Farmer's Hand Complete!

I finished the farmer's hand this morning. Now I will start making the corn out of fabric...it should be really fun!

I am going to buy the Monsanto hand his suit and the farmer's hand his flannel from the thrift store today. :O )

It will be interesting to see how this clay dries. It will more than likely crack but I think that will be fitting. I've only used this clay for the tomatoes and it worked really well for them, but they were small and easy to carve out the insides so they'd dry faster and without cracking.

The fingers were planning on sagging so I cut the armature from the clay monsanto hand I'd built in the summer and stuck the wires into the palm.

This is the end result. The holes in the arm will be to tie the hand down to the board with wire, I also added two holes in the palm since the corn will cover it. This picture is kinda creepy...

I'm excited for this piece! All the hard parts are done. Smooth sailing from here on out.

Monstrous Monsanto Hand

I'm done sculpting the huge Monsanto hand...it ended up bigger than I intended, but that's not a problem. Next, I will work on the farmer's hand, but I may use clay instead because I don't want the farmer's hand to look so rough.

I will dress him with a sleeve from a suit jacket. I think I will go to a Salvation Army to buy one and sew two sleeves together. Originally, I had the idea to put nuts and bolts throughout the piece but it didn't look right and it made the piece easier to break. I may still glue them on...but I don't think I will. Nor do I think the piece needs it anymore....not sure.

This is for scale. Jacob's hand against the Monsanto hand. It's actually very light though. I will be picking up tiny pieces of plaster for days... :0 )

Monsanto Hand Revisited

I sculpted this clay hand during the summer. Originally it was going to be a final piece and I was going to make a cast of it, but something didn't feel right about it. It didn't feel aggressive enough and it felt more like a study.

I finally have the time to get back to it, so I am making it out of plaster this time (I know I should use Hydrocal...but my hardware store thought I was crazy when I asked for it). I will be cramming nuts and bolts into the plaster as well. This is a view from the front of the armature made of chicken wire.

And a side view...I have gone into this project knowing this may not work...I have already had some problems. I drilled holes through the board and brought wire through the holes to tie the armature down to the wood.

This is a sketch of what this piece will hopefully look like. The Monsanto hand is gigantic hovering over the farmers hand crushing the farmers corn. The small farmers hand gently gives the corn to the people and the powerful Monsanto snatches it up.

Big problem #1! The plaster was too heavy for the wire and it started to topple over, so Jakey searched desperately for a stick for me to put inside. I drilled a hole in the wood for the stick to sit in and tied the the stick tightly to the wire.

The final view of the stick. This reminds me of Fern Gully when Hexxus is oozing across everything. Very frightening! I have been an environmentalist since I was 4 because of this movie. :0 )

This is were I stop for the day. I will build more plaster onto it tomorrow to create a monstrous hand.

En Las Tablas: Sock Luck!

Potluck: Chicago went to En Las Tablas yesterday to make sock puppets with the kids. It was a lot of fun. I wasn't able to go to En Las Tablas last time since we had to split up so I was really excited to get another chance. We brought in new and fairly worn socks and the kids were able to pick out the ones they wanted...one for the body and one for the mouth. The socks where suppose to be avatars of themselves. I was in charge of sewing the mouth and body together. Then they went to another station to have hair and eyes sewn on. Afterwards they were able to decorate the puppets. We then interviewed them with their puppet and asked them questions like "What super power do you bring to Chicago?"

En Las Tablas Performing Arts Center is an amazing place where kids can take dance classes. They offer classes to residents of Hermosa, West Logan Square, and West Humboldt Park. The classes are inexpensive and no child is turned away if a parent can't pay. Where these kids live, there isn't anything else like En Las Tablas for them. I took dance classes as a child for 7 years and it gave me confidence in myself. I could see these kids really felt safe at En Las Tablas and they were all so outgoing!

It made me think about how I could use art to benefit others and not just myself. I am so thankful I have gotten involved in Potluck: Chicago. Before this residency I was very confused about what I would do with my artwork. Now I am realizing there are so many possibilities and my art doesn't always have to be visual installations, it can be more than that, like En Las Tablas. Right now, I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing in the future but I know I will figure it out as long as I keep working at what I love, farming, artwork, and cooking. I will find a way to bring the three together.

This is Alejandra. She wanted her puppet to have glasses just like herself so she needed three buttons on top of each other. The first button was the frame of the glasses, the next one was her eyes, and the third was the glass from her glasses...very creative idea! David quickly realized he could not do this so he asked me to take over. Woo...it took a lot of thinking and help from parents to figure this one out but I did it and she loved it.

Here is Meg with a puppet she made herself. He was so cute!

A puppet Helen made that I fell in love with so I kept on wearing him. He's so adorable.

Johnny wanted a picture of his Angry Bird Johnny puppet. :0 ) He really liked Angry Bird as you can see from his sweater...so I had to look them up when I got home. It looks like the Angry Birds are constantly trying to get their eggs back from the hungry pigs. Here is a little video.

Etsy!

I finally made an Etsy account! It took forever but here it is.

KimGuare on Etsy

First Craft Fair (not counting the time when I was 14 and tried selling mismatched earrings, 1 earring for $1 each, at the Flea Market...)

Yesterday I participated in the Glenwood Sunday Winter Art and Craft Market in Rogers Park. It went surprisingly well! I had a really great time and my hard work paid off. I will be putting some of the left overs on Etsy and see what happens. I will post a link once it is ready.

This was my table. I put the pomanders in the back for smell and interest.

My friend Clare wearing some Chicken earrings!

My friend Abby bought a beet pin!

I love The Glenwood Farmer's Market and all the lovely vendors. They were all so supportive of my work. Thanks guys!

Magnets for The Glenwood Sunday Winter Art and Craft Market

Here are some of the magnets I made to sell at the Glenwood Sunday Winter Art and Craft Market tomorrow from 9am-2pm at The Glenwood Bar, 6962 N. Glenwood Ave. Now I have to get back to finishing up the earrings!

Pins for The Glenwood Sunday Winter Art and Craft Market

edit April 10th, 2012: I now have an Etsy account if you would like to check it out here!

I made 50 pins so far for the Craft Market this Sunday alongside the Farmer's Market. I still have magnets and earrings to do so I don't know why I am blogging right now. :0 )

Pomanders and Cardboard Cutouts

These are all the little cutouts I made for The Glenwood Sunday Winter Art and Craft Market this Sunday. They will become earrings, magnets and pins. I still have to sew most of them to fabric. I spent all of yesterday glueing the prints to cardboard and cutting them out. whew. Check out the market this Sunday from 9am-2pm and buy yourself a chicken pin!

A friend of mine (Hannah!) showed me how to make pomanders! They are so beautiful, they smell wonderful, and they are very soothing to make. You can take any citrus and poke a hole into it with a toothpick, then pop a clove into it. Eventually the fruit will dry out and you will have a fancy air freshener. So far I have pomandered (I don't think that's a word) a grapefruit, orange, lime, and lemon. My place smells wonderful. I am searching for other citrus to cram cloves into!

New and Finally Finished Piece

Gourd 2, it is 37x13 inches and made of fabric and paper.

This was the entire process for this piece. A lot of piling heavy items onto it and waiting for it to dry. This image was the final step. Cut out fabric, glue to paper, cut paper, glue to paper, cut paper, and finally glue to illustration board...it's hard to decided when I should no longer cut and glue. :0 )

There were two tiny onions on my counter that started to grow so I put them in my empty pots to see what happened and now they are growing wild and crazy. It's fun to watch.