A Bench of a Project

More Yard Art for the Avant Garden

It all started when a friend, Cathy Adams, mailed me a photo of her sitting on a lovely blue (concrete) couch covered in mosaic. 

 A street scene of yard art to make me swoon; my brain went from "I want" to "I need" to "I will make" in about 60 seconds or less.  Here is, as they say, the rest of the story:

According to my husband this dandy bench was on the way to the garbage.

I had to make the surface "solid" so covered the wood with some left over plaster cloth.

Realizing the plaster cloth would not hold up long term, I interviewed Home Depot guys and after a variety of answers (including odd looks) I began to cover the bench with concrete wire mesh.

Next came the concrete surfacing (which I failed to make as smooth and level as I should have: note to self)

At this stage the enormity of the amount of real estate struck me and I sent a note to friends and family asking for donations of their broken plates, tiles, mementos or anything ceramic to incorporate into the project.  I also returned to Home Depot and Lowe's to interview "experts" on the appropriate mortar to use.  I selected a porcelain tile mortar, polymer enriched by Mapei, because it sounded like I could grout and glue all in one step: big mistake!  The experts were not artists and this artist should not try to cut corners.  All's well but next time (am I crazy?) I will glue and grout, the hard way.

How can I not find photos of work-in-progress??

finally done - now I need to grow the grass back!

Yes, it took ages to complete.  The hardest part was getting the body into various positions to work with a slippery mess.  Unlike a painting or a small piece, I could not simply flip the bench over and get it to rest on my knee.  I had to limit the time my poor back could scrunch over or my arms could reach forward  But as Funky (my husbands description) as it turned out, I love recognizing all the wonderful pieces it contains: hey, anything with a unicorn, a Santa, some tiles from Mexico, a demolished 50's bathroom and a Virgin Mary in it has to have character, no?

detail

Come on by before the mosquitoes come out and we will enjoy a cool drink on a one-of-a-kind piece of art.

ART FULLY YOURS,

Cindy

Mosaics Maybe? How do you spell Summer Fun!

I've already been teased by friends wondering when I would announce my 2014 "summer craft obsession". If you recall last summer I colorfully painted a zillion chairs while the summer before that we covered the mountainside with upcycled glass plate flowers.  I even recall the summer I built anything and everything one could craft out of river stone.  All fun, all productive and all in the past.  I never intentionally set out to choose something, it seems rather that it has a way of choosing me.  Of course I continue to paint seriously but something about having a "doesn't have to be perfect" outlet makes the summer a lot of fun.

So what has chosen me this year?

It may be mosaics!

The mosaic world keeps nipping at my heels enticing me to try more and more projects under the expansive craft of glueing and grouting.  You know it spoke to us in Rome, Italy when master mind Megan Mahan (see her website) completed a gorgeous micro piece of handmade glass for my husband.  And then again I spent many chatting afternoons cracking and glueing with the creative goddess Cheri Glover (meet her again here) as she worked and I played making stepping stones.

I got inspired to venture forth and try some side projects (altho with the careful supervision of Cheri) and was pleased with the results.

This is a wall mirror in progress, the mirror itself will go into the big blue square.
                                     And this is a little porch table I picked up at a garage sale and covered in tiles.

Which all goes to prove that I have "dabbled" enough to be incredibly dangerous at this point!

So when a friend dangled this photo in front of me:

and when my husband (after how much beer) suggested I mosaic the fireplace mantel, I just jumped at both opportunities.  

I'll be explaining in another blog how I intend to create my own version of the couch above (can you say: Yard ART!) and, more importantly, how I will be asking for YOUR help.  A community build of sorts.
But for this little project here:

I'm headed for a consultation with a pro: the extraordinary Pam Brewer of Newland, NC.  Check out Pam's work with mosaics (which actually began as a sideline of her creative pottery art).  Most of what Pam creates with are "tiles" that she crafts herself.  Boy, does that up the bar!  And take a look at the slides of her work with installations...you will drool.  I don't see the entire surround covered but I intend to bounce some ideas off Pam and see what she thinks.  And then I am a'hopin' and a'prayin' that she has a summer class that I can join to make this happen.

Someone asked me why I seem to veer off in wild and crazy directions if I aspire to be a serious (?!) artist. Well, I am not really sure.  But I do know that every time I head off into the unknown I have an excuse for meeting the most incredible people, and they enrich me far beyond expectation.  And I have also found that when I learn something new out of field, my art overall benefits in unexplainable ways.  My crafts obsession has led me to teach, to share, and to decorate my home and the homes of others with fun art that in no way attempts to take itself too, too seriously.  It calls to me....that's all I can say.

So stay tuned....keep your eye out for interesting ways others have approached mosaics and if you stumble upon an interesting tile, piece of ceramic, broken pottery or busted trinket: pick it up!  I'll tell you why soon.

Craft Fully yours,
Cindy

A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine.....

Amy Jo Edwards describes herself as "a Rubenesque fifty-something wild woman who has more ideas than good sense; someone who believes in the power of love ..."  When I read that note I knew immediately I would not only like her but that we would share a bond that needed no words.  Amy Jo is the organizer, cheer-leader, conduit and motivator for what she affectionately has dubbed the "healing ceilings."  It was my privilege to spend a stolen 45 minutes with her and her husband Bill when they recently drove from Raleigh to Boone to pick up about 2 dozen painted ceiling tiles collected from artists in Boone and Melbourne, FL.

I want to share, as Paul Harvey (rip) used to say: the rest of the story.

In a coffee shop right off the highway we settled in with a couple of glasses of cold java.  It was easy to be immediately intimate, cancer experiences create quick bonds.  Amy described how she was her husband's advocate every minute he was in chemo and did her best to cheer up the rest of the treatment room as well.  One night she was exhausted and cried to a friend.  "I just don't think I can take another minute of looking at those @%$!** ceilings," she wailed, describing the long, scary hours they spent at the treatment center.  "Well," replied her wise and flippant confidante, "take the flippin' tile down and paint it." 

Don't issue Amy Jo a challenge....the next day she was in sharing her plan with the staff.  Of course she got push back:  "We are an evidence based healing center," was one retort to which Amy responded by drowning the commenter in clinical studies related to art and healing.  "We can't buy the tiles," was another excuse that sent Amy guaranteeing all tiles would be paid for outside hospital funds.  "Let me see what you have in mind" was the best comment as Amy happily showed up with 6 gorgeous tiles of coy fish circling in a dreamy pond.  It blew them away and Amy rode off in the sunset to ask a few more artists to paint a few more tiles which friends had eagerly agreed to purchase.

AmyJo & Bill Edwards with tile painted by Tammy Blinkly of Elk park, NC

Now when Amy and Bill arrive at the hospital with another load of paintings the word travels fast.
"We line them up along a hallway as we unload," she explains, "and as we decide where to put them the different room managers and nurses almost knock themselves over trying to be the first to choose."  She chuckled over how one manager is "theming" her treatment room with all the wacky pieces she can get her hands on.  Another is partial to ocean scenes and tries to get first dibs on anything with water.  "We even have the doctors sending down "scouts" now," Amy laughs.  "They were slow to get excited but now they want them in the exam rooms and elsewhere."  She relates that one or two docs even came forth wanting to buy some of the tiles to frame and hang.  But true to her goals Amy refused the offers.  "These are gifts from the artists.  They paint from their hearts with a specific audience in mind.  We are happy to provide the artist directory so anyone can contact the artist directly and buy other pieces.  Healing Ceilings is not profit motivated nor money needy."

Amy Jo, myself, Bebe and Betsy unpack the art from FL,

pictured with tile by Kathy Garvey, Palm Bay, FL artist

Word is spreading.  "I don't believe in coincidence," she says, "The people who get on board have a whole set of reasons for connecting with us.  The ripple affect is spreading and it is spreading in powerful directions."  She get tears as she talks about an artist who is losing her fight with the big C but will live on via the sensitive tiles she painted for the room she endured her chemo in.  I get chills as she tells the story of how a friend healed from the loss of a loved one by painting totally out of her style.  And I tear up ,too, thinking of the names that Cheri Glover and I put on the backs of our tiles to dedicate them to persons now fighting their own battles. 

oohhing and aahhing in the parking lot as handoff is made!

pictured is a healing tree by Cheri Glover, Elk Park, NC artist

One last pull of coffee and we bounded out to the cars to make the handoff.  By now we are joined by Betsy Troxler from Boone and Bebe, her friend also of Raleigh.  We wiped the tears and now celebrated like crazy women in the parking lot.  People driving by would slow and look carefully as we lined up art and began loading it into Bill's car.  We took pictures and laughed and were so glad to be a part of this unique program.  There is not a lot I can do to help find a cure for cancer, it is one of those things that make a mere mortal feel very small.  But I promise you, if something I paint will give a cancer patient even fifteen minutes of amusement, or serenity, or distraction, then by golly that is something this mere mortal can and will do!!

Here's hoping that many more cancer care centers will be willing to dive in and let artists make a contribution to the emotional health and attitudes of both patients and caregivers.  Cheers!

Cindy

Betsy Troxler of Boone, NC with her tile headed to the Raleigh, NC

cancer treatment center