A future project......

I found this in the attic of the farmhouse of two generations of family.  The house is now gone but we save a little of it for memories.  The Grandmother of the family moved out of the house and I really don't know how much she took with her.  My wife's family had moved into the house and a lot of furniture came into the house from friends and distant family members.  A lot of things are of unknown origin. My wife had a small vanity that a great Aunt has specifically given her when she was young and we now have that in the basement.

This piece really does look like doll furniture as it is small. It could have been like a jewelry chest and could have sit on a table against the wall.  The work I do with it will be creative charity as there just isn't much here to work with but I can do it.  It originally had a mirror on the left side and one drawer had been left in it's original finish. As you can see there is one original drawer pull.   The rest is really a finish of dirt and grim and is very aged. It sat near an open attic window for a few years.

I saw at the art show where a man made chest of drawers with wood different than it base frame and I could do that.  I also could just make the two horizontal spaces into shelving spaces.  Right now it is just in storage awaiting my time and inspiration to set in.  Right now I will be going home and finally get to the raking of my leaves.  It will be a cold 43 degrees out there but I will warm up as I work.

I am a tech guy again today and my boss is keeping me quite busy.  Thanks for stopping by to see my post today.

Tuesday's Things.....

Our neighbor's booth was occupied by two different artists.  One was a retired art teacher who sold tessellation designs and the other was a stained glass artist who owns a business there in the town.  There are very few glass items as this was taken on preview showing night and she had not really brought much up for her table. She brought a lot of other things up the next day.

The Christmas tree is neat as it was made out of many pieces of twigs.  It was a display piece in which to hang free gingerbread cookies for visitors to the booth.  She had purchased it and I don't know if it was a commercial piece or a craftsperson made it.

This is a piece that Carolyn Guay created using a mathematical style of design to repeat shapes. Tessellation design was first found in a Dutch artist's work, Escher.  You can see there are different creatures among the repeating designs.

Another booth on our floor was a photographer who printed her work out of a special metallic paper.  I was not familiar with the material but she then mounted them on foam board.  The material has a glossy surface and I don't know if the photo is printed on the backside of the material to show through the clear covering.

I am tired again today from the weekend of work and will be troubleshooting all day.  The tech guy has stuff for me to do and I will pick up in rooms where teachers have to go to a meeting with an administrator.

Closing day was suppose to be today on my parents house but the support crew, a lawyer, doesn't have their work done.  I will get back to you on that one. I know I would never have been able to not meet a contract date but I will be patient one more time.

Thanks for stopping by my post.

A report about the show.......

We found out from our experience that the economy dictated what would be sold at the art festival.  Framed work is more expensive and we found it kept people from buying them.  They took the option of buying  unframed items, cards and small prints to the most part. My wife and I did each sell one framed item apiece but that was it.

It is good to get a lot of  our work framed though, even though it didn't pay. It will be hanging in our gallery for another time, another place and another show.

Our display table was a large drafting table designed by ISU students from Ames.  They have classes in this room in Perry studying city planning and design.  The tables had a place for the large light to shine down on the table surface, as you can see the slot in the table.

This is our view of our neighbors sales area.  We were on the top floor of an old bank that was renovated and redesigned by the same ISU students who created the table designs.  I will share about the corncrib board shutters later in another blog along with info about the whole project.

I am a high school math teacher today.  Thanks for stopping by............

It's Showtime!!!!!

Thursday evening we set up our show and Friday evening there was a special showing for a Rotary group.   Today was day one of the actual start of sales and meeting the public.  It was a good day.

Thanks for checking in on the progress of it...........another long day on Sunday.

Memorial Day

Jesse T. Burgus  1917-2000

I blog a lot about my dad's war days and how it effected our family so I won't do much more than just remember the day.  He loved Memorial Day purely because it was one more day that recognized all veterans of this nation.  Dad never ever felt that he had received much for all that he had given up in his youth.  I wished he had been alive and would have been able to see the Memorial in Washington D.C.  He would have smiled and cried through it all.

Art show a'comin........

 

We spent 12 yours yesterday getting ready and putting up our display for the two day art show.  We have some tweaking to do this evening before the pre show to special members of the Rotary.  Saturday and Sunday will be the two days for the event and maybe I will sell something. 

Paintings do become like friends or a part of you so it is sometimes hard to let them go.  The barn at top I painted in oil many years ago but I finally reframed it. I have it ready to be taken away to go to another good home. It had a bad frame on it and I think I was trying not to sell it.  With the age of prints, I can make so many copies of the original so I don't feel like I am totally loosing anything.  I know the original is so much better than the print but our prints are really very good.

I am back at school today and will finish off my day as an art teacher. Been there, done that as you know.

Thanks for stopping by............I will be clicking lots of pictures the next couple of days to share the event .

Too busy but......

I do have lots of excuses as to why I don't  have any pictures taken for my Creative Zone.  One of the photos I would have taken is the dozen or so art works that have been framed or matted ready to go to the show this weekend.  We work from the time I get home from school until 9:00.  We took breaks to see one of our shows on tv but we were at it for a long time last night.  I have a shortened day today at school so there will be more time to work. 

Our school's volleyball team is going to play at state on Thursday and it is 133 miles away from here.  They canceled school for that day and will make it up later in the year. The day off is a blessing as we have to set up our show in Perry on Thursday evening from 4:00 until 8:00.  The last show we did we had only 45 minutes or so to set up so this will be another great thing for us to have plenty of time.

"A Brave New Journey" was the first painting that I created after leaving the teaching field three and a  half years ago. I don't have the heart to sell it but I will be selling prints of it at the show. My wife and I have done one other show together but this one is a longer time period and we are actually getting a little excited about it.  I know we will be tired but it will be a good tired.

I will try to get photos  of our on  going work in the gallery right now including the mess and maybe can get them posted tomorrow.  My wife has been painting a lot and we have some really great work framed for this show.

Thanks for stopping by.............snow on the ground a much needed rain came our way the last 24 hours.