogs, non toxic markers, and fishing line.
Birds anyone? Organic shapes like Alexander Calder used? Leaves perhaps, geometrics…what else may dangle free in a mobile?
Fuzzy Creature: art from trash
February 27, 2012 at 10:12 am | Posted in Art Studio, Considering Ideas | Leave a commentTags: assemblage, kids & art, Living Green KRV Festival, mixed media, recycling, repurpose, upcycling, Woodrow Wallace School
You can cut and/or tear cardboard boxes, foam cubes, plastic cups, etc., for use in flat art pieces. But think of the uses for sculpture! Three-dimensional trash holds endless possibilities for fascinating creatures, robots and humanoids, animals, architectural ideas…endless, once the brainstorming starts.
This little thing hasn’t been named, but I’m getting somewhat fond of it. Hope the kids are careful as its head already fell off once while working on it. Which brings up how to attach things. I admit to using a glue gun because it is fast and sure. The glue sticks are made from polymers (plastic), not so good for recycling, although my research shows vapors and skin contact are relatively harmless. Then there’s the burnt finger aspect, not desirable for kids. I also used Yes Paste, suitable for thick paperboard materials; it is non-toxic, acid free, and can be thinned with water as a final glaze. Non-toxic glue sticks are less expensive and easier for kids to manipulate, and are for light paper/collage applications. However, the bond does tend to break down over time. For many of the more sculptural pieces, PVA glue, such as Elmer’s will work well, since it’s art to be looked at, not handled. Tapes may also be used.
I was told this fuzzy creature looks like something from Star Wars. Its makeup is: yogurt container; plastic fruit cup; cap from a prescription vial; old drawer knob of plastic; plastic spice jar lid; plastic from a cable tie; sewing remnants of two buttons, a piece of cord, and half a metal fastener; toothbrush part; an old wig; leather purse handle parts; and left-over Halloween hair paint. What could you do with the plush covering from an old stuffed toy?
While playing around with Little Fuzzy I considered how it might live, it’s environment and habits. It’s easy to imagine a story there and how such a project could be used in the English curriculum.
Shiny, Shiny Night: art from trash
February 26, 2012 at 10:15 am | Posted in Art Studio, Considering Ideas | Leave a commentTags: brainstorming, Imagination, kids & art, Living Green KRV Festival, mixed media, paperboard, recycling, repurpose, upcycling, Woodrow Wallace School
Shiny, Shiny Night, mixed media by Joan Desmond 2012
For the past week I’ve been imagining again what to do with discards, trash, and used-up items, how they may serve as art material. The prompt was a display to be set up at Woodrow Wallace School to drum up interest for the Youth Recycled Art Show in March, part of the Living Green Festival.
It’s an easy reach to use magazines and paper goods in collage, but what to do with yogurt containers, the numerous caps and lids, the plastics, so many plastics, the Styrofoam (polystyrene foam actually, made from petroleum, why is that still next to our food?), on and on. All I had to do was be particularly conscious of the man-made materials that passed through my hands each day. Much of it gets re-cycled, re-used, and re-purposed but it’s also an endless, free resource for upcycling into art (gottta love new words). The projects needed to be doable for kids.
Here’s the first one. Built on the paperboard/cardboard backing from an empty 9”x12” drawing pad, it uses: colored bubble wrap; foil insulated bubble wrap; foil wrap from a gift plant; foam scraps; take-out container Styrofoam; those trusty magazine cuttings, and glue. It was entirely too much fun to create.
Art Studio Approach
August 17, 2009 at 9:43 pm | Posted in Art Studio | Leave a commentTags: acrylics, art mediums, Art Studio, brush cleaner, cleaning acrylic brushes, oil paint, paint brushes, paint palette, repurpose, working methods
What does an artist’s working space look like? I’ll be posting some more shots of the studio here. This is the steel rolling cart that holds brushes on top and paints underneath, and it’s where I mix colors.
Many of the brushes in the background are for oil paint. Yes, there are separate brushes for each medium. Love your brushes-take care of them. Good ones are pricey and using them is like playing a beautiful instrument; there is no off-key twang, just harmony and control as you sculpt paint with them. Even less expensive brushes can last a long, long time with care.
In my younger days, I’d let paint dry on brushes. Even after cleaning them, pushing those around on the canvas later was like wading through gritty mud. No matter what hand-eye control there was to muster, the brush could not respond fully.
Let me say it again. Love your brushes!
In working with acrylics, I use a sheet of framing glass on top of a piece of white paper as a palette (it’s actually white palette paper so there’s a coating on it, water doesn’t soak through if it gets sloshed). The white paper gives good contrast for mixing colors. Acrylics dry quickly so I cover them with reused plastic snack cups and just pull out a bit at a time. That way, I can mix a good amount and it’s usually good to go the next day also.
The three jars are filled with water for cleaning the brushes: first wipe off excess paint; swish off excess paint in water; rinse, and rinse again. It’s become automatic between colors or when switching brushes. At the end of the painting session, the brushes are washed with “the Masters” brush cleaner and preserver soap.
Arvin Green Arts Festival
May 16, 2009 at 9:47 am | Posted in Art Exhibitions, Art Studio | Leave a commentTags: abstraction, Arts Council of Kern, collage, design, paperboard, recycling, repurpose
Recycling…considering the process
An 18″ x 20″ collage created from recycled paperboard which is part of the Arvin Green Arts Festival Juried Show in Arvin, California, May 16-17, 2009.
Blog at WordPress.com.
Entries and comments feeds.
A Passion for Creativity 