Throw Out the Art-making Rules

I just finished reading "The Other Alcott", about artist May Alcott, the sister of famous writer Louisa. It was interesting to read about her struggle to become an artist, and about connections with other women artists of her time. One of the artists was Impressionist Mary Cassatt. Fictionalized conversations between women artists, based on historical letters and writings, show the challenges women artists faced in that time period. Abigail May Alcott Nieriker submitted her works to the traditional Paris Salon and was accepted. Mary Cassatt left the Paris Salon behind and threw her lot in with the Impressionists. Ah, choices! I will look for a good book on Mary Cassatt now. 

This crayon rubbing was done in  Bangor, Maine, 

from items found in walking one block.

I've always felt constrained to stay in a lane, either folk art or fine art. But as I get older it's clear that an artist can make many kinds of art and that rules don't serve the artist much at all. So I let myself explore "folk art" and make other art that has no guardrails whatsoever. Emphasis on exploration! One doesn't have to constrain the other. See?  No rules! 

Patterns & Textures of Bangor, Maine and Beyond

Patterns & Textures of Bangor, Maine and Beyond  is live on the Bangor Public Library website. Free supplies are available at the Bangor Public Library for community members to use in making  crayon rubbings in the community. The Cyr Gallery at the library will display community members' crayon rubbings as well as art pieces done on paper by the Bangor Art Society in August and September. 

I did a crayon rubbing of a manhole cover, and then overprinted on top of it using acrylic paint and a gel plate as an experiment. The above piece is 12.5 inches x 27" in size. I like letting some of the design from the crayon rubbing show through transparent layers of paint. I'm looking forward to what the community brings into the library! The city is *filled* with texture and pattern opportunities. 

Courage Chickens: No Rules

After close to 2 decades of making folk art inspired by antiques, it has been fun (and necessary!) to do some art which has no rules and can be a totally experimental. I'm not trying to make things that look like old things, but am finding ways to incorporate antique folk art motifs in experimental prints. I'm looking to combine crayon rubbings with gel printing. Using folk art chicken motifs, I'm going to make a series of Courage Chickens.  Or maybe that should say, "Courage, chicken!"  We will see what comes of this.  Maybe they will be like a scorecard for a golf game. Maybe something will come that I like enough to frame and hang on my wall. 

Courage, chicken! 

A Beautiful Art Deco Grate Crayon Rubbing

 I've been looking at the grate in this building for years and years in Bangor, Maine. Recently I decided to do a crayon rubbing of it. No building was harmed in this process.   

So this past Thursday, I took an hour to do a crayon rubbing. The Green crayon is a little more wax-y than a black crayon. I think next time I will try black. This is part of a community texture gathering project done to be offered to the library. 

If you need supplies, Gravestone Rubbing Supplies has a special kind of paper which is perfect for doing crayon rubbings. 

More to come on the community project! 

Lessons in Melting Crayons

I'm continuing my journey in melting crayons to make palm sized crayons for crayon rubbings. I did a test where I melted inexpensive crayons and Crayola brand. The inexpensive crayons work well enough in crayon form but they did NOT melt as well as Crayola crayons. If you look at the test comparison below - the cheap crayons are the ones which are kind of lumpy, and the Crayola was much smoother. As far as silicon cupcake pans go, I liked the ones that are singles not in pan form. I used an Oxo brand. My goal is to make 100, and I think I will be done by the end of the week. This is for a project with a local library. More on that to come! 

 

Real Energy Only™️

Today, when the markets were plummeting, I had a dark chocolate with my coffee. These are wrapped with pithy sayings on the inside. Today's read, "Good energy only!"  If I were making chocolates, and making wrappers with sayings printed on them, I would edit this one to "Real energy only!" 

When I read the wrapper before I edited it, a phrase my mom from Georgia used to say went through my mind: "They can kiss Ol' Maude backing up!"  My mom was a sassy and colorful character. 

There's a reason that Kate Bowler's book Everything Happens and her social media resonates with me. It's honest. It acknowledges the totality of life. Hard things happen. And to pretend they do not is to hide from reality, and perhaps miss some solutions. (Just ask AI the question "what are the pros and cons of positive thinking?")

It's true that what we think about influences our actions, and that influences our lives. But I'm on Real Energy Only™️  which acknowledges what is happening. We celebrate it or we mourn and do our best to solve problems. We don't ignore. 

There's a whole lot of reality going on right now, and we cannot ignore it. 

Making Palm-sized Crayons for Gravestone Rubbing Techniques

A crayon rubbing of a heuchera flower stem.

In the days before cameras, paper copies of gravestones were taken using crayon rubbing techniques. Historians and genealogists used these copies to prove birth and death dates for people. Doing crayon rubbings of old gravestones is discouraged by some now, because some stones have been damaged in the past by multiple rubbings weakening the stones. Some cemeteries do not allow people to take do gravestone rubbings. It's always best to ask and it is always recommended to protect historical markers so it's as if you've never been there. 

I'm working on a project where I will need a lot of palm sized crayons for working with children and other people, and the budget won't allow to buy the professional palm sized crayons. So I decided to try melting down old crayons to make them. 

I used a silicon muffin tin for this project, and an oven. First, I peeled the crayons. This can be therapeutic, or soul-crushing. I took a craft knife and cut through the length of the paper to make it easier to peel the crayons.

Then I broke them into pieces and sorted them into color families in a silicon muuffin pan. 

I covered a baking sheet with tin foil, and put the silicon muffin tin on the covered baking sheet. I preheated the oven to 275 degrees Fahrenheit. Then I "baked" the crayons for around 12-15 minutes, until all the crayons were melted. The cups on the outer part of the muffin tin melted first. It took a while for the middle sections to melt. I could have stirred the wax at this point, to make the color consistent. But I kind of like the striations. 

After they came out of the oven, I let them cool and harden 

for about 30 minutes while I was doing other things. 

Then I popped them out of the muffin pan. 

       That part was fun! 

The above work like crayons do, because they ARE crayons. I tested them out, and they work for my purposes for the group project. Having said that, if I were only going to be doing this for me, I would buy an official one like those sold at Gravestone Rubbing Supplies.