**VACATION MODE**

For the next couple of weeks, feel free to partake in this wonderful video instead of reading my posts, since I, too, will be on a boat!
If you listen to it every day, I bet after 14 days you still won't have had enough!

ALL HANDS ON THE DECK! This boat is REAL!




I posted the clean version, but if you prefer it dirty, I'll provide you with the link to that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7yfISlGLNU

Side note:
When I got home tonight and turned on the computer, my husband had taken the Ben Stiller "Blue Steel" photo from yesterday's post and turned it into my desktop background.
NICE!

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

Eastern Hercules Beetle: Bug #30!

Bug #30: Eastern Hercules Beetle, complete!

Here is quite an interesting website about them:
http://entomology.uark.edu/museum/dynastes.html

(I am so sad that I couldn't find a video to include of a clip from "The Nutty Professor" with the mom going "Her-calees! Her-calees! Her-calees!" Oh well.)

I never found very many of these when I was a kid (or as an adult, either). But on the rare occasions when I do find one, they never fail to impress me! They're some of the biggest beetles (if not the biggest) on the East Coast.

At least 5 or 6 times during my bug series, I've looked these guys up for reference photos, then changed my mind. I couldn't think of a composition and kept making things too complicated. I didn't want to duplicate my millipede with a bug walking on an old log with foliage around either. I decided on just a plain bright colored background again, and after scribbling a few colors in the margin of this drawing, picked red as I liked how it looked against the colors of the beetle.

So there we have it, my series is done!
Thanks so much to everyone who followed along, and sorry some of the bugs in the last week or so kept getting posted late. Working on the hydrant in all my spare time meant late-night-buggin', then it just seemed easier to scan a few in at a time, etc.

I'll be on vacation later this week, but when I return, I hope to have some ideas for a new series of some sort! Either more ACEOs, or else perhaps little paintings (8x10's) derived from some of these bugs!

Ladybugs: Bug #29

Look familiar?
This is the same composition as the very first bug ACEO in the series:

I got a little ahead of myself.
I lost track of what day it was, and had planned to do this as my last bug. I wanted to show the evolution and changes I've made in the series. I thought for the last bug, this (re-doing the first one) would be significant.

Turns out it is only Saturday, not Sunday, and I am only on Bug 29!

I really wanted to add some more flowers to the composition, on the sides of the picture- but I also wanted to keep it as close to the original as possible. Instead of doing a blue and green background, I tried to imagine a fuzzed background as if this flower was a photo taken against a whole field of them. The flower was inspired by some that were growing locally last month when I started the series. For about a week along the Susquehanna, these were growing in mass quantities. They didn't last long though, but they were pretty while they were there.

I wish I had gotten a better picture of them growing along the little hillside here: