Illustrated Encylopedia Update – Art House Coop

Finished my five words. It’s remarkably difficult to paint a 3″x3″ canvas. Don’t let them tell you differently.

Art House Coop

"uncanny"

Blustery — my word to illustrate

For the Art House Coop’s visual encyclopedia project, another of my words is blustery.  What’s your first reaction to blustery? Probably same as mine. Betcha’ it is… Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day. Right?

So do I give in and draw Pooh with a kite? Would viewers get it and if they did, would it be too cheesey? I will give in to my instincts and do a collage with a lovely sketch of Pooh which I will cut out from an illustration and then, to enhance the cheese-factor, I’ll make a tiny kite and use a bit of thread for the string and glue it to PoohBear’s little paw. Honestly, there isn’t anything else to do, now is there? I thought of blustering politicians giving odious speeches, but nah — who’d get it? Thought of a nice Mr. Wind with billowing curls of air-breath but then it would “windy” not “blustery” in the eye of the beholder.

Talked myself into it. Pooh it is. And poo on my detractors.

Aerie, one of my “words” in the Canvas Project

While researching aerie, one of my project words, and trying to find more than “nest of a bird on a cliff or mountain top”, I came across Coven of the Mother Mountain Aerie. Now I wonder if there’s any way to include such a group as my encyclopedia entry for aerie. Probably not, since the COMMA folk, while being quite interesting, may not provide the type of definition of my word necessary for the Project. At the exact time I performed the Mother Mountain Aerie research online, the story of Arthur, past King of all lovely tales of knighthood and Right Over Might, came on the History Channel. Excellent timing.

Anything concerning Arthurian legend brings back memories of my childhood reading preferences. Just as I graduated from Dr. Seuss and moved, by personal choice, into more meaty fiction, my teachers banded together to force upon me that awful of awful moment of scholarship – the introduction of Classical Literature. Mrs. Warner gagged me with Les Miserables. Followed it closely with a Charles Dickens, the title of which remains, for my own sanity, blocked from my memory. Eighth grade English. Classroom flashbacks crowd in and slam against the angst of pre-early teen years. The shock of receiving a grade lower than B+ sent me crying to Mrs. Warner, begging for a second chance at a grade above a D+. A book report, please please, I begged, extra credit…? She said, Fine then, you want extra credit? Read The Once and Future King by T.H. White… you have one week. I will quiz you about it myself, you will not write a report… no no… we’ll have an oral exam. Next Thursday after school.

You can understand why I do assemblage art if you try to follow my writing. Leaps and lags from point to counter-point. Bits of one memory flagged then tagged by another. Like my art. Pieces of me. Of the past. Ephemeral as junior high fashion.

The rest of the story of Arthur and my English class? I read the book, every bit of it. In one weekend. I was twelve. Then came Mary Stewart’s book about Merlin, then more books throughout high school, culminating in a discussion of Le Morte d’Arthur as a senior term paper. Between reading about King Arthur, Amelia Earhart, all the villains who were hung by Judge Parker, and Tolkein’s novels – it’s a wonder I graduated high school at all. Which sends me driving down another memorial highway beginning with my not attending graduation and ending with the University of Arkansas.

Hell, this is supposed to be about my art. The process of assemblage. I’m sure the proofreading of this blog post will be painful tomorrow. Today was much too filled with activity for me to be lucid right now.

Art House Coop – Canvas Project Volume 2

Registered for new projects at Art House on Thursday. (click on the link to learn about the Canvas Project) The 5 – 3″x3″ canvases arrived today. Thanks be to the coop for allowing me to participate in 4, count ‘em four, projects. Will post my progress thus far on tomorrow’s entry feature. My words for the Canvas Project Volume 2 include: punchline, aerie, blustery and two more I’ll reveal eventually. “Punchline” will be a spiral of words – punchlines of old jokes such as “to get to the other side”, “I thought you said ‘goat’”, and “It’s not the chocolate cake…” “I don’t know his name but his face sure rings a bell” “Elvis Parsley” and the ever popular “So I bit him.” which will be written in tiny script over a miniature stage complete with velvet curtains, wooden stage, smallest ever microphone and a teeny barstool. Unless — I can’t make the 3″ square 3D. If it has to be painted, so be it. Odds are I’ll cover the whole thing with beeswax, natural color.

Links, progress report and more available by Monday… ya’ll must be on the veritable edge of your seat, agog with anticipation… hold fast… strike a pose… orange you glad I didn’t say ‘banana’?

Also on the Assemblagist Agenda – the Beaufort County Arts Council Member Art Show coming up in May. Objects limited to size of display cabinet – gotta’ call for dimensions.