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12/11/09 Chippy Takes 2nd Place in the FAA Contest Small Animal Storybook Illustrations Chipmonk and Fall Leaves took 2nd place and I’ve won an ACEO painting as a prize. Of course, since the 2nd and 3rd places are tied for votes, it may show up in either spot (see entry below). The host of the contest has emailed me and confirmed that it is 2nd place.
12/10/09 Fine Art America Contests Fine Art America lets members host contests for fun. I have had high finishes in some of these contests. When there are ties, however, the website program does not know how to deal with this and may rotate the images randomly when you refresh the screen, so it becomes hard to say exactly which place you received. But since it is for fun, it doesn’t really matter.
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| Bird Skeleton Abstract No2: Things that go bump Tie, December 10, 2009 | Gingerbread Nativity: Christmas Time Contest Tie, December 10, 2009 | ACEO Bunny & Violets: ATC Artist Trading Card Contest Tie, November 14, 2009. | Zoe and Titan: Animals Contest 3rd Place, November 14, 2009. |
12/4/09 Gingerbread Nativity Sculpture I just finished the nativity, which is for decoration and my Christmas card. I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the steps involved in its creation. After searching the internet for nativity scenes, I came up with this design and cut it out of a gingerbread recipe I found (the page is no longer available online). The base is plywood covered with foil. Using a thick icing I glued the pieces together and used some pretzel rods for the roof and interest. After the stable dried, I used icing to glue white chocolate stones (colored with cocoa mix) to the interior walls. The manger is made of graham crackers. Then I used a soft gingerbread recipe to cut out the donkey and sheep, both of which are freehand designs. They are painted with icing. I glued them in place with icing and dyed some coconut yellow for the straw. The following day our power was out for several hours and I was unable to create more characters with gingerbread. So I used marzipan colored with food dye to finish the creche. I replaced the star because I wasn’t happy with the shape and because there was too much yellow. The baby Jesus was made with marzipan. At this point I considered that it could be finished, but the corner behind the sheep needed some color and height. So, I created Mary using marshmallows (to take up space), marzipan and a few toothpicks. Except for the toothpicks and base, this nativity is edible!
11/19/09 Cat Breath of Death, The SI Show, Ads and Gingerbread Max jumped into bed with us one morning and meowed because he wanted breakfast. We about died. I’m not sure which end of the cat smelled worse! He had developed the Cat Breath of Death. And he hasn’t eaten dry food in ages. I knew it was time to have his teeth worked on again. 2 years ago he had 1 tooth removed. Monday he had 4 teeth removed to the tune of $530+. Starting 3 days prior to the surgery, every morning he has been given antibiotic liquid, which is a procedure I have dubbed Scruff and Stuff. After chasing him around the house and corning him, I sit over him, scruff him and stuff the medicine down his throat. The vet also gave us pain medication, which gets squirted directly on his gums. I think we have about 3 more days of Scruff and Stuff left. We will both be glad when it is over. He still has enough teeth to eat dry food, but he may have become spoiled over the course of time and now refuse to eat it. Time will tell. Of course, he’s 16, so I don’t feel too bad about spoiling him.
The SI Show had less art and buyers than in past years. Many of the artists were complaining that they did worse this year in local shows than last year. Indeed, I did not make as much as I have in past years at the show. To be sure, the economy is the heart of the issue.
Although I have resisted for some time, I have decided to place ads on this site that are relavant. I am hoping that they may help to pay for my own advertising, which is one of my biggest expenses.
With the holiday season coming in a few days, I am not only trying to get the yard finished for winter, but also trying to get the house cleaned before I start decorating. I am also mulling over the design for this year’s Christmas card. Last year I designed an edible gingerbread church, which you can purchase as a greeting or print from Imagekind and Fine Art America this year. Of course, we did not eat the church, because I caught Titan liking the icing on the roof. So, the church was just a decoration that went to the compost when Christmas was over. I am considering a nativity for this year’s card. I had designed a nativity sculpture, using Sculpey for the figures, when we were first married. But it finally started to fall apart about 2 years ago and I threw it out. So, perhaps I will give a gingerbread nativity a try this weekend. Some friends are coming to record music in Joel’s tiny studio on Saturday. Since kids will be coming along, I may attempt to entertain them with making gingerbread decorations or houses. It has been an annual thing that Shane and work on. Last year was the first time we created gingerbread structures from scratch. In the past, we just got the kits.
10/28/09 Autumn Splendor The autumn leaves were lovely this year. Of course, I’ve been out snapping all sorts of photos. Saturday through Tuesday the colors were at their peak. Unfortunately, a storm blew through Saturday night and washed away a large portion of the pallet. I believe this happened last year too. Still, I got some shots that I am pleased with. Most have been loaded to Fine Art America and Imagekind. Eventually I will add some to this site and eBay.
Sunday my family visited. Shane helped crack hickory nuts with Grandpa and Uncle Neil. A few weeks ago, one of Shane’s friends was visiting. Upon seeing the 12 lb. basket of nuts, he asked Shane if it was fun to crack the nuts. Shane replied that is was because he liked to destroy things! Ahhh yes, many Matchbox cars have met their end in the same fashion. Grandma and I worked on picking the meat out of the shell pieces. I still have some to finish. About 6 lbs. of nuts in their shells yields 3 cups of nut meat and sore fingers. Eventually I will make some shortbread cookies out of them and freeze what I do not use.
10/17/09 Turkey Buzzards and ACEO’s: Last weekend I had the stomach flu, but I felt good enough on Sunday to go for a walk with my camera at Valley Forge. I decided to investigate the old barn and 2 other structures that are in ruins. I took all sorts of photos and, since rain was due to come by the end of the week, I went back 2 more times to get more shots. I had to shoot through a chain link fence and that was a bit of a challenge to get the right angles to cut out the fence. Most of the photos were taken of the turkey buzzards that live in the old barn. The fall foliage added the right spice to the photos. Surprisingly, the buzzards are very expressive with their gestures, unlike high-strung tweet tweet birds. I’ve also been working on a bunch of abstract and digitally altered photos. Most of these have been posted on Fine Art America, but some are available on the Photos for Sale page of this site. BTW, Fine Art America now has the largest available catalog of my work. Many retired images are there in addition to many new ones that are exclusive to that site.
For various reasons, I have decided to stop printing ACEO prints and photos. Instead I will focus on the posters and larger giclees. The only ACEO’s that I will create will be originals and possibly more sculpture editions. Because I no longer need to protect my pictures at the ACEO size, I have removed most of the watermarking ("copyright protected" or my old logo) from my pictures. It does make the site look better. The new images are large enough for viewing, but not so large that you could make a quality enlargement. Most of the images on this site are around 210KB, whereas the files I print from average 15MB (15,360KB). I am considering adding a detail picture from each print/photo I am selling so you can see a piece at full pixels. For now I am a bit burnt on programming, so that is down the road. I need to look over my inventory for the upcoming SI Show in November. I can frame 4 pieces and I think I will print some special signed giclee photos for it. I need to check my mat and frame stock too. And print up some posters of my latest photos.
10/5/09 Hickory Nuts and Raising Milkweed We’ve been spending our spare time collecting (using a Bag-a-Nut device) and raking hickory nuts. We own 2 trees and 2 additional trees border our property. At first we made a pile of nuts and shells beside the compost pile (see photo), then we dumped them in our extended dirt parking area, since they decompose slowly. I figure we will need one more minor raking before the leaves really start to fall. We’ve gathered 12 lbs. of nuts to crack and could easily collect another 12 lb. basket! Sometime when my family visits, we’ll make a day of it. Every 2 years the trees dump tons of nuts on us. Off years only produce enough for the squirrels. Somebody suggested deer like hickory nuts. Well, only if they’re cross-breeding with the squirrels! Hickory nuts are VERY hard. My son likes to crack them on the old ash stump with a brick or hammer. Then it takes patience to dig out the nut meat. 2 years ago Mom and I split the nut harvest and made a few batches of cookies.
This past week our heat kicked on, so I figured it was time to bring in the house plants. Today I also brought in the tropical milkweed plants and cuttings. In the photo you see the plant stand that I built years ago to overwinter plants and start seedlings indoors for the next season. From the left: in the first tray I have started common milkweed and tropical milkweed seeds, in the 2nd tray I have small tropical milkweed plants that I dug up, the 3rd tray contains larger tropical milkweed plants and a few cuttings, the 4th tray contains tropical milkweed, swamp milkweed and butterfly weed cuttings. I also have prairie milkweed and and eastern purple milkweed seeds in the frig, since they need cold moist stratification. Closer to the end of the year, I’ll put them on the plant stand to germinate. Since the common milkweed cuttings did not work out over the summer, I decided to purchase seed. Once the seedlings in the white trays (far left) have 1-2 pairs of leaves, I’ll move them to small cups to continue growing. The cups have one hole punched in the bottom and a have Miracle-Gro® Sphagnum Peat Moss for the soil. Cuttings have been dipped in Rootone®.
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