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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

New FAE exhibit


The Fantasy Artists of Etsy have put together an exhibit of our "Hearth and Harvest" art pieces.
http://faeteam.com/exhibition.html

The ones I have in there are definitely fantasy, but I'm posting this with my still life "Harvest Gold", not included.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Touch Down


This is the second in my Cosmic Cat series, and I may do more work on it before I'm satisfied. This is the current version of Touch Down.

I have had to stop comments on this post because some creep keeps posting "comments" in a foreign script I have been told is really computer coding.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Remembering Keiko

September's theme for the Lodi Community Art Center is "Remembering". I'm working on a picture I started some time ago based on our first cat, Keiko, when she was a kitten. She was half-Siamese, a very clever and playful cat.
Sometimes a toy of hers would end up under a little faux-oriental rug we had, and I thought that made the perfect backgroun for her. Which is very attractive, but it's hard to try to do complex geometrics in perspective to a deadline... and I want the paintings to ride back to Lodi with my family after their visit tomorrow.

We're celebrating my brother's birthday, with a wonderful vegan dessert from Staff of Life.

I'm working on a couple of other cat-related pieces, too, my Cosmic Cat series where I mix astronomy and cats together.

Friday, August 20, 2010

I love Lady Gaga's sense of style.


I just realized what makes Lady Gaga's wardrobe choices so great. It's impossible to make fun of them without showing you just don't get it. She looks like she borrowed an outfit from Judi Jetson? Duh! That's because she wanted to look like retro scifi. She has shoes that are shaped like hooves and put her feet into a digitigrade walking position? Duh! She WANTED to walk around on horse legs that day. I mean, she just goes for things that are so out there they don't try for something in the mundane world of fashion that she could fail at. It's art, baby!

This isn't Gaga's style but I think my fiber art necklace makes a statement, one more nature-oriented.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Clearance Sale


I've begun a clearance sale in my Etsy store; I need money to cover expenses, and with the school term coming up, and reduction in inventory will make time management a little easier. Right now there are 9 items on clearance. They will be expiring, but I'll be adding new items in. Best advice is to grab anything you want fast.

Science and Art-- Cobalt

Cobalt is a metal element, symbol Co, atomic number 27. In the visual arts, this gray metal is the basis of blue and sometimes green pigments. It is normally found as a by-product of mining copper and other metals; it can also be found in the mineral colbaltite, which isn't very pretty.

Cobalt and kobold, a goblin, are related in name-- early workers found the gray residue after obtaining the copper or nickel they were after, and called it kobolt, explaining it as a kind of earth spirit that had found its way into the ore. So, fantasy artists, let's use a little cobalt pigment when painting your kobolds. It will be our little joke.

Combined into the structure CoAl2O4 it becomes the blue shade we are familiar with in painting, glass making, and white-and-blue Chinese porcelain.
Cobalt blue was a favorite of Maxfield Parrish, and is sometimes also called Parrish Blue. Cobalt green is a mixture of cobalt zincate and zinc oxide. Both pigments are very stable, and therefore good choices for a painter who wants their work to last a long time.

Some cobalt compounds are also used as catalysts that speed the drying of inks, paints, and varnishes.

Although cobalt is part of vitamin B12, it is toxic and should not be ingested outside of food/supplements, where it a small part of the compounds of life. Likewise, anyone working with pigment powders should wear a protective mask to avoid accidental inhalation. The LD50 can be assumed at over 10 grams, ingested, but it is carcinogenic, so it is still best to wash up carefully after using cobalt paints.