I moved… by the way

© creativebleed

No I didn’t abandon this blog…I just moved over to squarespace. You can find me at creativebleed.com or creativebleed.squarespace.com. Sorry for the delayed notice, you can also like me on facebook and read new posts there. k

dia de los muertos

die cut paper skulls, drawn and colored by kristin chapman

Inspired by last weekends day of the dead celebration at the Oakland Museum of California, my husband and I made these paper sugar skulls to hang in the window. Despite the rain, we enjoyed checking out all the arts and crafts for the kids, the dancing and the exhibit VIVO: Days of the Dead 2010. Although it was a small exhibit, it had great work.

Eternal Lovers installation by Tino Rodriguez at OMOC

One of my personal favorites was Eternal Lovers by Tino Rodriguez. Anytime an artist invites the viewer to interact with the piece always wins me over. Looking and not touching can get annoying when your in a museum. So when an artist keeps the viewer in mind with interaction it gives the piece a sense of community as well as feedback. In Rodriguez’s piece it demonstrates the use of love, memory and eternal life. In his statement he reflects on a personal memory of visiting the cemetery for Days of the Dead, which although might be culturally common in Mexico, in the states our visits are short and rarely do you see someone picnicking on a grave site. Which is a shame, more people should picnic in cemeteries. There such beautiful places and the lack of living makes it peaceful, yes, but also makes the dead forgotten which is sad. Rodriguez welcomes viewers to add their own thoughts of love, demonstrating that there is life in death with remembrance, love and tradition.

die cut paper skulls, drawn and colored by sonny rocka

I was hoping to check out MOCFA‘s VOLVER exhibit this weekend but the little one was sick…so I am stuck writing this post. 😉 But MOCFA exhibit goes till January so I still have time. VIVO goes till December at OMOC, there is also a PIXAR exhibit at OMOC that is worth checking out too! K

CHECK OUT THE NEW CREATIVE BLEED HERE!

Coffee Table Remake

So this chalkboard paint is a little addicting. Once you pop open a can and paint one thing with chalkboard paint you start walking around your house and yard thinking, “what else can I make into a chalkboard?” So the next item that fell victim to the chalkboard paint it this old coffee table.

My husband and I bought it a few years ago at a Salvation Army in Campbell to put outside in our tiki hut. We have since moved several times. Unfortunately we had to leave the much loved tiki hut behind, so the table became an actual coffee table. But when we moved just recently we realized the table no longer worked for us anymore. We tried selling… no takers, we tried leaving it on the curb… no takers, so it sat in our garbage pile. That is untill, I decided to paint it magenta and give it a chalkboard top. The table has a new home in my daughter’s room. And she seems to enjoy it. Although she is a little too young to enjoy the chalkboard top, she loves cruising around it and playing with her toys on the table top.

So here is what I did: I cut off the bottom rods, so there was room for legs, chairs or to crawl under. I used left over magenta house paint (with no VOC) to paint the entire table. Then I used frog tape to make a mask into a fun shape and painted it with chalkboard paint. I used a brush to paint the table and a small roller for the chalkboard paint. I found Dustless Chalk made by Melissa and Doug. And yes, I can vouch that it’s pretty dustless, or as dustless as chalk can be! In just a few hours I had a fun new table. k

A Work In Progress: My Studio Inspiration Board

The latest progress on my studio has been my Inspiration board. Preexisting was a bulletin board/tool holder that I thought was pretty cool. Of course as soon as I tried to pin something up, I realized the redwood was too hard to easily push a pin through. So 6 coats of magnetic paint and 2 coats of chalkboard paint later…I give you my inspiration board.

The magnetic part is not as strong as I thought it would be (yes, I was kinda expecting my own version of  LOST’s “The Incident” when they drilled a little too deep at SWAN station and everything metal went down the hole including Juliet). Yeah, I know, that would be some serious paint. But there is something about making a wall magnetic that not only makes you replay that episode while your painting but also gets you thinking could I be throwing the planet off it’s axis by a nanometer of a fraction of a smidge.  Anyways… it does work and probably works better on drywall. Both Krylon and RustOleum make it, I used RustOleum which cost about $20 or so for a quart. I used a roller which is recommended and stirred it FOREVER!

TIP: Have it shaken at the paint counter before you leave the store. It will save you 10-15 minutes of continuous stirring when you get home.

I topped it all off with 2 coats of black chalkboard paint. The hard wood is not the easiest or smoothest surface in the world to draw or write with chalk but it will do.

Ok, so what do you think… Should I paint the Redwood? I was thinking white? Anyone in favor, anyone oppose?

The East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse

I herd a rumor once of a thrift store in Berkeley filled with art supplies but I new nothing more until Sunday when I brought the unsellables from Saturday’s garage sale to The East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse for donation. The name says it all and it’s the perfect place to donate art supplies you no longer need and other random items a regular thrift store might see as trash. It’s also a great resource for artists and teachers looking for supplies and inspiration. The East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse is a haven for artists who love working with found objects. They have everything from fabric to vintage signage, crayons to egg cartons, maps to film slides, etc, etc.

This place is worth checkin out if you haven’t already. And a perfect place to donate your random collections of: “I was saving these because I was going to make a ___________ but never did.” No really, there is a place for these items and there are folks who WILL make something out of them.  K

A Work in Progress: My Studio UPDATE

Believe it or not, progress is being made! Since my last post I have finished unpacking, sorting and organizing the bulk of my studio. There still some odds and ends mainly on the photography side but that’s a whole other can of worms, that will have to wait. But for now most things have found a home!

Using mason jars left over from our wedding I organized all my pens, markers, charcoal, brushes, framing tacks, binding screws and other bits and pieces.

One advantage to converting an old garage into a studio space is that you don’t think twice about hammering a bunch of nails into the wall. Perfect for hanging rulers, tape, wire, string, paint palettes and rolled up uncut negatives.

Still a work in progress but the hardest phase (organizing) is now complete. The real fun begins! K

Need more inspiration for organizing your creative space? Check out these blogs: the Happy Heathen and Threadbanger.

A Work In Progress: My Studio

Moving is always a daunting task. Moving several heavy objects from point a to b in one day is physically tiring. Unpacking those small objects over the course of several weeks and figuring out where to put them is overwhelming and mentally debilitating. Therefore, after moving into our new place last month the time has come for me to put together my studio space. You would think I would be excited about it, but truth be told I am feeling a little unmotivated. Here’s why:

1.)   Past spaces have become a cluster fuck of papers, portfolio pieces, unfinished projects, books, pens, highlighters, photographs, scraps of fabric, bills, junk mail and other random shit.

The result: An uninspiring workspace where I just throw things I do not want lying around the house and I end up working at the kitchen table.

2.)   The space itself is the corner of an old unfinished garage. Although I am grateful for the space, it just feels so un-motivating and un-inspiring. It feels too much like an old garage.

Presently my studio

The Challenge:

This time it is to make it an organized & functional studio space. The space is shared with my husband so the pressure is on to keep my corner of the garage clean and functional. In addition to that, well it needs to look cool, it needs to be a place where someone would want be.

This is a work in progress post that will be stretched out over the next few weeks. Check back and see where I am at and please share any thoughts, ideas or tell me about your studio, workshop, office or craft room. K

Bay Area Maker Faire 2010 & Raygun Gothic Rocketship

The family friendly version of Burning Man is happening this weekend at the San Mateo Event Center. Yesterday, I got an opportunity to check things out and my favorite thing made, has to be the Raygun Gothic Rocket. It reminds me of a martini shaker I have, (a souvenir from the Space Needle in Seattle). Although there were no martinis aboard this ship, there was plenty of tips for bar hopping on an unknown planet. Much needed advice for those of us who are making a voyage beyond the galaxy. This ship is complete with 2 decks to explore (the third is viewable from the second) and specimens collected by the crew from their previous space voyages. After checking out the cabin of this rocket ship, I could only wish there was a slide to get back down to the launch pad! “Take your protein pills and put your helmet on,” here is a few pics of the Raygun Gothic Rocketship.

Other things to check out at the Maker Faire, Maker’s Square had lots of info on growing your own food, recycling and greening up your home. Last year Maker’s Square was a ghost town by the time we got there which was in the afternoon. So this year it was the first place we hit, I think I got enough reading material to sew a tree and sell at the Bazaar Bizarre. But seriously, I hope all that info will be put to good use real soon.

Hope to have one of these someday. Coop design by Just Fine Design Build.

There are a ton of things to make and learn at the Maker Faire from knitting to robots, and it’s a great place for kids and adults to learn and explore, be inspired and create. K

PS: To the asshole who spent 15 minutes telling his kids “not to touch” and then got annoyed with me for touching the Posables in the interactive sculpture garden. YOU FUCKING SUCK!!! (I didn’t get an opportunity to say it then because, I was so thrown off by his comment, that I have to say it now.) k

Flickr Peek: Shadow Boxes

Flickr is a great resource for artists, designers and photographers who are looking for instant inspiration. This week I was looking at shadow boxes for a new project. I found these 3 artists that work with shadow boxes and I thought I’d share. Each artist uses the shadow box differently. Kendrick gives his drawings dimension by using mat board to raise the objects from the background. Jayne actually works with the shadows cutting out shapes from the dark paper and placing them against a lighter background. Smart Went Crazy uses three-dimensional found art to document each week, preserving them in a shadow box. These pieces go along with journal entries which can be read on the website. I think the pieces stand well on their own, giving each tangible object a sense of history and meaning.

Shadow boxes seem to be commonly used as a three-dimensional scrapbooks preserving family heirlooms and memories. Which don’t get me wrong are great and often beautiful pieces of personal history. But I think there is more potential as an artistic medium, it’s perfect for framing layers of medium (what ever that medium is) and giving something that would ordinarily be too flat on 2-D surface a sense of space, making the image feel alive. The three artist below are a perfect example of that. Enjoy k.

Original Shadow Box Art entitled, “THE SOUND OF ROOTS AT NIGHT” (2009) by award winning American artist/animator Dean A. Kendrick. The piece is a 3-dimensional drawing/painting utilizing pen and ink, acrylic, and coffee on paper and matboard. It resides in a handsome, simple walnut frame shadow box measuring 14″ x 11″ x 1.25″.

From the series entitled, “INACCESSIBLE ROOMS”, this work of shadow box art depicts the never-seen manifestations that ominously occur within permanently locked rooms.

Quoted from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26840412@N05/

Details and work in progress

Quoted from : http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaynev/

week 20

week 34

week 44

A year-long visual diary in 52 weekly entries using found objects, original art, ephemera and mixed media along with written entries for each week documenting the contents of each box.The written entries for all of the boxes are over at smartwentcrazy.com

Quoted from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/smartwentcrazy/sets/72057594102433366/

Bay Area Creative Happenings: May/June 2010

Now that we are approaching summer here are a list of upcoming art and design events/happenings throughout the Bay:

PINC Show 2010 @UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center, San Francisco, May 6 8 to 8 pm

South First Friday art walk in San Jose May 7
My Alma Mater SJSU is having their open reception for the BFA Graphic Design Exhibition at Art Ark Gallery from 6-9pm, check them out first the other galleries open around 8 till late see here for details.

SFMOMA 75th Anniversary San Francisco May 14th
Check out current exhibitions the Anniversary Show, A View From Here, Paul Klee and more.

Screening for Typeface (the film) at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco May 15th & 16th

5th Annual Bay Area Maker Faire @ San Mateo Fairgrounds May 22 & 23
plus the swap-o-rama-rama

Indie Mart 3 year Anniversary Bash @ the Parkside, San Francisco June 6, 12pm-6pm

Sustainable Brands 2010 @ Monterey Conference Center, Monterey June 7-10
“Where the Brand & Design & Sustainability Communities Come Together to Shape the Future.”

San Francisco Design Week sponsored by SF AIGA June 14-20