Art Digest #2: Glass Art (Days 36-42 of 365 Days of ART) wine stoppers, dress & Plantation Florida 1993

Hello Readers.

This is art digest #2 for the 365 Days of Art, which covers Days 36 through 42. I invite you to skim them at once or enjoy them one day a at time. I will be posting some daily art posts again on 1-16-2017. 

Monday 1-9-2017 Day #36: Watercolor flamingo by Jedi

I love this simple watercolor by artist “jedi” – There are three things I would use this to teach students about. First, I think it is so important to sign our work. Many pro artists will only sign pieces when they are satisfied with a piece and with learning students, we discussed signatures as well as how to sign our own work. Students can use artsy initials (maybe develop a logo) or they can write their name subtly, like Jedi did here. Students tend to want to write their name near the edge of the paper, which can get covered up if the piece gets a frame – so I have them move up. I also prefer to have them sign in the lower right just so we have consistency. Also in this painting, there is much to discuss with the splash and unfinished look the artist went for here – and maybe even the bull’s eye centering and how it works. And notice how the brushstrokes have different value and whisps to depict feathers. A good watercolor brush can make this easy to do. Do you like this piece?

 

Tuesday 1-10-2017  Day #37: Wine stoppers made of glass

We gave a few of these little blown glass wine stoppers out as gifts last year.  They are such a nice gift to give because they are functional art – and who doesn’t love a wine stopper, right?

 While wrapping up the pink blowfish one for my MIL, I noticed that it was from Plantation, Florida – well it was “made” in China, sigh, but the distributor, LSArts, must have had a booth or small building down there in South Florida. I spent summer of 1993 in Plantation, FL and someday I will have to share more about it because it was such a unique summer for me.  Not as pivotal as December 1992 on the Space Coast of FL was, but it all sort of melded together.  Anyhow, it’s funny how the “bottom of a gift box” could trigger a memory for a few minutes. You reflect and then bam, right back into the now.  Also, it is not often that I hear of that little city right above Miami. Have you ever heard of Plantation, FL? 

 

 

This little glass art bike was a free gift with purchase and we gave it to a cycle instructor.

Glass art linked to Nancy Merrill’s GLASS theme.

 

Wednesday 1-11-2017 Day #38: One-liner Wednesday

It is hard to mention “glass art” and not think of Chihuly these days.

credit: Chihuly’s site

Thursday 1-12-2017 Day #39: Throwback

On March 13, 2014, I went to Cara DiMassimo’s art exhibit at the Glen Allen Cultural Arts Center. She had beautiful glass art and the highlight of her show was this glass art dress.  It took a full year for her to create and she wore it at a glass art fashion show at the Glass Art Society‘s 50th celebration.  

 

Cara DiMassimo is the co-owner of The Glass Palette in Charlottesville, VA.

Here is a collage I put together (for a post that was deleted) from the opening reception of her 2014 exhibit Dell’Oceano: From The Sea

Friday 1-13-2017 (happy birthday, R) Day 40: Dancer artist Baryshnikov (and friday flashaback)

While crafting this digest, I decided to see if there was any news about Plantation, FL in 1993 because Marie, over at The Syllabub Sea, has a “building blocks of history” challenge (here) and after seeing the wine stopper (see Tuesday above) had the location on the box as Plantation, Florida, I was curious. 

Turns out, if you search “Plantation, Florida 1993” you end up with a lot of photos of the dancer (artist) Mikhail Baryshnikov.  His very famous photo shoot with Ferdinando Scianna (with Tim-the-Dog in dance studio) was in Plantation, Florida back in 1993.

Also, pro tennis player Sloane Stephens was born in Plantation, Florida in 1993. 

And one more thing came up, which I recall was quite unnerving during that summer, and it was about the crimes against tourists.  

Tourists in rental cars were getting bumped off the roads and robbed.  When a German tourist failed to stop, he was killed.

I will tell you that I normally would explore areas and take drives on my own, but when all of that was going on that summer, I did not drive alone in certain parts of South Florida. Even though I did not have a rental car, the sedan I had at the time might have been targeted.  A while ago, I was watching an episode of “I Almost Got Away With It” (S5E8) and it was all about Patsy Jones and how she led these crimes. The episode was titled, “Got to prey on tourists.” It was chilling to watch – and I remembered how I played it safe that summer.  

 

Saturday 1-14-2017 Day 41: Art in Everyday objects

We all know that ART is all around us. Here we have salt water taffy sitting on top of some greeting cards – with beautiful dragonfly art and a sparkling flower with smaller lined flowers. The bit of pattern from the dish can be seen too. Art is all around.

 

Sunday 1-15-2017  Day 42: Featured Artist Blogger #2

Featured Artist Blogger #2 Mara Mattia HERE. She is a wonderful painter and I thought some readers might want to check out her painting lessons HERE

Have a great week.

 

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