Andee's Art!

What's the point of having a blog and being an artist if you can't use it to promote your art?

Bosak

I Used to Love My Ex

Politics

Dirigible

Wanna see this stuff in person? Check out the Vertin Gallery in Calumet. Wanna own this stuff in person? E-mail me at mintyandee[at]gmail[dot]com and I will hook you up.

Legend of Helga

My readers have been wondering what is up with the Legend of Helga site (and by "readers" I mean "mom").

Well, as I've previously discussed before, I've had some terminal computer problems. Which is why I've hired my brother to deal with the digital end of things. He's in charge of figuring what bugged up the site so that it's in it's current condition and posting (and probably re-posting) the pages from here to the foreseeable future.

I mailed off all my complete pages, which he has since received and gotten all of them scanned in. He is in the process of tweaking them and hopefully we will be business as usual this Thursday. Hoooopefully.

Luckily, despite all this technical trouble, I've not lost my audience (and by "audience" I mean "mom").

Cross your fingers for me (and my brother) kids.

Calumet Waterworks

10:40 pm

Since yesterday was the first of June, and therefore in my mind, the first day of summer (a wrong thought on oh-so-many levels) I thought I'd go swimming. In Lake Superior. At 11:00 at night (I went for a beach run first). When the wind was recorded blowing at 50 mph. In conclusion: I am an idiot.

Aside from being really really REALLY cold, it was beautiful.

Prayer for the Terminally Stupid Swimmer

If I die in this Great Lake,

I pray the Lord my soul to take.

May my body sink deep down,

In the place where I have drown,

And those who cry and morn,

Those who are forlorn,

Those who shed tears at my wake,

Know the Lord my soul did take.

Table Make-over

Before

For Christmas, my grandfather rescued this...lovely...table for me to use in my apartment. He also gave me some paint, because my grandfather is smart like that. I am neither a Jeremy or a Britney.

So one blustery winter afternoon I set about working on this project. I was going to paint the table white, because I am on a white kick and have been painting everything white.

I got the legs and sides done and had started on the top.

You see that bright green circle up there? I don't know what kind of paint that is, but I'm pretty sure it's evil. It will neither wash off or be painted over. It did not matter how many coats of primer, it bled through. Obviously I was going to have to change tactics.

Luckily, a few months ago I had picked up some vintage wallpaper from Goodwill. I decided to paper the top of the table, and then put a layer of contact paper over that. It's not the most permanent solution, since wallpaper wasn't really made to be washed everyday, but considering what I primarily use the table for is to keep my scanner and printer off the ground, it works.

After

However, I'm planning on moving out of my house come August and have decided I'm not taking this table with me. If you or someone you know loves it and wants to come and get it, they can have it. Otherwise, I'll be giving Goodwill back this section of wallpaper.

But it is a smashing after picture, isn't it?

Ode to Lake Fanny Hooe

My computer is in a state of disrepair, I am currently in the process of re-formatting my hard-drive, installing Windows 7 and putting it all in a new case. Since I am currently without a home computer, I've been remiss in updating, so I have a back log of blog entries that I plan to post this week. The following entry was written on May 4th.

I know the place where summer hides

Deep amongst the trees

In sun soaked ceder it does abide

Warming evergreens

In moss filled woods where the squirrels will run

and the birds will sing and flowers in the sun

I know the place where summer hides

And winter's breath is gone

The stir of creatures living lives

A forest full of sound

Crackling underbrush flitting through trees

Chirping warnings and buzzing bees

I know the place where summer hides

Light dappling on the waves

 

The bones of trees reach to the skies

As growth begins anew

In one breath my blues are gone

It is for this my soul did long

I know the place where summer hides

Link:

http://www.fannyhooe.com/

My Scarlett O'Hara Moment(s)

Some of you might remember this image:

 

I didn't use it in my post (The Desire to Make Art), but Stephanie used it in her post about the same thing (Photo Art Collaboration with Sarah Anderson).

Now this image has also appeared in a zine and an online magazine Certain Circuits. The picture was also printed on the cake for the opening of Certain Circuits: Collaborate Collaborator (pic coming soon). As well as an upcoming print ad for the Vertin Gallery.

I never thought an image of me wearing half a bed-sheet and a curtain (from K-mart's Martha Stewart collection no less) would get so much mileage. My mother must be so proud.

Sometimes I really want to work in advertising

While many of my friends decry television and commercials as being desperately bourgeois or blue-collar (whichever sect of income level represents the "Them" in their personal "Us & Them" delineation), I realize that the challenges of creating promotional materials, and the rules and boundaries that accompany them often produce the most creative works of art. I am constantly hearing from successful artists that creativity needs structure, and the advertising world provides structure and money, so it is shouldn't really come as a surprise that some of the most creative works are ads.

Often when I watch ads, I think about what makes the ones I like good, and what I would do differently with the ones I hate. I also like to think of analog methods to do the same thing a lot of advertisers are using computer graphics to do, I find myself constantly asking "What would this add looked like 30 years ago?" Sometimes I find I don't understand why they felt they needed computer graphics (such as a tin of soda spilling over) and sometimes there truly is no way to reproduce what they have done without the use of computer animation.