Pages

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Where I've Been and What I've Been Doing


That's right - I've been to Wonderland and back again!  We threw a Sweet Sixteen bash for my middle daughter last weekend and the theme was "The Mad Hatter's Tea Party."  So for the last month or so, we've been getting ready, by painting signs like the ones above, making tall flowers like the ones below (from pool noodles and tissue paper!),

and making goodies like the "Oreo Cookie Truffles" on the tiered stand here,

 and these Top-hat pops (marshmallows on a stick, dipped in chocolate with a cookie brim and fruit leather hat band).

I even printed signs for the sliders we served as appetizers

and we wrapped water bottles with labels that said "Drink Me."

We rented a local hall and made one long table over which we hung chinese lanterns, to resemble the scene in the Disney movie.  It all looked very colorful and festive!

I even printed "A Very Merry Unbirthday" sign on colorful paper.


The crowning touch was the two cakes we baked and decorated.  I was quite taken back by the cost of a custom cake, so Chelsea and I decided to bake our own.  We bought boxed fondant in two colors (plus a bit of white for the note on the hat) and cut out flowers with cutters in three sizes.  The hat cake is just a 9-inch layer with three 8-inch layers on top, trimmed a little to make it more hat-shaped, then frosted with green buttercream.

Chelsea and her friends all had a great time and she is a very happy teen!
But now I need a vacation!

Saturday, July 12, 2014

OSilas Gallery Opening Reception


I'm one of those people who has been creative my whole life but is still reluctant to call myself an artist.  But Thursday night at the opening of the "Summer ARTiculated" show at the OSilas Gallery, they gave me this nametag to wear, and I finally felt like one!  The room was buzzing with conversation when we arrived and we began to work our way down to where my piece was hung at the far end of the room.  Once we got there, a complete stranger noticed my nametag and stopped to ask me about my piece, how I created it, what were my underlying ideas.  What a trip!

It was suspended from the ceiling and I have to admit, it really made quite an impact floating there at the end of the room. I was very pleased and humbled at the same time.

I also felt a bit overwhelmed to be included in a group of such accomplished artists.  There was a great variety of styles and media, from oils and acrylics...



to paper collage, sculpture, photography and other fiber art, and each one was impressive.  Unfortunately, my daughters were in possession of the camera, and I did not get shots of any of the pieces I found most remarkable, nor was I able to spend time noting each artist and the names of the pieces (shame on me, I know!)!  For a complete list of participating artists, please click here.

But I did note the name of the artist who created these interesting bowl sculptures.  Her name is Xia Gao and these are part of her "Binary World" collection.  Each one was made up of numbers connected together with simple metal links.  The total effect was stunning.


She also did these pieces that were made entirely of straight pins inserted into the canvas.  As you can see in the photos, she created light and shadow with the intricate placement of the many pins.  The lower photo shows a close-up of the portrait.  Amazing!


My friends Vivien Zepf and Natalya Aikens had work accepted also, but alas, no photos!  If you live in the New York area, it's worth a trip to Concordia College to see the show, which will be up until August 10th.