What's the deal with the hearts?

I started making small mixed media pieces with an image of an anatomical heart a little over a year ago.  They were debuted at the OKC Festival of the Arts, and with that came the question, over and over again,

"What's the deal with all the hearts?"

I wasn't prepared for that.  I'd been seeing anatomical diagrams used in art for a long time, especially collage, and had even been selling some bovine medical imagery through The Retro Ranch, so I just thought it was cool and everyone understood it.  Silly, silly artist.  You live in the monkey house!

It started with trying to get over my fear of "cheating" by doing the same design twice.  I have this great digital cutter now, so using the images I've worked hard on in multiple ways only makes sense.  Printmakers do this everyday, so what's the problem?  I can mix it up, add different colors and textures, and each piece is its own individual entity.

This exercise has also been a bridge between my picking life and my art life, and a real stepping stone to my newest line of work, especially the imagery.  Using the wood I had from a worn, defunct fence from my own backyard, no one was there to stop me from using all the sanding pads, leftover paint, and "fabric paper" I had to make something new.  Also, it turns out that I really love woodgrain.

What happened when I started talking to people about how THEY felt about the hearts was enlightening.  My customers and visitors brought much more to the pieces and images than I had ever imagined.  One of my first sales was to a woman who wanted to commemorate her husband's TWENTY-FIFTH anniversary of a heart transplant.  (I get goose bumps every single time I talk about it!)  Some love the color combinations, others are drawn to a particular design or piece of music that I have on the paper background.  In any case, I learned so much more about how a simple thing can become a very meaningful thing in someone else's eyes.

Okay, enough with the words--pictures!

Here's how they're made...

1) Cut out the shapes.  I feed the vinyl sheet into the vinyl cutter and my
blade is run digitally by a computer.  I nest them together as much as possible
to limit wasted material.

2) Take a painted piece of wood and adhere to that a piece of
paper cut by hand in the heart silhouette shape.

3) Place the cut vinyl over the paper to fit appropriately.

4) Take application tape and...

...peel it back, picking up the vinyl decal. (It's sticky like masking tape.)

5) Move decal background out of the way and get ready to
stick that sucker down.

6) After laying decal on paper, carefully pull back application tape so only the
decal sticks to the wood and paper.

7) Stand back and smile!

Make and make and make!

I've had requests for hearts on clocks, so sometimes those make an appearance in my Etsy shop or the walls of my booth. 

New Anatomical Hearts

I made more hearts!  I really enjoy playing with this design and was happy to have an excuse to work on more (because I delivered some to a great shop in Lawrence called Essential Goods!).  I've been able to add more pretty textures and salvage pages from original texts.

3.5" x 5" painted fence wood, paper, vinyl

5" x 7" painted fence wood, paper, vinyl
You can see where these started here.

I will try to have them all up on my Etsy site in the next few days, but computer work really bums me out, so I have to go in shifts...

Anatomical Imagery!

Found in the shed last summer, I recovered a dozen pages from what I assume was a very awesome book with anatomical diagrams and pictures.  Alas, most of the book was gobbled up by critters.  I rediscovered the pages yesterday in my studio when I was tiding up.  So I'll share some here!

The Bones!

Cross-section of head

See and hear with these things.

The Arm.

The Leg and Foot.

I thought I'd sell these through The Retro Ranch's Etsy store, but I really like them, so I might hang on to them and eventually frame them up or something.  Wish I knew anything about the book they came from or the year it was published...  Now, I just need to find more walls...

Old Fence, New Art

This summer I purchased a Tuff Shed.  It's a dream--just wish it was bigger!  (Show and tell about that in a future post.) I now have a place to put my art inventory and tent set up stuff that is only three steps from my truck.  Before, I was going up and down the basement stairs 25 times (literally--I counted) every time I had to load or unload for a show.

I took this opportunity to salvage the fence that had to come down in order to construct the shed...at least, what was left after ALL THE TERMITES OMG IT WAS HORRIFYING!

Anyway, I cut the slats down to 7" lengths, and then did some sanding and painting magic before adding some paper and vinyl in the popular anatomical heart design.  Multiples are fun!

Buh-bye, sucka!

I managed to get 90 pieces measuring 5 x 7 inches

Add some paint!

Sand it and add more paint!

"Fabric paper" with vinyl on painted wood

I like leaving the back rough to help tell the story.

I'm working on more of these for my spring shows and will have them in my booth regardless of if I'm showing clocks or "fine art."  People like 'em and I like making them.

After I deliver some to Essential Goods in Lawrence, I'll add the remaining piece up on my Etsy shop.

Showed It: Sioux City

I showed for the first time at ArtSplash in Sioux City, Iowa.  Aside from the show being book-ended by rain during set up and tear down, we had lovely weather.  

Post-show sky after I'd dried off and was searching for dinner.

The show coordinators really know how to take care of their exhibiting artists, including a dinner at the Sioux City Art Center the Friday night before the show.  

Yaaaawwnn, right?  Oh, wait, that's Jackson Pollock's Mural from 1943!
Over nineteen feet of art-world busting greatness.

Get it where you can.

Due to it being Labor Day weekend, the downtown was a bit sleepy, but I enjoyed walking around after the show closed.  I didn't see one speck of graffiti, but there was plenty of art on display due to the SCAC sponsored Sculpt Siouxland public exhibition.

I don't think the clothes were part of the original design.
(They were gone on the next time I saw this.)

And because it was Labor Day, I wasn't able to visit this place on my way out of town because it was closed for the holiday, which made me very sad.

I'll coordinate my meals better next time, because this looks great.

So anyway, here's a bit of my booth.

I added several more hearts to my inventory and sold
some of my favorite clocks.

I enjoyed Sioux City, and now I can say that I've spent time in the middle, east, and west of the great state of Iowa, which is more than I can say for my home state of Kansas or my current state of Missouri.

UP NEXT: I'll be in Leawood, Kansas, Sept. 13 and 14 for a new event, The Handmade and Vintage Market.  I'm excited to stay home and meet some new Kansas City area folks!  Better get to making...

Made It: Loring Park Preview

Loring Park Art Festival is this weekend!  I've been working on new and bigger clocks and here's a preview:

6 x 30 Aluminum with rainbow drops

12 x 12 Red with White Orzo Burst

12 x 12 Two-faced Orzo Burst

12 x 24 Sanded Aluminum with Anatomical Heart

12 x 24 Aluminum and Red Ombre with "Shasta" design

12 x 36 Sanded Aluminum with Multi-layered dots

12 x 36 Aluminum with Red Ovals

12 x 36 Aluminum and Pinks Stacked with
Black Orzo Bursts

IF I don't sell these in the beautiful city of Minneapolis, I'll be sure to add them to Eighty Acres Art Etsy shop.  For the weekend I'm going to deactivate most of my listings except for the table top clocks (since those aren't sold in my booth).  

Residents of this lovely city, stop by my booth--->number 71, just like last year.  I'd love to see you!

Completely Random Things

I've been neglectful, so here's some random stuff!

Been listening to a lot of The Beatles lately.

This illustration is ridiculous.  Poor Ringo.

Experimenting more.

Salvaged wood, acrylic paint, fabric paper, vinyl, gel medium

5 x 7 matboard, used tea bag paper, paint, vinyl

Dreaming about a larger studio so I can more fully realize all my artistic endeavors.

This would be an adorable little backyard studio if it was
in my price range and my backyard was bigger...
Not a lot of room here in the heart of the city.

Prepping for the Loring Park show in lovely Minneapolis.

From last year's show in this amazing park next to the Walker Art Center.

Making lots of table top clocks.

I love making these.  I'm going to try to have a huge back stock for the holidays.

Eating a lot of ice cream, especially when I'm on the road.

Sweet glorious bowl of heaven from Des Moines's (Pleasant Hill to be more accurate) Over the Top.
Go there.  Go there now.