Star Wars Celebration V and other Creative Inspirations

I went to Star Wars Celebration V in Orlando, FL (August12-15, 2010) which fueled my creative juices.

I have ALWAYS been a HUGE fan of Star Wars and truly admire George Lucas, one of the creative geniuses of our time.

I passed this love of Star Wars on to my oldest son, Gray, and nourished his interest with a bedroom decorated in all things Star Wars including a loft bed set against a glow in the dark star covered wall paper, posters, and practically EVERY Star Wars action figure, ship, diorama, and micro-machine made by Hasbro.

Ross, my youngest son, got his share with Star Wars LEGO sets.

So, given the opportunity, and with the help of a few days of Phil (my husband and their Dad) working overtime, we pulled together a trip.  Gray is going into this Senior year at high school and will soon lose interest in "family" vacations, so we wanted to make this one extra special.
No Star Wars Celebration would be complete without costumes.  So the week before our trip we started putting together costumes for the boys.

Ross, at first, did not care to dress up, but as the event drew near, he became more inspired.  He is an earlier version of this Galen Marek Sith Apprentice from Star Wars Force Unleashed.
I even let Ross get his hair BUZZED for the occasion.

This was the only image he gave me to go by..

I suppose this guy is like a Pokemon because he morphs throughout the game. (See photo of his stages below)

We asked a friend to fashion the collar out of metal but he never got around to it.  So, at 9PM the night before our early departure out Jackson, MS...I was up sewing a collar out of vinyl and attaching a makeshift restraining bolt made from and aluminum foil jelly sample container that I had saved, God only knows why, because I thought it looked interesting...and after all, I am an artist!  Well, the good Lord must have had a plan to put me through this, still somehow, the collar came out pretty cool and looked almost as nice as some of the other "homemade" costumes the kids were wearing but in NO WAY competed with what the adults had fashioned out of a material called Sintra which is a PVC sheets.that fabricated into just about any shape.

Boy, did I learn A LOT!  I am looking forward to getting my hands on some of this material!  Guess what Ross is going as for Halloween!

Gray took three costumes.  On DAY ONE, he went as Luke Skywalker (Return of the Jedi) which he pretty much assembled himself but it also meant my creating a belt and shoe covers (boots) that were reversible to accommodate his other Jedi costume borrowed from his friend, and independent filmmaker, Matthew Ramsaur.

 

On Friday, we dressed in matching white T-shirts that featured an image of our license plate I created.  

If you see an '98 White Ford Expedition running around north LA with this license plate...it's me!  On the front of our shirts was our Bounty Hunter's Scavenger Hunt's team name "Rogue Squadron".

On the last day, Gray went at Indiana Jones.  Not, as we discovered on DAY ONE, and original idea.  Still, his wardrobe was better than any other Indy we saw.


Anyway,,,
There is still so much to share!  When I eventually get the 300+ photos and dozens of videos organized, I'll add some photos of the amazing costume show we attended, the wonderful characters we met, and my artistic endeavors helping to create the gigantic Hoth diorama.

I'm Working on My New Business...Photography and Art Classes

This is a photo I took of my older son while we were at Seal Beach in California back in the summer of 2008.  Check out the "family portrait" inside the reflective frames.  There you will find my husband, younger son, and me!

The Dixie Swim Club

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This comedy is about five Southern women whose friendship began on their college swim team.  Every August they get together at the same beach cottage on North Carolina Outer Banks to enjoy a three day weekend of no husbands, kids, work, or bras where they talk, laugh, and support each other, regardless. 

"The Dixie Swim Club" highlights four weekends over a span of thirty-three years and what started as a college swim team has grown to friends who, with teamwork, have stood the tests of time.

Like "Steel Magnolias", and the television series "Designing Women" and "The Golden Girls", "The Dixie Swim Club" is one production ya'll will want to see again and again!

I Haven't Forgotten About You!

I have been CRAZY-BIZZZY with MANY projects and must say that lately, EVERY one of my DAYS have been CREATIVE DAZE.


Since I last posted I decorated for the 4th of July.








I had a wonderful trip to Dallas and surrounding areas with lots of wonder "Cast Off" Masterpieces I need to share with you.  Here are some:

I taught ART at my church's VBS (Trinity United Methodist Church in Ruston, LA) with a SPACE theme.

I am VERY busy working on my role as Jeri Neal in Ruston Community Theatre's upcoming production of "The Dixie Swim Club".  Mark your calendars from July 29-August 1.  You'll want to see this AT LEAST twice!

I am also preparing for my DIRECTORIAL DEBUT for RCT's production of "Dial M for Murder".
Come audition on July 30th and August 2nd!  We need five men and one female for this fantastic psychological thriller.  If you've seen Alfred Hitchcock's version...you know what I'm talking about.

Click Here!

Geri's Gallery of Cast Off Masterpieces "Hot Flowers"

When I bought this oil or acrylic (I have yet to figure out how to tell them apart) on a 5x7 masonite board by Lomong for $2.55 (+tax) at Rolling Hills (AKA New to Me!) I was not crazy about the frame.
It had several dings and needed some touch up work but what I did not like was the way it overwhelmed the small painting.
At first I thought I would simply trim it out in a yellow gold.

I ended up adding a red that matched the red in the pink flowers and a dark green.

Then I flicked some black paint over the entire frame, sprayed it with a matte finish, coated it with an antiquing gel, and then a gloss finished.



Now I feel the frame works well overall.

Geri's Gallery of Cast Off Masterpieces "Cool Waters"

"Cool Waters" is most likely an acrylic painting on a 12x16 canvas by Lillie Bunch.  It had a few damaged spots where the paint was chipping off.  This is probably why it was a cast off piece of art that I salvaged from my favorite place to shop, Rolling Hills, which is a disaster relief ministry thrift shop. I framed it a few years ago in a lovely wood frame that was already painted gold.  The chipping continued to be a problem, so I tackled it by applying a clear matte gesso over the entire piece and a second coat over the troublesome areas.

In these photos...the gesso is still wet.

I touched up the damaged areas with acrylic paint.

I finished by applying a gloss glaze over the entire painting.

Well, I'm Embarrassed!

I so wanted this blog to be something I kept up daily, but I admit, it is difficult to find the time to blog, especially since I'm so busy being creative.
I am in the Ruston Community Theatre's summer production "The Dixie Swim Club" by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope, and Jamie Wooten which will be performed July 28-August 1.  I am sharing the role of Jeri Neal with Linda Griffin who will play the 77 year old character.

So...
I have been busy learning my lines and rehearsing three evenings a week and upholding my responsibilities as assistant director one night a week.  I am also the RCT's headshot and program photographer and that has kept me rather busy making sure all the ladies look their best.
Another creative challenge was to create a photograph featuring the team taken in the early '60's.
It takes more than just cutting and pasting.  I have Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 on my Dell laptop.  I have CS3 on my iMac but used APE 4.0 because I wanted to just kick back on the sofa with my feet up and watch Leap Year (adorable movie!) while working on this photo. Besides...I'm still learning how to use my iMac. This is the original.

I took several photos of each cast member and matched the characters/actors up accordingly.
The cast photos were in color so I had to remove the color, adjust the size of the face to that of the original photo, brighten and reduce the contrast, then...and this is why our faces merge with that of the original swim teams' face, I altered the transparency of our faces to morph into theirs.

After a little touching up...I believe it made a convincing photo for the poster I will be creating and putting up at the Dixie Center for the Arts Theater in Ruston, LA next week.

But that's another post!

Happy Birthday Cards and Rhinoceroses

I made this birthday card for my friend, Andy, today as my creative gesture.
I've been creating my own greeting cards for several years now under my "logo".

Andy collects rhinoceroses and this is probably the best artistic rendering of the rhinoceros ever created.  I felt the image made an appropriate birthday card created just for him.

I found the clever quote regarding birthdays online but added the part about the hide, etc.

As a college art student back in the 80's I had to copy the work of a master, so I chose this piece by Albrecht Durer  The detail was quite a challenge.

My drawing hung in my brother's office for many years.  I wonder where it is now?

Geri's Gallery of Cast Off Masterpieces "Embroidered Bouquet" and "Madonna and Child Box"

I am still cleaning an organizing my studio for summer classes and I came across these two poor little cast off objects d' art.

The frame this little embroidered bouquet came in was plastic so I simply switched it out with another yard sale find (actually, from the yard sale of a fellow artist...I just LOVE her yard sales!) that I found more befitting the diligent work of the small (3x4) embroidered piece.

The next piece was a 4x6 wooden box that someone decoupaged a Madonna and Child on a background of antiqued green.  The inside had never been finished and the box lacked the structure for the lid to remain in place.

So I used some leftover mottled gold and red mat board and created the sides, bottom and top for the inside of the box and glued them in place.

Then I painted the interior edges of lid and the visible white portions of the mat board gold.






 Okay, so I haven't been doing any original work...but I'm getting there!

too sick to blog...

Yesterday, I tried to get off to a great start by taking my dog, Hero, on a walk while listening to the audio book Havana Bay by Martin Cruz.

When I got home I began working with my Wacom Intuous4 Medium Pen Tablet to use along with the book Adobe Photoshop CS3: Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks until I got a phone call from a potential art student who wanted to drop by and see what I could offer in classes.

I have an adorable studio nestled in a cottage garden that overlooks our pond.  It is fun to work and hold classes in and I teach a variety of mediums.

The studio is 12x24 and is attached to our 24x30 workshop.  The staircase in the photo leads to a 24x24 playroom we built for our two boys.  Best thing we ever did!

The only trouble is that since I last taught an art class (at a church...until Christmas) I began dumping the stuff from the class on my work table and basically, using my studio as a storage building.

 Sad, because I actually have a storage building!

 So I spent an hour cleaning up my studio for her visit and still did not get finished!  So after her visit I spent another hour cleaning AND still have work to do organizing stuff and getting ready for lessons on Wednesday mornings.


Then, a combination of fibromyalgia, migraine, carpal tunnel syndrome and a mouth ulcer hit me pretty hard and I had to go in an crash in my recliner for a couple of hours.


Last night I had choir rehearsal for the funeral of my church's dear organist and accompanist (for almost 25 years) which was a bit difficult to sing the Hallelujah Chorus with tears in your eyes.


After that I went to my play rehearsal The Dixie Swim Club where I play Jeri Neal, the nun gone bad!


So basically, I DID have a creative day...just did not have the energy to blog about it when I finally got home last night.


I hope you did something creative!

Geri's Gallery of Cast Off Masterpieces "Poppies in a Field"

My creative expression for today was taking an 8x10 acrylic landscape MASTERPIECE that I found at Goodwill for .99 and a yard sale frame I paid .50 for and making it GALLERY WORTHY...in Geri's Gallery of Cast of Masterpieces at least.

The solid wood frame and been painted gold with a peach decorative stripe and dry brush technique applied to tone down the gold.

I painted over the peach with a red acrylic paint and lightly brushed over the entire frame with an acrylic metallic gold paint. 

After allowing it to thoroughly dry (which in this heat only took minutes) I applied a brown antiquing gel and wiped away the excess.

With a final coat of a gloss sealer (I thought it would make the gold pop) this artwork is ready for an exhibition! 

Now, you find an obscure painting and frame it up for your gallery and send me photo!