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      • Metal Fabric/Clothing
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    • 2021 Worn Thin
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  • NEWS
    • What’s New
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  Markasky

The Horror - revisited

11/4/2022

2 Comments

 
I’m gonna have to update and recycle this post I wrote a couple of years ago… just because I like it and it still applies.

October is probably one of my favorite months because of Halloween. It’s not that I love Halloween, or passing out candy, or dressing up as someone different than my usual self. I probably won’t even do any of those things. For me Halloween means that the entire month of October will be filled with scary, supernatural, other-worldly, horror movies. I’ve already watched Scream 4 three times; Abraham Lincoln:Vampire Hunter (good all American fun); Fresh (just another ‘let’s find a new way to torture and kill women’; 🙄); The House on Pine Street; Old; The Watcher; Ánimas; there was a marathon of the Final Destination movies - I watched the first 3 one right after the other, but I guess you could say that that was ‘overkill’; You Might Be the Killer; Dracula with Bela Lugosi; to name a few. My husband agrees to watch one horror movie a year with me on Halloween - so we watched the original Halloween (1978) then he retired to his ‘den’ and I continued to watch Halloween Kills (2021) and Halloween Ends (2022).
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Then there are the series - Light as a Feather; 2 Sentence Horror Stories; Creeped Out - a kind of fun British Twilight zone thing geared to a younger audience - I love those; Cabinet of Curiosities; The Devil’s Hour; Chucky (I love this). Then there are podcasts - Obscured, about the witch trials in Salem; and I just listened to several episodes of a podcast about John Carpenter’s Halloween. I’m not going to give you reviews, some are good, some are not so good, some are just bad - it doesn’t matter. It’s just so exciting to have so many, to have this genre in the forefront because the rest of the year it’s pretty slim pickings.

​I get chills when I hear Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, which was played during the opening credits of the 1931 version of Dracula and I find it calming to hear the screams of people in a haunted house. I don’t particularly like bloody, gory, torture movies unless they are campy, like You Might be the Killer or Scream (1, 2, 3, 4, AND 5!). Movies that I’ve seen so many times that I know when to look away.

Why am I so attracted to it? My husband hates horror movies. However, when I went back home to see my brother and sister, I found out that, yes, my brother had seen all the Final Destination movies too. And my sister was a fan, as well. I had to go back to my roots, where it all began. I remember my parents taking the family to see a movie when I was about 4. It was a movie directed by William Castle, king of the B-horror movie and gimmicky stunts at the premieres of his movies. He would have nurses present in the lobby or mock insurance policies guaranteeing $1000 in compensation in case you died of fright during the movie! He had a few movies that premiered in my hometown of Youngstown, Ohio. And in 1959, the Faras family made their way to the Newport Theater to see The Tingler. That movie scared the crap out of me and I couldn’t sleep that night. My mother wanted me to go to bed and told me that it was just a man inside a tingler costume. She didn’t think that through because that freaked me out even more. The Tingler was only about a foot and a half long (it really looked like a giant centipede) and it creeped me out thinking that a man was inside there. My sister being 8 years older than me calmed my fears by telling me it was just a robot. After watching this movie about 30 more times since then I am more aware of the string used to pull the rubber Tingler across the room. Another highlight of that movie was the scene where Vincent Price is trying to find a way to scare himself and uses LSD for the purpose. Love the scene where he is sitting in his chair reading a book whose title is “FRIGHT EFFECTS INDUCED BY INJECTION OF LYSERGIC ACID LSD25” - for sure a precursor to the 60’s and 70’s.

My youth was spent watching movies like The Blob, Creature From the Black Lagoon, any movie by Roger Corman with Vincent Price, The Haunting, The House on the Haunted Hill... Maybe that and growing up in a very ethnic household, where my grandmother read tea leaves and my mother had icons and alters, burned incense, rubbed holy water/oil on our foreheads, and wore amulets to protect from the evil eye, led to my otherworldly interest. I was always intrigued by ghosts and the supernatural. I had Kreskin’s ESP game and a Ouija board. There was always a seance at a slumber part and everyone at one time or another, went to a psychic. When I was in 8th grade, our science teacher let anyone who wanted to, teach a lesson on a scientific subject. I chose the Psychic Sciences.

I like being able to see beyond what is in front of my face, trying to figure out how this world is put together. In addition to the horror genre from my youth, I also find quantum physics, parallel worlds, other dimensions... all fit into this idea. The way I figure it out is through my art, transferring the feeling of otherworldliness into metal and enameling. I’ve completed making my interpretation of a set of the 22 Major Arcana cards from the Tarot. And of course learned to read them along the way! I’m now moving into my geometry series featuring The Chengellian Woman.

Leave a comment about your favorite scary movies or experiences from your youth.
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The Chengellian Woman - Birth of the Square - Deconstructed Necklace
2 Comments

Which -mancy do yOu use?

5/13/2021

1 Comment

 
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The Fine ART of Fortunetelling combines 2 of my most favorite things - Art and fortunetelling or divination. Divination comes from the Latin word 'divinare' which means to foresee or to be inspired by god(s). It's a way to gain some insight into a question or curiosity by using some age-old method to visualize or foresee future events or maybe just to really see what is in your life at the moment. It's a systematic method that takes seemingly random information and tells a story that in turn can provide some insight into the querent's situation or problem. The person doing the 'divining' interprets how the person with the question should move ahead by reading signs, symbols, visions, or omens using one of these tangible methods.


After researching this, I have come to the conclusion that you can add the suffix -mancy to just about any word and come up with a way to 'foretell' the future. The suffix -mancy, means "divination by means of." It is also related to 'mania' - madness or frenzy. Of course, most people are familiar with the word cartomancy, which means telling fortunes with playing cards. But the words ending in the suffix '-mancy' probably form a list as long as I am tall. Just a few examples; alectryomancy is a form of divination using a bird; gyromancy was done when a person would walk in a circle that was marked with letters until they became dizzy and fell down or stumbled on certain letters, spelling out a prophecy; tephramancy gets its messages in ashes; onychomancy from the study of fingernails in the sunlight; axiomancy from an ax or hatchet; critomancy from barley cakes... well, I'm sure you get the idea. Go ahead try it. How about saltomancy, divination using salt! Oh, oops already been done - alomancy - sounds better using the Greek prefix.


The other thing this tells me is that the ability to tell the future or see beyond what is right in front of us may be an ability in itself and people can use whatever method works for them, the method is just a tool and each person may feel comfortable with a different tool (not unlike an artist.) Some people use a screwdriver to put in a screw, while someone else (me) might be more comfortable using a butter knife. Both get the job done. And maybe you don't really need any of these things, but there is something about being able to touch something, hold it in your hand - it seems to connect heaven and earth, kind of like the Magician card in the Tarot. The Magician is holding one hand up and one down acting as the bridge to bringing ideas into actualization. Again, not unlike something an artist would do.


I like to play with the term 'fortune-teller' – in one sense it can be a fun party game (and yes, I own a turban to wear when reading cards and am still looking for beaded curtains to hang in my 'fortune telling' area. But the other part of me sees it as a tool, a way to go deeper inside myself where I believe the answers to the universe lie when I can connect to it. A way of being able to help to see what 'isn't' there. I think the tools of a card reader, or a palm reader, or a number reader help to see answers to questions about what our place is in this world. I like that there is a tangible tool, something that you can see, that can be held in your hand. That's what all of these 'fortune telling' methods have in common, something that is grounded to the physical plane, something that we can perceive as 'real' that might take us on a journey to something that 'may not be so real.'

So I really want to know - which -mancy do you use? And does it surface somewhere in your art? Leave your reply in the comments and include a photo if you have one.



1 Comment

Pretty

5/4/2021

0 Comments

 
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0 Comments

Enamel & Graphite

3/24/2019

6 Comments

 
Yes, you can use graphite on enamel. The basic process is to use a light colored enamel on metal and draw on it with a graphite pencil.

It’s not quite that simple. If you have ever tried to draw on glass you know that the pencil point will slide all over without leaving a mark. The idea is to create a matte finish or ‘tooth’ on the enamel that will snag the graphite. Usually, this can be done by stoning the surface or by using an etching cream. Neither technique provides instant gratification. Stoning is difficult to get a smooth even surface and etching takes time and exposure to chemicals.

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I like to experiment with different things combined with enamels, just to see what it will do. I’ve used salt, sugar, sand, baking soda, vinegar, dawn dish soap and milk. While experimenting I found out that if you paint milk on to your enamel and let it dry (I use a heat gun, I hate to wait) it enables you to draw on it with a pencil, no chemicals, no elbow grease.

​ I find that heavy cream works the best. Paint it on, let it dry, draw on it, and fire. I use a Smith mini-torch with propane and oxygen to fire all my enamels.

​
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6 Comments

Fear

3/22/2019

0 Comments

 

​
​I have been working on a couple of metal projects for well over a year and when you work on something that long certain things can be come evident.


One thing is that sometimes it’s just hard to complete something, not necessarily physically, although that does enter into to it also.
Fear #1 – The thing is that before you finish something, it has infinite potential or possibilities. It is more likely to ‘please.’ Each person sees the unfinished piece and completes it in their mind how they see it completed, which may not be how I see it. They may not like how I think that it should be completed. Part of that fear lies in making or completing something that people are liking ‘unfinished’ (because they can see their potential in it) to something ‘finished’ where they won’t necessarily like or understand it. I experience this all the time with movies I watch. I’m liking it, but then I finally get to the end and I’m like WTF?! It didn’t end how I wanted it to. I don’t want that to happen to my art, but my art is about my experience and while I hope to make it a universal experience (big expectation) it may or may not fit the goal or need of everyone who sees it.
​

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BUT it needs to be finished, because it is very satisfying to finish something. I like it to be something that isn’t so literal or exact, something that is finished, but can also leave some room for other people to relate to it – creates a mood or a feeling instead of a literal depiction that only has meaning to me. But even as I write this ‘profound interpretation’ of the creation of art it makes me want to make something super literal that only has meaning to me – hmmm, is that even possible?
​

What happens when the piece is finished?
Fear #2 – I have focused all this time in creating this particular art work and now I’m done and now I have to completely change gears and do something different. The next step may be a completely different type of work and one that I may not be as good at. Yes, it’s satisfying to create art, but there is a cycle – the idea, the creation, and the finishing and putting it out in the world in some form – ALL essential pieces of the work. So it comes back to intent, what do I want to have happen? Sell it? Show it? Write about it? Or something that I haven’t even thought of yet? I know I can’t really think of any of those things until I finish the work...

Or maybe I just have to say out loud to the universe that these pieces are done and I am open to success with them.
Fear #3 – I guess that I need to determine what success means to me...

How do you determine success and how does fear enter your thought process. Can fear be a good thing and help the process along?
0 Comments

Enameling with white

11/4/2018

0 Comments

 
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White light contains all wavelengths of visible light and is the sum of all possible colors.

I’ve been reading Fred Ball’s book, Experimental Techniques in Enameling about using liquid enamels with a white overlay on sgraffito.
Sgraffito is a type of decoration made by scratching through a surface to reveal a lower layer of contrasting color, typically done in plaster or stucco on walls, or in slip on ceramics before firing. Sgraffito and Sgraffiti derive from the Italian word graffiare ("to scratch"), ultimately from the Greek γράφειν (gráphein, "to write").(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sgraffito).

When using the sgraffito technique in enameling you can sift or paint enamel onto metal and scratch through it or you can enamel a color on first and then sift or paint on top of that and scratch through to the color layer. Some of the tools you can use for scratching are toothpicks, needles, xacto knives, comb, toothbrush, Q-tip, and chain.

I generally paint a low-firing liquid white onto bare copper, let it dry and then scratch through it with one of the above mentioned tools and fire it. Then I sift several thin layers of a ground soft white on top, torch-firing each layer separately, usually overfiring. All of the enamel pieces here are fired only with white enamels.

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0 Comments

The Horror

10/28/2018

2 Comments

 
October is probably one of my favorite months because of Halloween. It’s not that I love Halloween, or passing out candy, or dressing up as someone different than my usual self. I probably won’t even do any of those things. For me Halloween means that the entire month of October will be filled with scary, supernatural, other-worldly, horror movies. I’ve already watched the first 3 Scream movies; Apartment 212 (B horror movie); Grindstone Road; The Wolfman and The Wolfman vs. Frankenstein with Lon Chaney; The Haunted - a Norwegian ghost story; Rosemary’s Baby; Witch Hunt; a couple of the Insidious movies; No Escape Room; You Might Be the Killer; What Lies Beneath; Dracula with Bela Lugosi; Urban Legend; Lake Placid 1, 2, and 3; to name a few. Then there are the series - The Haunting of Hill House; Light as a Feather; Channel Zero; The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Then there are podcasts - Obscured, about the witch trials in Salem; and I just listened to several episodes of a podcast about John Carpenter’s Halloween. I’m not going to give you reviews, some are good, some are not so good, some are just bad - it doesn’t matter. It’s just so exciting to have so many! It’s just so exciting to have this genre in the forefront because the rest of the year it’s pretty slim pickings.

I get chills when I hear Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, which was played during the opening credits of the 1931 version of Dracula and I find it calming to hear the screams of people in a haunted house. I don’t particularly like bloody, gory, torture movies unless they are campy, like You Might be the Killer or Scream (1, 2, 3, and 4). Movies that I’ve seen so many times that I know when to look away.

Why am I so attracted to it? My husband hates horror movies. However, when I went back home to see my brother and sister, I found out that, yes, my brother had seen all the Final Destination movies too. And my sister was a fan, as well. I had to go back to my roots, where it all began. I remember my parents taking the family to see a movie when I was about 4. It was a movie directed by William Castle, king of the B-horror movie and gimmicky stunts at the premieres of his movies. He would have nurses present in the lobby or mock insurance policies guaranteeing $1000 in compensation in case you died of fright during the movie! He had a few movies that premiered in my hometown of Youngstown, Ohio. And in 1959, the Faras family made their way to the Newport Theater to see The Tingler. That movie scared the crap out of me and I couldn’t sleep that night. My mother wanted me to go to bed and told me that it was just a man inside a tingler costume. She didn’t think that through because that freaked me out even more. The Tingler was only about a foot and a half long (it really looked like a giant centipede) and it creeped me out thinking that a man was inside there. My sister being 8 years older than me calmed my fears by telling me it was just a robot.

My youth was spent watching movies like The Blob, Creature From the Black Lagoon, any movie by Roger Corman with Vincent Price, The Haunting, The House on the Haunted Hill... Maybe that and growing up in a very ethnic household, where my grandmother read tea leaves and my mother had icons and alters, burned incense, rubbed holy water (or oil) on our foreheads, and wore amulets to protect from the evil eye, led to my otherworldly interest. I was always intrigued by ghosts and the supernatural. I had Kreskin’s ESP game and a Ouija board. There was always a seance at a slumber part and everyone at one time or another, went to a psychic. When I was in 8th grade, our science teacher let anyone who wanted teach a lesson on a scientific subject. I chose the Psychic Sciences.

I like being able to see beyond what is in front of my face, trying to figure out how this world is put together. In addition to the horror genre from my youth, I also find quantum physics, parallel worlds, other dimensions... all fit into this idea. The way I figure it out is through my art, transferring the feeling of otherworldliness into metal and enameling. I’m currently working on making my interpretation of a set of the 22 Major Arcana cards from the Tarot. And of course learning to read them along the way!

Leave a comment about your favorite scary movies or experiences from your youth.
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2 Comments

Life can be 'challenging

2/17/2017

2 Comments

 
Challenges for 2017 -  Consciously creating an art piece everyday for a year can definitely be challenging! Having to do something every day starts to get tedious after a few weeks, but if you can get past the tedium and just keep going even when you don't want to you begin to see in a way that you forgot about. Everything around you becomes art and you can push your brain to a new level of thinking and questioning.

Ring A Day

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drawing a day

Then of course we have the Drawing A Day Challenge, which led me back to working on a series based on Photo Booth pictures I took when I was in college. Every time I do one, I think ok I've exhausted the possibilities, but apparently I haven't!
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2 Comments

Ring A Day 2017

1/20/2017

0 Comments

 
Yes, it's happening again! Ring A Day 2017! Many of the RAD 2010ers are participating as well as many new people!
You can follow along on Instagram using the hashtag ringaday2017 or the FaceBook group Ring A Day.

Here's a little taste (literally!):
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Chanin Billesbach Bays
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Lorena Angulo
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Maria Apostolou
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Shannon Conrad
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Lieta Marziali
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Kirsten Denbow
0 Comments

Art & Physics - 1

5/24/2016

0 Comments

 
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I just finished reading Art & Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time & Light by Leonard Slain and I must say - mind blown. Now I read some reviews of this book that have a problem with him not being an artist or a physicist and that he is twisting things around to fit his context. I mean just because he is finding a comparison doesn't mean it's true. He's the first to say that he doesn't believe that the artists necessarily had any awareness that what they were doing may have been scientific.
I have to admit while reading it I thought he was just making up words and ideas, but I did look them up and, yes, scientist are sitting around talking about a hypothetical particle that travels faster than light. And this was another highlight of this book - it made me think. And it made me curious to research things he said in this book. Whether he is right or wrong doesn't really matter. I mean, look at 'science' - its ideas change and expand constantly as we learn more about the world. And well, that's another thing... I have a much larger idea of the world or universe or consciousness now and really, that's not a bad thing. I have felt this need to think about some of the things I read, so I am reading it again, only stopping with each idea to write about it and think about it out loud, feel free to join in. I will of course include pictures of my art - if it has anything to do with what I am writing about... let's just say I am unaware of that.

Chapter 1 starts out with a quote from James Baldwin - The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions which have been hidden by the answers.

For me making art is about trying to find a connection to why I am here in the first place. I feel like there is something deep inside of me that knows the answer and that answer can emerge in my art because there are  no words for it. The idea is that someone else will recognize that.

Shlain talks about when we learn language/abstract-thinking that the word/symbol takes the place of the image. "When we reflect, ruminate, reminisce, muse, and imagine, generally we revert to the visual mode... ...we forget that to learn something radically new, we need first to imagine it" (p18). We forget how important and essential it is to be able to have time to daydream.

This leads to the idea of a critical mass of people coming to a consensus about how the world works and when these ideas are no longer questioned they become bedrock truths. These things you just believe because you always believed them and never think that there is a need to question them (unless of course you grew up in the 60's). That blows my mind a little bit, just because we believe that something is true, doesn't mean it was always thought about that way or that it always will be. This may date me little, but when I was in elementary school I remember learning about Pangea. It was 'one' of the 'theories' about the continents 'possibly' having all been joined together at one time. I found that really interesting as a kid and it stuck in my mind. Now I find out that it is no longer a theory, but a fact and I have a very difficult time accepting that. One of my bedrock truths has been changed. It freaks me out a little. Maybe because now it has me wondering what else I learned was wrong. Of course, this leads me to the 70's and my brother introducing me to Firesign Theater's album 'Everything You Know is Wrong.' I don't remember any of the skits from the album (after all it was the 70's - take that as you may) but that title gave me something to think about.

I liked this: "What makes any set of bedrock truths slippery is that every age and every culture defines this confirmation in its own way. When the time comes to change a paradigm–to renounce one bedrock truth and adopt another–the artist and physicist are most likely to be in the forefront" (p18). The idea of being able to imagine or think about something in another way is the beginning of changing these truths.

Ok, so when reading this book, I could only read about 3 or 4 pages at a time, so that's all I'm going to do for right now! Let me know what you think about these ideas. But before you do, take a minute to reflect or perhaps daydream a little about it!
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Evelyn markasky
Santa Cruz, California

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