21.

'untitled'
watercolor, pencil.

I wanted to paint something quickly. I wanted to use watercolor paints. I found a postcard. It had a black and white picture of a calf with the words 'would you want to eat this face?'. I thought, 'no'. Then I began painting. I painted for a half hour and stopped. That's that.

gmb

20.

untitled

I made this right after I read STIFF : The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. The topics in the book honestly shocked and amazed me. It was gross and stomach turning at times, but captivating and delectable throughout. The bag of doll parts I scooped up at a recycling center that had been sitting in my closet untouched for almost a year came to mind immediately. I stripped a doll of its limbs and cut a square into the chest. I placed the ticking heart I crafted behind a 2cm x 2cm acrylic square and adhered the torso to the light fixture for energy. Painted that with a few shades of gold and put the cog atop her neck to resemble a thinking brain. I covered the arm sockets with round jewelry beads and small mirrors to reflect the soul.

*gmb*

19.

I painted this one for J.B for Christmas. Years and years ago he asked me to paint him some sort of tree...literally almost 7 years later....

materials: watercolor, rubbing alcohol, sea salt, ink.

I painted her for N.S for Christmas. She is based off a Sylvia Ji painting as per N.S's request. I used similar 'Day of the Dead' face painting and the flowers in huge hair.

materials: acrylic paint on canvas, felt, glitter spray.

*gmb

18.

well hi!

Here's the story:

I began INSPIRATION art this past winter as a means to keep myself occupied in my new surroundings by submerging myself in something that I positively love. For several weeks I stayed true to my objective, which was to create a piece of art inspired by a single image in one week. It must have been mid June when my next assignment was a still from the Michael Jackson's Thriller video and my mind turned off. I walked away and came back to that image so many times hoping something would come to me. Nothing. I set INSPIRATION aside for two months. I almost felt like I was forcing art, which is never a good thing. Two months passed before I got inspired by an Xray sleeve I received at work with an image of the lungs on it. Which leads me to...

materials: wooden frame, paint, textured paper, tulle, jewlery, ink, crackling gloss, key, tape trasfer, colored pencil.

I received the lung image on an xray sleeve at work. At home I cut in between the veins and placed textured paper behind. I drew the heart, lightly colored it red and placed a tape transfer of chinese newspaper over it. I ink stamped the word "ENTRI" (Italian for 'enter') and placed jewelry beads around the lettering and poured crackling gloss in them. I rubbed the frame with a concoction of acrylic gel and acrylic paint of course...adhered the tulle and the key and here we go....now you have the key to my heart.....enter.

*gmb

17.

Hi.
I made this card for my friend Emilee to congratulate her. I chose a matryoska doll because she and I both enjoy them.

'congrats'

assorted papers, ink, lace.

*gmb

15.

Once upon a Wednesday night.....

We made hair decorations!

tuck your hair!
turkey feathers, peacock feathers, pheasant feathers, button.

untuck your hair!

wear it on the side!
peacock feathers, pheasant feathers, some standard feathers from some standard bird, ribbon, flair.

wear it in the back!

ooooooh boooy!!!!!

*gmb and cmn

14.

INSPIRATION ART

Week Seven
(c.n*)
april 27, 2009

the inspiration:

the result:

"nelle nubi: in the clouds"

wooden frame, paper, ink, paint, twigs, pine cones, grass, pebbles, satin flowers, beads, ribbon, tulle, plastic leaves.

A lot of my friends have expressed interest in helping choose the INSPIRATION each week, or they suggest certain images or themes. Some have even emailed me images that they think I will enjoy (and I certainly do). This week, I let my roommate, *Caitlin Nadeau choose Inspiration. Pasta. I immediately saw the birds nest shaped pasta and thought 'nature'. I thought it would be an easy task, but it took me three weeks to finally settle on something. I originally tried to transfer images of fern onto an Urban Outfitters bag, but it adhered too well and I had trouble getting the image to show through. I held the frame vertical at first and used leftover fern paper and cut out large block letters that read "NATURE" and used the pebble idea with cheesy red flowers at the bottom, painted the frame this purplish-pink-gray color and let it sit for two weeks. I also tried to crackle the frame using a base coat of gold and an overcoat of the purple concoction. I used Elmers clear glue and it didn't work to crackle the top coat. I have used carpenters glue before and it worked wonderfully....didn't have that on hand, so I used what I had and it failed. Now I know. The clear glue created dried paint and glue globs so I sanded it down, turned the frame horizontal, used different flowers, painted over the gray-pink mush and changed the background paper.... and I am okay with it. I made a girl flying out of the nest and wrote the text in Italian because of pasta. It reads, "Nelle Nubi: in the clouds" Put some pine cones in the nest instead of eggs and away we go!

**gmb