Showing off art

A lot has happened in the last month and quite a bit more is coming in the next month. For starters, our Kickstarter project has been fully funded. We're excited about that. We've begun the work on our version of The Three Little Pigs. We've written our version of the story, and we're using that as a guide while we work. Storyboards exist now. We've been developing pieces. We should start shooting the new scenes soon. The best part is that when I talk about it now, the focus won't be on raising money for the project; it will be on the project itself. I'm looking forward to documenting our progress here. (Since the official funding period ended, we can't take any more money through Kickstarter, however anyone still interested in backing us and receiving the awards listed on the Kickstarter page should contact us directly.)

The RIT project I wrote about before was a huge success. Roughly two dozen volunteers contributed to the jungle scene. The tech guys, Forrest, Sanket, and Sakif did a great job of developing the system and piloting the remote controlled copter through the jungle. It was a blast to be part of it. Getting a ribbon for Best of Show certainly didn't hurt any of the fun we had either. If you haven't seen it, visit the project page to see the video of the construction as well as video fo the flight.

One of the exciting things to come out of the work I've been doing at RIT is that I've now been named "Visiting Artist" at the RIT Center for Student Innovation. I'm looking forward to more projects over there and a growing relationship with the CSI.

Coming up ...

We have a bunch of events coming up. The Once Upon a Time work seems to have taken on a life of its own. It turns out our small problem of running out of wall space in the studio to display additions to that series is going away. Starting on June 25, the whole series will be hanging in The Strong National Museum of Play. Aside from freeing up wall space for me, it means that many more people will be able to see it. And if that's not enough, the museum is hosting it's Whimsical Art trail starting in August. Kelly and I have been invited to show our individual work in that exhibit. We'll have work hanging in the museum through November 20. It's quite an honor for us to have our work showing in such a prominent and well respected museum for so long.

First Friday is coming up in just a few days. We missed last month due to the RIT project, but we're back this month. As usual, we'll be there among the other Hungerford artists from 6-9 pm in the studio. We can't wait to see all the regulars and the many new faces that are bound to show up.

After locking up the studio on Friday, we'll be packing some stuff up and bringing it over to a friend's studio for his big event. John Barthelmes at Spotlight Theater Arts invited us to take part in Fairport Canal Days at his studio. Canal Days is a major event in the town and Spotlight has taken part with art and theater for the last few years.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3VwBwdMY_8

Displaying art - a tip for other artists

With all the times we've needed to move artwork around lately, we've spent quite a bit of time looking at artwork hanging systems. Artists reading this are probably rolling their eyes at the thought of the cost of these. But we've found an affordable solution. For those that aren't familiar with them, consider the difficulty faced by galleries that have to constantly change the artwork on their walls. It's far too time consuming to patch nail holes and repaint walls every time something needs to move. Getting things aligned just right can also be a huge hassle. This is where hanging systems come in. Generally, these consist of a rail that's mounted high on the wall, and rods or cables that hang down from the rail. A hook at the top of the rod of cable is used to grab the rail and an adjustable hook on the lower end of the rod is used to hold the framed artwork. You can have as many or as few hangers as you want. Adding and removing them is a simple matter of hooking and unhooking them from the rails. The idea is simple enough, but the existing systems are ridiculously expensive.

A trip through Home Depot solved our problem. We were able to create a picture hanging system with a few dollars in parts: A piece of wooden molding for the upper rail, a length of threaded rod, two L brackets, and four nuts to screw onto the rod.