Mother bird

For Mother's Day I decided to make my mom a paper mache bird to sit inside (or out!) of her birdcage she has hanging in her dining room. Right now there is a plant in there (very cute decoration idea!) but she loves birds and now she has a new pet! I made a mold using paper and tape, and made wire legs to help it balance (or to allow the bird to grasp something). I used paper towels to paper mache because they are white and help to cover up the print on the newspaper, and it is easier to create a smooth surface because they are thinner than newspaper. I used an elmers glue/water paste so that the little bird won't mold (the easy flour pastes often will mold and you especially have to be careful in the wet Northwest!). Lastly, I used decorative paper and mod podge paste to add color to the bird and finished off with pins for the eyes! I also made a card to go with the gift and to giver her a little hint!

THE ESCAPE...




FREEDOM!

Daydreaming about Summer

It's an overcast, windy day today and I can't stop thinking about summer. The weather has been teasing us with some nice days scattered here and there. I'm ready for daily walks, ice cream, bbqs, and discovering new neighborhoods. I was looking through some of my old pictures and came across this set of three photos that I took in the Little Italy neighborhood (near UIC) a few years ago. I had just gotten a new camera and was really getting into photography at the time. I would love to take a class or two someday!

New Perspective

I thought of Christo and Jean-Claude the other day, but could not remember their names for the life of me. After an hour of searching the internet with "castle + covered + fabric" and + "art + fence + fabric" etc etc etc, I finally came upon their webpage. They use fabric to temporarily change an environment, and allow the viewer to see the environment in a new way. If they wrap a building in fabric, we might pay more attention to the shape, or maybe it takes on a different feeling in that environment. When they created a fabric "fence" along the rolling hills in California, somehow it made the viewer pay more attention to the rolling hills, the sun reflecting or the fabric, and called attention to the wind, which blew the fabric beautifully. Sometimes we just don't notice the world around us and how beautiful it is, and they have helped many people see their environments in a new light. If you ever get a chance to see one of the videos of them creating a work, it is an amazing process and lets you see how the environment affects the artwork and vice versa....something you cannot see completely in pictures alone.

Wrapped Trees - Fondation Beyeler and Berower Park, Reihen, Switzerland




Running Fence - Sonoma and Marin Counties, California, USA


The Pont Neuf Wrapped - Paris