Categories
Dioramas

Arister Gifts Diorama

I just scored this clock shadowbox at Goodwill! What a great box! I love finding things like this. I’ve made several other scenes from thrift store treasure.

In my eagerness to get started, I forgot to take the “before” photos. Luckily, there are similar pics of this piece on the Internet. Here’s what this looked like before I took it apart.

Arister Clock Shadowbox
Detail of Arister clock shadowbox

Everything was glued and screwed into the box. I was worried about breaking it as I disassembled the pieces. But, it turned out!

The revised, finished diorama
Upper Panel detail shot
Lower panel detail shot

Here are the scenes before I reassembled to cover and glass.

A black and white cut paper church and graveyard
Scene of skeletons greeting each other
Categories
Dioramas

Smelly Cat

Day of the Dead Hello Kitty

Hello Kitty Diorama

Categories
Dioramas

PORT AUTHORITY in the LAND OF THE DEAD

No one is lonely in the Land of the Dead.

This is part two of “In the Eye of the Beholder,” where I consider the mourning aspect of “eye miniatures.” It would be a fine thing if we could still visit with our Loves by gazing into their painted eye portrait, should we become separated by the veil of physical mortality.

Here, we have a street scene at the Port Authority of the Land of the Dead (inside another eye rinse cup) complete with hanging skull lanterns, musicians and the smallest raccoon I’ve yet to draw.

 

Categories
ART

Circus Fantastique Draft

This is a draft for one of my ArtScape submissions – the Midway banner exhibition.  I talked with them two days ago about another proposal and it’s looking good so far. Finger’s crossed. I’m so excited (but don’t want to jinx it).

This is a circus I’d totally like to attend. To meet Frida and Groucho and Ben…not to mention everyone else in the ether.

Click for bigger

And…what would you ask a famous person from the other side?

Categories
Joie de Vivre

The Other Side of Halloween

All Saints’ Day. Day of the Dead. Dia de los Muertos.

I love Halloween and this time of year. Frankly, it goes downhill after daylight savings time until Spring rolls around again, what with the cold and lack of undead peeps about.

The people who we love that pass on never really leave us. I talk to them daily. And today, we remembered those who aren’t physically among us anymore.
Tim Cookson

From Tim

Tim Cookson

LaLa and Pop in Panama

Above:

  • Where the Wild Things Are (the Dorans).
  • Mix tape made for me by Tim Cookson, who died in the service of our country.
  • Photos of Tim – one shows him playing drums while recording one of the two songs we wrote together as “the Infected. “
  • My favorite photo of my grandfather and father together in Panama.

 

I love you and miss you.

Categories
ART

The Land of the Dead

The Land of the Dead

I started this last winter, before my crazy class schedule began. This isn’t really finished yet.  I had bigger plans (more dead guys, for one thing)  but I want to start the next one, and I’ve decided to let this be an introduction to what I’m doing in my barn.

Friday

Land of the Dead Daddy-O's

Below is a study I did last night, before I finished making the dead Daddy-O’s.  I decided to make Frida be black and white like the citizens of her town. I like how this picture turned out.

Frida Study

I have always loved paper-mâché, and I rediscovered while helping my daughter with a school project. I got the idea for this from a drawing I did in someone’s sketchbook for the sketchbook swap:

Frida returns to the land of the dead

I am interested in seeing what happens when I try and make real world models of my drawings. When I was a kid I mixed flour and water (and maybe glue). Now, I’m using glue and water and the Baltimore City Paper.

Basic Supplies

The City Paper is good for....

Primed

More to come – there’s a lot going on in the Land of the Dead.