Author Archives: Micah

Arting for 365 Day 156: Handmade Business Cards

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Goal: To create one piece of art each day for 365 consecutive days

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m going to be showing some work at a harvest festival this weekend and so will be spending a chunk of the week prepping for it. After creating yesterday’s piece (below), I realized I liked it fine, but that it might be better suited as business cards.

It was a few years ago that an artist friend of mine, Alissa, used scraps of her own work to create business cards. I thought it was a brilliant idea and I immediately stole it. I often use old works that I may not have loved but that I think could look good cut up. Each card is a tiny piece of original art that folks can take with them and I feel like the cards are a bit more memorable than the norm. Beyond that, I like the idea of re-purposing some of the old work I have laying around.

The process is a simple one:

1. Take any work you like, as long as the paper is pretty sturdy

2. Make a grid of 2″ x 3.5″ squares

3. Cut them

4. Hand write or print out (I use Avery brand clear labels) your contact info on the back

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Arting for 365 Day 155: Sunday Card Making

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9/30/12Goal: To create one piece of art each day for 365 consecutive days

Next weekend I’ve been invited to show my work at a local harvest festival. There should be quite a few people at the event and I always feel like any chance I’m given to get my work in front of an audience is a good one, so I’m pretty excited. On top of that, the festival should be a really great time – lots of fun people, delicious food and music.

I don’t have a super concrete idea as to how much space I will have though, and so decided it would probably be wise to start creating some smaller items to sell. Last night I pulled out business envelope scraps and markers and created a few of these bright, fun cards.

Arting for 365 Day 154: Pumpkin

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Day 154 (9/29/12): Pumpkin

Each piece ~ 3 x 5″ Watercolor and ink

It has been a whirlwind of a weekend. Yesterday’s activities  included visiting my brother and his family, watching an extremely intense game of 6 year old flag football, and attending a house warming party which was followed up by a night on the town.

As you might imagine, a few of these activities involved drinking adult beverages – which could be treacherous when one is attempting to not miss a day of making art. No worries – I continued the streak by working on this lighthearted little pumpkin.

Arting for 365 Day 153: Coasters in Black and White

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Goal: To create one piece of art each day for 365 consecutive days
Yesterday I decided it would be fun to create some more coasters. Instead of using old paper brewery coasters, I thought I’d paint directly onto tiles I picked up for ten cents from the local Habitat for Humanity Restore.
Using ceramic paint that you can pick up from an art or craft store, I got to work on abstract designs.
I finished up by baking the coasters for 45 minutes in order to set the paint and sticking cork to the bottom.
A pretty fun project for a Friday afternoon!

Arting for 365 Day 152: Energy, Bird Abstraction

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Day 152 (9/27/12): Energy, Bird Abstraction

~27 x 22″ Ink and Acrylic on paper

Goal: To create one piece of art each day for 365 consecutive days

I love when something unexpectedly comes together. I began working on this piece years ago, with an initial drawing of the central  bird-like form, but I never liked it. The burnt sienna colored design seemed forced and just kind of odd. The original bird reminded me more of a dead chicken hanging from those store windows in China Town than it did an elegant, energy filled bird. Unhappy with the piece, I stashed it away hoping that maybe someday I would come up with a brilliant idea as to how to salvage the darned thing.

A few months ago I pulled out the piece again, determined it could be saved. I worked on it a bit, but no epiphanies were made, so the drawing got sent to the corner.

Two days ago, as I desperately searched for an idea that would motivate me to create something I loved, I once again pulled out the bird. I’m not real certain why I thought it would be the piece that would fulfill me. Up until this point the drawing had been utterly unwilling to work with me in being something amazing. It was boring and disjointed and I saw little hope for its  survival. Yet, here I was pulling it out again.

I am so thrilled I did because I think this piece turned out awesome (totally tooting my own horn here, I realize). Its got movement and texture and energy. Heck, I even like that I stuck with a monochromatic palette of browns -which is shocking to me. I really couldn’t be more pleased.

Arting for 365 Day 150: Squirrel’s Guide to Attacking Humans

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Day 150 (9/25/12): Squirrel's Guide to Attacking Humans

5 x 7″ Ink and watercolor on paper

Goal: To create one piece of art each day for 365 consecutive days

Within the past two months or so, for some unknown reason, I have developed a slight fear of squirrels. This is a bit embarrassing for me to admit, as up until that time I found them to be much as I find the rest of the neighborhood animal kingdom – adorable and harmless.

When walking or jogging past them I worry they think I am scheming to steal their acorns. Because I feel rather certain that this is on their minds, my fear is they will turn to chase me in attempt to defend their coveted food. I am working hard to shake this ridiculous fear and even tried to sweet talk a baby squirrel out of the apartment hallway the other day – even though I was pretty certain the mom was probably close by, ready to pounce.

I’m confident that I will once again love the fluffy tailed rodents. I will start by convincing myself that they do not have a shared list expressing the following:

  1. Look cute and cuddly
  1. Pretend to be preoccupied with food gathering and playing
  1. Let them get close
  1. AttackIf you like squirrel’s or maybe don’t like squirrel’s and so would like to buy this piece, you can do so here.

Arting for 365 Day 148: Masking Tape, Cut Outs, and Some Watercolor

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Goal: To create one piece of art each day for 365 consecutive days

It’s been awhile since I’ve used my X-acto Knife and so yesterday I decided I was due to re-visit the old friend. This time, though, I wanted to try something a bit different than my traditional approach. Rather than cutting into paper, I thought it could be interesting to cut into masking tape. The shapes created could be peeled off and stuck onto watercolor paper. From that point, I would be able to paint the negative space, ending up with something a bit different from my norm.

I started by laying down strips of tape to a scrap of canvas (the canvas seems to withstand the X-acto Knife cuts pretty decently, which helps in not completely ruining my work table).After that, I simply began cutting out shapes. As I cut and transferred, I realized that not only would I have a painting created from the cut shapes, but I could create a second painting by cutting around the negative space left by the initial cut shapes.The cutting of the masking tape was pretty easy. The transferring did get a bit tricky as some of the more delicate pieces  tended to come apart at the tape seam or tear, and at times the tape would roll up on itself. But overall, the technique worked pretty darned well.

From here I began painting each 9 x 12″ paper. I finished up the first, peeled the tape off and felt pretty good about the result. I got a bit of extra help from Box, our cat, on the second painting as he spilled a glass of water over the finished piece. I have to say I think it helped it the overall look, but because the paper got so saturated, when I went to peel off the tape, it did take some of the paper with it. A simple solution: Have patience and let the paper dry (something I don’t have and thus did not avoid completely).

I’m pretty happy with this little experiment. I think the color and flow of both pieces are nice and it’s always nice for my brain to try something new.

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Blue bird-like piece and red/orange floral piece are both available for purchase.