My studio threw up in my work space

AAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Downstairs Upstairs and Two Jacks

Went downstairs today and made a Jack-in-the-Box.

 

 

 

 Then I went upstairs and created a pumpkin-head.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jack-in-the-box and Jack-O-Lantern

creative in other ways

 

I'm feeling a little "saturated" today. I should be working in my studio, getting work done for my last show of the season. (Rochester Museum & Science Center Holiday Bazaar) But I wasn't feeling "it" this morning. I've been working on these little date magnets for my Advent calendars for the last 4 days now and I'm getting a little burned out. Or saturated.

 

 

So I went out to mow the lawn. Then I broke the mower.

Now what??

On my way back into the house to figure out what to do next, I passed my wagon full of ripening tomatoes plucked from the garden just before the last frost and suddenly knew what I was going to do next!

I would cook up the ripe tomatoes, along with some peppers, including some habeneros I bought last weekend at the farmer's market and then freeze it to use as a chili or soup base. And just like my artwork, this idea evolved.

It tasted wonderful and had quite a spicy kick to it! I only used 1 habenero, but I also used some fresh jalepenos and a tiny hungarian pepper from the garden. I decided instead, to make some black bean dip.

 

After simmering the tomatoes in olive oil with onions and fresh garlic, I added sea salt, some pickled jalepeno juice, and (yes) cinnamon and sugar. Added to that, 3 cans of black beans.

 



 

This delicious concoction is now simmering to perfection and I feel as if I created something today ~in my kitchen, if not in my studio.

 

Now I need to go get some tortilla chips!

 

 

 

 

 



ARTBreast Exhibition at Impact Artists' Gallery

Sat Sept 22nd 7-10pm Bidders’ Live Auction of 24 ARTbreasts

There is a great buzz around town regarding 81 amazing ARTbreasts (created from display mannequins) at Impact Artists Gallery’s exhibition Altered Perceptions: A JOURNEY OF STRENGTH AND COURAGE. On Saturday September 22nd 7-10pm we offer oncology doctors, gynecology doctors, mammogram centers, MRI clinics and any hospital facility an opportunity to own and display an amazing ARTbreast for their reception rooms and personal offices. We urge the public to bid and donate an ARTbreast to a favorite medical facility “ in the honor of or memory of” a loved one who fought or is fighting a personal battle against breast cancer. Join us for the fun at our Bidders’ Live Auction, at which 24 ARTbreasts will be available to bid on. For this fundraiser tickets are $25 each, 2 for $40 and can be reserved early by calling the gallery. Lastly the remaining balance of ARTbreasts will be auctioned thru ‘BiddingforGood.com’ online in October, which should draw national attention. We invite you to join us for a great evening of fun including the excitement of bidding, music by Geno McManus, auctioneer Richard Bronstein, food served by the Professional Culinary Institute students, basket and 50/50 raffles. !

This ARTbreast Exhibition is a co-partnered fundraising endeavor by Impact Artists Gallery and Breast Cancer Network of WNY designed to attract awareness, create dialog and self-accountability. More info on Breast Cancer Network of WNY is available at www.bcnwny.org or contact info@bcnwny.org or 716-706-0060

All events held at Impact Artists Gallery, Tri-Main Center, Suite 545, 2495 Main St, Buffalo, NY 14214 716.835.6817 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 716.835.6817, check out impactartist.wordpress.com, like us on Facebook. The 12 public-voted favorite ARTbreasts at the Artists’ Opening Reception are intended for a 2013 calendar if sponsorship funds continue. Contact Susan Marie Borden, Exh Chair re: sponsorship on prcontact.impactartistgallery@gmail.com or 716-578-7746 

Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts and Breast Cancer Awareness Update



Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts ~ Buffalo, NY

This is what I work all year for! This is the best art festival I've done to date!! Kudos to Tanya and Joe!! Excellent job! And the people are So-O-O-O-o generous and friendly~artists and patrons alike. I just LOVE this art fest!

 

 

Here's some photos of my booth...

 

 

There is a children's parade on Sunday afternoon to mark the closing of the festival.

 

 

 To all who came out to support me and my fellow artists~ THANK YOU!! I hardly had time to take any photos! : ) Many pieces of my artwork went to good homes this weekend.

 

Impact Artists Gallery Breast Cancer Awareness Project Update:

 

The event is called Altered Perceptions: A Journey of Strength and Courage

Sept. 5 - 29 ~ ARTbreast Exhibition

11am-4pm Wed-Sat

 

Sept 13 ~ The Artists Reception

Invitation for the public to vote for their favorite to be featured in the 2013 calendar

5pm-8pm Thurs

 

Sept. 28

Fourth Friday at the Tri-Main

The best 30 juror-selected entries printed as a limited edition poster. Both on sale.

5pm-8pm Fri

 

Sept. 29

Black Tie Live Auction

7pm-10pm Sat

 

October

Bidding For Good

Online Auction begins on balance of entries

 

 

Next up: Clothesline Festival, grounds of the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY

Sept.8 & 9



Breast Cancer Awareness Project Complete!

 All done!

Not sure if I'm happy with it or not. I got a little pressed for time, so I'm not sure I gave it my all.

But, it is done and I'll post more info on the show and auction dates as they get closer.

Gotta run!!

BCA Project Update

Yikes! Now I'm stymied!! I am suffering from artist's block, probably brought on by the deadline for this project being August 15th if I want it photographed.
Well, this is what I completed 2 days ago. I added a vintage faux pearl choker to which I added a vintage trim of glass beads, probably from a Flapper's dress!
I affixed a stone heart to a rusty metal heart and stuck that on with some glue and some rusty wire. Vintage lace was added to the bottom and a mix of different shades of pink and white sequins were glued to the breasts.

Hopefully, I'll get an idea or 2 today. I guess if I didn't get any more ideas and didn't do anything else to it, it could be done. But in my mind, it is not completed.

Breast Cancer Awareness Project

These next couple of blog entries will document my progress with the Impact Artists Gallery Altered Perceptions: A Journey of Strength and Courage project. 80 artists were asked to donate their creative imagination with recycled PVC mannequins. These mannequins will then be exhibited, juried, with the 30 best printed on a poster for sale, and finally, put up for bid in a bidders' live auction.

First, I made a plaster cast of the PVC mannequin. The top is then decoupaged with dress pattern tissue paper. The bodice is painted with pink, acrylic paint.

So far, I've glued tiny, square glass and stone tiles left over from one of my husband's construction projects across the top of the bodice. I affixed the stone heart to a rusty metal heart and affixed both with wire and glue to the form. 2 vintage drapery tie back tacks have been added to the center of each breast and a line of m.o.p. buttons embellished with rusty wire has been created down the center of the bodice.

That's all for now!

Saturday Artisan Market at the Buffalo Central Wharf today 10am-5pm!!

Childish Dreams

I have two more antique clock cases

which is awesome

'cause now I don't want to sell this one!



Tuesday Night Random Act of Art & Wednesday Morning Walk

My first attempt at a Random Act of Art!

I'll call it a success because no one caught me placing it. I guess I was pretty stealthy since I attempted this right outside of a room filled with about 25 4-Hers and 10 parents and didn't get caught!

I have to admit, I was pretty nervous, but I felt like I was running out of options for the "Drop and Run". I felt I had made a commitment to complete this mission in a timely fashion. On Monday, I thought I might be able to do it when I ran my errands. Problem was I didn't quite think that out. I was going to the bank and post office. After further thought, I didn't think this act would be received well under camera surveillance. I imagined it going like this:

Security guards watching video feed; "What did she just do!? Did she just leave something there?" Then I take out my camera to take a picture of the RAA. Security guards; "GET HER!!"

Not that it wouldn't make interesting blog fodder, but you may not have read about it here for about 20 years or more.

Moving on, on Tuesday I thought I'd leave it somewhere at the park during my son's soccer game. Perfect! There were so many places to put it, I just couldn't decide where. Turns out I didn't need to. Soccer game cancelled due to an overly wet field. : (

Last option (in my mind): 4-H meeting place, which brings us back to the first sentence of this blog.

This Random Act of Art challenge is awesome! Bringing a fun, little surprise to someone when they unsuspectingly find it just makes me feel all happy inside. You should try this, even if you are not an artist. Leave a special little object for someone else to find to brighten their day!

This just reeminded me of something that happened to me as a child.

When I was about eight years old, I found my first sea shell. I found it by the slide in the school playground. The best part of this story, is how lucky I felt. And how happy! We don't live anywhere near the ocean! I still have that shell, as well as many, many more...

The kids and I found this Robin's egg on the drive way this morning on our way to the bus stop.

I found this hammer on the side of the rad on my walk this morning.

 I found these pretty weeds this morning, too!

Have a great day!!





Much Better Pictures!

Here they are! I retook the pics of my latest assemblages and these turned out much better.

The longer I look at the one with the rust frame, the more I think I might change the small pin of the woman to a tiny face made of clay. We shall see...

Sidetracked

I thought this blog would be titled, "Two Done", but on Monday, when I was downstairs in my studio working on yet another "Alice in Wonderland" inspired piece.(which is another 'story' in itself) I got distracted. I was looking for something to help complete the piece when I found a little altered doll head I'd made some time last year. (Ooh! Something shiny!)
I pulled it out and then went to find a piece if wood from my collection of Cape Cod beach finds to mount it on (because that was the idea I had for this head). I pulled out the wood, placed the tiny head in it and determined it wasn't going to work the way I thought it would.

From there I grabbed a small Victorian Era photo pin back of a woman, stuck that to the small piece of drift woodand just kept on going with it. Eventually, I had something and decided it was going to look best in a shallow black box. Ooh! And so would this other idea that just popped into my head, so why don't I paint two boxes black as long as I'm getting the black paint out...By the time the afternoon was over and it was time to get the kids off the bus, I had completed two really cool pieces of artwork. Except the one I was trying to complete is still downstairs, unfinished, and awaiting my undivided attention. Maybe tomorrow...

(Wow! After I published this blog, I saw how awful these pictures are! They are so grainy! And not by design. : (   

I'll have to retake them and repost them another time. I'm not Blog Savvy enough to know how to remove them.)

One Done

One of the two WIPs I had going is now complete!

I call it "Birth of a Song"



The egg, covered in music notes, is the idea, the inspiration, coming from the head.

Below the head, where the heart would be, is the innards of a music box, on display in a glass sided box, for all the world to see (and hear)

Can you hear the music?

Two Works In Progress

There are 2 works in progress here. I am so excited to finish them, but right now I have to get to my kids school to help hang their art show!

So just a glimpse for now...

I traded for these doll heads at a flea market last month!

New work, no title

New artwork, but I don't have a name for it. Any ideas?

And sometimes it IS pretty!

I've had this match safe for a while, not really knowing what to do with it. While I was working on creating some nests for another project, I suddenly got the inspriration to turn the match safe into a garden.

It's available now in my etsy shop

http://www.rustybuittonstudio.etsy.com/



Great News and New Work

Last week we got some awesome news! Once again, my husband beat the odds and is once again cancer free!! Amazing and miraculous! Thanks to all for well wishes and prayers. Your support is truly appreciated and may you all be as blessed as we've been!

As for my creative life, I've been busy taking my 3rd chair caning class in as many years, I just started taking a crochet class and I managed to get this project completed.

                                                           Its called, "the Mind's Eye".

   I am incredibly thrilled with the way it turned out!

                      It began with the eye. Well, no. It began with the door plate, but when I got the eye and it fit in the hole, it became focused around the eye. (no pun intended.) One night, while lying in bed thinking of the project, I had a thought that I needed a hand, with no real idea why. Two days later I found the hand at a flea market. From then on, the pieces just fell into place and into this antique wooden box. Then ...TA-DA!                 

Oh, yeah! And I finally submitted some work to the lovely Alicia (alteredbits) for her next incredible ezine. I can't wait to see how wonderful this next issue will be!

It's Not Always Pretty

It's not always pretty. That's the name of my new piece. And I must warn you, it ain't pretty! And its full of angst!!

Many of my fellow artists have felt this very same way at some point in their career. I'm sure of it. It's just that not all of us have ever really voiced our frustrations over these "dark days", I'll call them.

I'm talking about the art and/or craft festivals, where either no one comes, or those that do are looking for something else. Something like a wooden cut-out of a pumpkin on a stick, a dried eucalyptus swag, a melted flat wine bottle windchime or a crocheted toilet paper cover.

After a while, it can get to you. This past summer it finally did for me. At a local art festival, where attendance was down, and those who were there were carrying around the above mentioned items and turning up their noses at my work, I had finally had it! Don't get me wrong, I didn't take it out on any of the "customers", but I did write a few rants in my journal. (which I'll share with you on another day.) After having told the umpteenth person that, NO! The Japanese lanterns are NOT FOR SALE!, I decided to focus my energies elsewhere. I will not be returning to that show. Ever.

In fact, I've secretly titled this piece, "An Ode..."

Boy, do I feel better!!

: )