A while back, I found a piece of embroidered artwork at the Purple Moon (an import store in downtown Pocatello). The art itself is about 4 inches by 4 inches, and still pricey since the process of making the art is extremely intricate, and it was mounted on an 8-inch piece of backer-board with an 8" by 8" matte attached.
There started the attempt to find a frame for it. My first find was an actual eight-by-eight frame from, of all places, a dollar store. It wasn't until I got it home that I could take it out of the plastic and discover that the backer-board was too thick to slide into the frae. Trying to separate the embroidered silk from the board would likely have ruined it, and trying to widen a very cheap, plastic frame would have ruined the frame. So that was out. Next I came across a frame that I thought was eight-by-eight, though it was matted for a four-by-six photograph. I pulled the matte out... and discovered that it was just slightly smaller than eight-by-eight. I debated using a jig-saw on the backer-board, but figured I'd look around some more before risking ruining the piece.
Finally, I came across some framed artwork on clearance at Ross. The bits that had been mounted inside the sealed frames had come unglued. The frames were larger than eight-by-eight, but they were square, and the display area inside was roughly eight-by-eight. So I bought one of these and used a paring knife to get the backing off. Then I removed the intended artwork, glued the backer-board in its place ... and needed a way to seal the frame back up. I could have glued or nailed it, but I liked the idea of being able to get back into the frame if I wanted. I wandered through various hardware sections, and found these connectors at Fred Meyer:
The screws actually came from Lowe's, as Fred Meyer didn't have any that were small enough. But these work beautifully. Attach them just outside the backing for the frame the frame, and you can rotate the plastic piece in to hold the backing in place ... or out to allow the backing to come out again. I attached four of these.
At any rate, here's the finished, framed piece:
I would have loved to get one of the larger pieces, but the prices went up rather steeply from this one. I think the 8.5" by 11" matted ones were $45, and the next size up (can't remember dimensions now) was around $60 or $80. Not bad, considering that the embroidery is done by hand, but more than I could afford.
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***
Thanks to Fibonacci, I wandered down the basement of the SUB to check out the most recent art exhibit. I liked about 95% of it. A few pieces I found blah, and one I just didn't like. But most of them are quite nicely done. My favorite is the one at the top here, and there are more beneath the fold.
This was my next favorite. I love the tones of the wood, and the contrast with the copper.
This one is a broad view of one entire section. Part of the experience is the relation of the separate pieces to one another, and seeing them all from different angles. The most frustrating thing was that the flash on my camera washed out all the colors, but not using the flash made it difficult to keep the camera in focus. All of these were done sans flash, and they're decently focused.
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For no particular reason, I thought it was a good day to post another one of these:
I named it "ducks" and then had to look at the picture for a while to figure out why I'd named it ducks. Incidentally, this is much easier to do with a touchpad than it is with a mouse (and would probably be easier still with an actual pen/stylus pad, if I had one). This one was done using a mouse. I can't get as many tight twists in when using a mouse.
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This just may be the coolest picture of Jupiter I've ever seen. Er, no pun intended. The bright band in the middle is pretty hot, after all. Still, I find it a very soothing image, similar in mood effect to my continuous near-random curves that I posted earlier.
For more info (and a larger, better quality version of the image), visit today's APOD.
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I ran across an, er, "improved" Kinkade painting last night. The painter felt that "This Kinkade piece needed something. So I added Godzilla and a giant moth." Go here to take a look. I'm not posting the image because I think that his original paintings are also worth a look. This one reminds me of my mom's hometown, even though it's on the other side of the country.
Go visit Chris Ousley's main blog to browse through other things that he's painted. The ones I like best are the ones of places that most people would go by without even taking a first look, let alone a second.
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I've always drawn these odd continuous squiggles, but in logic last year I started putting color in them, and rather liked the effect. I find them soothing, somehow, despite my habit of choosing the most garish and eye-wrenching color combinations possible. I tried drawing them in paint to share, and never got around to posting any, but for some reason they came to mind yesterday and I actually remembered tonight. So below the fold are two examples: one garish, one less so.
I still haven't the foggiest idea why I find looking at and making these to be soothing.
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During the spring semester, ISU's new behemoth of a building officially opened for business. It was built because ISU had a grant coming that could only be used to build something, and if they didn't build something, they would lose the grant. Now, the sensible thing would have been to acknowledge that ISU didn't actually need a new building, but apparently This Is Not Done. So we have a rather schizophrenically purposed thing taking up space where a lovely grassy area once was. The little remaining grass is apparently scheduled for future parking lot duty.
While I think its construction was largely pointless, I do like the building's aesthetics. Mostly. It's a nice mix of avant garde lines with modern industrial touches. From a purely aesthetic viewpoint, the public areas are magnificent. Lots of open space and natural light, color (which the physical science building is sadly lacking), and industrial touches (visible support columns; stair railings that look like industry mesh; etc.). I particularly like the feel of the food cour area. It's like you're outside walking between two highrises. Nicely done. From a functional standpoint, however, there are some big problems.
The stairs are my biggest pet peeve. There are two easily accessed staircases that go clear up and down the classroom side of the building. They are, however, open staircases, with the aforementioned mesh. I have a minor fear of heights and absolutely hate going up them. For some odd reason, I don't mind going down them, but going up bothers me. There are alternative staircases. These are not easy to find and were obviously not intended for daily use, as they lack even the slightest hint of the style of the rest of the building, not to mention that they stink. Of what, I'm not sure. Last semester, I thought it was paint, but surely that would have cleared up by now. Final option: there is one, very small, elevator.
The classrooms are my next pet peeve. All of the hallways and public areas are rife with windows and natural light. The classrooms are dank little boxes. Sure, they've got the most modern equipment, and projectors, and so on, but there are no windows in any of the classrooms I've been in. I walked by one that seemed to have a window, but that's an exception. Most of them are on inside walls, where a window would be impossible. The numbering system is also rather haphazard, but no more so than physical science. I haven't made up my mind about the tables most rooms have in place of desks. I see some advantages and some disadvantages, so overall I'm indifferent.
To sum up: the Rendezvous is a pointless building designed primarily for aesthetic appeal, with functionality thrown in as an afterthought.
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I said I'd bought some rock art. Just now I went looking for more info on the artist, John Running. There are several people named "John Running" involved in various kinds of art (or else he is extremely prolific), but adding "stories in stone" to the search produced two very good links. The first describes itself as "frags", presumably meaning "fragments." The next is "Artwork", and clicking on home takes you to the homepage. The piece most similar to the one that I bought is under painted rocks, this one. I don't know if that is the original from which the mold was made or not, but I do know that mine is painted differently:
*sighs* The flash made everything look a bit bluer than it really is, but my hand just wasn't steady enough for the non-flash pictures. The colors are fairly subtle, but beautifully applied. Hmmm... a closer look at the little pamphlet suggests that John Running himself did not do the painting, but that someone named "Magda" painted it, with John Running's permission. This is probably why I could afford it. ^/^
The other design I considered was a cast of this one, but the turtle just didn't speak to me the way the horse did. When I looked at the turtle carving/painting, I saw a turtle. When I look at the horse one, I see "freedom."
*ADDENDUM: I just came across a few of these available on e-bay. An unpainted one has a "buy it now" price that is higher than I paid for a painted one! I'd suggest avoiding these auctions and trying to find a reputable art dealer instead. Seriously, prices in Estes Park are most often higher than elsewhere.
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I found a rather nice art print at Bed, Bath, and Beyond today. Better yet, it was on clearance. When I went looking for an image to post, though, I discovered that there was a companion piece. I have the one on the right, but foreshortened into a rectangle (or else this one has been stretched into a square *shrugs*). I think I like the one on the right better, mainly because the fish in the left painting looks lonely. Note also that the pictures themselves link back to a dealer in art prints who sells these as prints. Only problem is that I'd need to find a rectangular version of the companion piece for mine to match up! ^/^
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I picked up a book called A Brief History of the Paradox today. I haven't made it very far yet, but so far I like it. But it was the cover art that inspired this post:
The artist is Rob Gonsalvez. I'd seen this picture somewhere-or-other before, but not with an artist name attached to it. I found several galleries, and liked over half of the images. There's lots of overlap, but I think each link has at least one image unique to that gallery. I love these pictures. Very reminiscent of Escher, but with a more naturalistic focus that appeals to me even more.
But while I was searching for Gonsalvez, I stumbled across another artist with a similar flair, Jacek Yerka.
I don't like his stuff quite as well as Gonsalvez, mainly because there's a stronger element of fantasy I think, but I still enjoyed looking through the gallery. At the link, the most stuff can be found by clicking on "My Worlds" and then "Pastels" (or click here to go straight to them).
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