Gold paint is like the grown-up art version of glitter.
Day 175: Luster
It’s only a matter of time before I flip to one of the science cable channels and come across a documentary detailing what part of the human brain has been shown to biologically mirror a pigeon’s. I’m not the only one out there who gets distracted by shiny things. Come on, own up- if you’re driving along and all of a sudden something silver flashes out of your periphery, you check it out too. I love using metal foil, but when I don’t have the patience for it, I sometimes use metallic paints.
Careful, this key leads to Narnia! 😉
Though I’m working on this cityscape right now…
Right now= a big mess. A week or so= hopefully awesome.
…I’m still on board the mixed media train. Today’s piece, Luster (or Lustre if you’re from Britain. And possibly Canada and/or Australia), includes bits from two dictionaries, an atlas and sewing patterns.
How do I make those dots, you ask? With the back of a push pin, of course!
In the vein of ‘simplified palettes’ (and in honor of the news that gold is now worth like a million dollars an ounce) I started with the idea to stick with gold, which is why I cut out the map of ‘gold country’. But the blue snuck in at the end. It gave my eyes the feeling of coolness I needed to balance out the warmth of the rest of it.
After yesterday’s mess, I’m pretty pleased with today’s piece. But I’m not sure if that’s because it’s in comparison to yesterday’s ickyness or because it’s just a pretty good piece in and of itself. Either way, fail erased. Yay!
"Luster", a mixed media painting on 8x10" canvas.
Marianne Bland's Art Blog 
Go Bert! 🙂 Love the artwork and this project is awesome!
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Huueeeeeyyyy! How are ya? Glad you’re enjoying it!
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yeah. gotta like that concept of attraction. metal and shiny. yeah. crow baubles. pigeons? okay. splat too. your painting is awesome. for me, i like these daily pieces a lot, a lot. they zing in our world. cool. aloha too.
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Thanks Rick! I was totally inspired by your photomontage “bending dreams”. Sometimes I think of we artists as grasping out at the world hoping to catch a snippet of inspiration we can translate, and often that means bits floating together we didn’t expect. Does that make sense? It’s late. 🙂
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aloha Marianne – yeah. that makes a lot of sense to me. …and of course i’m probably putting my own spin on what you’re saying – still i think it’s linked… i’ll see if i can say it this way:
my studio space – by anyone’s standard looks like a hurricane must have hit it. that’s not quite true. there is organization in the chaos.
my organization. they way i connect things up in my skull and memory.
so i can find almost anything i’m looking for in my studio – as long as no one else moves it or a pile – or tries to help by “organizing” it etc.
yeah, it looks like a mess – to others. i can see that. it’s not a mess to me, however. i know what is in each pile or area, if i’m looking for something. it’s a sense-feeling i have and i use. i dont know what else to call it. yeah – i can find almost anything by feeling and looking inside of myself for where i placed it. i sense-feel where it is and what is around it. etc. and i find it, right where it should be.
(yes, this does not work in a shared area – or studio – in that kind of place i see the need to keep a different system in place for finding things. that’s the system people tend to say is “organized” – may be alphabetically, may be by headings and topics – but a way both people – or all people – who use the space can find something. …that is, as long as things are put IN the appropriate, proper Place. if things are not in the proper place, after a while an organize system like that, doesnt work any better than any other way…)
what get’s exciting for me is that when i am not looking for something specific in my studio, there are incredible connections by proximity that jump out at me, that rise up to my awareness – that i see – visually – that lead to insight and thought and relationships to the world around me in unique and often inspiring ways.
is that strange? not to my way of thinking, because as a human being – and artist (i think there is artist-ness in all human beings – even if they, or we, do not recognize it as such – because we are all creators) i think we – human beings and artists – are always (as you said) looking for connections and ways of relating to the world around us through our own interpretations, our own translatings of the sense and order that we Feel, in the world around us. yeah, we feel it, sense it, see it, in the snippets and bits that explode into our awareness as insight and inspiration.
i think the snippets you speak of are those bits and pieces that create a sense in us – or may be present us with a sense-realization – of the world around and beyond us. via these bits and snippets we come into contact with life and with a way of understanding life. these snippets connect us to the greater world beyond our self world – and a world other than the one, the context, that the snippet is in when we are struck with that – ah-ha – moment.
yeah. it’s often an ah-ha moment because we are not expecting it. at least not from this snippet and that – until it somehow connects up and makes sense in us – then, ah-ha!
…that’s what happens in my studio. with all my chaotic and organized cliffs and hills and mounds and valleys of – Stuff. it’s all Stuff i value – or see value in, in some way, even if it is not the value for which that particular thing was intended or designed. seeing that valued Stuff in proximity with other Stuff of value… the links and connections – inspire. i see relationships that i may not be likely to see in other ways. yet it is all parallel to and part of the greater sense in the world outside of my studio. . . the world around us all the time. wow on that making sense of the world beyond me.
now. …am i making snese? bwahaahahahaha. yeah. i think as artists we do wonder about that. it’s not easy to be visual and verbal and be able to explain the one with the other. …at least not for me.
when i see my sensibilities and my understandings in the work of another artist – yeah, that excites me. that connects me to another being. yeah, i like that. we may not arrive at it in the same way. we may not have work that looks similar at all. yet there is an understanding in that connecting way. cool on that. i see that in your work – it speaks to me and connects within me, in a way i can understand. yeah, i like that.
i’m delighted if something in my work connects to you as well. to be clear i’d like to say that alot of my blog currently is bits and pieces of what i do in my work – a lot of it is sketchbook work and explorations. yet even within that, there is – or should be (i hope) – an over all sense of what my work does, or is about. see enough of my work (or bits and pieces of my work) together (as with any body of work) and it becomes more apparent what the entire body of work is about… may be… it’s about the complexity of being human. . .
the Bending Dreams work you mention is a more worked out work. i do need to get to that kind of work occasionally in this kind of time that i’m in now of “putting-things-in-place – so-that – i-can-continue-on”.
it’s way fun that Bending Dreams connects to you in that way of inspiring. i think part of inspiration is simply connecting with what is important to us. that inspires us. that connecting is what sends us on in our own work. cool on that – imo.
hahahaha. yeah, sometimes when it gets to that late time i wonder if i make sense too. …heck, i wonder that even when it’s not a late time. bwahahahahaha.
cool connectionings. – aloha – Wrick
ps. yeah, sometimes i ramble. …okay, a lot of times i ramble.
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Rick- it’s almost eerie how much I found myself agreeing with you and understanding exactly what you mean while reading your comment. Yes! On all points. I was just telling my husband this morning that I think my contribution to humankind is to be a creator- and indeed, that we all are. I also see connections other people may not make, and that’s such a help when it comes to the creative process. Since you mention that your blog tends to be more like your sketches instead of your finished works, drop me a link so I can check out some of your other stuff! I also have some older paintings atmariannebland.com, but there’s a lot more going on here at the blog, of course. 🙂 Reading your comments was just so strikingly similar to how I see and feel… I haven’t had an A-HA! moment (as a connection with another artist) like that since reading ‘Art & Fear’ for the first time a couple of years ago. Wow! Uncanny, man. Uncanny. Feel free to ramble on anytime, my friend.
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aloha Marianne – cool how minds can travel on parallel tracks sometimes, yes.
i think i probably didnt say clear enough what i meant about my blog right now. basically i think my sketches and things like that are a lot like what finished work is like. …altho sometimes not quite to the same degree.
some time ago i started working small. i keep thinking i’ll get back into larger works. …when might be the question.
currently i’m working on a dotcom. it’s up and live but not complete so i havent said much about it other than occasionally when there is a specific reason – or request. the semi-permanent galleries are up tho so if you want to explore it:
rickdaddario.com
wow. your work is exciting – the more i see the more exciting i find it. your sense of painting and what is painting is spot on (imo) cool. i’ve marked your powerful work – site. thank you.
cool on being a creator. create on. aloha – Rick
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