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My Interpretation of Little Dancer by Degas

March 2, 2011 by pvlaughingmoon

Marguerite Plays at Being a Dancer, 16-1/2″ tall.

This was the first of my versions of impressionist works. The Girl with Watering Can was actually second. And yes, I do have a third in the planning stages.

The hair was the most fiddley and time consuming part of this particular piece. I had to figure out a way to make long straight hair that was still consistent with my visual style. The answer was one thin little strip of fabric at a time — which took forever but looks fantastic. The skirt is made from fabric cut into thin strips and tightly gathered onto a waistband then embellished with silk leaves. I made the slippers from suede.

She has a really sweet expression and I’m thinking of making a series of these dancer pieces; one for each season.

Posted in figurative art, polymer clay | Tagged fae, faerie, figurative art | 2 Comments »

Ice Storm Aftermath

February 23, 2011 by pvlaughingmoon

We are OK, both of the cars are OK . . . the trees: not so much.

Yes, the last image is a large branch collapsed right onto the spot where the cars live. Sunday night, I was just falling asleep when I heard trees starting to break and collapse all around us. I went down, looked out the window, then woke John up. We ran out, frantically chiseled our way into the cars (luckily I had forgotten to put a little ice-scraper back inside my car — it’s been sitting in the kitchen for weeks) and managed to back them up enough to be missed by the tree. Said tree was already sagging down over their roofs — we had to snap off twigs and branch ends to shut the doors — which sounds silly but we were concerned that any added stress could bring the tree down on us. It was both highly surreal and quite entirely terrifying. Just a little adrenaline laced midnight romp, sleet raining down on us freezing on our glasses, eerie orange and blue flashes in the sky as transformers all over town blew (a particularly bizarre lightening show), trees exploding all over the place, scampering back every time the wind came up to avoid potential squashdom. Trying to shift the fallen branches already blocking the end of the driveway enough to back the cars to safety. We finally got back inside after an hour, drenched and frozen to the bone. Then waited to the power to fail — which thankfully our immediate neighborhood was spared.

Post clean-up, phase one. We were saved by a chain saw wielding stranger, who sawed up all the limbs. Which we were trying to do with a little hand saw we use for small pruning jobs. Great guy, wouldn’t even take any money. Living the the snow belt sometimes the happiest sight is someone you don’t even know coming towards you carrying a chain saw.

These piles don’t even represent all the damage. There are still a couple big limbs down (but out of the way) and the one smaller one next to the shed that still attached to the tree. Not to mention that big droopy-on-the-ground branch that may still fall. Which is why the cars are still only part-way up the drive to their spots; if it snaps I don’t want them getting backlashed. The rest of cleaning up can wait; at least until Spring.

And even though my fingers were going numb and frostbite threatened I managed to shoot a couple of really nice texture shots of frozen twig action.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged adventure | Leave a Comment »

Teaser

February 2, 2011 by pvlaughingmoon

We got blizzarded. I am a puddle of ooze. Those cells of ooze that are still conscious are screaming, well, some of them are lying on the floor just whimpering.

Amuse yourself with these funny robots while I recover a bit.

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Entertaining Animals

January 26, 2011 by pvlaughingmoon

No, I’m not planning to entertain any animals; my house is too small. However I do have a small collection of vintage sourced images of animals entertaining themselves. They seem pretty darn good at it too.

The bright flat area colors and simple outlines of this picnic scene rescue it from being overly precious. The interesting (almost faerie-ish) tree and the old-fashioned peddlers wagon are great elements in themselves but in the case of this image they also serve to contain the scene; giving it an intimacy of setting that it would not otherwise have.

One of the best parts of an outdoor summer party is the dancing. That pig is a snappy dresser and the cat is exceedingly light on her feet. Please take notice of the two little bugs enjoying the action.

This somewhat more sedate tea party has an autumnal look to me. All the earthtones and the very confined area of the composition suggest everyone has squished up inside to be cozy. I imagine this party is quite loud, with everyone talking at once. Rabbit seems to be wondering if the tea supply is going to run out and I really don’t fancy the way Cat is eyeing poor Squirrel who just wants to eat his jam tart in peace.

Lastly here is a bunch of wild, crazy animals having an outdoor winter free-for-all festival. Obviously too much scrumpy has been consumed, and in a rather short time span. Look at the raccoon at the far left (behind the woodchuck); by the look of him he’s drawn the short straw to have to get Possum home safely.

Posted in ephemera, illustration | Tagged animals, anthropomorphic, illustration, vintage | Leave a Comment »

Cheerful Daisy Paper Doll

January 19, 2011 by pvlaughingmoon

Today being another in a succession of gloomy gray days I decided to post something bright and cheerful.

Daisy is from the late 1970s and is, as will become incredibly obvious, a Holly Hobbie clone. Well, not a clone exactly as Daisy (the doll) has her own rather distinctive look. But clone-ish in that she has that same prairie-style look to her wardrobe.

She’s really kind of sweet even with her rather oversize head. Actually I think her large noggin makes her especially sweet. Though it does make me wonder, how much of her head is hat and not head at all.

Love the artist smock with the button-up sides.

There’s the very obvious Holly Hobbie patchwork pinafore over a blue dress.

And a warm coat; it may be a gray day, but baby it’s cooold outside!

Posted in ephemera | Tagged paper doll, vintage | Leave a Comment »

Hidden Depths

January 12, 2011 by pvlaughingmoon

I was reading the new issue of Hi-Fructose (vol. 18) over the weekend, specifically I was reading the interview with Ray Caesar and was shaken by the intense, deeply honest things that he said. Things about both his life (which hasn’t been anything remotely resembling a picnic*) and about his work.“Think of my pictures as a sanctuary where one can take out a small piece of pain and allow it to be free.” Giving this interview in such a truthful way is the act of a very courageous person. Kudos, Ray!

One of the more poignant practices that Ray incorporates into his work are hidden images or objects. Actually, literally hidden, as in tucked away in a box or a drawer. For those of you who aren’t familiar with his stunning images; Ray works in 3-D software, creating the components of his paintings in a virtual world. And he likes to hide things in that virtual world that are, technically speaking, not there in the final printed image.

This concealment of things in hidden spaces, now, several days after reading the interview reminded me of this book:

The Egyptian Jukebox by Nick Bantock.

This particular Bantock volume is about a museum cabinet of drawers configured as a jukebox. It has ten drawers each filled with objects and accompanied by a clue. The story of the jukebox and solving the contained riddle are quintessential Nick Bantock.

In a very real way we are all like a cabinet of drawers, the content and configuration of objects determined by who we are, what we have done. . . what we are going about doing.

I have often thought it would be lovely fun to make one of these museum cabinets or collectors boxes in an actual real world, hold-it-in-your-hands, be able to touch and contemplate it way. Choosing/creating each object for it’s texture, it’s color, it’s size; all to reflect the character for whom the box is being made.

There exists an entirely human fascination/dread of that which is hidden, that is concealed in layer within layer of drawers and boxes.

Is it delicate and beautiful?

Does it ooze?

Will it bite?

I seldom do delicate but I have done a certain amount of beauty.

I’ll leave the oozing to others (at least for the moment).

I make no promises whatever about biting.

*Not the sort of picnic that anyone (outside of a horror film) would actually even think wanting to attend.

Posted in book, illustration | Tagged book, illustration, low brow art | 3 Comments »

Dreams with Sharp Teeth

January 5, 2011 by pvlaughingmoon

I got this for Christmas. . . from my husband; it’s cheaper than therapy.

Truthfully, I really needed this DVD, it keeps me sane. OK you can stop laughing now, really, I mean it, seriously. . . stop laughing.

Here’s the thing: I find this documentary about Harlan Ellison massively, well, comforting.

Yes, I said comforting and if you don’t bloody stop laughing I’m going to have to bash you quite painfully hard. . . repeatedly.

So you’re wondering how on Earth I could find an hour and a half documentary about a rage-filled, hair-triggered, somewhat subversive man comforting, even therapeutic, read on.

It makes me remember a simple fact:

I Am Not Alone.

I know exactly how a burning cold boulder of anger and annoyance feels lodged inside your chest.

I know how frustrating it is to keep pounding away at something until I get it right only to find that no one else gets it. That some people will look at me like I’ve got three heads and one of them is drooling. That certain people will be edging in a surreptitious manner toward the exits. (Not that any of this will ever stop me from pursuing making art; I’m ultimately doing it all for me any way.)

I know exactly how maddening it is to be surrounded by stupid people, or worse; people who insist on treating me like I’m stupid.

And. . .

And it doesn’t half hurt that Harlan Ellison is one of the most brilliant and eloquent writers I’ve ever read. Whose work can make me laugh out loud or weep. Whose books I reread over and over. And I read a lot, really a lot; as many as three to five books a week so I have a broad platform for comparison.

Yes, I’m a highly intelligent, well-read, very creative individual with intensely diverse interests who insists on being true to the best of who I am. The Devil take the consequences. This film is valuable and deeply important and I am grateful to have the opportunity to watch it whenever I need reminding that I Matter. My work Matters.

So go buy this film (or at least rent it). Go Buy everything Harlan wrote (or edited) that you can lay hands on. Why are you still here? Go find his stuff, I swear that you will not regret it. Well, maybe a few of you will but you’ll still be better for having experienced him.

Sidebar: For those of you who have never met me and think from the previous content of this blog that I’m a fairly sweet, light-hearted bundle of goodness and light: Sorry; as it happens that’s not entirely the case.

There is for good or bad a more than middling slice of darkness within me; which is kind of a good thing actually as it makes me far more interesting. And has resulted in my getting interesting nicknames like “Darth Velner”. Still in the end, I, like the planet Earth am classified “mostly harmless”, so no worries.

Posted in book, film | Tagged book, film | 1 Comment »

Happy Christmas!

December 22, 2010 by pvlaughingmoon

and a Very Merry New Year.

From me and all the fae folk of this particularly enchanted vicinity.

Posted in book, holiday | Tagged book, fae, faerie, vintage | Leave a Comment »

This Baby is Ready for Christmas

December 15, 2010 by pvlaughingmoon

I’m very much still not ready but this baby is:

Her name is Flo and she was made by Sylvia Natterer. She’s little (8-1/2″) and she’s definitely decked out for the holidays. Flo is all comfy cozy in her soft little shirt and stripey tights and her velvety jumper has pockets with buttons. Her hat even has a bobble — ooh la la.

She is more than ready for treats and presents; but is a bit baffled by why the tree and Mr. Santa aren’t in the living room yet.

Which I’ve promised to do later today . . . well by Friday at least.

Flo has just been informed that Christmas isn’t for 10 whole days. How Shocking!

Posted in doll, holiday | Tagged doll, doll clothes | Leave a Comment »

Getting ready for the holidays

December 8, 2010 by pvlaughingmoon

It’s time to get the tree and ornaments out of storage and put up the holiday display. Time to exile the living room lamp to the den to make room for the tree.

Time to watch the Grinch and Scrooged and shop for holiday type food. Time to drag out the paper and ribbons and wrap all the stuff the mailman brought.

Ho Ho Ho. I’m already exhausted.

Posted in holiday, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Man in the Moon Quilt

December 1, 2010 by pvlaughingmoon

This is a small wall quilt that I made for John the year the movie about Andy K. came out. I thought it would be timely to blog about it now as there’s still plenty of time to whip up a similar quilt for the holidays if you were so inclined. It’s pretty basic; just a piece of patchwork, a dimensional face/moon, and a scattering of glass beads. The finished piece is a case of the final result being way nicer than it’s component parts.

The trick that I used to make the patchwork background is pretty easy. Use a rotary cutter and quilting ruler to cut a bunch of squares then arrange them on light-weight fusable interfacing (fusible surface up, squares wrong side down). Here’s something you should do that I didn’t: draw at least two perpendicular guidelines on the interfacing to help keep your work square. They even sell fusible now with a grid pre-printed on it (which they didn’t when I made this). When you get the arrangement the way you want it; fuse the squares in place. Ta-da! One piece ready to quick zip up all the seams. I incorporated a dowel pocket into the lining/backing to keep the quilt from sagging and sewed on a metal ring for hanging.

Then there’s the moon/face that I made from a picture of Andy. I printed it the size I wanted on photo paper and mounted it with heavy duty iron-on glue to a piece of mat board. Then I trimmed it out with an exacto knife and sealed it with a couple of light coats of clear Krylon spray paint. I used hot melt glue (hi-temp) to attach three flat round shank buttons to the back which serve double duty to both attach the face to the quilt and also hold it out a bit from the fabric surface for more dimension. I painted the hardened glue and the back of the buttons with Scribbles fabric paint to make it look nicer and blend with the dark background. Then I used several strands of heavy button thread to tie the face on (marking on the back where each of the three buttons would fall so I’d know where to stab through). Make your strands longer than you need for tieing, stab them all through and then pull them all tight and tie off; really it’s much easier than trying to do each button in turn.

All in all, these are a couple of very versatile tricks that could be used and adapted to make a wide variety of wall quilts and other fabric objects. The picture on board trick is best used for objects that only get light handling — try iron-on transfer to fabric mounted on thick felt for stuffies and other medium to heavy use projects.

Posted in accessory | Tagged fabric, paper craft | Leave a Comment »

Fun with Black Apple

November 24, 2010 by pvlaughingmoon

I’ve been having a really good time today playing with a new present I got myself.

This new book is by artist Emily Martin aka Black Apple. The book is divided into three parts.

Part One is her original paper dolls and their clothes. Each doll has a personality profile including likes and dislikes, for instance, here’s Alice’s list: Likes: Cats, Books with pictures, Her usual height; Dislikes: Boring Lessons, Disorderly tea parties, Egomaniacal Monarchs. Here’s my favorite personality list item . . . Dislikes: Being Poked (Baby) and yes, before you wonder, Baby is just that; a little rosy-cheeked human baby who looks like the kind of tiny baby doll that sort of slumps warm and cozy in the palm of your hand. Part One also includes a section of background paintings, and a toy theater.

Part Two is “Paper You” which is exactly what it sounds like. It has a bunch of customizable paperdolls with equally customizable clothing. You pick the doll that looks the most like the person you want to make a doll of and well, fix it up to include the right color eyes, the correct hair, shoes, etc. Then you make it some clothes. Hours and hours of fun. Here’s the doll I made:

I had bunches of fun working on this. I did what the book suggested and used my scanner/copier to make color copies to work on. I used colored pencils, clip art and a sticker to decorate the clothes, you know, the sort of stuff that is always lying around the workroom. Most of the clothes are extremely plain, the idea being that they are sort of blank slates for you to build on. For instance the underwear, the green top, the purple/black/white faun dress, and the yellow neck scarf were originally totally white. The yellow dress was just a plain yellow dress, I added the elephant bag (which is NOT in the book, it’s picture I had on file). I colored a hat band on the top hat and added texture/color to the green dress and blue jeans. I added the owls, the faun panel and the bug lady. I did customize the doll itself, adding rosy color, darkening the brows and eyelashes and giving it brown eyes. I also drew the shoes and then made a pair of wicked cool boots out of a practice doll’s feet (her face didn’t work out — oops).

Part Three is projects make with/for the dolls including a storage armoire (to keep the extensive wardrobe of clothing in don’ cha know), play sets, display stands, jointed dolls, flip books, stationary, and a mobile. It also gives directions for playing “Exquisite Creature” which is a more kid-friendly name for “exquisite corpse”; the old funny tri-fold collaborative draw-a-picture game.

This is a particularly nice book. I wish there had been a book like this when I was a little kid. Edith Flack Ackley’s old battered paper doll book borrowed from the library was the best I had back then and this is in color and has better dolls and more projects. Well, better dolls if you’re very into conjoined twins, bears, goth girls and onion-headed creatures . . . which I am. So there.

Posted in book, ephemera | Tagged book, doll clothes, paper doll | Leave a Comment »

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