Oh No! What Happened to Scooba?

On multiple occasions I have raved about the Boozie Burger from Boozies (a pub/grill next door to my studio).  That, along with their chicken quesadilla, form a respectable percentage of my 'dine-out' cuisine.

From time to time, Thomas (one of the cooks at Boozies) will decorate the lid of my to-go box with a cartoon of Scuba/Scooba Steve.  I save the lids on one of the walls in my studio.

Typically, they just celebrate the joys of that which is Scuba/Scooba Steve.

I mean, realistically, who wouldn't celebrate that?

Imagine the visage of Scuba/Scooba Steve guarding your delicious Boozie Burger.  I know I feel safer thinking about that.....

But one day, an ominous narrative began to appear.......

Holy smokes! That doesn't look good.

....nor does that!

....or that!

Could this be the end for Scuba/Scooba Steve?

It looks grim. But wait........

Tweaking the Frame for Swan Dive Bomber

A quicky.

Swan Dive Bomber was a painted construction that was shown in Merican-Tastic! back in July 2012.  I wanted to the frame to take a backseat to the activity on the canvas, so I just painted the frame a dull rust color.  I had mixed feelings about the final results, but had no time to make any modifications since the show went up two weeks earlier than planned.

So, this is how it looked come show time.

Well, now that I've had a little bit of time to mull over what to do with the frame, it is time to add a some small elements of color.  I still want the frame to be subdued when compared to the canvas, but I would like it to participate more with what is going on visually.

Time to hit the frame with a little white paint.

A day or two after I let the white parts dry, it's time to sneak in some green.

A close up shot since my camera has a zoom feature....

The scuba guy toward the right side of the image is my homage to one of Thomas' drawings (one of the cooks (and an artist) at Boozies (a link to an earlier post)).

What the finished piece looks like now.

and a few detail shots....

Next time we'll check in on some former students to see what they are up to AND a we celebrate a milestone.

Carving Part III

Much to my surprise, and a small level of disbelief,  I have lately been in the mood to apply Dremel Tool to wood and do some carving.  I figured after the sultry carving marathon I underwent in July to complete Merican-Tastic! it would be a while before I buzzed away on a plank of wood.  Don't believe the sultry part? (click on this scientifical corroboration!  http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dvn/scripts/obsRecordsNorms.php?site=MLI&monthName=July&reportType=Data&year=2012)

Anyway, this piece, which I will for the time being refer to as 'Fusitron' (since I am kicking around a few titles but don't have a clear 'winner' yet) has been leaning in a pile of several unfinished pieces languishing in production purgatory.  Here is an image from earlier in the year as it sat nestled in a 'to do' pile.

The beginnings of Fusitron date back to 2005 with 'pushes' of progress in 2009 and 2011.  2012 might be its lucky year?  Gotta get it done before the Mayans to run out of calendar....

A quick note on carving blades (especially on harder woods).  The teeth on the blades get gummed-up frequently.  You can tell this because the blade/wood starts to smoke a bit while you are carving.  A little of this isn't the end of the world, but you are on the downhill slide with the useful life of your cutting blade.  The black, professionally drawn arrow points to some schmutz caught in the teeth.

At this point, it doesn't take long before more and more teeth get gummed-up.  The pink arrow points to one of the 'open' cutting notches, the black arrows point to plugged up teeth.  Instead of cutting the wood, the blade is now abrading/burning the wood.  The causes the cutting bit to get hotter and very soon, dull -which only exacerbates the problem.

The solution to the problem is simple.  Shut off the Dremel Tool and take a nail or a pocketknife and clean out the gunk in between the teeth on the blade.  For the more macho readers out there, these tools would be classified as 'toothpicks'.

Then I spray paint the whole piece with a flat black paint, and then I start to 'prime' the surface with a white paint.  I find that I like how these things look as just black and white images, and it usually gives me pause before I start applying any color to the piece.

 Totally covered.

The first coat of color which happens to be a kind of sap green.

People who haven't painted with oil paints before have trouble comprehending how long it can take oil paint to dry.  The sap green I am using is from a 'palette' of paint from 2010.  The blob of paint had hardened (formed a skin about 2mm thick) on the outside, but once I sliced it open with my palette knife, there was still gooey viable paint on the inside.  Here is one of my professional painting palettes below.

Boom!  First color on.....

...and now for a little shot of a earthenware/rusty red.

The next step is to put in a some yellow so the red and the green have a little something else to interact with.

Completion of the yellow coat:

For the life of me, I will never fully understand why it is, that no matter how thoroughly I scan the carving (pre-painted), no matter how diligent I think I am in carving every line I draw, I have yet to carve a piece where I haven't missed at least some portion of a line.  Unreal.

What I do know is that sometimes studio life can be demanding -you know missing cutting an important line and all. I have found the best way to smite these 'demands' is to unleash the fury of a Boozie Burger and fries upon them.  You might be thinking 'Wow?!?! That's one sexy burger...' or, you might be thinking 'Is that a copy of Hitch 22 in the top left corner?!?!?'.  Either way, you'd be correct.

On the outside chance we were keeping score,  Me: 1  You: 0

Until next time, please remember, always try to put the 'Hootie Hootie in the Goobie Goobie'.

Studio Tidbit. Everybody Loves A Parade (Directly Outside Their Studio)

This little diddy could almost be tacked on to an earlier post regarding all of the cool things that happen around my studio (http://stevebankspunchingholesintherah-rah.blogspot.com/2012/05/tale-of-two-studios-part-ii.html).  For several years now, Quad City Arts (http://www.quadcityarts.com/) has been putting on Festival of Trees and the whole shebang starts off with the Festival of Trees Parade.

I have heard rumors that the FOT parade actually has more balloons than some of those other big name parades that happen around this time of year.  I don't know if it's true or not, but it makes for a good story and that might be all yer gonna get.

Anyway, the night before the parade, I sneaked down the street to snap a couple of images of some of the balloons as they were being 'staged' on 3rd street.

Fast forward the hands on the clock about 12 hours, look out the front window of my studio, and POW! you have a parade.  Honestly, how many artists do you know that have three different parades that march past their studio windows?  (OK, in all fairness, the St. Patrick's Day Parade may be more of a stagger past my studio windows, but let's not rush to judgement.......).

So for a blog that has featured The Parmageddon sandwich, The Boozie Burger, Giovanni's Creamy Garlic Pizza, and The Ultimate Carnivore Burger*, is it any surprise that there exists a parade that marches large inflatable foodstuffs past my window?  I thought not.

*Please note the lack of Shevek & Company Restaurant when mentioning foods featured on PHITR-R is simply out of respect for the cuisine.  You don't make large inflatable versions of chef Shevek's food, fill it with helium, and then have mere mortals wander around town with it on a leash.  -it's just simply not done that way.

Although these figures below weren't some sort of mega balloon/float sumthin' sumthin', I thought they were cool enough to mention in the blog.  Don't remember if I saw who made 'em, but I wouldn't mind seeing more of them next year.  Keep up the good work you unsung-balloon-person-maker!

For me?  You shouldn't have!  oh, wait....you didn't......

Now for the really big people.

By the way, that is a three story building immediately behind the three-story-building tall balloon and those are actual-sized humans pulling the float.  (The traditional use of Oompa-Loompas was outlawed in a recent city council meeting, and the hardworking Oompa-Loompas that were lined-up to work in the parade were, in fact, deported to Loompland and unceremoniously devoured by a ravenous array of Hornsagglers, Whandoodles, Snozzwangers and a rabid Vermicious Knid).

Really, when was the last time people conspired to march a dragon past your place?

Oh wait, more food.  How'd that happen?

When it is time to finish, ya gotta finish big!  (and since Arthur Carlson has pretty much immortalized the Thanksgiving Turkey Give-Away, we'll just focus on Santa Claus instead)

Below you can see Santa in his customized Santa-Mobile.  Rumor has it that the Santa-Mobile is also equipped with smoke screen, oil slicks, behind-the-headlight-mounted rocket launchers, and a key chain that is actually a shark with a LASER.

Above, beyond, and outside of the parade, Santa Claus frequently tools around downtown in front of my studio blaring Christmas music from his radio.  This of course brings up the question of if Santa Claus is naughty, whose list does he get on?

Next time we dive right back into some carving AND in an upcoming post we have a fairly well-known guest come visit the pizza joint directly beneath my studio.