The Results Of My Entry Into The 37th Annual Frank Stick Art Show

Last night Veronica and I stopped by Glenn Eure's Ghost Fleet Gallery in Gallery Row to see all of the entries and ribbon winners in this the 37th Annual Frank Stick Art Show. Unfortunately my entry did not win a ribbon. There were some really cool pieces of art entered into the contest/show. Although I did not win a ribbon, I am very proud and pleased with the way my entry Veronique turned out. I will try harder in the next show that I enter.
Here is a photo that was in the Outer Banks Voice showing my entry be moved around for the presentation at the show.

The Mad Scientist Has Returned With Something Better Than Before

Around 12/23/14 I read about an upcoming art show that was scheduled to actually start on 2/21/15. This art showed was being presented by the Dare County Arts Council...DCAC. This is the same organization that presented the Mollie Fearing Memorial Art Show last May. That was the very first art show that I had ever entered and my piece of art...Veronique won a blue ribbon of excellence and a $250.00 check.
The upcoming art show is much bigger that the last one I entered. This art show is the Frank Stick Memorial Art Show and it was started in 1978 by Dare County Arts Council to honor Mr. Stick, a renowned local artist and environmental crusader. His illustrations and paintings became popular in the early part of the 20th Century. Now in its 37th year, this is the oldest visual art show in Dare County.
Since this is the longest running art show here locally and the level of talent that most likely will be attending, I decided that it would probably be best to not rest on my lucky laurels and blue ribbon from that last art show.
I pulled Veronique off of Veronica's dresser where it sits and took a good long look at it.
well before I knew it those creative juices started to flow. I came up with a somewhat ambitious plan to make Veronique an even more special piece of art. My plan was also going to be and actually ended up being a rather difficult task due to what I was planning on doing and adding on. And although at times it turned out to be quite a bit of trial by error...heavy on the errors...I plugged away and learning from the most famous "make do guy"...you might have heard of him...MacGyver of television fame, I ended up  with a piece of art that I am more proud of than I am/was of the original Veronique.
Today I took my artistic entry into one of our local galleries......the Ghost Fleet Gallery...handed over my entry fee and setup Veronique for this next upcoming art show.
The actual judging of entered work will be done this upcoming Saturday. Saturday evening there will be an open house at the gallery with food, music and the winners to be announced at that time.
Who knows how I will fare against these other artists but win, lose or draw....I feel good about my latest creation and when you come down to it...it's ART.
Here are several photos of my latest creation:

Several things that every artist needs, phones, coffee and triscuits

Yeah I know...what a mess

I made a wooden box out of balsa wood so that it would be lightweight. In the box was a cool looking kitty face and on the opposite side of the cat face is a mirror with a crown attached to the top. If you stand just right and at the perfect distance your face will show up on the little mirror and the crown will appear to be on your head. 

I used a metal females body dressed in a corset and attached small dolls arms and legs making an articulated body. this articulated body would hang from 2 hooks that were built onto the box I made. It would make the cat head in the box appear to be joined to the rest of the articulated body that was hanging below by use of those hooks

I bought a miniature dollhouse chandelier and attached it to the top of my homemade box. 

I got everything lined up inside the box and then took the top of the box, which had the lighting fixture and I turned the top upside down so that the lighting fixture was now in the box. A little glue here and there and everything was secure. I really with it had been that easy...like I said earlier...trial and error until I got it right. 

I added a few small items to the suitcase which was part of the original art piece

Below is the finished box itself with the lighting fixture hanging down inside. This would be the front of the box with the cats face adorned with the personally applied overly long eyelashes and the lighting fixture hanging down

And this would be the back of the box with the mirror and crown affixed to the top of  the mirror. Both front and back of the box has drapes hanging above the window

On and off switch for the lighting feature is on the gold circular portion of the light. The lights battery is also kept in that circular portion. 

I made a dress for the articulated woman's body section and painted her boots gold

I built up a stabilizing platform on the hand so that the box would be able to be affixed using heavy duty tape and some glue.

I gave this art piece a brand new raven/crows head along with a new hat style and plenty of colorful plumage

I was able to locate a crown like feature to put on top of the circular portion of the lighting fixture

Now you get a good look at the hooks that the articulated body will hang from.

I decided to put a few small pieces of lace like ribbon on the area of the arm joints so that it would give a smoother appearance that the head and articulated body were somehow all one piece..it kind of gave the appearance of a neckline leading up from the articulated body to the head that was inside the wooden box. Without somehow tying everything in, the appearance was of a more disjointed look between articulated body and head.

I also made a scepter that hook on the cage and was glued to the side of the box. The dolls hand was positioned as to be holding the scepter. The scepter looks really cool in real life but also serves an important function of stabilizing the wooden box so that it stays upright and so it does not tilt forwards or backwards. 

Added new funky bird to the front of the cage

That about wraps it up. Veronique 2 is now completed. 

Valentines Day Came Early Around Here

Valentines Day 2015 came a little early around here. I had ordered a bunch of items that Veronica had placed in her Amazon shopping cart and later on removed them. I got to them before their removal. I will get to those items in a minute. I also made her an A shaped embroidery thread spool holder that is portable. I took 2 pieces of pegboard and attached latches to each piece at the top. That way it could be picked up and moved and the two pegboard panels would fold against each other. Unfortunately I had a severe design error. I did nor realize how much 260 spools of embroidery thread along with the 4" metal style pegs weighed. They weighed more than enough to bow the pegboard inward. So then I tried to attach a piece of wood to both pieces of pegboard down the center line of each pegboard. This helped a little but eventually the wood bowed inward also. The next step would have been to buy some heavy duty wood and attach those pieces down both sides of each panel. I would have had to buy the wood and all needed hardware and spend more time on the unit not knowing if it would work or not. I decided that enough money and time had been spent on a project that might not work out no matter what was added to it. So that item is now being used to hold scissors and lighter weight items using pegboard hooks. I then went online and found exactly what was needed for all of her thread...embroidery and bigger spools of regular sewing thread. The unit I bought Veronica is a 2" x 4" duo sided aluminum pegboard system that has legs and is on wheels. This unit has a weight capacity of what I believe it is 1 ton. I also ordered her 100 4 inch almost straight metal pegboard hooks. This unit has more than enough space to hold a majority of the spools that Veronica has. The best thing about this unit is that it weighs only 14 pounds when empty.
Below are photos of what Veronica got for Valentines Day including the aforementioned upright unit.

Polar Plunge 2015 In Virginia Beach, Virginia

This weekend Veronica and I assisted at the Polar Plunge 2015 event held in Virginia Beach, Virginia. I wasn't feeling all that well so I wasn't able to participate as much as I usually do. Even being down and out didn't keep me from taking photos of parts of the event along with several other assorted photos. Here is a small portion of the photos that I captured by the time the event concluded:

Actually broke out my tripod and manual shutter release to try a few different settings for the moonlight photos

Below are some of the Polar Plunge 2015 photos from Virginia Beach, VA

Below are various sunrise and early morning photos

And then it was time to feed the birds. I soon discovered that they liked the chocolate chip cookies over the nacho chips.

I found that by taking a cookie piece and holding it tightly with my fingers the birds would actually sit on my hand while flapping their wings trying to pry the cookie out of my hand. I kept my arms straight out and kind of held my camera back while taking these photos at a high speed shutter time.