We Got Our Kicks on Route 66-Day One

I've decided to start over and blog our trip in chronological order. Bren and I teamed up for a road trip down Route 66/I 40 on our way to Art Unraveled 2012.  

Bren flew from Georgia to Amarillo.  The original plan had been to pick her up and hurry out to the Cadillac Ranch before dark.  Alas, Bren's plane was late.  I did go out and take some pictures before her plane got in though.

Cadillac Ranch is an art installation just west of Amarillo along I 40. I had only seen older photos of it with the cars in their original conditions so I was surprised by the graffiti.  According to the Wikipedia link above graffiti is encouraged so I guess the boy scouts who were painting under the watchful eye of their scoutmaster weren't being as bad as I thought they were. I think I was almost the only person there without a spray can.  Tiny children had spray cans.  There was at least a quarter inch of paint on every part of the cars. 




The colors were very bold, although they don't show as much in the dusk. The clouds were ever changing and dramatic at times.




Each car is nose down in the dirt. 






I could see rain showers in various areas and managed to catch this rainbow. 


 


Hmmm...the signs were the only thing on this side of the fence.

I picked up Bren at the airport and we drove to Tucumcari, New Mexico.  We were a little worried that we might not make our hotel before the office closed at ten.  Then we realized we crossed a time zone when we got into New Mexico and had an extra hour, so all was well. 

Tucumcari has a little over 5000 people and 1200 hotel rooms. Many of the old hotels that were popular from Route 66 are still in operation. We made a point of staying at the old motels on our trip. 

Check out Bren's blog at ShortWired Studio for her trip blog posts. 

Art Unraveled 2012-Day 2 and 3

Day 2 and 3 I had Michael deMeng's class "Trash to Treasure."  Along the way I passed three house in a row.  A roadrunner ran in front of the first, a rabbit ran by the second, and in the front yard of the third house an adolescent coyote was standing up close to the house, just like he'd been invited over. 


I really enjoyed Michael's class and I think I learned a lot.  I've never done assemblage work before and had no idea how to construct an assemblage.  





Here is my unfinished assemblage.  The contraption at the top is the meteor which killed off most of the dinosaurs.  I've always wondered what future the dinosaurs might have had if not for the meteor.  I'm waiting for the KromaKrackle to dry and then the figures get some more paint, which should tone down the green.  And there will be some LED's added. 


I'm very happy with this class and can't wait to get started on more things when I get home.





Here's Michael deMeng at the end of the class talking about our work and how we approached problems.  If you are interested in assemblage I highly recommend his classes. 

Art Unraveled 2012 - Day One

Bren and I had a few adventures on the way to Art Unraveled in Phoenix, Arizona.  I hope to post about them but I don't want to get too far behind on the classes.


Today's class was 10 Objects 10 Ways by Jane LaFazio. Jane taught us 10 different techniques to use when journaling.  This was a really fun class and I learned a lot of things that I can practice later. Jane's a great teacher.


I took some drawing lessons when I was 8 years old, then we moved, and I haven't drawn since. So be kind, I'm a beginner.  Here are my favorites from today's work.





This technique was to pencil in the bird, ink the lines, erase the pencil and color.  





This is technique 3.  The flower is penned with a Tombow pen which is water soluble.  Then water is used to smudge the lines and color added.  





This technique involves drawing on a book page.  I think drawing on a book page is eye catching in a journal. I cut my drawing out but haven't glued it to the page yet.





This technique was a lot of fun.  Basically you doodle the drawing with lots of lines, without using pencil first. 

Check out Bren McCoy's blog post on her classes over at Shortwired Studio.