Saturday, April 14, 2007
ArtPact #14
Well, kinda.
As planned, I spent most of my birthday doing what I like.
My grand sleeping-in idea did not work well, as The JohnnyB felt obliged to wake me before leaving to work, and then some early birds from the holy land decided to call me and disrupt that plan of mine.
Still, one of them was my incredible niece, Lilush, whom you've kinda met through her portraits, who chatted for a while and then put the monosyllable Nitzku on the phone, for a fascinating conversation.
This cheeky kid (2 years old in May) is fluently composing full logical sentences. Only thing, he is limiting himself (and his audience) to one syllable of each word (on rare occasions, he's upgrading to two). Talking to him is serious left-brain challenge, as it's all about deciphering, and it's hysterically funny.
It was the first time for me to talk to him, and I did pretty well, despite my uncontrollable laughter.
He monosyllabled me (in Hebrew, of course) about the pigeon he saw that day, then abbreviated a Lilush-guided "Happy Birthday", then informed me that he did not give the Anguses any hay, and then, on a complete tangent which is so typical to our family, suddenly cheered: "Tafta!!!!" (his version to 'grandma' in Hebrew). His mom and myself transatlantically corrected him that it's not Grandma, but Nava, which he repeated with sheer disappointment, grunted "No Grandma, Nava?!", then assured me - yet again - that he did not give hay to the Anguses, and retired to his business (which - at the time - was dancing in front of the television while wearing a green bowl on his head. Yup, definitely belongs to our family!).
Anyway, once this fun discussion was over, and the non-Tafta-Nava was left to lick my wounded ego, I got up and spent several hours painting tissue paper.
"Why would you do that on your birthday, of all days???? ".
'cause this week, WackieM has demoed how to prepare your own collage paper, and two days later, ShinyR brought an incredible collage which she created with her self-prepared papers - and that was it.
I got hooked.
Went to the art store, spent $50 on liquid acrylics and white tissue paper, and spent 3 hours dyeing 20 sheets of that.
And so, on my birthday, I continued this obsessive quest, and dyed 20 additional sheets, with some more daring colors and some texturing.
It was so much fun, someone should illegalize it.
And, the results:
- One big stain of phthalo blue (one of the most staining pigments) on our backyard cement, which shall forever remain there
- Two shamefully dirty hands and fingernails (as I discovered, those fluid acrylics don't come off easily, despite all the scrubbing).
- Three colorful purplish drips on the carpet in my studio (I hate this carpet anyway)
- Forty sheets of some stunning papers (which this image does not even begin to show in their real glory).
And also, one very, very exhausted - but extremely ecstatic - Nava.
So, that is my ArtPact for today.
Preparing my own pallette of papers, about to start texturing and stamping some of them, and then start using them to assemble paintings.
After I was done cleaning my studio and the backyard and the trail of splashes all over the neighborhood, I did my best to look civil and neat (worked pretty well, as long as I kept my hands hidden...) and went to the reception of our show.
The JohnnyB came later, straight from work.
And - yet again - you didn't come!!
See, I sent an Email invitation to about 40 people, and the only one who bothered to come was DaskieM. She even brought her son, ToughyD, an emerging art critique, who announced the painting by ShinyR to be the best of show, and informed me that he liked one of my paintings there ("April Moon"). As I was basking in the positive feedback of a cynical 8-years old macho dude, he quickly added that he really, totally and utterly didn't like my other painting.
Y'know, I appreciate honesty, but at that moment, between him and The JohnnyB (who joyously exclaimed he doesn't like that painting either), well... I was almost longing for some phony enthusiasm :-)
To our dismay, we were mostly artists at the cafe, hanging around by the fingerfood for 2 hours, waiting for more guests to show up. At least I wasn't the only one gazing at the door with disbelief.
For those of you who did receive an invitation and didn't bother to do anything about it, what can I say (actually, I can say a lot!)... It's a great show, and - come to think of it, it's your miss. Big time. And don't worry, I won't be bothering you again with invitations.
As for DaskieM, you truly made me happy by coming!!! (even if you, too, don't like my second painting in that show :-)
And so, at 7pm, we all left the place, The JohnnyB and I had dinner at Shalimar, a restaurant that always brings tears to my eyes with its excruciatingly spicy yet amazingly tasty food, and I crashed to bed, tired beyond belief.
I did say I wasn't planning on a fancy birthday, Eh?
previous ArtPact... ...next ArtPact
Labels: Art, ArtPact, Birthday
Those papers are amazing!! I can only imagine what they look like in real life. What exactly do you do with them? I am a non-artist of the highest degree, and its hard to tell how thick the paper is etc. No matter, I just love the brilliant colors. Easter eggs on steroids. :) Wheelers says he loves them too.
Sounds like a fine birthday.
I will accept a personal invitation any time. I can e-mail you my address. I only attend affairs that I have been cordially invited to.
Can't wait to see the next step in the color paper....
# posted by 
: 4/15/2007 6:19 PM
Blogauthor, they truly are amazing. A friend who inspired me to get into this told me that the hardest thing is to start cutting and tearing them, when it's time to collage, as they are so precious...
Easter eggs on steroids - I like that :-)
Rhonda, yes, it was a good day. So... if I mail you an invitation, in the most cordial way, you would fly to California, Eh?
I can't wait to see the next step myself - - - been procrastinating, as I needed a quiet weekend.
I made some self-made stamps, and am planning to decorate them papers.
To be honest, I feel a bit intimidated to start the actual collage, as I have no clue how to approach it. Should be a fun journey, but the first attempts will probably be shooting in the dark, as I want to try and do them between realistic and abstract. Always going for the challenges, that's me!
One out of 40, eh? Now this is just a suggestion, but I find people are more inclined to act when they are properly motivated. You may have to threaten someone.
Glad you had the kind of fun that you wanted for your B-Day! Too often it seems we celebrate for the benefit of those around us.
3 t'ings: (1 leadin' to 2 [as so often happens])
1) Monosyllabic
2) Monosyllabulated (please don't take that one seriously. {-; )
3) (And most importantly from my POV) Was there cake? There had to be cake! Or at least pie!
And those tissues really are totally gorgeous. Coolish!!!
Daniel, Naaaaaa. It's not worth the effort. Just serves as an expectation-setter for future events.
MB - Monosyllabulatinated it is :-)
No cake. Not even a pie.
I think I deserve a re-run.
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I will accept a personal invitation any time. I can e-mail you my address. I only attend affairs that I have been cordially invited to.
Can't wait to see the next step in the color paper....
: 4/15/2007 6:19 PM Easter eggs on steroids - I like that :-)
Rhonda, yes, it was a good day. So... if I mail you an invitation, in the most cordial way, you would fly to California, Eh?
I can't wait to see the next step myself - - - been procrastinating, as I needed a quiet weekend.
I made some self-made stamps, and am planning to decorate them papers.
To be honest, I feel a bit intimidated to start the actual collage, as I have no clue how to approach it. Should be a fun journey, but the first attempts will probably be shooting in the dark, as I want to try and do them between realistic and abstract. Always going for the challenges, that's me!
3 t'ings: (1 leadin' to 2 [as so often happens])
1) Monosyllabic
2) Monosyllabulated (please don't take that one seriously. {-; )
3) (And most importantly from my POV) Was there cake? There had to be cake! Or at least pie!
And those tissues really are totally gorgeous. Coolish!!!
MB - Monosyllabulatinated it is :-)
No cake. Not even a pie.
I think I deserve a re-run.
