Mosaic Guitar

After posting “June Bug” today, I looked at my last post and noticed that I promised to share the photos of the mosaic guitar now that it is done.  I had posted photos on BeesATC and neglected to post here, so my apologies!

Mosaic Guitar

Mosaic Guitar BACK

If you want to see it in person, it will be in the  32nd Annual YWCA “Women Artists: A Celebration!” show June 21 to July 19, 2014 at the YWCA of Youngstown building located at 25 Rayen Avenue in Youngstown, Ohio.  Tickets are required for the opening night preview party, otherwise the hours are Monday – Saturday, 12 to 4 PM (closed on July 4-5 and all Sundays except July 13th).

The mosaic guitar is priced at $300 because it is my first mosaic guitar and it is not perfect so I would not feel right asking top dollar.   It is grouted and sealed for indoor display.  The back of the neck is painted (not tiled) so it could be hung on the wall with a standard U hook bracket used for hanging guitars.

NOTE:  click on photos if you want to see it bigger.

A treble clef made of copper wire dangles in the sound hole as a tribute to American artist Lily Harmon (1912-1998) because I got hit by a Deja vu when I walked into the Butler Museum of American Art to see her life retrospective show (Trumbull County Branch, 1997?) and saw her guitar assemblage with the strawberry hanging in the sound hole.   I recognized it.  I  knew I had seen that same strawberry dangling inside an old guitar repurposed as art years ago (before 1970?) as it had captured my full attention when I was a child absorbing the colors and textures of art up like a little sponge.   Our guitars may look nothing alike (hers was assemblage art, mine is mosaic, different designs and everything) but my thoughts often turned to her while I was working on this guitar.  I knew that I had to hang a dangle in the sound hole as my way of saying thank you to an artist who influenced future generations.

There are no strings because when some old guitars die, they donate their organs (reusable parts: tuners, nut, bridge, etc.) to cigar box guitar makers so the music can live on.

Advertisement

June Bug

Well, I have done lost my mind and found it again.  It is hard to believe that it is already June.  Time flies while zoned into a wee bit of obsession.  I let myself dream without limitations and thoroughly researched possibilities.  Then I cranked the math and reeled myself back to reality, but can’t let it go.

Maybe it is a little wacked, but I am thinking “renew, re-use, recycle” all pretty much mean the same thing:  take something old and make something new out of it.    It may never look or work or be the exact same way it used to be.   It might not have the same function anymore.  It has been re-purposed as something else.  I want to re-able me.

That’s my wacked idea.   I was DIS-abled.   I am never going to be the “able” me that I used to be, so I need RE-abled along the lines of renew, re-use, recycle.  I am my own art project.

After an honest assessment of what I can and cannot do, not just what I want to do or dream of doing, I wrote a business plan that includes the following criteria:

• It must be something I can do, even with my limitations.
• It must involve art, or go well with my art.
• It must not require more than $5,000 initial investment.
• It must have a profit potential of at least $2,000 a month.

I am not going to go into details… for one reason, I would be writing this post well into August.    Another reason is that I do not have five grand to invest, so it still feels too much like a dream.

My mind keeps twirling ways to raise the money without going into debt.  I am doing things like calling up the cable company and saying, “I want to play slash my bill” (eliminating WIFI and cable TV dropped it  from $106 to $22.41 a month)  and looking at other ways to cut my cost of living.

Hey… I could become a “minimalist” and sell off most my stuff.

I keep hoping people will buy my art – it is still on display at the Mocha House in Boardman and I have two pieces going into the YWCA show later this month.  People say they like it and they sure do want it if I am giving it away, but no one wants to pay $35 for a nicely matted and framed 5×7 drawing.  No one has texted or called to even ask if I’d take less.   That’s why my business plan needed something else going on besides art.

By the way (if you happened to notice),  I replaced the drawing used as my gravatar image with a “selfie” photo that I had cropped square and flipped to black and white.   Here is the uncropped color original if you are curious as to what I look like.  I was brave enough to throw it on Facebook, where I rarely post any “people photos” so oh well… why not.

It’s not the best photo – no makeup, ratty old shirt, bad lighting, and hair not done to hide how thin it is getting on top.   Ye gads, it could be scary old lady hair with long wispy stands by the time I am 80 if I grew it long again.   I might do that, just for grins.  Yes, the mental image of myself at 80 makes me laugh.  People take things that don’t really matter way too seriously.