Monsters on Canvas

OK my obsession is still in full swing. I can't seem to stop making monsters. This time I started branching out from pottery tiles to little 4x4 canvases. Here are my first few:



Top L: Adalaide; Top R: Rupert;
Bottom L: Jack (in honor of Jack Elam); Bottom R: Xavier

My addiction shows no sign of stopping... I made two more monsters while at Artfest and will post pics soon. LOL!

Tile Addiction Update

My most recent tiles BEFORE Firing:

I used a stamp to help outline these and then painted them and drew in the details. I like how the eyes turned out differently (unintentional on my part).

More etching. I was in a devilish mood. I was going to try to add flames around the edges since its sooooo bare. But I chickened out because I had never really etched flames before and didn't want to chance ruining the piece. You can easily correct painted mistakes but etched mistakes are not possible to correct unless you scrape all the paint off and start all over again. Painting over etched mistakes just leads to a big mess. Next time maybe I'll start w/ the flames first!!

Another devilish figure. Left it plain as well.

Sort of a Robo-monster theme on this one. I really like it!

Another eyeball monster. One of my coworkers keeps telling me I should do a series of similar monsters to eventually sell so I've been trying to periodically recreate some of them. I never plan them out in advance other than maybe some sketches right before I paint. And aside from the octopi above, I rarely do the same piece twice in one night. But its fun to revisit some past monsters. I may have to do that again.

I can't wait to see what these are like after firing.

More Tiles!

Its been a long while since I dabbled in pottery so I was tickled pink to do so again recently.


The above was my attempt at creating a vampire but perhaps it looks more like a werewolf. LOL. I etched this one- painted the tile white, allowed it to dry slightly, then painted it black, allowed it to dry slightly, then etched thru the black to reveal the white. This is one of my favorite techniques to use on tile!

This was my attempt at drawing a Devilish Silhouette! In hindsight, I should not have used the sparkling paint- its too distracting. But as with all my tiles to date, I free-handed this so I'm pretty proud of it, considering I am drawing-challenged!

I wanted to try something slightly different than my usual monster motif so I went with robots!

I shouldn't have tried using yellow on darker colors tho- it fades too much. but other than that I'm happy with my robot! The woman at the pottery place called it a lightbulb headed thing and I guess it does look like a lightbulb although that wasn't intentional on my part. LOL.

And of course no trip to the pottery place could be complete without another monster tile. I've been playing with this particular imagery for a little while- I just really like it. I am calling this one Irene for now. :)

Bookmark Swap

I hosted a bookmark swap on a great arts group that I'm in (AAO), and here are my creations:

All of the above were inspired by this old Home Ec book I have. There was a great photo of a woman vacuuming and the caption read "You can look clean and attractive even while doing housework". I just changed that up a bit for this swap. :)

The 3 above were the first ones I created and were just inspired by some background papers I had made and some imagery I had lying around.

This was an addicting swap. I think I may make more just for the heck of it- or maybe to trade at artfest.

More Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day

Some older artwork of mine using a great ripped paper technique inspired by Diane Culhane- just rip up papers (post it notes, magazine pages, cardstock), and glue to another sheet. Gesso the whole piece, and then go back and start painting images on it.

Johnny Guitar and Female on the Beach

I am a HUGE Joan Crawford fan. And as such, I feel the need to expound upon a couple of my favorite Joan films!

Female on the Beach. This film is laden with incredible rat-a-tat-tat dialogue and the kind of raw sensuality that can still make you blush. As you can see from some of the stills:

Jeff Chandler plays a beach bum gigolo out to seduce wealthy widow Joan Crawford. Natalie Schafer (widely known as Mrs. Howell from Gilligan's Island in her later years) and Cecil Kellaway play his "accomplices" while Jan Sterling is a woman scorned.

Despite the Hays' code, this film is quite risque and sexually frank. Think of it as a combination of Peyton Place and Suspicion. It toys with being completely over the top in places but I think it manages to sink its claws into you in a refreshingly visceral and titillating way.

A few years ago, I discovered Joan's Western classic "Johnny Guitar".

And what a gem it is!

Johnny is played by the scrumptious Sterling Hayden, and the rest of the cast is just as impressive: John Carradine, Mercedes McCambridge, Ernest Borgnine, Royal Dano, Ward Bond, Scott Brady, Ben Cooper. Joan plays Vienna, a gun-toting bar owner with big dreams, who crosses paths with the bitter and more than a little unhinged Mercedes McCambridge.

Johnny Guitar is full of incredible dialogue- a sort of Western Noir if you will. My favorite lines:

Sterling: How many men have you forgotten?

Joan: As many women as you remember.

Sigh. They don't make 'em like that anymore.