OPERATION PAPER MACHE, part 2

Its been about a week, and I have to admit I have been slacking on OPERATION PAPER MACHE.  I had hoped to have it finished by now, and I have not even started painting yet.  I have less than a week!  EEK!  Wanna hear my excuses?  Well stop reading now if you don’t.  Last chance!  Ok.  Kids got sick.  I mentioned it was hot, apparently little kids melt in this kind of heat.  Both kids got sick.  Was it heat stroke?  Probably.  Makes me feel like a crappy mom, so I just use the term ‘sick’.  But we have a portable air conditioner hooked up in the living room and the children have stopped throwing up.  Hooray!  (Almost) all art ceases when both kids get that sick.  This is what I’ve managed so far:

The cradle is completely covered.  I built up a hello kitty face on a piece of cardboard for a head board decoration.  Its super fun to cover hello kitty with all the erotic advertisements from the last few pages of LA Weekly!  Hello kitty herself is made up of a dirty paper towel for shape, lots of newspaper and lots of dryer lint.  Dryer lint? You ask, well, I am working on a budget.  I stuck dry lint on to the wet paper, and then was able to mold it when I added another layer of paper.  Hello kitty looks like some creepy zombie.  Zombie Kitty.  Or maybe just Moldy Kitty.  Zombie mold aside, she looks pretty decent for starting out as a card board cut out.

Madeline is OBSESSED with hello kitty.

I wanted to make this thing kind of little fancy for my little girl, so I added a raised trim to the outside.  I used drinking straws.  Sorry Charlie, you gotta figure out that whole drinking from a cup thing about 12 straws sooner.  I had MUCH bigger plans, but I have run out of time and also I somehow lost the pipe cleaners and fridge magnets I needed.  “Hello Maddy” in alphabet fridge magnets from the dollar store.  It will look awesome, if I can find them.

I commandeered a mixing bowl and basting brush for art use

Desperate for art, I dug out my art bin with all my wire and tools in it and set it up on top of the air conditioning box that has mysteriously made a home in my kitchen.  Its tall enough that the kids cant reach and just the perfect height for me to stand and work.  AND its right by the window, so I dont need a light.  I refuse to put it away.  Charlie, who follows me everywhere and screams if I leave the room, “helped” me punch some words into the squished pennies I’ve rejected.  Does anyone really want a squished penny from universal studios?  Or one that says “KIA”, as in, “I needed to rent a car but all they had left was a KIA, so I took the bus instead.”  I don’t know what I’m going to do with them.  I just REALLY like the way they look.  Ah, and I found my stash of pennies I set out on the train tracks near the beach in Ventura.  I punched some letters into those too.  These pennies are totally good luck…. as you can see plainly in the picture.

you'll be seeing some of these on etsy soon

Sometimes working with limited supplies is easier than working with everything you could ever want.  I get overwhelmed.  As I was trying to unpack, clean up vomit and do laundry, I found my penny stash… instant inspiration!  I dropped the baby and ran to find a hammer.  The hello kitty buttons I ordered from freakin china finally came, I sewed Momo (Madeline’s best sock monkey friend) a hello kitty costume, an hour later.  Those buttons were burning a hole in my pocket.  I guess I just find it easier to start with one really good thing, something I really feel.  The cradle was born out of necessity, I'm just too poor to buy one for her.  And why buy one when I can make a perfectly good one with all the stuff laying around?  I guess I am just exploring the fact that art cant be forced, it has to flow easily out of your fingertips and into what ever it is your making.  You have to have confidence in it, even if its dumb, petty or already been done.  If I'm not proud of it, no matter how pretty or neat or unique, its not worth making.  I don't think I'd even consider it art.

Hello Momo!