For my last project in my painting class we were to create a LARGE self portrait. The theme was super heroes , of course this term could be interpreted loosely .

The story behind mine:
( feel free to skip to photos , as this is quite lengthy  )
As a child , always deemed a pack rat by my parents ( I kept gallon milk jugs under my bed, and frequently bought duck tape with my allowance)   , I thought when I get older, If i had a collection of all sorts of random and obscure things, I would be all set.
Fast forward 15+ years
I was at my local Dunkin' Donuts getting a caffeine fix, and I went through my tote ( vintage at that, which had been given to me by a dear old friend) for some loose change, and as I was glancing at the contents of my bag ( a pair of 80's ray bans I bought for a dollar at a local junk shop, a coin purse from coasta rica given to me by a exchange student, some homemade shrinky dink jewelry... just to name a few ) And I thought to myself.. I am the person I've always wanted to become.
To my friends I am the queen of Salvo ( salvation army ) as I have bought everything from a Draftsmen table for a cool price of $9.99 to some pretty funkified outfits for next to nothing.  To some I am a bag lady.
But to me , I am my own childhood dream come true



Finished:( there are still some areas I would like to re work.. but if I get to it is another matter )

Drawing

me in the studio ( so you can get an idea of the immense size. It is 4 ft x 6 ft

And the reference photo that started it all


Thanks for looking!

Completely inspired by this:http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=286176.0  post , I took some time out of my busy day, to do my own little project..
I've been saving up for a Holgaroid ( Holga with a Polaroid back) but since I am one of those ever so typical starving artists/art students.. I decided to go through some things I had lying around.. like 6 rolls of expired slide film my ex high school photo teacher gifted me.. and took some pictures around town.. I cant take credit for developing the film myself.. Since as of right now, I know only how to develop black and white film.. I just took the rolls to Wallgreens, and explained to them ever so slowly what I wanted done.. surprisingly , they did it ( or rather understood what I wanted and why) .. and they came out!  well.. enough of me babbling...




these images are dedicated to Tracey Baran , a inspiring photographer who grew up in my home town and even studied under the same art teacher as me. Unfortunately she recently passed away. In 2003 she took a picture of this bar/restaurant, so today I did the same.





















A well wasted afternoon if i do say so myself...

Once upon a time there lived a poor ( but creative) art student who one day dreamed of owning a pair of 'leather' leggings like all of those 'trendy' celebs...


only the American Apparel ones were just too expensive to fit into her budget...


until she found a pair of 2 dollar flared 'pseudo leather' pants from salvation army!!!



she knew that she could turn them into something marvelous ... so she set to work immediately !!


and magically the ugly pants were turned into leggings!!! ( by much aid from her sewing machine)


"yay" exclaimed the art student!!! i have 'leather' leggings! "i am sooo excited!"



and minus getting the leggings on and off in a speedy manner , she lived happily ever after !!!!

-fin-
 

 
2 weeks before classes started up again, I was asked by my local library to do a Mural/menu board for their cafe ( creatively named 'Chapters Cafe')  on commission...I knew there was no way to finish it before the summer ended, But since i only live 40 minutes away from my college, i was able to come home on most weekends in order to get it done... I just finished it today, and thought i would show you all lovely craftsters   



mural..


mural hung


'book pages' are made from sheet metal, items and prices are magnets...so they can be switched out if need be


hand detail


original drawing/plans




thanks for looking!!

last week i invested in a Hanes 5 pack of mens v-neck tees.. the smallest they had was .. well a small...but it was not small enough for me.. so i seam ripped the sleeves and cut down the sides and took them in ( as it bunched terribly when i tried to take it in my traditional lazy method of just sewing up the sides and squaring the the sleeves) .. and added my own designs and what not..  nothing too special..


just a spontanious idea i had... and i wanted very badly to make a big mess..
freezer paper pallet , acrylic splatter-ing.



this was i doodle i did in a snore of a class i took... blew it up.. put it underneath the shirt and used a fabric marker called seta scrib .. it works alright, .. and it was cheep..and even though i did heat set it with a iron, we'll see how well it holds up in the wash



i really want to dye the rest random colors and stencil them...hopefully i can get to it before classes start again..

but i doubt it 




 

to post a topic in the Clothing completed projects !!! This week i've been on a sewing roll 'sew' to speak. [ lame pun intended] Normally when me and my sewing machine get together , its for a recon and i end up getting frustrated and cursing the thing out no more than half way through. but latley things have been going well.. so i took on the challenge of making a dress..
The fabric is vintage ( or at least smells it ) and was given to me by a close friend.
the dress was fashioned after a leopard print one i found at good ol' salvo that i loved , but the material was just to heavy for summer.
And this weeks theme for picture posing is urban outfitters !  










and finally the back.. i admit it gave me quite a time due to a series of rookie mistakes , but finally with some fanessing and a zipper, it only turned out a bit wonkey


i have yet to hem the bottom, but i was just so darn excited i had to show it to everyone...!

EDIT: its more of the peices of the dress rather than a tute.. but you get the idea.. i hope.. the only part that makes it a smidge complex is adding a few inches to the front for two pleats..

2 clothing post in one day!? say it cant be so! 
so i dont know about any of you, but i love these deep v neck tees , but refuse to pay 20 -30 bucks for one.
whats a craftster to do?! . Find fun t - shirts and make them v necks her self


^this is my attempt at my best american apparel pose.. however, i am not bra-less, unlike their models 




i made sure to draw the shape of the neck line on the shirt , then sew it once before i cut to prevent any bunching/mistakes , although the first one i did, still came out a bit wonky...


some before:
 



ironicly this one was printed on an american apparel sustainable cotton t . I guess i never really looked at the tag when i had bought it 

pretty simple.. but i got excited so i thought i would share !

EDIT: so heres a tute.. pretty simple...

so i needed a dress for the weekend , and wednesday is family day at my salvation army ( every color tag but one is half off! that is if you can survive getting wailed with carts and fighting with other customers over the best finds.) i saw this for 3 bucks. but was very leery about buying it, due to the fact that i would need to alter it, and already have around 25 articles of clothing sitting in a dusty corner waiting for the day to be made fabulous . But it was half off and being an impulse buyer, i decided it had potential due to its wonderful print.

 
see if you can spot the matching belt [ its camouflaged pretty well  ] i have no shots of the back but it was the same as the front.


and after it may look plain from the front but.."wait until you get a load of the back.."




and just for fun the shoes that go so well !

apologies for the terrible shots, as my easel was my camera stand   

EDIT:! I dont know how much this will help all of you.. since you kinda have to find the right dress to do it... but it was requested so here it is!  and i made 3 tutorials for craftster in one day.. i dont think any of them are up with normal comprehendible tute standards.. but i will blame it on my limited sewing knowledge..




you cant tell im an art student from these lame drawings .... haha.. oh well.
if theres any questions due to pure confusion ... feel free to ask!

enjoy!

about a year ago i did a painting of my grandfather and put it in a art show unfinished and sold it, and felt really guilty about it for a long time. When my grandfather passed away 2 weeks ago i made this for the funeral/ my grandmother to keep. Its much better than the painting ever was, and it will go to the rightful owner this time.
charcoal. ( vine and compressed ) on arches cotton rag paper 22"x 30" less then 10 hours to complete.

not really a paper book, but a book nonetheless! Was done in semester one of a studio workshop. We were to create a series of 3 identical books, based on a 'journey ' we went on ( a 2 hour walk alone, using a coin to determine which way we were to turn after every 5 minutes ) i like the way mine came out. I used luan and thinset to get the look of concrete, the back is paper bag (run through a typewriter) and some acrylic paints. I only have the one left... each tile is around 6"x6" the back offers a in depth analysis of sidewalk, and some definitions and of course the title.
Enjoy!


^ book closed


^ fully open , front


^fully open back


^detail on center title


^closing the book back up