Speaking of puppetry

Speaking of puppetry in my last post brings me to share this big puppet with you.

This "Charlie Chaplin" puppet is the creation of John Manders.  John is the National Transit Studios resident children's book illustrator.  Now John of course had help with this guy.  He drew up the plans for the puppet and created the skeleton.  But other transit artists, Carol McDonald and Joann Wheeler created his head, hands and feet.  Help with the puppet wasn't limited to just the Transit artists.  The Giant unicycle was created by Bill Kapp and Charlie's clothes were made by Ecclesiastical Threads.  And of course the puppet wouldn't have gone anywhere without  the crew who helped Charlie take part in the Oil Heritage Parade.  Charlie started out pedaling his bike, but by the time he reached the end of the parade (where I was) he needed a little help getting across the finish line.  

Usually the Transit Artists paint a car for the parade but this year they took a different approach.  (A very clever one I think.)  The reason being is that 2014 has been designated as "The Year of Charlie Chaplin."  Many activities are planned around Chaplin for the year, culminating in the First night activities on New Year's Eve.  For more information visit  Oil City Special Events and download a copy of Chaplin Calendar events.  

The reason Chaplin has been adopted as a theme is because he supposedly signed his first movie contract in Oil City.  

This "Charlie" will be making more than one appearance.  He may be seen in upcoming Graffiti Gallery shows and will be present at the Halloween party at the end of October.  

I have Charlie Chaplin's Biography on my Kindle.  Guess it's time to read it....... may lead to some Charlie "inspired" jewelry.  (Mini-bot is telling me to get to it!)

And the winner is......

Last night was the annual Friends of the Transit Event.  (That's why I was working my butt off all last week..... oh if only that really worked.)

Turn out was good (but could have been better) for the festivities.  A new local Reggae Band played for the event.  They were really good (but loud in such a small space.)   With that rhythm and beat we all couldn't help but dance as we walked.  They will be playing in Pittsburgh soon.

The 12 minute paintings done to some lively music added to the festivities and were auctioned off at the end of the evening.

Joann Wheeler, Abby Bunnell and Carol McDonald all completed paintings in their individual styles.

The winner of this year's Friend of the Transit Award went to Marilyn Karns.  Marilyn is a retired kindergarten teacher who for the past ten years has run the National Transit Gallery and set up all the classes that went on for the Oil City Arts Association.  It was an award well deserved and we are all indebted to Marilyn for all she does.

John Manders again donated his time to do caricatures (which is always so popular.)  One of these days I'll bite the bullet and have mine done.

I demonstrated (basically talked about) one of the processes used to create designs for metal clay (particularly the Photo Polymer Plate technique.)  Then I did a brief demo with bronze clay and talked about the differences between silver and the base metal clays.  

The evening ended with the announcement of the winners of the 12 minute paintings.   The winners of the silent auction will be notified in a few days.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was having a scavenger hunt and giving away a piece from the National Transit Series.  Earlier in the day a co-worker I hadn't seen in years stopped in the studio and it was great to see her.  In fact it was so great that her name was drawn for the necklace.  Way to go Vickie Conn.

All in all the yearly fund raiser was a success.  First count estimates that we raised $600 for the Gallery.  Thanks to all who helped.  

"Art Car"

For the past several years the artists of the National Transit Studios have painted on a car for the annual Oil Heritage Festival Parade.  The past two years I have not participated in the painting as the time just didn't coincide with my other activities.

The theme for the car this year was Drums.  Once a month there is a drum circle held at the Transit Building where people can drum to their hearts content and the car was based on that.

For now the car is sitting in the alleyway at the Transit Building and will eventually be towed away to the wrecking ball.

(Since I didn't make it to any of the sessions, I'm not sure who did what on the car but I will make a few assumptions based on the artistic style.)

Crocodile and Lion are the work of John Manders

Notice the knit bombing on the grill and hubcaps.  I imagine this is the work of Corrine Carbaugh.

Other artists that worked on the car (at least I think they did)..... Joann Wheeler (Assemblage artist), Anissa Gage (Poet, painter and drawer) , Maureen James (Stain glass)  and George Cooley (Painter and Installation artist). 

The car was a visual display of art coming up the street. 

Getting your feet wet

Parking in Oil City is at a premium.  For someone who is going to be in the city for more than a couple of hours, the best place to park is down under the bridge by Justus Park.

During the Oil Heritage Festival that parking area was for vendors and the handicapped.  So the next best lot for parking was by the VFW.  (Which required a little longer walk.)

Both parking lots provide walks with a nice view of the river.  The Justus Park lot has a nice shaded walk that follows along the river (and provides me with Gingko leaves for my metal clay.)  It comes out  in an area that is attended by the Master Gardener's club with a nice display of flowers and passes by CV Curl's sculpture of Chief Cornplanter (and some tables set up for chess or checker playing.)

When walking over from the VFW lot I had to walk across the bridge.  Every day I've been noticing  the ducks in the river.  I always thought ducks loved water and I'm sure they do.  But it just seemed strange to see all the ducks standing and sleeping on the rocks.  On my way to the studio they were on the center rocks.  On my way home they had moved to the rocks on the river's edge.  (And they've been doing this everyday since I noticed it.)  

Oh well, at least they're getting their feet wet.

(Can you tell I haven't been in the studio too much lately?  I'll get back to the studio soon and start posting about metal clay again.)

Oil Heritage Festival Day two

Yesterday at the Oil Heritage Festival was pretty promising as I mentioned in my post.  We were hoping that today would be better since people would be off work and more likely to stop by.  That was not the case.   The number of people in attendance was disappointing to say the least and it wasn't only for us.  The outside vendors also saw quite a drop.  The weather didn't help as there was once again a tornado warning in effect.  The sky got pretty black and all the outside vendors cleared out about an hour early as today was the last day.

We were able to stay open a little longer since we had nothing to take down and made an extra sale or two.  We also have the advantage of being able to be open tomorrow during the car show.  It's a whole different crowd and I know when my husband takes me to a car show, I usually look for something else to look at.  So.... hopefully tomorrow will add a few sales.

Today was the 5K race that all the members of my son's family participated in.  I wasn't able to see the race but "the crew" stopped by after the race.

John Manders (our resident book illustrator) was once again doing caricatures out in the street in front of the gallery.  He was positioned in such a way that we were able to watch him draw when he wasn't busy.  (He even did a caricature of a Mastiff named Lenny today.)   Yesterday he did seventy caricatures.   I had him do caricatures of my three grandsons today.

Tyler the oldest

Ethan the middle child

Cody the youngest

Indie Fest

Tonight was Indie Fest in Oil City.  30 singing groups or individuals performed in six different venues on Seneca St.

An outdoor stage was set up directly in front of the Transit Building where my studio is located.  All I had to do was open my window to enjoy the music (and the view.  And the smells as they were cooking  hamburgs and hot dogs in the alleyway below.  I'd planned on waiting and getting dinner at one of the restaurants hosting musicians, but darn that smelled too good and I caved in.)

"Last Chance Louie"

Besides music there were other areas set up to serve food, offer painting activities for children and show people local business ventures.

"John Manders drawing caricatures"

The Forest Wood dance studio which is located on the third floor of the Annex did dance demonstrations in the street.  They also orchestrated a Flash Mob.  (Which I just missed.  Darn I really wanted to get out there and dance........ if my bad knee and shoulder would agree to it!)

"Forest Wood Dance Academy"

We couldn't have asked for better weather and it did seem like there was a good turnout.  I even had quite a few people come through the studio tonight.  By the time I was ready to leave, the band outside my window made it impossible to talk without shouting and I figured it was not a good idea to shout at potential customers.

Friends of the Transit

Last Saturday night the artists of the Transit Building held their first annual Friends of the Transit Award Event in the Graffiti Gallery.  As a newly created subdivision of the Civic Center, the artists Maureen James, John Manders and myself created the Friends of the Transit Program.

The purpose of the program is to bring the community into the Transit Buildings and with a membership become a part of what is going on there.  Not everyone feels they have artistic ability but they may have an interest in the arts and the program will allow them to help develop the arts in Oil City.  They can do this by helping out with promoting the art events, volunteering to work in the Graffiti Gallery as a sales associate, helping artists in their studios, giving tours of the building, etc.   Any money generated through a membership in the Friends program will be passed onto the Civic Center and will be used to preserve, restore and upgrade the buildings.  

So, Saturday night was our kick off event.  It was a fun filled and busy evening.  (I do apologize for the photos.  Took them with my phone and wasn't very diligent about checking what I was doing.)

Festivities began at 5:00 (after our usual Second Saturday Open Studios) with a social time for people to look at the artwork in the Gallery, have a little something to eat and drink.  From 5-6:00 Mitch Littler, a young man from the area (oh Oil City has so much talent) played his guitar and sang.  He shared his music with us again from 7:00-8:00.  

Mitch Littler

At 5:30, four of the building's artists took part in what was called the "12 1/2 Minute Painting."  Abby Bunnell, George Cooley, Shon Gaworski and Carol McDonald each shared their unique styles and vision by beginning and completing a painting in the time it took to play a rousing song.  At the end of the evening the works were given away to some of the participants.  

Shon Gaworski

Abby Bunnell

George Cooley

Carol McDonald

At 6:00 I gave a basic demo on metal clay, complete with a torch firing demo.  

The award presentation to Dr. Robert DeShong was given at 6:30.  Dr. DeShong has put in many hours doing physical work at the buildings as well as donating funds to help with various projects.  He gave a very nice speech following the presentation (which I can't remember but I remember thinking how nice it was.  I was cleaning up my area so John could do his caricatures there and I was listening but not totally catching everything that was going on then.  Didn't even get a picture of it.... darn!)

6:45 to 7:45 John Manders, our resident book illustrator did caricatures of many of the attendees.  (Sorry, didn't catch a picture of that either as I was upstairs at the Forestwood Performing Arts Academy learning how to do the cha cha.)

At 7:00 Darin Paden, owner of  the Forestwood  Performing Arts Academy on the fourth floor of the Transit Annex, gave a mini-class in the cha cha and a demo on the 4 step swing.  I gave the cha cha a try and it really was pretty easy.  Darin did a great job of breaking it down and taking it slowly.  I was doing okay until he added a turn and twist (which right now is not too good for my bum knee.)

The evening was full of good people, good art, music, dance and food.  (All donated by the Transit Artists.)  What a party!

Anissa Gage's center piece made from vegetables and dried plants

Illustrators get the "chicks"

Today was the second Saturday of the month; a time that most of the studios are open. For today's open studios several of the artists volunteered to do demonstrations for the public.

The first demo today was "A painting in under 23 1/2 minutes" by John Manders. John is a children's book illustrator and a recent addition to the family of artists at the National Transit Studios. He showed us how he goes about painting one of the characters from the book Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies.

Since my scheduled class had no bites, and the flow of traffic through the studios was down (nice weather has a way of doing that), I got a chance to view all four of today's presentations. (Lucky me...... I left a note on my door and went to be educated.) John gives demonstrations to schools, so he's had practice in how to be entertaining and informative. Compared to the usual middle schoolers he presents to, the audience today was pretty subdued. He told us that middle schoolers ask lots of questions. One that stands out in his mind was when a young man asked if illustrators get the chicks. What do you think?

Tomorrow I'll share another demo.