Alice's Address

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Art Catch up 2010-2011

This is a picture blog to post all (or most) of the completed works I have done since November 2010 until now, June 2011. Just to bring you up to speed. This is going to take a while, so let's jump right into it with minimal banter.

My work on being set up on display at Melt November 2011

Acrylic on 11x13 canvas, done in Nov 2010. This one is for sale for $35.00

The second cherry blossoms, this one was painted live during Melt Nov 2010. This one hangs in my daughter's room now, acrylic on 18x24 canvas.

Me at work during Melt

This one I did as a Christmas present for my friend http://handsomepaddy.blogspot.com/ . It is Dita von Teese on a 11x13 canvas. I actually still have this in my possession since Paddy loaned it to me to keep displaying at Melt, and I need to mail it to him since he moved to Washington state.

This is the second in the breakdancer series and I am really really proud of it. Seriously. I did it live at Melt March 2011, our first night at The Orpheum. Apparently, some guy liked it so much at Melt, he attempted to bully me into selling it to him while it was half way completed for an insultingly low price. I just smiled and told him to go get his money and he never came back. It is done with acrylic on a 12x12 canvas.

This one is sorta a half sculpture/half painting and is some sort of contemporary home decor. It is done in acrylic on a 18x24 canvas. I also bought a "crackling" chemical that makes the paint look aged, which I painted the frame with. It is for sale for $50.00

Close up detail of the crackling magic :)

The cherry blossom branches are just placed in the vase, but the new owner of this painting can swap them out for anything, only the vase and frame is secured in place.

This is another second in a series. This is the second Breakfast in Bed tray pillow. The first one was such a cute idea that everyone loved and it sold fast on my old Etsy store (now closed.) So I made another, this time with waffles. It is approximately 12x18 and made out of the same fabric as the first. It is for sale for $35.00.

This was fun to make, it was the first stencil piece I ever did. It is done with acrylic paint mostly, hot pink spray paint, and a little bit of glow in the dark paint, on a 7x14 canvas. It is for sale for $25.00

This last piece has a little fun story. I am fascinated with masks and face paint. While shopping around for art supplies, I got lucky and found a roll of plaster gauze. So I did the mask thing, cut out strips, soaked em in hot water and applied them to my face. (Note: If you are going to attempt this, make sure to cover ALL of your face in Vaseline first.) Anyway, I was really thorough and covered up every inch of my face that I could and then the plaster started to harden..... and then I gave myself a panic attack feeling like I was smothering in a mask that I couldn't rip off. I had to widen the one nose hole I left open and force myself to calm down.

When that fun part was over and I carefully (painfully) removed this thing from my face and let it dry.... I painted it with something I feel really connected to. So that is the whole story of the John Lennon mask. It is for sale for $20.00

That's all for today, thanks for reading!

Holly

Saturday, May 28, 2011

MELT January 2011

Ok, so the first thing that I always do upon arriving in Flagstaff Arizona on the day of MELT is head to the Black Bean restaurant to see my brother at his place of work and have lunch there. So here is my brother. In the future, I'm not going to be able to do this since he is currently on tour with his Gypsy folk punk band Grog. (More on Grog later.)

Outside of the Black Bean is where I spied the first Danger Monkey. Since then, on later trips to Flagstaff, I've been trying to get photos of all the Danger Monkey's I find. It's like collecting Pokemon for me (only not annoyingly stupid.) (More on Danger Monkey later.)

Here is the note I posted to my facebook as soon as I got back from this MELT:

1. One of the best perks about Melt for me is that a lot of the "MELT Alumni" is people I have known since grade school or high school. It makes me so happy that we all come together and reunite, that I have known these people over half my life at least, and that we continue to know each other into adult hood. I feel really lucky, I think not many people can say that they are making something like this happen with their childhood friends. I don't know how else to express this, we just have something I call "old friend magic." If you have this in your life, you know what I mean.

2. I love the new friendships I am making through this as well and I'm just glad to be a part of this and have the opportunity to meet new people and make new friends. There's some people I only see when I come to Flagstaff for Melt. I love the music and the atmosphere and the idea of making art side by side with other talented artists, but really I am making the drive up to Flagstaff for the individuals I get to share this with, so thank you all for including me :D

3. This was one of my best weekend trips to Flagstaff ever. For January, the weather was warm and sunny and the snow on the ground was pretty and it made me see why people love Flagstaff so much. I actually got to enjoy walking around downtown without freezing. I visited my brother at The Black Bean and went shopping with friends at Incahoots. I bought a Mad Hatter's Hat at Incahoots. The next day I went to Bookman's to see AJ. I had a blast and we all had a good time shopping and enjoying the atmosphere of Flagstaff on a beautiful day.

4. This was one of the best Melt's ever. Every Melt I have been to is a little bit different. The music was a little bit different this time, as there is different artists each time. So it's fun to be a part of this and see how it keeps evolving as each time brings on new talent. Each time I have been to Melt, there are local artists and musicians and there are also artists and musicians who travel from other places to be there that night. So it really is an impressive collaboration. This time around, the opening sets were a little bit more down tempo acoustic, which made for a certain type of relaxed mood when you are painting. Then Baths and DJ Fatty amped things up and blew the roof off the place. It was amazing.

5. The place was packed, but I did not feel like they only came to see Baths or the other musicians. Everyone was really appreciating the artists as well. It was the first time I've been to Melt that I really felt like a lot people were watching. Not just glancing at the art and walking away. But every time me, Jake, or Lexi looked over our shoulders we saw about 50 pairs of eyes watching us paint and hoped people were liking what they saw. You can probably imagine how that feels, it makes you a little bit nervous when all eyes are on you. But I don't think I'm out of line to say on everyone's behalf that we really humbly appreciated everyone who showed so much respect and appreciation for the art that we make. Everyone who makes a conscious choice to respect us as human beings, and not bump our tables or easels or hover in our personal space bubbles while we are working. Everyone who politely taps us on the shoulder just to say that they really like a certain piece. That's not really an expectation we have for a night club atmosphere serving alcohol, but it means a lot to us.

6. Every single person I know who is a part of this is so talented and committed. Melt just wouldn't exist with that last part, the commitment. That's something important I wanted to bring up. If everybody just said "Meh, I don't feel like driving to Flagstaff" then this just wouldn't be. But everyone who comes to Melt makes that choice to be there, to travel, to make preparations ahead of time for their contribution. From where I'm standing, I look around the room and see what all the people I know are doing. And it makes me really impressed with just how all the people I know are committed to bringing something to contribute to this event and make it what it is. They are dancing, painting, DJing, or just simply sharing their excitement and happiness. No one I know is "just there" as if they only came along for the ride because they had nothing better to do or would rather be somewhere else. So I just wanted to make a note of that. It's not just your talent and creativity, but that you make a conscious choice to be there, to bring something positive to the table. We should all share a little sense of pride in this, because we put on a hell of good show together.

Ummmm.... that's not all the thoughts I have on Melt, but it will do for now. I am really looking forward to next month, I have so much refreshed energy and inspiration so I hope to have new stuff completed and ready to display next month. See you all in February!

And now on to some MELT photos!

Lexi Stine's work hanging on display.

Isaac Nicholas Caruso

http://isaacncaruso.com/

Micheil Salmon's work.

Micheil Salmon.

Sonny!

Sonny's painting that reminds everyone of the Morton Salt Umbrella girl

Lexi and my friend Paddy Rooney. For this MELT Paddy came with me as he was interested in doing a bit of freelance journalism and wrote an article about MELT which can be found here. http://www.examiner.com/counterculture-in-phoenix/artists-gain-new-venue-with-melt

You can also find his blog here: http://handsomepaddy.blogspot.com/

And here: http://handsomepaddy.tumblr.com/

The piece I did for the evening is a Chesire Cat playing card. I have been working on an Alice in Wonderland collective project for.... ever. I'm still involved with it. And this is the piece that Jake finished that evening, Ronald Reagan.

Me and Paddy.

Me and Matt the next day.

Me and A.J.

me.

Jake.

Fatty.

Jake's paints.

Wilson Nash. He is in charge of our visuals on the projector behind the DJ's almost every MELT. He does an amazing job, you have to see it.

Me (what am I doing with my face?)

Lexi

Artist's area. This was to be our last MELT held at the 111 in Flagstaff. In February MELT had to be cancelled due to a heavy snow storm. The sound equipment was snowed in at another location and the roof was leaking water badly onto the stage at the 111. So there was no February MELT (officially anyway) and when March rolled in it was announced that we had changed to a new permanent venue, The Orpheum.

Me and Jake.

Thanks for reading,

Holly

Photo credits: Lantern City Media https://www.facebook.com/lanternCitymedia, Padraic Rooney, and myself.

The Clock

So back in November I made this clock. At the time, it worked fine. I believe that me messing with the ticking mechanisms too often and packing it around from travel to Flagstaff caused the clock to become damaged.

Anyway, around the face of the clock are the 12 zodiac symbols alternating colors shapes of navy and dark red. On the gold band outside of that are all the names of the months in Greek (not using the Greek alphabet) and Latin. So one of my regrets is that I wish I'd used the Greek alphabet.

Anyway, outside of that sphere are the phases of the moon revolving around the clock. This clock face was painted on a 12x12 square canvas. Then I dissembled a regular clock and took scissors and punctured a hole through the center of the canvas. I pushed the clock bits through this hole and glued the back onto the canvas, then replaced the hands on the clock.

For the ticking second hand, I had to use a really light weight piece of material for the second hand dial face. So I used black card stock and cut out a small viewing circle. This was glued delicately onto to the fragile second hand and then was the second hand was fitted back into it's mechanism. As the second hand dial rotates a different picture comes into view through the hole I cut out. It shows 6 phases of a human life.

It starts with a fetus.

10 seconds later the picture changes to a child. (Not pictured: 20 seconds - teenager. 30 seconds- adult.)

At 40 seconds we see a picture of an senior adult with a cane.

And at 50 seconds we see a picture of a tombstone. Then we see the fetus again. Every 60 seconds an entire human life.

So that is the story of the clock, which I had on display (in proper working order) in November.

Pictured: All the art that was hanging in my studio at the time in November 2011.

MELT November 2011

Here's a photo update from MELT November 2011.

This guy's name is Justin and he is way rad. I met him a few month before this photo was taken, he is my neighbor down the street and our kids are best friends. What stands out most in memory from this MELT is that a small group of close friends got to witness Justin marry his wife Shannon underneath a huge beautiful tree on the NAU campus grounds. Almost all of us recall this as "the best wedding ever." There was no dress, no cake, no stress. But it was real and it was funny and it meant something. So we were all glad to have been there to witness. And I got to sign the marriage license as a witness!

This was, at the time, the newest project I was displaying at MELT. It has since broken. I have fixed it many times, but I think it will stay broke (email me for instructions on how to not make a clock.) I'm not too sad about it though. It was the first clock I ever made and a lot of thought went into it. I think I can probably replace the second hand mechanism completely. But it was the first and I learned something about making clocks, or rather how to not make them. I will definitely make more clocks in the future.

DJ Danimal, a local DJ from Flagstaff opened up for the night.

Nicole and Jake helping get set up pre-MELT.

Lexi's drawing that she worked on that evening. I snapped this over her shoulder.

Jake.

The first formation of the Sonny/Lexi/Holly/Jake sandwich. This formation will be repeated in future MELT photos. (What you are viewing is a rare photo of the artist in their natural environment, and you can see, they group up like a herd for protection...)