Getting Kitschy: Emily is #1!

Our challenge this week was to take a kitschy piece of art we found at the thrift store (for $5 or less) and transform it into something much more interesting that was our style and worthy of hanging in a gallery.

This is what I came up with.

"It's All in Your Head"

Before and after:

But it didn't happen THAT quick. My first step in this process was, of course, to head to good ole' Goodwill.

I was pleased with their selection. They had posters of cars, pictures of animals, paintings of flowers, and interesting and eclectic sculptures. I had a hard time deciding what to pick.

Most of the bigger pieces were too much for my $5 budget, but I found some great kitschy art that made my decision pretty hard. Among them was this interesting fabric covered closet/shelf thing:

I was also a fan of Raggedy Joshua.

Joshua was the front-runner for a while, but I eventually decided that absolutely nothing could be done to improve him, so he ended up back on the shelf. Besides, I already own one Joshua, and two would be too many. Moving on... These dancers made of carpet were also neat:

You find some crazy things. This was an interesting note on the back of one item I found:

My original plan was to find a of picture of a horse and turn it into a unicorn, but I had no luck. (This is especially funny, if you've seen what my sister Kristine ended up doing...) Something I found interesting was the large number of family portraits that people had abandoned at the thrift store. It was kind of sad to see the school portraits and family pictures that Grandma had apparently rejected. I found some I really liked, and was eventually able to pick my final selection. So here it is, this is what I finally decided on... A cheesy Olan Mills-style picture of some lovely abuelos in a tacky gold and floral frame. And for only $1.96? That's a steal if you ask me.

After I got this picture home I started having second thoughts. What on earth was I going to do to transform this picture?! I was almost ready to quit, but I remembered all my millions of dozens of fans and just couldn't let them down. (Or maybe that's one or two fans that might click through this blog a dozen times? Hopefully?) I photocopied the picture a few times and did some tests before finally committing to one idea. I decided to paint the frame, while still letting some of the former glory shine through.

For the actual picture, I pulled out my needle and thread and got to work. I'm a big fan of sugar skulls and decided to turn my unsuspecting models into these colorful creations. I also used some vintage piano music to accent my design. With some careful cutting, gluing, and my trusty Modge Podge, I started to create.

After finishing up all the final details, my masterpiece was ready. My challenge was complete! I created a lovely piece of work I call "It's All in Your Head." Ta da!!!

Some detail shots:

And if you get the lighting behind it just right...

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. This was a fun challenge, although I don't know if my masterpiece will be hanging in a gallery any time soon. Be sure to check out what my sister Kristine came up with, it is pretty good! And don't forget to vote on your favorite! See you next week to find out what crazy project we end up with. I have a feeling it will only get harder from here.

Ttylbffs.

-E

Ubercorn: Kristine's entry for Work of Art Challenge #1

Emily and I have completed our version of "Work of Art," Season 2, Challenge #1! Here is my thrift store treasure, before and after. As you can see, I made a few minor alterations...


The Challenge:

Turn a kitschy piece of thrift store art (our limit: $5) into something worthy of being displayed in an art gallery. (click here for our challenge rules)

My process:

On Friday evening I visited Goodwill in search of a piece of art that I could upcycle. When I first saw all of the $20-30 items, I feared I'd have trouble finding something within our $5 challenge limit. And then I saw it: a unicorn picture in a cheap gold frame, for only $3.96. Perfect!! I grabbed it and went home. (yes, after paying for it)


In keeping with the "Work of Art" TV inspiration, I guess I have to select my personal art style. Umm... is "nerdifying" a valid art style? That and line art, I guess. I decided to start with the decorating of the unicorn. OK, let's back up... in line with reality TV, we've gotta include drama. I managed to cut myself removing that cheap gold plastic frame! Yay, first war wound goes to me!


Back to my artwork. I decided to go with line art for the hair, horn, and hooves. For the body, I went for cyber. Teensy tiny zeroes and ones from head to hoof! 0 = light area, 1 = dark area. Man, that took a long time!! I watched the entire season of "Marcel's Quantum Kitchen" during the decorating process. That was actually a fascinating show! I don't understand why that show aired on Syfy; regardless, the creative process was fun to watch.

Back on topic now... Here are a few pictures of the work in progress:




After what seemed like forever, I finished adding my cyber texture to the unicorn. I then probably spent another few TV shows cutting the obnoxious thing out. Ugh, so many pointy blocks of unicorn hair!! And then I moved on to the process of finding an appropriate background. My initial choice was an image of Jupiter that I got when I was at NASA last week for the premiere of "The Wanderers," a fantastic new film that they project onto a globe-shaped screen. It's like having each of the planets in our solar system hovering mid-air in front of you!! Gorgeous. Go see it!!

I digress again. After ruling out the Jupiter picture because of all the text on the poster I remembered that I had a few posters of fractals lying around my apartment. Perfect!! I pasted the beautifully cut out cyber unicorn onto a red and yellow fractal.


I wanted to stick with the general vibe of the original poster, which meant I needed to add some clouds around the outside edges. Hmm, what to use?? I decided to go with the weekly coupon mailer that I hadn't yet recycled. I tore out some rough circles, then pasted them into an arbitrary cloud-like layout.



The clouds weren't quite standing out against the bright fractal pattern, so I grabbed a Sharpie and outlined some of the cloud edges. If I were to redo the challenge, I'd probably go with solid-colored clouds, or something that produced more of a layered effect. Ah, well. I'm still proud of the finished product.

My final piece of art, "Ubercorn"


This evening Emily came over to compare artwork and watch last week's episode of Work of Art. The contestants went in very different directions than us... two dimensional, three dimensional, performance art... in some cases, it was difficult to see the original inspiration in the final piece! We went for a more literal interpretation of the challenge, leaving the original artwork visible in our final pieces.

Don't forget to admire Emily's upcycling (when she posts it--I won't give it away!), and then vote for the challenge winner!

Rules for artwork inspired by Work of Art, Season 2, Challenge #1

This is going to be fun!! Here's the first challenge + mutually agreed upon rules... or so I unilaterally proclaim. Emily went to bed early. But I'm sure she'll be fine with this. Right, Emily?

The challenge: Transform a kitschy, thrift store-type piece of art (painting, picture, sculpture, ...) into something you'd see displayed in an art gallery. Make it work within your personal artistic style. Some part of the original work must be visible and recognizable.

Our rules: We have a limit of $5 to purchase a piece of art from a local thrift store. We have 'til Saturday at 3:00 pm (Eastern time) to upcycle our items, after which we will compare/contrast, then watch the show. Blog posts detailing our creative efforts to follow.

Game on.

Update: (10/14/2011)

OK, maybe I should've coordinated the rules with Emily before posting. Sorry, Emily, that I conveniently forgot that you work on Saturdays. Whoops. New deadline: Sunday, 5 pm! You'll see our first posts sometime Sunday evening!