I was excited to find an art show going on in Union Square last weekend.

And really, could they have found better peeps to be their Master of Ceremonies ?

 

Not too far away we got to enjoy more eye candy...these super fit tap dancers. 

We made a little pit stop through China Town.

 

And then we headed across the street for a yummy brunch. Guess who rounded

out our party of three?

My blogger friend, Courtney! You all know him from his blog, Courtney Outloud.

 He is a local, and was kind enough to act as tour guide for the day and share all kinds

of great nuggets of area info. We met through the blog a year ago and when we

were panning the trip, I emailed him asap!

 

{thank-you, cute friend, for spending the day with us!}

 We made our way through the Financial District and then on to the Ferry Building.

 

Inside were all kinds of great places, including this lovely bakery that I have only ever admired from other blogs...

I still am enamored with the wallpaper...

Then we were off to Fishermans Wharf

There were lots of lazy sea lions and no shortage of beautiful colorful fruits.

And imagine my excitement when we walked over to Ghirardelli Square and found this party going on:

There were blocks {bu-laaaucks} of tents sheltering {incredible} chocolate companies

offering their wares. We’re talking chocolate coconut milk, chocolate vodka, chocolate

sundaes, chocolate fudge--you get the idea…

You best believe that we got in line for tickets for this shindig.

1 ticket allowed you 15 samples from all the different tents.

We sampled 30 {thirty}. I'm not proud, just a few pounds heavier {and happier}. 

So I really don't have a pear tree. But, what I did have was a 'Yesterday's Tree'!! This was the name of the store I operated downtown until a few months ago. What does 'Yesterday's Tree' mean you might ask?? Well, what was a tree yesterday, is today's furniture....I digress.

We wanted to design a store float for last years Christmas parade. The theme of the parade was 'A Storybook Christmas'. How would we interpret this??? I thought.....and thought....and then.. of course:

A Partridge in a Yesterday's Tree!! 

   We just needed a tree, a partidge and a little furniture. I wasn't doing a blog at the time so unfortunately I don't have step-by-step with pictures. But, I can show you the finished pieces.

 

It's not your traditional looking partridge, perhaps, but it was great for a parade float! I started with a balloon blown up fairly large. This became the body. Then a much smaller balloon became the head. The tie offs were put together and then I used blue painters tape to attach the head to the body. 

   

To make the beak, I made a little funnel out of newspaper and and taped it on with the blue tape.
 Then began the paper mache--I cut loads of newspapers into strips. I mixed up glue and water in
 a medium sized stainless bowl. Then I covered the whole thing {tape and all} in the strips. Because
you need a ton of layers and it takes a long time for each layer to dry {not to mention I have the
patience of a 3 year old}, I used my hair dryer to quicken the process.
 


The balloons give you a false sense of sturdiness. They are eventually going to lose air and shrink. When this happens, it is hollow inside. If you don't have lots of layers then it can easily dent when handled. I let it dry overnight. I could have just spray painted it red at this point, but I really wanted the depth that using layers of the red tissue would provide. {You can certainly skip this step and simply spray paint it your desired color--I just like to make it as time-consuming as possible...sigh}



I mixed up more glue and water and began the process with the tissue. Only tissue is much thinner than the newspaper so I couldn't put a strip of tissue into the glue mixture--it just 'melted'. So, I applied the glue in a small section to the bird body and then lightly placed the tissue on the glued area overlapping as I went. Again, I used the dryer between layers. 

I then added a little detail to the beak with some craft paint. Then, because this bird would have to ride outside and rain was a possibility { Paper mache + rain = one. big. fat. mess!} I decided that I would arm my bird with loads of a spray satin polyurethane.  

I went to Michaels in search of my birds plumage. I found a bag of red feathers and some crazy bedazzled-slinky-Christmas-stick-things that would work perfectly. I glued little poufs of feathers to the ends of some of the 'before-mentioned stems'



I took a pair of scissors and made a small hole on the birds head for the glittery leave spray to stick through. I put a little hot glue in the opening for added security. Then I made a hole in the hiney and on the tummy for the bigger spray {it went in through the top and out the bottom} The stick coming out of the underside allowed us to attach it to our tree.

His wings were made out of red felt. I shaped them like teardrops and then with hot glue, I covered them with feathers. The rounded part of the teardrop was closet to the head. I  hot glued about 1/3 of the front of the wing to the body and then left the back part unglued so it looked 'wing-like'
. 
 
 
He was so happy sitting in his ornament wreath nest in his new home.
And he was on his best behavior floating down Main Street. 



Matter of fact, he was such a show-off that he won himself one of the 'Best in Parade' awards! 







  

I fell in love with the art of artist Aaron Hequembourg of Big White Dog several years ago.
He was selling at one of our local arts festivals.

{via ghostmap.blogspot}

I was immediately struck by the rich textures and the combinations of all the medias he uses --
salvaged wood, rustic hardware, antiqued book pages and found objects. So many layers... 





 After graduating with a degree in Printmaking and Engraving, Aaron didn't have the funds
to purchase a printing press, so he began to use a woodburning tool to sketch his images into found wood.


 
In the late 90's, he married and moved to his wifes 2000+acre farm in Monticello, Georgia
that had been in her family since 1815. He began to dismantle the many sharecropper buildings,
using the wood and discovering discarded pieces of history along the way--medicine bottles,
 old newspapers, mason jars.


{via ajc.com}
There were obviously wonderful stories behind each piece. The rich history just seems to
seep out of the wood grain. Aaron uses inspirations from old photographs in many of his pieces. 

 
One of Aaron's sons was the model for the piece above.
 {My camera phone photos do not do these pieces justice}

Every blade of grass is a sliver of an old book page.  



His newest pieces involve close-ups of hands. These may be some of my very favorite to date. 

{'Camellia' 46"W X 49"H Engraved assemblage from sharecropper houses
Wood from sharecropper houses,1870s'-80s' pedal organ music, found objects}

Like Aaron explains, this series is so relatable--there are no faces to determine who these distinguished hands may belong to. We get to use our imagination and might even discover our own grandmas wrinkles, or our great-uncles callouses.... What great wisdom these thick dark hands surely possess..  

Aaron's work has been described as 'the next generation of folk art'. I agree. He has won dozens of awards in just the past few years and he shows at festivals all over the country. If you get the opportunity to see his art in person--run!! He will graciously share an intriguing story behind each piece. And you may even be lucky enough to watch his process:





This is my treasured piece of Aaron's work that I purchased the first time I saw his work.
I hope to one day own {many} more.