Blick Fall Back to School Sale Flyer.

This fall I am featured in the Blick Art Materials Fall Back to School Sale flyer and in posters in the stores. I am drawing sea fan coral with Prismacolor markers. I have been drawing with their colored pencils since high school, and really like how bright and easy-to-blend they are.

Photo by Lenny Gilmore.

Photo by Lenny Gilmore.

Poster Photo by Lenny Gilmore.

Thanks to Blick for the above photos.

Songs:

Rolling Sea - Vetiver

Sea of Love - Phil Phillips

Oh No! Doom - Out O' The Woodwork Show

This past month I exhibited a lamp at the Oh No! Doom gallery's Out O' The Woodwork show. I had my basket starfish neon lamp along with about 30 other artists' pieces. It was a really eclectic mix of work, & a lot of fun. The gallery owners are really nice, too; check the place out!

Song:

Bright Lights Bigger City - Cee Lo Green

Hello Etsy, It's Been a While

I've begun using Etsy again. I set up a shop last year, but didn't quite understand how it worked. Now, after seeing some of the best at the Renegade Craft Fair & the worst on Regretsy, I've decided to try it out with a little more of my work. It's a lovely way for artists to connect with each other and sell in a worldwide marketplace. People can even request custom items. This time I've added a lot of my senior work to my shop, It'll Glow On You.

A bioluminescent menagerie in my old studio space with works in progress. (The basket starfish would later become orange.)

Video: 

Carnival of the Animals: The Aquarium - Camille Saint-Saëns

CORNING LIGHT SHOW ON THE BRIDGE: AWESOME.

Alfred University presented a light show Friday night during the Glass Art Society's conference in Corning, NY. The Corning Museum of Glass is a hot spot for all glass enthusiasts, including my flameworking-friend Ruth and I. The student glass exhibit was fantastic and the light show was beautiful.


I entered two of my pieces, the Basket starfish and the Shrimp.

Songs:

59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) - Simon and Garfunkel (YouTube)

Blinded by the Light - Bruce Springsteen (YouTube)

For the full set of pictures, see my Facebook (friends only).

Senior Shows!

Senior Shows went very well. My fabulous show partner, Jodi Veeder, made beautiful, meditative, computer-programmed animations. I made a number of bioluminescent sea creatures. From the Show:Basket Starfish.


Anglerfish.

Jellyfish.

Shrimp.


Spiny Starfish.

Danger! High Voltage! - Electric Six

She's Electric - Oasis

Energy - The Apples in Stereo

Keep Fishin' - Weezer

Electric Muffins

Hey! Good news from the studio: I've successfully bent, sealed electrodes to, and bombarded a tube within 24 hrs. And it worked! To celebrate, a bit of Billy Joel:

Get It Right the First Time - Billy Joel

So anyways: I wanted to see how extra color would work inside the basket starfish lamp. The little shape makes a big difference in the color of the lamp... I tried it with the regular peach tube, both tubes, and the tangerine-orange. I actually like the last one the best.

And in other lamp news, The Jellyfish is finally stuffed. With bubble wrap. Lots and lots of bubble wrap. The color shows through much better than regular stuffing. Now it's like an electric muffin. The Electric Muffins might just be a good name for a rock band.

Utilitarian Digest

Hooray! I finished the basket starfish lamp and am presenting it in the (2nd Annual) Utilitarian Digest Show in the Turner Student Gallery! It is up Thursday, too. The show is a collection of functional artwork, so there are tools, bowls, glasses, lamps, alternative power sources, and silverware.

I like seeing ceramics, glass, metal, and wood pieces all in the same show. It is a good showcase of the 3-D materials found throughout the Art School, although perhaps more neon could be seen. Not that I'm biased or anything.

The lamp may be tweaked a bit later, but I am pretty happy with the stenciling.

Also, I made deviled eggs for the opening, Grandma B.'s recipe. They were a hit!

I'm Beginning To See The Light

Working like a mad lady in the neon shop this week. Here's what the inside of last week's starfish lamp looks like, some nice, simple shapes. The neon will be held on to the frame with standoff glass toggles.
And onto the next neon starfish. The pieces will be layered, like this, blacked out, and the image of a starfish will be scraped away out of the different glass tubes. It'll be a reddish-pink color. There are 6 tubes here, all with electrodes sealed onto the ends. There's a lot of patterns that can be made, too, checkerboards and waves. Now, to pump them all!
And now presenting, in several installments, a Neon Mix (Vol. 1):

I'm Beginning To See The Light - Ella Fitzgerald

Electricity- The Avalanches

Neon Bible - The Arcade Fire

It's ALIVVVVVVVVVVVE!

Starfish update! Today I bombarded a tangerine-colored tube full of neon gas + mercury. It has the same effect as argon gas + mercury. Without the mercury, the tube would be bright red-orange, but with it, it became peach. With the tube in the wood frame, the starfish glows! (It's a different color in the lower left corner because of the different shades on the electrodes on the ends.) Yay for neon!

Basket Starfish Progress

Two of these done.

Calling the Starfish Enterprise

Here's my current plan for a lamp based on the Gorgonocephalus Eucnemis. Also called a basket starfish. It basically has a lot of arms that appear woven together, and can curl them up if so inclined. It looks a lot like tree branches and coral, some of my favorite natural forms. The cutout is the giant stencil that will cover the wooden frame and be lit from inside. It's about 2' x 2.5'.