I’m over the hump. Four are done. Of course I am developing posture Quasimodo would relate to and for some reason the toes on my left foot have gone numb. But it’s all good, right?
This one is called “Granny Squares” and is hard to photograph so you’ll just have to settle for details.
And now I’ve got to limp as fast as I can over to BSPR to hang the Metamorphosis exhibition….
Any minute now.
Action Girl is in her element this week! Yesterday I managed to finish the third tarp (in two hours less than it took me to finish the second tarp) AND arrange the artwork to be hung in the TVAA exhibition Metamorphosis which opens March 7th.
I had help of course. While I was madly working at home on the third tarp which I have titled “Orange You Glad,” Jordan Newberry was at BSPR ably receiving all the artwork for the show. And when I went to BSPR to deliver my piece, mom met me there and helped me work out the arrangement.
Then I went home and got back to work on tarp #3. Is it just me or does this one look like it wants to reach out and take a big ol’ bite? The Tarp Picada that ate the artist.
Orange you glad I only have four more to go? Well I am!
One tarp per day. That is the plan. It doesn’t matter that I am responsible for a TVAA show hanging this week. It doesn’t matter that my livingroom looks like a bowling alley while I spread polyvinyl and duck tape hither and yon. It doesn’t even matter that tomorrow is Mardi Gras (and any of you who know our New Orleans history, know that matters) and we won’t be celebrating.
One tarp per day, for seven days, and then I get my life back.
Day One was Saturday, March 1st, and this is the first finished tarp…
Day Two was Sunday, March 2nd, and I finished the last bit just as “Twelve Years a Slave” won the Oscar for Best Picture. Wee bit poetic I thought. Well maybe a haiku’s worth. A limerick’s?
Stay tuned. Day three is just getting started!
Thanks to my crack team: Mom, Marilyn Frazier, and Barb Bowling, I now have four of my seven tarps taped and ready to be “detailed.”
In fact I believe all of us could easily win in an alligator wrestling contest after wrangling with these monsters. You haven’t lived until you’ve blown out your quads, strained your back, torn your fingernail, gummed up your best scissors and ground Fusion plastic spray paint into the knees of your jeans.
A little alligator spit sounds delightful after that.
Once we’ve taped all the fronts to all the backs with the oh so easy to peel double-sticky carpet tape (ha!) my next hurdle is to “detail” the tarps and seal each cut so when they’re out in the elements the wind doesn’t catch them and tear them, and the rain doesn’t drip inside and fill them up like giant water balloons.
I still have three to tape today and my “crack” team will consist of Me, Myself, and I (who will undoubtedly fill you in on the joys of solo tarp wrangling in a later post). Wish me luck.
I do have great news — shall we call it the giant carrot keeping me motivated right now? One of these tarps will be the cover art of the March 19th edition of the Weekly — the week of Treefort Music Fest! The tarp itself will be auctioned at their annual charity art auction in November. How cool is that!
Alright!! I’m stoked! Tarps — I’m comin’ for you…get ready to wrastle!
At least I warned you my blog presence would be spotty, and now I’ve got pictures to prove I’m really not just sitting around watching Netflix and eating bon bons — though I’ve had my fair share of that as well. (If I don’t give myself little treats now and then I pitch fits and stomp out of the room and quit, so it’s just easier to let me watch Netflix and have a bon bon.)
I have been working on my public art project for Treefort, which as you know is going to be giant tarps cut out to look like papel picado. Only I can only find the tarps in blue, brown, white and silver so I have had to paint 10 of them to get some fun colors.
It took 17 cans of Fusion (for plastic) spray paint in red, pink, yellow, purple, and orange to paint 10 tarps with Mike’s able assistance. My hand could barely grip my toothbrush this morning. (This could be a problem considering the number of bon bons I earned with that little paint job!)
Luckily we had a relatively warm sunny day and the tarps dried spread out on the lawn. They are now stacked in the loft in the garage awaiting the next steps.
I have 8 million, OK, 8 rolls of carpet tape to adhere the cut tops to the painted bottoms, and my crack team of assistants is lined up to help.
Honestly I wish I had a videographer to chronicle the process ahead and set the whole catastrophe to music. The plan is to take the tops which I have already cut out and ever so deftly adhere them to the colorful bottoms.
Here are the tarps I’ve already cut out, stacked in my sewing studio:
I’ll let your imagination run with that plan I just mentioned for a moment.
There is hope, however. The cut out parts look really cool, and IF we can actually get them to become one with the other colorful tarps then I think this will end up being one of my favorite projects ever.
I’ll keep you posted, and until then…I think I just heard a bon bon calling!
Click the image to see the Tarpestry book
