Sunday, September 29, 2013

a good day for a barbecue


well - maybe not - it's cold and rainy
but barbecuing altoids tins doesn't require perfect weather
(don't do this indoors in your home oven due to paint fumes)

how I did it:
clean your tins
remove lids if you want to
wrap tins in a foil packet - loosely packed but sealed shut
barbecue on high (about 475 degrees) for about 15 minutes
let cool
unwrap (do your unwrapping outdoors due to the captured paint fumes in the packet)



it's an imperfect process with unpredictable results
some of these I will be bbq'ing a second time
I LOVE the tin on the left in the above picture - and have no idea why it came out so great
anyway - have fun with this - isn't that the whole point of a barbecue?

Monday, September 23, 2013

pocket gems

I have a small collection of mini tintypes
they're called pocket gems
I think they're the selfies of a hundred years ago


they were the original photo booth pictures
tintypes that were pocket sized and made for trading between friends
the camera had several lenses so that in one sitting you would end up with 8-12 of these darlings 


so what to do besides collect them?
make art of course
... the fun kind ...


an altoids tin shrine
what I like to call "jewelry for your wall"


ingredients:
barbecued altoids tin
steel tooth zippers
old book cover
sari silk ribbon
book text
dried hydrangea
beeswax
beach glass
solder

Thursday, September 12, 2013

captain ahab comes to dinner

funny how the things you just drop into a pocket can be such a source of inspiration


my nasty bottle caps picked up on vacation have been begging for a purpose in life


 I've nailed them into a block of wood that I covered with pages from Melville's Moby Dick


here's an outake of our dinner table conversation the other night:
I showed it to The Teach and he said with a smile, "Another thing of whimsy ..."
and I said, "it has a dark side - the description of the decapitation of a whale on Ahab's ship"
and my youngest said, "the flag with chinese writing goes perfect with it - you know with illegal whaling and stuff"
and my oldest said, "I think you mean Japan"
and my middle one said, "but it's a global thing - and look, three of my bottle caps are on it"


and Captain Ahab jumped ship right about then

Sunday, September 8, 2013

on a sunday morning

today I grabbed my camera to capture a moment in time

crepes on a plate


the flowers on that table


and the petals that had fallen


wishing you a day with special moments

Thursday, September 5, 2013

the world's trash ...

... is no one's treasure

this is some of the plastic I collected on a beach on the eastern shore of Kaua'i:

beach plastic washes ashore after swirling through the ocean currents for several years
Hawaii's beach plastic washes in from the Pacific Gyre
where does it all come from?
let's just say it can't blamed on cruise ships or cargo ships

it's where all the world's litter ends up - in the ocean - honest to God


so I sit in the comfort of my kitchen with clean water for my flowers and clean water for my tea
I wonder:
what will change our course or change our minds?


and then I make art that tells my children and their children's children the story of it


if the subject of ocean plastic interests you, here are some good links to follow:






And from you:
Amelia's link to artist Steve McPherson (marine plastic art)

Gayle's link to youTube video by Chris Jordan: Message from the Gyre (this made me cry)