I work at a theatre and this summer a production of RENT came thru by a great local company called Dream Out Loud. As part of their set design they had a graffiti wall: black base with whites, pinks, browns, green and blue slashes all over, and red AIDS ribbons added throughout the production. When they were moving out they had all this leftover paint from the Graf wall and didn’t want to take it all, so they asked if we wanted to keep it. I don’t know if WE did, but I did. They were all soft pastels: pink, green, yellow, blue. Tones and hues of those that are much softer and lighter than anything else I had. I got very excited and brought out one of my bigger canvases. I started with the yellow, with which I did this simple swirly swirl, tapering to a small pod near the center, almost like a rose bud. Then I filled in some other space with the green – another swirl complementing the yellow. Then a soft pink swirl around both of those. I took some deeper paints of the same colors: a brighter yellow, a dark blue, and added a few shadows and outlines for texture. I really liked it but wasn’t sure if it was done. I showed it to DMS and she said “Really? A vagina?”
So I wasn’t done. Essentially that first draft was what you see now, but with none of the black. Where the black is, about 50% of that was just white canvas. Another 25% was the original green, yellow or pink, which I blacked over. And the last 25% was the dark blue, which I really didn’t like once I’d added the black. All in all I love the start contrast of that black with the much softer colors. I think its rich. So that’s how you make something NOT a vagina. Add black. I mean, really? Vagina? You go there? Sure it’s a fun series of swirly shapes, and a vagina is ALSO a fun series of swirly shapes… But, really?
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These three décor pieces were given to me by a friend who was moving and didn’t have room for them anymore. Originally they were offwhite balls with wire you could hang them by, and light bulbs running down into the balls to light them up. The plugs on the light cords were busted and I didn’t know how to fix them so I just tossed those parts and decided to use the balls by themselves. But to do that, they needed a little bit of spicing up. I’d just found this gorgeous blood red paint and had some wonderful chrome spray paint left over. So I sprayed the balls with the chrome and did different things with the red. I love the clash of those two colors. For the first one I flipped the ball upside down and poured the red on it, letting it glob and drip down. When it hangs, it looks like the red is slowly seeping up the sides. For the second ball I put tape all over the piece in different shapes and lengths, then painted the entire piece red. While the red dried, I traced thru the wet paint with the blunt end of a paintbrush, which scraped off thin lines where the silver could show thru. Once the who thing dried, I removed the pieces of paint, letting the silver show thru where it had been covered. This layering technique is one of my favorites to do.
For the third ball I left it mostly silver and just did splashes and spatters of red. All in all they’re a little creepy, violent even. But I like them. DMS is a big fan of chalkboard paint. (Check it out here!). When we moved into our old house there were two very big and uninspiring walls in the kitchen, covered with bland yellow. We didn’t know what else to do with them, so we thought we’d make them our chalkboards. It’s turned into a favorite part of the house. We found a great deep red chalkboard paint (official color name: Garnet) that went well with a dark brown we were using for other walls and accents. You can get tintable chalkboard paint at Home Depot; they have 12 colors! They also have pre-mixed "chalkboard black" and “chalkboard green” paint! It took 2 – 3 layers to really get the color on there (we didn’t use a primer, and you also want the color/paint to be thick so the chalk works well on it). Around the same time we went to Ikea for some other things and while we were poking around we found a couple of great items for the chalk wall: a great set of colored chalks. But just as cool, we found a mini-rack system with a wall-mounting rack that came with three silver pots/buckets with hangers to hook them over said rack. Not only did the silver go with some other things we had (mirrored furniture and the silver balls) but they looked great against the dark red of our chalkboard wall. And they’re a great storage spot for the chalk, and eraser, and a few other handy items. The chalkboard wall is one of my favorite and most used parts of the house. We use it all the time. We keep a running shopping list on it. I also have a list of projects I’m working on (or want to), and DMS writes out quotes or phrases she hears and wants to remember. We also draw pictures and leave messages for each other.
Recently we’ve been using it to track goals: how many pounds we’ve lost on our diet; how many weeks I’ve gone without beer. No matter where else I live in my life, I’ll definitely want to have a chalkboard wall. So much fun! |