Monday, July 28, 2008

. . . changed my mind


Digital collage using scans of used paper towels and garden photos



Yesterday my husband helped me hang the doors back on the black ornate sideboard . . . it's almost done. I just have to sand down the hardware so that it has a brushed silver tone, reattach all the door handles, and finish off a coat of polyurethane. It looks amazing, but I don't want to show a picture of it until it's completely done.


I finished painting another chest in antique white. I looked at it from all angles, gave another coat or two of paint; sanded the shit out of it; sanded down the edges; repainted the edges. Nothing could make that thing look any more than it is. . . a thrift-store find. So I changed directions. . . now it's on its way to becoming a Chinese red thrift-store find. It already looks better.


On HGTV this weekend I saw David Bromstead redo an "eclectic" dining room in turquoise, salmon and black. He painted an estate sale sideboard bright turquoise. I didn't care much for the entire room, but I noticed his assistants painting that thing. . . they didn't even take the doors off. (By the way, Jennifer from Olathe is a finalist on HGTV's Next Design Star, the only reality show I like. Take a minute to vote for her, if you like. She's so full of energy and cheer.)


I am still trying to figure out how to produce a glossy finish without leaving brush strokes. I've used every kind of roller imagineable, as well as good brushes and I've sanded between coats. One young man at the hardware store enthusiasctically told me his version of how to do it, and when he finished, he grinned and said, "I just love to paint." Me, too. . .


Many thanks to Laura at http://musingsoncollage.blogspot.com/ for the blog award. Please take a moment and check out her blog. Also Seth at http://thealteredpage.blogspot.com/ is getting ready to start another series of artists interveiws, including me. Check out his great blog if you haven't already.

5 comments:

Martha Marshall said...

Beautiful-beautiful-beautiful-beautiful digital creation! Gonna do Seth's interview thingie too. I love his blog, and the people he hangs with!

Congratulations on your award. I'll go see what Laura's blog is like.

Mary Buek said...

Thanks, Martha. I'm glad you like the collage. I have a ton of these garden/paper towel creations. I have thought about having notecards printed up with a selection of them and trying to peddle them. What do you think? I could always give them away as gifts, I guess. Any other ideas of what I can do with them? I'm glad you're doing Seth's Pulse and I look forward to your answers. I always feel like such an idiot when I read my answers compared to other peoples' well-thought-out and often spiritual answers.

Martha Marshall said...

Mary you should definitely put those up on Etsy. Email me if you decide to do it and want help figuring it all out.

martha(dot)marshall(at)gmail(dot)com

Seth said...

Hey Mary...thanks for the link to my blog and the shout out for the upcoming survey. Your responses (and Martha's too) were great! And your collage is such a burst of color.

Mary Buek said...

Martha, I probably will decide to do it. I already have a store on Etsy, now I just need to spend some time on getting it up and going. Thanks for the email address, I know I'll need your help.

Seth: Really looking forward to your new Pulse.