My Foolish Muse!

I think that my birthday should have been April Fool's Day. I have always had a good sence of humor and many times it shows in my work. My daughter's due date was ACTUALLY on April Fool's Day, but thankfully she waited. I had crossed my fingers (and my legs) in hopes she wouldn't be born that day. All I could think of was that this poor child would have lots of teasing. Having presents that had nothing in them and other such pranks.

Without thinking of tomorrow's date, it seems as though I have prepared for it. The work above is that of an altered pop can. I made her for a friend in ND who wanted a piece of my work to hang in her cubical at the bank. I had a blast working on this one and used also another cut can to make the crown and the heart. The arms and legs are actually fishing lures covered with alcohol inks. I debated painting on a face and start pouring over glamour magazines and started cutting out different facial features from various subjects that humored me even more of this whimsical ruler!



Even cats make make great fools! I had wandered into an Alice In Wonderland charm swap and finished packageing and sending out my Cheshire Cat pieces. I can hardly wait for the swap to arrive! There were 25 participants, so we will be getting 25 back in the process.



My amusing Foolish Muse was working over time when this idea hit. I belong to an ATC group and periodically we get to choose a theme. I chose the theme WARP or WARPED! Mind you I had an idea with a technique in mind for a material to be warped as in bent out of shape physically, but I have yet to produce it! Instead my muse kicked in and this was one of the results. I love a play on of words and some times, it takes just a thought to put you into a belly laugh, so hence, this Warped sense of humor put into play. I believe this world could use more laughter. Great for your blood pressure too!



A second warped sense of humor emerged yesterday while playing with facial features from magazines. I so happened to find a photo of Angelina Jolie and decided to use her lips. I also had these great pair of eyes which had me thinking that I simply had to do a spoof on plastic surgery! After all, it can be kind of warped at that. Women make changes when they cannot find it in their heart to accept themselves as they are. The eyes remind me of Tammy Faye Baker (or perhaps even Michael Jackson's) and of course botox looking lips completed the face. While thinking plastic, flamingos came to mind. It occured to me that we are a plastic society and no doubt that there are more plastic flamingos than there are real ones in the U.S.! So,my warped became one strange bird. Of course after thoughts came about too after making this. I could have even added some silocone breasts. I may still do this!



I seemed to have been on a roll with a warped sense of humor and this was my 3rd result. I had gotten an email from a friend that showed you how to properly adjust your mirrors to avoid that blind spot, In which I never knew! What great information! Even something serious could have me giggling as I am reminded of the "objects in mirror are closer than they appear". I mean WHAT IF.... I imagined a close up of what could be seen in a mirror and at first I thought human and the more I thought, what if it were a just a tad scarier and used an eye of a creature! I wasn't sure if I had gotten this fully portrayed the way I wanted it as the dark green which is the color of my car, looks perhaps it could have even defined the animal itself! OH well, I shall leave the view for the interpreter to see what he sees. I also was going to print the words on a transparency in white and do darker shading with the eye, but alas to my amazement, it doesn't print in white! DUH! O.K. so it had to be dark gray, but I guess at least it showed up and if it weren't for the words, the viewer may not have known what the object really was!



Have you ever been teased as a child of your first or last name? I could certainly relate! My last name was Schneiderman and I grew up with the tag of Spiderman by some cruel kids, but never the less, it could have certainly been worse! Anyway, As I was thinking of the word WARP, the name Andy "Warp"hol came to mind. I thought of things I could warp with Marilyn Monroe, but then I decided to focus on his Cambell's soup cans that he had produced 32 cans of. The ATC represents a sampling of soup then (in 1965) during the pop movement and what it would be like today. It is a take on the stance of the state of the economy and things changing. Things get more expensive and ingredients changing during a recession. In all rights, I should have down sized the can to half the size, but you will just have to imagine that part as I also wanted the label change to show as if it was no longer condenced and you could perhaps find it on the market watered down. To make it a bigger spoof, I guess I could have added, beef with hormones!



O.K. so this one is a bit out of the ordinary in the whimsey department, but a creative process none the less and I am pleased with the results. I was also thinking of time warp and came across these photos of time swirling into space. I love the concept with the clocks so printed one with color and yet another one on a transparency. The woman is also a rubber stamp with clocks making up much of her face. It's been a favorite piece and wanted to find a place to put her on, and this was perfect! Although playing with the transparency, I felt it was too flat and really wasn't pleased with it, so I got the idea to suspend it. Remember me suspending the lutradur ATC's? This time the dimension would be the suspension. I used some sticky craft foam to outline the transparency and Somehow while playing, I decided to let some of the outer portion of the colors to show through and I liked it so much better! I love the 3 D effect!



This ATC doesn't really fit the part for April Fools, but it was one I was working on at the same time since I had the theme
Cherry Blossom to do for a trade. My immediate thoughts were Japanese Cherry Blossoms so chose to do an oriental flare. I am facinated by origami so have decided to do one in this style. Ironically I had gotten this paper that looked like cherry blossoms from a gal in a trade and seemed perfect for the komono. The background piece is actually a paint chip swatch that I picked up in the paint department at Lowes.

I am now amongst the chaos of my messy table, so time to let my foolish muse rest and regroup for the next round of creativity.