I took an opportunity to join my Artist as Entrepreneur Boot Camp Alumni for a show in Buffalo, NY. Read about the boot camp here. Each of us could submit a piece or two. The boot camp alumni were a variety of disciplines. Performance art being one of them.
I decided to chalk as a performance art piece. If I tried to do my bread and butter-pet portraits I would not have enough time to do my open orders. Believe it or not doing a large piece in chalk is a bit faster than my oil pastel and definitely faster than my ink work.
March in Buffalo is a wild card month for weather. I would have to create a piece inside the Gallery. I was trying to come up with ways to make a surface. I thought about tempera painting the gallery's floor (if it was concrete) found out it was not-a beautiful wood floor! So that was out. I though maybe if I made my own concrete pad and boxed it in like a raised garden. Um, no. Heavy and expensive.
Then I was looking at an actual chalk board-which old chalk boards were made with slate. Slate! Off to Home Depot on a date night we went. So romantic isn't it? I got touchy feely with some floor tile and made my plan.
I knew I wanted to do a pet portrait. I was showing who I was as an artist. Chalk subjects before had been for fun. I am more strategic about my chalk subjects now. I have the attention of people I have never met for a brieft amount of time. I need to make my impact. Someone who may see my spaniel in Lockport may mention it to a friend who then hires me to illustrate their fur baby. If I had done an octopus it wouldn't have the same effect. I still have a lot of fun regardless with my pet subjects in chalk though. Nothing lost there.
I went to social media to get my new subject. I did a contest on my Facebook and also posted it to Instagram. The engagement for my small crowd business page was insane! 136 comments, 8 reactions, and 1,547 people reached. My page only has 301 likes. The power or pet bragging!
I had selected finalists based on fur color and ease with my time constraints while at the gallery.
I was inspired particularly by two pets. I could see the composition in my head for Bear and Cinnamon. Bear is bottom left and Cinnamon is bottom right. The lure of a Pocahontas inspired piece of Bear won out. I could just see the leaves dancing around him in the wind.
We had left over plywood at home, we got the tile and adhesive. The size of the piece was 4ft x 5ft.
I had to look at the "grooves" and differences in the tile were and arrange them to best serve Bear. I didn't want a sharp edge on his face. Tim, my darling husband, put the tile on the board and helped me muscle it around the house.
I was able to do the pre-work before the show so when I got to the gallery it was in the finishing stages. The majority of a chalk piece is prep. The chalk color part feels like it flies by.
Ghost bear! Or Protronus. #harrypotternerd
I spent a late night painting my base of Bear. I'm so glad I did! If I hadn't painted the base the chalk would have had a really hard to holding onto the slate. The chalk became dusty when I applied it at the gallery. The vibrancy the paint lended also helped me out a bit. Painting a washable base is a common practice for chalk artists which always surprises festival goers.
I used an entire roll of bubble wrap for the piece to transport it to Buffalo. My brother then helped me move it into the gallery after getting lost somehow on Grand Island. The Gallery had some art on the outside of the building and was pretty easy to find. Main Street Art Gallery.
My mainstay supplies are my foam boogie board for kneeling (doesn't transfer pigment), carpet squares, suede cloth strips, pastels, and hairspray. I only used a tiny amount of hairspray on Bear's face where it was overly dusty because I didn't want to lose the eyeballs. Hairspray helps it stick a little bit or "seals" it temporarily.
I did a lot of Facebook Live time with this piece on my business page. Some stills are here.
From paint to chalk detail.
Rough color to blended shadow.
My "performing" space. I put the leaves and grass line in and finished it with some time to take look at the rest of the art in the show. It was amazing to see so many mediums in one place! I got to catch up with a few of my fellow boot campers and badass artists, who I have followed on Instagram since 2016. #bossbabes Shout out to Natalie Brown who has kept this group together and set up the show for us.
Ashley, Janna, and myself.
Ashley's Instagram: aej.create
Janna's Instagram: papercraftmiracles
Mine: wildatheartillustration
The owner of Bear, Nicole, my beloved co-worker, Mary Lou (Nicole's mother) and her husband, Don made an appearance. How lucky I am to have such a good friendship with these ladies. I adore them! I gifted Nicole the piece. I wasn't sure how it would hold up being it was my first piece on slate and we didn't have a proven fixative to keep it nice. They were overjoyed with it!
Nicole and I with "Bear."
"Bear" 4ft x 5ft pastels on slate tile.
I enjoyed this chalking experience. I would do another in the future with some more experimenting and on a smaller scale. This thing was heavy!
I really loved how the variations int he tile gave the piece a depth I didn't have to draw. I loved how the colors popped against that dark grey. I loved how illustration gives a subject a life force that photography can't always capture. I happen to love this dog in real life too. He has his own Instagram! bear_the_chowmutt
Detail Shots!
Bear poses by his portrait. What a cutie!!! I absolutely love with owners send pictures of their dogs next to the works I create. Makes me all warm and fuzzy!
My next scheduled chalk adventure is Sweet Chalk Fest in Lockport, NY in July.
Stay tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment