Art Inspiration Week, Day 6: Recycled Materials Art

Just think, you might be throwing something away today that could be considered art!

Well, only if you have the vision to see it as something incredible and the artistry to turn it into something fantastic.

ART CREATED FROM COMPUTER PARTS:

Old computers have all kinds of neat stuff inside them, and by their very nature, their parts make great modern/techno type art.

Alexandromedia Futuristic Arts (Alex Andromeda, pictured) LINK

Computer Parts Art y Richard K. Freund, LINK

If you would like to add some cool computer part items to your daily life, (and who doesn't?!?) here are a few fun things I found.

Any of them would make great gifts, especially for someone who works with computers or just likes a high tech sort of look.

This Hybrid Wall Clock<-LINK
is made from Computer Hard Drive and Bicycle Chain Ring This hybrid wall clock is just that. It is made from the combination of a recycled computer hard drive and a bicycle chain ring.You'll get great mileage with this clock, if you'll excuse the pun!

If you prefer jewelry, I found this beautiful bracelet made out of circuit boards on Etsy....it's handmade! LINK

Here's a Floppy Disk turned into a journal by Etsy seller reese52: LINK

Techno keychain made out of RAM memory bars by Etsy seller malenk: LINK

If you'd like a necklace with your initial on it, why not look at these cute recycled computer keys by Etsy seller beautifulwickedness? LINK

If you find something neat too, please post it into the Comments!

Want more unusual art? Wow are you greedy or what. (LOL)
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Art Inspiration Week, Day 4: Popcorn Miniature Artworks

I know that if you're like me, you've probably looked at the clouds and seen shapes in them. That one looks like a cat, that one's a car, etc.

Have you ever stopped to think that popped corn kernels are similar to clouds in that you can see shapes in them? (that's popcorn to the layperson.) Har!

Harry Kalenberg is a man with vision.
Apparently very good vision.
A man with popcorn.
A man with small tipped, non-toxic markers and a steady hand.

Is that little critter adorable or what?!? (I'm talking about this picture, not Harry Kalenberg, but I'm sure he's adorable too.)

Visit his website to check it out!
http://harrykalenberg.com/PNP/pnp.htm
and harrykalenberg.com

Art Inspiration Week Day 3: Duct Tape Couture

There's regular duct tape, and then there's Duck brand tape. The Duck brand tape company hosts a duct tape clothing creation contest. Prom-goers sent in their best couples' clothing creations and votes were cast. You might think that when you click this link, you're going to see a lot of rag-tag, looks-like-duct-tape creations, but prepare to be amazed! LINK

Now that you've seen those fashions, you'll want to get something duct-ish of your very own, so I have found some people who create in duct-tape:

Duct tape is uber kewl -
be the first on your block to strut about in these fun duct tape accessories!

• from Etsy seller InterferenceChannel: Duct tape purse / handbag
• Etsy seller jDUCT has an entire Etsy shop filled with $20 duct tape wallets in fun designs
• Duct Tape passport wallet from Etsy seller StickIt
• TrendyTape proudly proclaims "This isn't your father's duct tape." LINK and says that their duct tape items are 100% duct tape, except for an occasional rivet to help the durability.

Tomorrow I'll post another neat arty/crafty thing or artists working in unusual materials or manners. This madness will be going on all week, unless the straitjacket buckles start to chafe me. So sign up in the wee box at the top of this blog page to get the blog posts sent to you in your email account, completely free of charge. Unless you would like to pay, in which case I accept both PayPal and Google Checkout. (heh)

Art Inspiration Week Day 2: Portraits and Paintings in Coffee

Trying to cut down on your coffee intake? You could try using your coffee as paint.

Angel and Andy Saur have made a unique art business by painting with coffee.
I just love the look of it. This is something I want to try someday. It does have a lovely sepia tone to it.

Angel writes: " We started working with coffee as a medium many years ago. We had scheduled an artshow in a local coffeeshop that we loved to hang out at, Beaners Central. We had 8 or 9 months to prepare for it. Since we were in a coffee shop, we decided it might be fun to try to create something using coffee. We tried a few methods. Through much trial and error we developed a method using coffee as a paint. The images were like sepia toned memories. It was wonderful. We enjoyed it so much that we are still painting with coffee today. Our paintings are on either paper or canvas."

You can check out their art at http://justcoffeeart.com

Another artist working with Coffee is Karen Eland- LINK

I can see that working with coffee is probably much like working in watercolor. As you overlay more coffee, the tone will get darker...or I guess you could adjust the strength of your coffee.
Something fun to try, and it's non-toxic and relatively inexpensive.

Tune in tomorrow for Day 3 of Art Inspiration Week or sign up to receive emails of new posts.

Art Inspiration Week Begins... with Ketchup Art

You can call it ketchup or you can call it catsup.

Now you can call it art, create your own, and upload it to KetchupArt.com.

You know I'm always especially on the lookout for portraits, and here is one in ketchup of Chairman Mao, by KetchupArt.com user Stripglamtease
entitled Mao Tse Tchup. Note the fine details in the hair. You can actually see waves in the ketchup. The artist was probably inspired by the red of the ketchup.

Check out the site and let me know what you think is fun on there (please post to the blog as a Comment so everyone else can enjoy it too!)

Thinking about ketchup makes me want a McDonald's Quarter Pounder with Cheese. Supersize Me. Oh wait, I am already supersized. I'm working on that. Thinking of SuperSize Me reminds me of this great YouTube.com video by Jason Baalman.

Jason did the ketchup portrait as a promotional thing for his portrait art, and although it has been successful : CNN and appearance on David Letterman - things that artists generally would kill for (except me, that would send me into panic attacks!)...the publicity has brought him art commissions but he doesn't want to be pigeonholed as 'the ketchup artist.' But now he has done a portrait of an Australian YouTube user in Vegemite. I love the Vegemite one because it's kind of like a mosaic using toast too. I have actually tasted Vegemite, it's not too bad but I think it is an acquired taste. Also check out his portrait in Hershey's Chocolate Syrup.

Branching out into different foodstuffs should keep him from being only known as a ketchup artist!

Well I don't know about you, but I could use a snack right about now.
All this food talk has made me a mite peckish.

Check back in to the blog tomorrow for another interesting and unusual artist!

Fascinating Portrait Art Week

I have a very cool week planned for the blog starting Monday July 23rd.

Each day of that week, I will write about and feature a portrait artist who works in
- shall we say - interesting materials?

There is no limit to what artists can use for their art.

Dryer lint
ketchup
french fries
Hershey's syrup
LEGO block portraits

You will NOT want to miss this week of posts, so please subscribe to the blog now to catch it all. CLICK HERE to subscribe to my blog!

It's going to be a very fun week! If I find more than a weeks' worth of fascinating artists, it will be extended. If you know an artist who does portraits (or any art) in off-the-wall manner or materials, let me know and they might get featured!

Women's Portraits

You'll want to see this neat You Tube video, in which someone has morphed 500 years of women's portraits to classical music. Really intriguing! I had to post it to my other blog, because it doesn't fit into the template of this one. Check it out here: Women's Portraits Video

Good Neighbors

We have the nicest new neighbor.

We let him borrow our lawnmower,
and now since he's gotten a lawnmower, he mowed about half our property.

To thank him, I shared plates of spaghetti and garlic bread with him and his roommate,
and then wouldn't you know it, he mowed our grass again!

He had some transportation issues so we gave him a ride one day.
Today he mowed a lot of our yard yet again.

He delivers appliances, so he has been able to give the kids a large refrigerator box to play in. You know there is nothing more fun to kids than a big empty box...there's even a Spongebob Squarepants episode in which SpongeBob and Patrick buy a big screen TV just so they can have the box...they throw the TV out in the trash!

Now we need to do something nice for him again. Maybe I'll make brownies.
I'm really thankful to have such nice neighbors.
See, this is the problem with being nice. It never stops. LOL!

Independence Day

I wish I had an awesome 4th of July experience to blog about. If I'm going to keep blogging, I really need to develop a more interesting life! LOL

We had a nice holiday overall, can't complain. Took the kids to my brothers' in law's house. We had a little cookout, with the classic burgers and hot dogs. I fixed a pasta salad and some Rice Crispies treats. By the way, don't ever make Rice Crispies treats using store brand marshmallows. Either I have lost some taste buds or those were the worst Rice Crispy treats ever! I also don't recommend them for humid weather. They lose their cruchiness. Mental note to make a cake next time.

By late afternoon, my daughter wasn't feeling great and said she was tired, and the boys were getting cranky, especially Little Guy, because he couldn't have his normal nap at his normal time in his normal place. So we decided to go home even before it got dark. Leaving early had the added benefit of letting us get far away from downtown Lawrenceville before their huge Independence Day celebration got going. So I didn't mind that at all.

Not a loving of crowds person I be (a sentence for you Yoda fans.)

Soggy Celebration

Sunday night our church was having a big Independence Day event (even though it of course wasn't technically the 4th of July.) They had inflatables, childrens crafts, etc.

Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, ominous dark storm clouds were heading in. We decided not to even get out of the car. Fireworks were planned for 9 pm, so we drove to a parking lot nearby that would give us a good view of the fireworks display and yet allow us to high-tail it home without much bother.

Then the big storms hit.
People were scrambling to fold up their camp chairs and jumped into their cars. We didn't. I wasn't well prepared with chairs and was too lazy to get out of the car, and that shows how my lack of preparedness finally paid off. It was really a bad storm. Winds were hitting the car from all directions. Because the wind was hitting so hard, it was really no use to drive home, and I also thought that the storm would blow over fast so the fireworks might still happen. Checked with a local news channel to verify it was just thunderstorms and not anything related to tornadoes. Decided to wait it out.

My oldest daughter decided she wanted to get in the very back of the vehicle, which required climbing all over the other kids in the car. There was a lot of "oof!" "ouch!" "hey!" "Mom!!!!" etc. Had to crack the windows to get air. The car was steaming up. Any child who was not whining or crying was occupying himself or herself by drawing pictures on the condensation of the windows. I will be enjoying those drawings for weeks. Little Guy (20 months old) was a happy little camper, not a single whine out of him, and if you ask me, he had the most reason to complain - being strapped into the carseat couldn't have been a thrill. But he seemed to think the rain was interesting.

Finally, about an hour or so later, we were able to drive home.
I was disappointed for the kids. I hope next year the weather will be better, and I'll try better to be a fun mom with lots of great snacks, drinks, and yes...the lawn chairs.