Here is a bit of esoteric information I'd like to pass on - when framing with museum glass, the side of the glass with the anti-glare film should go toward the painting. How can you tell which side has the film? Take a razor blade and scrape near the edge, the anti-glare film will scratch. I got this information directly from the manufacturer.
It was august of 1996 when I first saw our house. It was nothing very special, just the basic south Snohomish county 40 year old split. But there was more room in it than in any of the places we had ever lived in before. And space puts a glint in my eye! Why? Because space equals studio! I am an artist and if I go too long without a space where I can create, unencumbered by the needs of others with an over-developed sense of orderliness – I get cranky.
Well we moved in and soon we were having another baby and homeschooling. A warning for anyone contemplating homeschooling: homeschooling tends to fill all open space in a house. Just ask almost anyone who homeschools and they will confirm my statement. Anyway, as you, I am sure, are guessing, the studio did not materialize as quickly as I had hoped. Busy with two small kids, my attempts at creating art were usually interrupted by little fingers wanting to “help” and somebody needing “something” – you know what I mean. Well time goes by and kids get older and friends start noticing things – was it odd behavior? – a distant stare? – perhaps a twitch? They wouldn’t say what, exactly, but one friend gently said to me “You love art – how are we going to get you to do what you love?” I remember that moment – it was one of those cool sci-fi moments where you live an entire alternate lifetime over the course of the one or two seconds it takes for a realization to take hold.
It didn’t happen immediately - it took a few days – but it came back. What? The glint in my eye. Eventually I pushed my way into the storage room downstairs, closed the door and began creating again. I also began teaching art and art history at the homeschool resource center and put together the school art show and gala. The lifetime enclosed within that little crystal ball of realization I had had that day started to become my lifetime – I was doing what I love.
After a few years my husband decided it was time to expand my studio from the unfinished storage room in the basement into the garage – he’s a good guy. So, not being – shall we say – handy with a hammer, my husband enlisted the help of his friend, who, after a short time, began doing what many of my friends do when they recognize that glint in my eye – they tilt their head down and to the side a little, looking at me from the corner of their eye with a rather amused grin on their face. “What?” I say, “Why not 2-circuit track lights?” “Why not cove lighting?” “Why not old-fashioned carriage house doors instead of those metal roll-up things that have ugly tracks sticking into my beloved space?” Seriously.
My new studio is wonderful. So, when I had and opportunity to be a part of this year’s Edmonds Art Studio Tour, my husband recognized the glint and said “go for it.”
Pastel paintings created with artist's quality pastels on acid-free grounds are very stable. The dry colors are applied directly to the ground which is an acid free paper with either a rough texture or a coating containing pumice that grips the pastel. And grip it it does! When I complete a painting I give it a couple of thumps on the back to remove any loose pastel dust then frame it behind glass to protect the surface. Properly framed pastels are very sturdy, long-lived paintings.
Some things to remember:
The Edmonds Salmon Run is a project by ArtistsConnect, a group of artists in the Edmonds, WA area who meet monthly and hold two "Art Splash" shows a year. The Salmon Run is twenty clay salmon decorated by ArtistsConnect members and displayed in downtown Edmonds shops June 14 to July 22.
Well it sounded like fun so I signed up!
OK - what to do with a clay fish? Glue stuff on? Paint it? What design? Feels like art school - here's the assignment - now be creative! Expand!
The deadline was approaching........ I had the school art show to organize, classes to teach....... what was I going to do with my fish?
By now it was Earth Day. I was thinking of the salmon in the area and how their habitat has been impacted so much by human activity. How the salmon only have one place to live - one home. Then my over-loaded brain clicked - salmon - Salmon Run - Earth - migration - home. And I saw my fish on a journey as salmon tend to do - but this fish was on an expanded journey. I suppose it is a metaphor for human exploration, but, this journey takes my little fishie into the vast ocean of the cosmos where it dines on all the knowledge it can hold. Then it feels a primal longing and sets its sight on the only place in the universe that is its home - Earth - fragile, precious Earth.
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