Artistic Voyage: News from Mickey

November, 2010

A Break from Designing and Painting to
Sojourn in Indiana

It’s been nearly four weeks since I have held one of my paint brushes. My latest project has required a lot of sketching, scanning, resizing, and other computer preparation before I begin painting. Then there was researching the materials
that would withstand the elements as this is to be an installation on the exterior of a building. After arriving at this point I was ready to pass the project to a finishing carpenter.

The characters are a copyright of Innovative Learning Concepts. The company publishes math products for reschool through adult education. The characters needed to “grow” from a few inches tall up to seven feet tall and be durable enough to be mounted to the exterior of the company’s shipping facility here in
Colorado Springs.

My usual “MO” is to do every aspect of my projects. It has taken many years but I have learned to stick with what I do well and let go of the portion that would frustrate me. It made sense to hire a finish-carpenter to cut the characters (in
far less time than I) while Bella and I took a sojourn in Indiana.

The allure of Indiana in the autumn is in part my gracious family and friends but the glorious fall foliage seduces the soul. The hardwoods provide an outstanding pallet of color as the season begins it’s evanescent transition to winter.

Our trip included a jovial family reunion, a beautiful, festive wedding with outstanding fireworks and a delightful Artist Reception at Four Corners Custom Framing, Art and Gifts in my home town of Huntington, Indiana. Sometimes you want to expand your horizons and sometimes you just want to visit family and friends. Don’t you think the best souvenirs are special memories?

Back home now, the characters have been delivered back to me and I spoke directly to manufacturers for the items in question, all supplies purchased – I’m good to go. Preparation of the wood and priming of all the characters has begun and soon the detailing will bring them to life.

These are the first four steps to getting to the finished product:

Step1. Get photos of characters from Company, 8.5″ x 11″ sheet

Step 2. Sketch character on paper to fit scanner then place on a light table and make an ink rendering that will be clean to scan.

Step 3. Make adjustments in computer and “tile” the sized character, tape together and cut for tracing onto wood panels.

Step 4. Cut characters, clean wood and prime

Bella’s Insights

Hi Everybody!

Mom and I took a road trip! We were gone for two weeks. I got to see lots of people I hadn’t seen for over a year. The first night on the road we stayed in a hotel. I do kinda remember doing this last year and just like last year I had to protect mom by barking when someone knocked on the door across the hall – just a
little too close for comfort as far as I was concerned. But I paid attention when she “shushed” me.

The next night we stayed with aunt Linda and uncle Joe’s. They don’t have pets but they sure like feeding bunches of squirrels and lots birds. This is me checking out a bridge uncle Joe built. It passed my inspection, mom especially liked the huge flower containers on each side.

The next morning we took off for aunt Vicki and uncle Steve’s place. Oh yes, Benson lives there too. Benson is a black Cockapoo who has taken quite a liking to me. Mom and my big brother Rich took Benson and me for a ride one day.  Then more visitors, little Avery and her mom and dad and Bentley. Bentley was big, a Pug and Cocker Spaniel mix and just a bit on the scary side for me although he didn’t seem aggressive, I kept my distance just the same.

One last family get together before we left. I got lots of attention even though there were two new babies there, Maxwell and Emma. The most attention came from Adrianna. And mom thinks she’s working on characters! Check this out.  Pretty darn cute wouldn’t ya say?

Well I’m settled in at home again for a while. Have a fantastic Thanksgiving Everyone! This is Bella signing off.

~Bella, the Best Traveling Companion EVER!

I try to be good so I get to
go the next time.