Art House Co-Op Keeps Me Busy

I decided early this year that I would make the time to play with my art more often this year. Play seems to be the optimum word so far.  There are a couple of days a week that I gather with others to create and possibly learn new techniques.  Meanwhile I sign up for projects that will force me to think in new ways, and at least get off the computer long enough to be a bit creative.

Art House Co-op is great for that. I first learned of them though a couple of acquaintances who were taking part in their annual Sketchbook project. For a fee, Art House will send you a blank sketchbook which you are to fill and mail back by a specified date. Then it goes on tour all over the United States, and maybe a Canadian city or two. I just don't think I'm ready to participate in that project, but I did find they have lots of other little projects available throughout the part of the year when they aren't busy with that tour.  Last year I got in on a few of those and really enjoyed it. See The Art of Progression from last May.  This year they are offering them far more frequently and I'm jumped on several already.

The first one I did was the Things Found - by Accident.  We all go places on a regular basis and perhaps don't always see what we as going past along the way. This project had us looking more closely, and sharing what we found. I sent them two photos, which is likely against the rules. One was something unusual that I'd actually never noticed before, and the other was something pretty that I passed all the time, but never really looked closely at. They posted the prettier one, above.

The second one I got in on was an infinite scroll which would become a monster when strung together. They sent a template that had the start and end markings, and you could string those together anyway you wanted, and the markings would line up with anyone else's start and finish markings.  It was so popular, they even extended the number of people who could take part. As I've become more interested in abstract and multimedia this past year, I had fun creating this.  Remember, it's just a section of a very long monster scroll. You may be able to see the whole thing at http://www.sketchbookproject.com/infinitescroll

The third one I got in on was for the encyclopedia of work.  We were to simply to take a picture of our work place.  My hubby and I own a karate club.  He teaches and I do the administrative work, so I took the camera to class one night.

There was one where you had to sketch the tallest building in your town, but you only had 5 minutes to do that in.  I had a lively discussion on Facebook about which building should be considered the tallest.  Though the roof tops of several line up fairly well, the United Church was my choice because it started a full story lower down from road level.  At one time the road was actually down at that level too, but when it was raised, the lower level on the two street sides of the building were buried too.  Five minutes passes very quickly when you are sketching, so there's no time for erasing and getting everything just where it belongs. At least, not for me.

Then we were asked to create a map of some adventure we have either had, or would like to have. I thought the hardest part of that was to figure out where I wanted the map to be of. That was until I started.  Trying to get words and/or pictures anywhere near where they should be isn't all that easy.  But now I have a great little reminder of last summer's vacation, when we went geocaching in the Muskoka region.  I kind of wish I had put a dirty wash around the edges though, just to make it look more like a treasure map.  After all, that is what we were after....so I may just do that yet.

Recently there was a project called The Meal.  Each of us were to post a photo of ourselves and our midday meal.  That doesn't sound hard either, but I tried it from several angles and kept missing part of the meal as I couldn't see what I was aiming at.  I ended up getting most of myself out of the picture.  People from all over the world take part in these projects, and so there was great variety represented in this project. I submitted the standard soup, salad and sandwich luncheon. This project was meant to help raise awareness of world hunger.

 I found I had missed out on another infinite scroll.  This one was going to be of outer space. I would have loved that as I've done a few spacy things in the past.  But the message somehow slipped into my spam folder and by the time I spotted it, they already had the 500 they allowed to sign up.  These spots go quickly.  So, I have just decided to share my last space inspired painting here anyway, even if it can't, and won't fit on the infinite scroll.

The most recent project I've submitted was for an encyclopedia of tools. Now, there are all kinds of tools around here. Some in the kitchen, some in the garage, some for doing crafts, some for doing home improvements and many that I have no idea what they actually are..  I wasn't sure what I would do for this project, until last Friday when I was at a friend's place and saw her paint brushes on the table. I grabbed the camera and took a picture.  Then I used my computer tools and ended up very happy with my submission.

I'm still currently signed up for two other projects due this month, but as you can see, I'm having fun.  There are also plenty of projects that I have not signed up for.  Some of them are even for writers.  If  you think you might like to have a look at what is available, just go to The Sketchbook Project and have a look around.  I'll try to keep you up to date with these things as they happen from now on.

I have also managed to do a few real paintings this year, all in watercolour, but I'll tell you about those some other time.

For those of you wondering what happened to Freebie Friday last week, I spent the Kellogg's free product coupon on a Jumbo Sized box of Frosted Flakes, and saved $7.48.  It was a very slow mail week, but I did get another one of these coupons in place of the other gas card application I made.  I'm quiet happy with that, but I doubt you wanted to see it again.