Another good news surprise!

First of all: No, my car didn't break down in the ghetto.

Last night was the Hydrant Hysteria awards reception. I found out, much to my surprise, that I won first place in the Professional Artists category! I was so shocked, and honored... There are some GREAT hydrants out there in Downtown Harrisburg!

You can see a bunch of them in JasonTromm's photo set on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/trommetter/sets/72157621481748747/

And more great photos on Flickr from Hershey Harrisburg Regional Visitors Bureau:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hersheyharrisburg

I look at all these hydrants and still can't believe that mine was picked. This past Saturday night, I had a dream that one of the women who works for the Downtown Improvement District told me that mine had won. By the time I got to the awards reception last night, I had completely talked myself out of it, just because there really were so many great ones and I thought, "I just painted a bunch of bugs and flowers and things that I like..." I had no idea others would be fans of the bugs, too! :)

Thank you so much everyone who voted.

Guess who got into the local paper? :)

I was pretty excited when a photographer from The Patriot News stopped by on Sunday to ask me about the fire hydrant I was painting and snapped a few photos!

Well, "a few photos" might be an understatement- as any photographer knows, you have to get like 500 photos to ensure you have at least one or two presentable ones!

(Click on the newspaper to enlarge and focus it...)

It's too bad I didn't think to give him a dose of "Blue Steel"
while he was shooting me. Ha!

With all the photos being taken, I felt like I was a part-time model (but probably still had to keep my normal job).

What's funny about "Blue Steel" is that all the young kids do it in photos now... but they're not doing it to be funny. I'm not on MySpace, but I bet you wouldn't have to browse around on there very long before you'd find a healthy overdose of Blue Steel.

Hydrant Hysteria: Finished!

I'm done!

I'M DONE!
IIIIIIIII'M DOOOOOOOOOOOOONE!

I am sooooo happy to be finished with it!

I think I get so excited about finishing an art project because I sit there and nit-pick every. Single. Little. Detail. and won't stop until I'm pleased with it. I very rarely call something done unless I'm 100% satisfied with it (which is why my paintings take so long). So when I call something done, it means I'm happy! :)
And I finished it before my vacation. What a relief! I still have to clear coat it, but I think I will do that after I get back- maybe touch it up if it needs it, too.

You can see the entire photo set from Hydrant Hysteria here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samanthasartstudio/sets/72157619272137811/

Today was the last day I worked on it. I went out for a couple of hours at lunch and was able to finish it up.

Unfortunately I had my very first negative comment about it today, too (unless you count the guy who was telling me I should have painted all the chains the same color so it was symmetrical. Symmetry.... barrrrrf).

Some grouchy nasty woman walked by and commented loudly to the people she was with:
"I WONDER HOW MUCH OF OUR TAX MONEY IS BEING SPENT ON THAT."

I sat up, sort of in shock, then yelled back, "I'm not getting paid for this!!"

She didn't look back, and maybe she didn't hear me- She was most likely too busy looking for something else to b!#@h about. I'm pretty sure that complaining consumes most of her energy. What bothered me the most about it, and ruined a good part of my day, was her all-too-obvious implication that whatever was being spent wasn't worth it. So the art of everyone else involved in the project is worthless.
Thanks. Thanks a lot.

It made me realize why so many people have asked me if I'm getting paid to paint the hydrant. Maybe they're concerned about their tax dollars... Ohhhh noooooooooo! I had to explain that it is a volunteer project and really we're just doing it for fun, but it was a juried project, there is also a contest involved, and it's part of a downtown beautification project.

"Like the cows?"
Yes, like the cows.
"And the kites?"
........I have no idea what you're talking about, but yes, probably?


And now.... Hydrant Hysteria by the numbers! Fun!

Number of job offers: 1
Number of times I was asked if I "gotta boyfriend" (no comments made about the hydrant whatsoever): 25.
Number of times someone asked me out for pizza then less than 30 seconds later asked me for a dollar: 1 (I guess I would have been paying for pizza, too!)
Number of times someone wanted me to get in his car with him and go have coffee, then proceeded to run over the curb after I laughed at him: 1
Number of times a grumpy hag ruined my morning: 1
Number of times people honked and waved and screamed out compliments like "Looks nice!": 12
Number of times people stopped and told me the hydrant looked really nice/beautiful/cute/pretty: I lost track. Seriously. Some people were so enthusiastic about it! It felt awesome. Take that, crappy lady.
Number of times random tourists took my picture while painting: 7
Number of times a guy from The Patriot News stopped to take my picture while painting: 1
Number of car accidents I witnessed: 1 (no one was hurt)
Number of times a bird pooped on me while painting: 0! Woohoo!
Number of times a bird pooped on the hydrant: 1. Booooo.
Number of spiders currently living in the hydrant: 3, ewwwww.
Number of spiders I squished: 0. Heeyyy, I'm nice you guys!!!
Number of days a lady who sounds sort of like an old, sick cat was singing across the street from me: 3
Number of hours she sang on those days: WAY too many
Number of times I contemplated going over and suggesting she audition for American Idol: 17 (but I didn't, again because of the nice thing)
Total number of days the hydrant took to complete: 6


Don't forget that next week is National Pollinator Week! Me finishing my hydrant in time for it was no coincidence.

www.pollinator.org

Hydrant Hysteria: Weekend #1

Big sunflower in the front
Originally uploaded by samanthasartstudio

I know, I know, I've been horrible about keeping up lately.
I've been getting the bugs done so late at night, and haven't given any updates on the fire hydrant painting!

I painted all day on Saturday, and also some this morning. I reached a point where I had to run out and buy a color, but of course, I couldn't find it anywhere and wasted a whole bunch of time driving around to different stores who said they had what I needed- and guess what? They didn't.

But I did manage to upload a bunch of the pictures to Flickr and added some descriptions! Here's the link to the set:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/samanthasartstudio/sets/72157619272137811/

Hydrant Hyperventilation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(I'll be posting today's bug later on....)

I received quite the surprising email late last night...

I am one of 58 artists selected to participate in "HYDRANT HYSTERIA"!

I had written the project off, since the notification date had come and gone a couple of weeks ago and I had heard nothing. (Turns out my own handwriting did me in. One of the numbers in my zip code looked more like a 9 than a 4, rendering the original notification undeliverable. Ooof.) I decided, instead, to focus my energy on my 30 Bugs in 30 Days series! I figured I would create a new challenging project to distract myself from not having been picked. Imagine my surprise when the email arrived! I wasn't sure whether to panic.... vomit.... scream with delight... or a combination of all three?

I spent days working on my design, and I tweeted about it, but didn't want to do an elaborate blog post about it because I was almost certain that I would jinx myself. In fact, I convinced myself that by tweeting about it, the damage had been done.

Since pollinators all around the world are in trouble, I thought a pollinator themed design would be a good way to raise awareness. Of course to most, it might just look like a cute design, but pollinators are so important and they need to be appreciated!

Here's my design: "Pollinator Paradise."
(This wraps around on itself in a cylinder.)
Click to enlarge!

I tried to include almost all of the pollinators I could think of. I will have to work extra hard at making the bat very cute, since I already know people generally have this "Eewwwwww!" attitude toward them.

In the design, the 3 circles/sunflowers and the red flowers going in a circle represent the water outlets (not sure what they are called?). The dark purple part will be painted on the back of the hydrant, and shows the night pollinators.

In a way, I'm worried that my concept might not come across clearly (even though I was dorky enough to print this out on a small scale and make a mock-up hydrant out of a toilet paper tube. YEAH, I DID IT!!!!). But I also think that as long as the flowers and bugs are executed well enough for people to know what they are, with bright colors of course, the design will look nice. Doesn't everyone love colorful butterflies and flowers?!