Posts Tagged "art"

Day 8: Date with a bead friend

Posted by gwen on Mar 16, 2012 in craft | 0 comments

Jill doesn’t actually bead but she is a friend and I was looking for beads and we had a date hitting up the local swap meets Saturday. I found a couple old bits and bobs but it was more of an experience than a treasure trove. We did see some good stuff, though.

Like this truck we spotted on the way over. Pretty flippin’ awesome, huh.

And saw lots of horrible little dolls and clowns.

And one lady who lost her clothing. OOPSY.

Fusion Beads 30 Day Bead Challenge

Google Art

Posted by gwen on Feb 12, 2012 in love | 0 comments

I’m not giving up on the necklace a day project but I am a lot behind and what I’ve done I haven’t had good daylight to take pictures of, so. Expect a deluge of posts about that when the rain is gone. Or something.

In the meantime, do you know about the Google Art Project??? It’s been around for awhile but I just ran across it this weekend and oh. my. gosh. Virtual tours of museums all over, with the ability to blow up sections of the piece and wow. It’s not exactly like being there but it’s the best iteration of real-life art I’ve seen online to date. Here are a couple screenshots of just a few of the pieces over there. Seriously. Go check it out.

You can click the images below for bigger versions if you want to see more detail.

“Birth of Venus” is so huge. I don’t remember ever not knowing what it was or not getting all the references to it that are made everywhere, all the time. But if you’d asked me to sketch what I thought it was, it’d be just a woman standing in a big clamshell. Who knew there were other people there?

Dude. Napoleon is so hot.

Sometimes seeing paintings in the flesh is surprising. Like the size—I always assume painting are going to be about poster size, but a lot of them aren’t. Some of them are really small, like Dali’s “Persistence of Memory”, which is intricately fit onto a canvas about the size of an 8×10. Sometimes the texture is shocking. Van Gogh uses a boatload of paint.

LOUIS QUATORZE! Not a real role model but how sassy is he?

Renegade Craft Fair San Francisco

Posted by gwen on Aug 6, 2010 in craft, photo | 4 comments

I went to Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco last weekend and it was *crazy*. Here are a couple photos from my adventure, sorry I didn’t catch most people’s name, if you know who any of them are feel free to leave a comment…

Painting class, end of the semester

Posted by gwen on May 20, 2010 in craft | 0 comments

Today was the last day of the semester for my Very First Painting Class Ever. Here are the last few projects I worked on:

#2, flower
[which you may remember was based on Huernia sp. by f.arais]

#3: Landscape with tree

#4: Self portrait
I didn’t quite finish this, though I did add in a nose today.

#5 was Toy from five angles but I never got around to choosing an object, much less starting on the painting. I feel reasonably accomplished nonetheless, I completed ten or so paintings over the semester, which is about ten more paintings than I’ve ever done and they’re not the worst things ever.

Art + design at the Alameda Antiques Fair, March 2010

Posted by gwen on Mar 11, 2010 in Alameda, photo | 2 comments

365: DJ Chad at a Friday night art reception

Posted by gwen on Jan 31, 2010 in photo | 0 comments

Friday: Chad DJing at an art opening at juliestea.com. He played a bunch of world/electro stuff and attracted quite a bit of attention from some older ladies. One of them slipped him her card at the end of the night. He said she made him feel uncomfortable. I said, welcome to being a woman.

Bendicion Para un Mojado or Blessing for a Wetback 2009

Posted by gwen on Dec 27, 2009 in photo | 1 comment

Bendicion Para un Mojado or Blessing for a Wetback 2009
by Viviana (Viva) Paredes

"This wall sculpture meant to give blessings to the immigrant traveler and to honor the many lives lost crossing borders in the quest for survival. The concept is influenced by the practice of the Tibetan prayer wheel but instead of Buddhist sacred text, the cylinders are etched with the ubiquitous freeway sign of a family running. The vessels are filled with medicinal herbs which are meant to address some of the many issues they face on their journey. Flor de Tila for heart ache, Arnica to comfort their physical pains, Cempasuchil to address their susto or fear, Flor de Jamaica for their change in diet and a mixture of Laurel leaves, Rosemary and Chili to help ward off Mal Ojo or evil eye from those trying to stop them from entering."

From Ofrendas para los Muertos-from Oakland, with love
Curated by Rachel-Anne Palacios