I can almost see the finish line...

This poster hasn't been given the green light quite yet, but it's getting there.

I trashed my background sketch and reused the realistic pine trees instead.

Why? My reasons were two-fold.

1. It was too busy.

2. I'm never content with the outcome of Live Trace in Illustrator. It always obliterates my lines and makes everything jagged.  (And, yes, I've tried messing with all the options.) I wonder what Al Hirschfeld would have thought of Live Trace?


But back to the poster...It will appear much larger, so if you find it difficult to read, rest assured that the fine print won't appear so fine in the end.

What do you think of the slanted double red line divider? I needed a divider and thought of that at the last minute. In my symbolic world, it doubles as the road.  Is that too corny?


Hey, and look what I found when I was searching for a swanky picture of Hirschfeld! I should have known that one of my favourite illustrators of all time would have a depiction of "Sunday in the Park with George". To see more of Hirschfeld's work, click on the picture. It should direct you to his foundation.

After 2.0

Here's the picture of the chair with upholstery tacks. For some, it makes a world of difference.

Well, there are worse things than staring at the water on a Sunday

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat (2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891)

This painting is perhaps the most iconic piece ever done by Seurat. Even though it's wildly over exposed, it holds a special place in my heart. I'm not really sure why, but I've always been drawn to this. I always thought it was because I like parasols.

It must sound absurd, but I think I have a connection to this. After all I was born on Seurat's birthday and he painted this pointillism masterpiece in 1884, exactly 100 years before I was born. But I guess that doesn't mean anything because we share a birthday with Britney Spears as well.

I had always associated it with the scene in Ferris Bueller when Cameron Frye is in a trance staring at this speckled canvas. I'll refresh your memory.

I don't know if John Hughes was responsible for the cinematography for Ferris Bueller's Day Off, but it leaves me wonderstruck.

That reminds me, I need to take a Bueller tour of Chicago someday. Dear Jana, Add that to your ginormous list of goals. Thank you. 

At one point you could Adopt-a-Dot  from the pointillistic painting at the Chicago Institute of Art. I believe that window of opportunity is now closed. But I know you could pick the colour of your adopted dot and they would send you a sample and let you know the location of your dot on painting. I should have splurged and adopted one then and there. Ah, that would have been grande.

Several years later, I learned that there was a Broadway musical starring Mandy Patinkin & Bernadette Peters called Sunday in the Park with George which was inspired by the life of Seurat and the characters that model for this painting. His love interest was a woman named Dot.  It was also released the year I was born and written by Steven Sondheim and James Lapine. The former also happens to be the name of my brother. I love those sort of things.

Why I haven't seen this Broadway production yet, I don't know, but I ardently adore the music that I've heard so far.

Then my favourite television show released this promotional photo. I can't get enough. Superb! Although it's missing Michael.

And a mug of mine that I have somehow acquired over the years. Where did I get this?  I guess that's a mystery.

So do you have a painting that you feel an affinity to? Also, have you seen this painting anywhere else in pop culture?

Well, I hope you had a pleasant Sunday...and maybe it was spent in a park...with someone named Georges.

After

I still have to add the uphosltery tacks, but I was too anxious to share my progress on a project that has been in the making for 2 years. Plus, I get to cross off two items on my 2011 New Years Resolution list at once. This post also signifies my 66th post of this year which was another goal (The goal was to have 30 more post than last year. The number 66 has no significance to me. 666 on the other hand...jk)

Here's the before picture:

You can view the process here. Let's just say there were 4 layers of this onion to peel away.

And here's the after:

I'll definitely post a picture once the tacks have been added, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It's comfy too!

If this has placed you in a 'chairy' disposition, perhaps you would like to browse through my favourite paintings of chairs found on the web.

The prolific artist's name is Kimberly Applegate. She paints chairs in the style of classic artists and often features one of their masterpieces on the wall in the background. She even imitates their style in order create the perfect habitat for the model chair. Her blog is called joie de vivre. Please allow for yourself at least 45 minutes to peruse her work. It's phenomenal.  Here's a teaser:

I love this for more reasons than I can list.

Here's the original Edward Hopper: A Room in Brooklyn.  I don't think she could have picked a more fitting companion painting for that chair. Yet that green light is impossible to recreate. It's legendary.

 

Why do I expect to see Calvin and Hobbes everytime I see this one?

And doesn't this make you want to be part of Christina's World?

Go ahead. Take a seat.

Midnight in Paris

I want to see this. What's there not to like? It reunites Wedding Crashers stars Owen Wilson & Rachel McAdams, takes place in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and the main character travels through time to the 1920's and encounters F. Scott Fitzgerald (played by one of my new celebrity crushes, Tom Hiddleston) and Vincent Van Gogh! This has my name written all over it. So who's coming with me? Oh, and did I mention it's directed by Woody Allen?

"Of all the 'jars', in all the towns, in all the world...

She walks into mine."  I figured a quote from Casablanca would be fitting to introduce this Moroccan/Indian inspired project...even though the true quote begins with, "Of all the gin joints...".

I recently saw this as a DIY tutorial on Design*Sponge which from the looks of it just received a new layout. Lookin' good, Design*Sponge!

The tutorial was originally published by Katie Stuernagle of Matsutake. And I thought it was pretty brilliant and affordable, so I made up my mind to attempt the project myself.  I had a blast and have plenty of supplies left over, so if anyone wants to make more jars with me, just let me know! But I warn you, it's addicting!

All you need...is love...AND

• Jars, free of labels (I used jars that once contained Kraft Marshmellow Cream, Prego Spaghetti Sauce, Newman's Own Peach Salsa, and Kosher Dill Pickles)
• Metallic Gold Puff Paint (I only used one large bottle of the Tulip brand)
• Glass Glaze (I used the Pebeo Vitrea brand and chose the following colours: Turquoise, Paprika "The paprika sauce was the talk of the party, pass it on!", Amaranthine, Bengal Pink, & Sandalwood Green)
• A wide paintbrush

So first, you have to clean off all the labels. That part is probably the least fun. Goo-Gone is a major time-saver.

Next, you go to town with the metallic puff paint. I could do this part for hours...in fact, I did. Don't worry if the paint is cloudy at first, it becomes more metallic as it dries.

Then you take a small amount of glass glaze and apply it to the inside of the jar with the paint brush. This was a little difficult at times, but I'm pleased with the overall affect. I thought the turquoise worked the best, but photographed the worst. You really should see it in person.  I attempted to make a cobalt blue mixing the amaranthine with turquoise. It's a bit too streaky, but saved me a few dollars.

So start saving your jars! We'll make more together and then someday, we'll take over the world! Wow. I'm beyond exhausted because of another little project that kept me up until the wee hours of the morning, but you'll have to read about that another time. Goodnight for now.

They Make Cakes...

It's what they do. They're "too young to go clubbin'."

I suppose I should explain who "they" are.

They are two Cake Bosses in the making.  Two lovely ladies known as Katie, who I like to call K-trix.

And Becca, who I like to call Becca. ;) Not only do they make cakes, they have earned a reputation around town and in our circle for being able to make the most scrumptious and visually stupendous of cakes.

I'll prove it.

Here's a classic argyle made for Kallie's grad party. I love the colour scheme!

And here's the companion cake they made for Grandma Gigi's 90th Birthday Bash! She loves to golf and these creative cakesters made a little golf cart for her out of special K bars. I would have taken a picture of the main event cake, but I arrived late and it was already GONE!

Can't you just hear someone yell, "FOUR!"? And really, I know everyone says this, but the secret ingredient was love. Really, it was.

Then there was the cake for Jake's Grad Party done in his school colours. The graduation cap is even made out of a Hershey's bar wrapped in fondant. I actually got to watch them make this one so now I know roughly how to make the top portion of a Graduation cap in case I should ever need to exercise that skill. "It appears that way, because I have those skills." (You knew I had to slide that quote, didn't you?)

They've done all sorts of cakes. Big ones, fat ones, some as big as your head (there's got to be a song hidden in that.)

So last night, I was just about to curl up with my laptop to watch a couple episodes of Castle when this dream team called me to see if I wanted to work on their latest project....

Which I will save for another post! Just you wait! It was loads...nay tons of fun to make and some have called it their best cake to date!

 'Til then!