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Written by Paula Clayton
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Thursday, 05 August 2010 19:52 |
And I'm one of them! (it's Paula here)
We're about to kick off on an action adventure in Rogers Park. Last night was the last meeting before it all begins, Dustin, Leah & Matt are on the wall priming today. Tonight everyone breaks out the overhead projectors and the generator.
This is the Rogers Park Mile of Murals project ... it's a long term project through the Rogers Park Business Alliance (http://www.rogers-park.com/2009/04/mile-of-murals-on-glenwood.html)
"As part of the comprehensive commercial revitalization plan put in place by RPBA, the second phase of the Mile of Murals project is being implemented. In March, after receiving final approval from the CTA and the support of Alderman Moore’s office, RPBA and the Clark/Morse/Glenwood Special Service Area (SSA #24) began preparing the retaining wall for a mural on the west side of Glenwood between Morse and Lunt. The design theme is “Welcome to Rogers Park”. "
This year the themes are related to the Heartland Cafe's history and community. Politics, community, music, and good food. Yummy sweet potato fries.
My design so far:
It's a cornucopia, and since it's for the Heartland and they've been there 35 odd years I figured a tie-dye heart would be trippy appropriate and rainbow bold. The swirly stuff to the left links to Mona's pots in the Chef's kitchen, some good food magic smells wafting on over.
And I think I'll be shoving the heart over to the right a bit more. b.j. will be painting with me, and she's not too impressed with the dead-center composition. She's right! And Lea's is to my right with the Heartland's owners and some more green along the edge, nothing needing to bleed on over, so it should work well. Mona is to my left, with the Chef's of Heartland.
All the good stuff (blog picture-wise) starts today.
I'm so impressed with Dustin & Lea's organizational efforts. They have cornered the grants, found the artists, prepped the walls, searched out images & content sources, kept everyone in sync and generally made it very easy to just come on in and be happy artists.
 Lea & Dustin
It like being a kid in an art class, the teachers have set it all up!
I'm also looking forward to a crash-course in spray can use on Monday morning. Won will run thru the basics with those of us who are interested.
Deb & I use spray equipment quite happily, but I've always been keen to learn the graffiti artist's tools.
The other adventure has been contacting radio & TV and newspaper people. Oh my. I feel so brave - hopefully I got the info right!
I'm looking forward to posting more interesting pictures as we go along ... and hopefully you'll read about us in a newspaper article, hear the pfft-bpt of our spray cans on the radio, or see us on TV.
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Written by Paula Clayton
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Thursday, 22 July 2010 22:23 |
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This one's just a teaser, as I'm not giving you the whole story, here.
This was ... last week? Hard to tell, these days. Maybe the week before. I tell you, we're used to either July or August being a dead month, and this year both months are packed busy.
So, anyway.
This is in a beautiful restored Spanish style house in Wilmette. The owners have lovingly taken their new home back to original splendor, and we were able to help.
These beams were stripped & re-stained (by the regular painting people, who also painted the "Semolina" base coat for this room). Then we came in to do a couple of washes with glaze over the top. It's a finish that I've always loved the colors of, and wanted to do, so I was pretty excited to finally do it. I get a thrill out of burnt orange. It's burnt sienna and a BM color called "Raisin". But see, you'll have to wait, now, to see the final pictures ... this is just the beginning!
We had a few days while the family was out of town. Very handy when we're blocking doorways, the entryway and stairs. This is the glaze wash for the entryway. There were a few physical repairs that needed to disappear a bit, so Deb disappeared them. Ponce, and ponce, and ponce some more.
and soften
and edges
and soften.
Which is teaser number two. Now on to my last taste of things to come:
You know how Deb is a complete wood freak? She loves every opportunity to faux grain things, faux bois. So here's Terry base coating the door ...
and the rest, you'll have to wait for. Nyah ha haaa! :-)
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Written by Paula Clayton
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Thursday, 22 July 2010 20:24 |
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Back in June I met up with my Mum in Santa Monica. She was on her way to see the newest member of our family, Joshua, in Zurich. We spent a few days together, went to the Getty, hung out on the 3rd Street Promenade, and stayed at the Santa Monica YHA.
Us with the palm trees at the YHA hostel, and a ripped sleeve in a painting that we thought was pretty darn cool, Getty Art Museum.
The reason you're getting to hear about it is that we took a day trip over to Anaheim and visited the Vella Studios and factory. Vella is an earth based plaster, venetian plaster system, and relatively inexpensive. They let us come in & take a look around, play with the goop & make samples all day long. It was very exciting for a couple of arty nosey types like us!
So if you don't mind a foray into the land of "hey, come take a look at our family vacation slides" check out the short video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg2JPNE5vPw
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Written by Paula Clayton
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Friday, 16 July 2010 23:25 |
Dat door darn dun got ya down?
Sick of your kitchen cabinets, but there's no way in the current budget that you're going to spring for replacing everything? Besides which, they're fine, just ugly?
Wow have we got a cool new thing to offer you! We took a cabinet refinishing class this week. It's amazing cool stuff, and we already have all the equipment since we've been tooled up for spraying for a few years now.
We can now offer a nice range of affordable finishes to revamp cabinets.
We were amazed! We even had a couple of awful old Golden Oak cabinets, refashioned from yeuch to ... hey - cool!
There's the cost of the paint, then approx: a basic re-paint / color-change / clean-up will run you $75-$100/door (prices include doing the box with matching non-spray paint), some basic glazes can hugely transform the whole look & feel of your kitchen for $125/door, and of course we can get all distressed or arty and do anything you imagine from $150 on up. We'd suggest doing most doors with basic glazes then adding a couple of custom ones as zappy features to really reclaim your kitchen in your own style.
These are some of the pictures from the paint company's catalogue:
"High performance finishes with a one component water borne, low VOC acrylic resin system."
"Very smooth touch & appearance, outstanding moisture resistance and durability."
"For use on kitchen & bathroom cabinets, dormitory & household furniture."
And we can do all this. And add arty touches (dragonfly stencil? foil accent, anyone?) as required.
Here's us in the class:
Deb adding foil to a trim sample
Masking off to show the before/after contrast, then spraying some trim with primer.
Spray, then check for missed spots.
Barb, our instructor, with another before/after sample.
Check out the big squares behind Barb - that's all filtration on this humongous fan ... so nice to be using a beautiful spray booth! The class was held at Kathy's, "The Chicago Institute of Fine Finishes", out in Carol Stream. She has this full-on spray booth that she rents out for those special occasions when you need extreme ventilation & good lighting.
We thoroughly enjoyed the class & look forward to more adventures in kitchen cabinetry.
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