A Star is Born

Greetings friends. Today, I am in between paintings so I took the time off to paint an antique piece of wood. I love turquoise blue. The wooden star is an antique I picked up at a sale. It had hung its dusty grey color in my studio for a couple of years just waiting to be created anew. Squirting out some paint onto my palette, I was able to paint the star so it shines just bright enough. You're a star!

This wooden antique star gets a fresh lease on life with bright shade of blue.

                                                              "V" is for Victory.

August Shark Week Fine Art

I was able to complete three pieces of fine art for the summer Jaws exhibit at Louisville's Block Party Handmade Boutique Gallery. I used paints, paper, photograhs and other collage materials to assemble the pieces. I enjoyed using baseboard for a sign, "Amity - as you know - Means Friendship." The black and while photograph of the Jaws boat, "Orca," had been photoshopped and it has turned into a black and white grainy mounted photograph -- which, now belongs to a happy customer.

August signals Shark Week and Fine Art Exhibit "Jawsome"

Today, August 1 begins the world's annual celebration of its fascination with sharks. We celebrate the shark by "shark month," and soon, Shark Week on television. In a clever move, the co op /gallery and boutique I am represented by, has a new exhibit on, yes, sharks. I have contributed several fine art pieces to the Block Party Handmade Boutique's "Jawsome" gallery showing for the month of August. This was very challenging, creatively, to come up with shark art that would draw a viewer into my paintings and photographs created for the show. Since Jaws in my top favorite movies - I watch it every summer - I was thrilled that Mary Levinsky, proprietor of Block Party would create such a unique theme for an exhibition.

I began with a piece of 24 by 24 inch pine board upon which to paint with a blue grey palette, an upcylced piece of floor trim to make a sign with lettering and then I replicated a photograph of the Orca, the famous boat in Jaws, the movie, from which the shark ultimately met his demise.

I'll soon post some pictures of my artwork hanging in the gallery.

Below, is the poster created for the gallery exhibit. Block Party Handmade Boutique is located in downtown Louisville, 560 S. 4th Street between the historic Brown and Seelbach hotels.

 

Louisville Folk Artist Karen Abney showcases Day of the Day handmade art

 

In conjunction with South 4th Street Day of the Dead celebration, Artist Karen Abney has created new art associated with the holiday as seen below.  Abney has been producing, showing and selling her hand-made art pieces for more than 30 years. Her latest body of work, titled “Inner Landscapes” is a conglomeration of her favorite things: found objects, Mexican Milagros and odd containers. Her interest in Mexican Milagros led to this Day of the Dead exhibition.

Fascinated with Mexican culture and particularly the use of iconic religious items in their art,

Karen Abney has crafted these whimsical art pieces that incorporate a “gringo’s” view of the

style and beauty associated with Dios de los Muertos. Each piece is hand stitched and lovingly assembled. I have this piece sitting on my desk.

Her art is on display at Block Party Handmade Boutique, 560 S. 4th Street, Louisville where the co-op artists also have erected ceremonial Dio de los Muertos alters.

 

After placing a photo of my mother on the alter for Friday, Nov. 1, I felt comforted. It is a way to honor her in the present because her gravesite is in Wisconsin where I seldom get to visit. She - Roberta - was a spanish teacher and would have been able to tell me all about the day and its meaning. In this fashion of participating in an actual celebration, I can learn and mum would be pleased

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The story behind the fine art painting, White Chapel's Revenge

By nature, the story of Jack the Ripper evokes chilling thoughts and a shudder. We imagine him, as a stealthy serial killer stalking women up and down the dark streets of Whitechapel. While creating this painting, I imagined how it would be for those troubled souls who fell victim to this fiend, to have had a chance to change their fate and the past, and escape The Ripper.

The colors and eerie movements of the four people - three women and Jack the Ripper - represents an unearthly "switching backthe clock" so the characters could somehow create a different ending, eluding the criminal.

This acrylic artwork I painted is titled White Chapel's Revenge, and it is on display at Block Party Handmade Boutiqu, 560 S. 4th St., Louisville, for the season. The colors are just as they appear here, somewhat of a hellish orange inferno with a dark black and gray contrast.

 The women have alluded The Ripper this time as they go back to rectify the past. From left to right are the three women who will reclaim their lives from Jack the Ripper, who is left behind beneath the street light.

New fine art by Carol Labashosky at Block Party Handmade Boutique

A host of new scrapboards by Carol Labashosky are being showcased at Louisville's Block Party Handmade Boutique. The Italy series continues with newly hung Venice Canal (left), comprised of photos and cement with pieces of building facade; Naples City Scapes (right), is made with blue paper, greeting cards and crackle maroon paint; and Burano Italy Lace (bottom on stand with green house). Burano is a small island off the Venetian coast where women handcraft beautiful lace. A lace handkerchief has been cleverly affixed to the scrapboard resting on ocean wave cloth material. "Old Louisville" -- hanging vertically at center -- is on sale, double matted and framed. Gold detailing strategically placed makes this a one-of-a-kind design. It depicts architectural features of an old Louisville home from the early 1900s.


 New fine art exhibit is displayed at Block Party Handmade Boutique by Carol Labashosky





Scrapboarding to retail alternative fine art in Louisville's historic 4th Street corridor

Block Party Handmade Boutique is among four new businesses currently under construction on 4th Street, Louisville, Ky.  just north of Chestnut Street between the Brown and Seelbach hotels.

Block Party Handmade Boutique is a collective of artisans who will retail ceramics, jewelry, sculpture, woodworks, photography, crafts/accessories and 3-D fine art Scrapboarding, dubbed an alternative art form by the new retailer. Fine art and many other crafts and artworks will occupy a newly furnished eclectic refurbished store. An attractive glistening window display will attract shoppers to venture into the unique boutique. The store will open by mid-April.

"I'm extremely pleased to be involved in such a creative undertaking to provide downtown shoppers a place to search for all different kinds of art," said Carol Labashosky, creator of 3-D fine art scrapboarding." More than 30 artists have been juried into the new operation, according to Mary Levinsky, entrepreneur and owner of Block Party Handmade Boutique.

For pictures of the construction work in progress, be sure to join the Boutiques' facebook page and Barking Dog Enterprises facebook for updates. You can see the artists' wares at

 http://www.facebook.com/BlockPartyHandmadeBoutique?ref=ts&fref=ts





Join Carol Labashosky's facebook, Barking Dog Enterprises at
http://www.facebook.com/barkingdogenterprises?ref=ts&fref=ts