Sketchbook page
The task at hand was daunting. As the clock ticked and eyes watched, she waited to see what would come of it. Stretched beyond the point of comfort, she felt akin to what Gumby must feel when being pulled by two toddlers. Branching out is good, she convincingly told herself. Being stretched forces you to grow.
Sketchbook page “colored” in Photoshop
A few Friday’s ago was the First Friday Gallery walk here in lovely Fort Collins. We at PSA held our Bike Art exhibit and the Gallery folks once again did a great job of hanging the show – but there was a slight (but great) mix up. For the exhibit I entered two pieces: Bird on Bike and Birds Flying Bike. Bird on Bike sold before the show went up, but the “sold” indicator accidentally ended up on the wrong piece. My Bird on Bike was accidentally sold twice. Initially I felt bad, but I offered to paint the nice folks another, which they seemed thrilled with. For the last few days I have been doing just that. I took a few minutes at the end of the day to also do a quick sketch for good measure.
18 x 36″ Acrylic on canvas
Boring walls be gone! The boyfriend now has a little techie art for his office.
18 x 36″ Acrylic on canvas
The company that the boyfriend works for just moved into a new office. He was told he must have art on his walls – which is a direct order I can get behind! The boyfriend requested a geometric piece similar to something I made a few years back. This piece will adorn the boring wall above his computer when I am done.
The last two weeks have been a whirlwind and a ton of fun! I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and exhausted myself. I’m going to miss painting the piano, but I’m also ready to dive back into some other projects.
I took Saturday off from piano painting to enjoy a sour beer festival, but was right back at it again today. The weather was hot, but under the shade of the canopy, life was good. I met more great folks and was entertained by a really fun bluegrass band, Blue Grama, who was playing as a part of Streetmosphere.
The piano is nearing finished. A bit of color here and some touching up there -is about all that is left to be done.
I got a little help on Friday.
Photo Credit: Mary Fleming
Day 8
Piano painting for the City of Fort Collins’ Art in Public Places – Pianos About Town Program continues to be a delight! I have quite a bit of work to do, but feel like the deadline of Tuesday is completely doable.
I thought I’d share one of the more humorous and interesting conversations I’ve had while painting. It went something like this:
Girl: Do you happen to know where any dispensaries [marijuana] are?
Me: No. I actually don’t think there are any up and running yet because the city is still working to figure out some of the logistics. But I really don’t know for sure.
Guy: Wow. We looked at your painting and thought for sure you would know about all of that.
Day Six: Front of Piano
This week is a busy one! Piano painting, First Friday Galley Walk, guests, meetings, deadlines – all fun stuff.
Day 6 back
Work in progress: Day 3
My new acquaintances, Mike and David
The next few weeks are going to be full of piano painting! The City of Fort Collins’ implements their Pianos About Town program to promote art and music around the city. They hire local artists to work on donated pianos for a two week chunk of time. The pianos are then placed around town for people to play.
Yesterday I was able to get my piano fully primed (the pink and mint green won’t stay) and ready to go. I must admit I felt a smidge guilty about painting over such lovely wood, but the brightly colored pianos really do liven up downtown.
On another note:
Before heading out to start on my piano yesterday, I made some art on the studio’s bathroom wall. I kept imaging a little man’s head in the black chalk bubble and so decided to draw the guy out.
I’ll call him my art for yesterday.
Micah Richardson 