Four weeks to go until the art car making party weekend and we are getting into the nitty gritty... I have received several comments from friends and family about how problematic working with fabric on the car will be. People are concerned that it won't stick, it will fade, peel off, etc... well its a work of art and all of the mistakes and problems will just have to be looked at as Design Features!
Here are some of the ideas Dave & Natan (my art car design/project facilitators) and I have been talking about:
-Reusing fabric and thrift shop clothing to create a light to dark "patchwork" that covers the car. The random sized shapes will be glued on with contact cement (other ideas?) in a loose pattern of my favorite green blue purple tones.
-In keeping with the theme of "what goes around comes around" the gradation of color and light and dark will be evocative of day-to-night - our planet going around the sun.
-Moving around the car in a continuous spiral will be various representations of the theme in different alphabets. For example spelling "what goes around comes around" in braille could be done by gluing on buttons. Other languages I am interested in using are: morse code, ascii, gregg short hand, navy signal flags, japanese, and yiddish.
-Anyone have any ideas on how we can easily create the words? Stencil and spray paint? Fabric paint? Embroidery? Sharpie Markers?
-If anyone can write out the japanese or yiddish please email me.
-During the art car making weekend friends and family can create patchwork pieces which will be glued onto the car.
-After the car is covered in the base fabrics we will add the words and images as well as any other light weight embellishments and trims.
-Once everything has been glued in place we will need to seal it in some way... Polyurethane? Resin? any other ideas??? I'm sure there are some reasonable options that car paint experts must know about. Please ask around and report back. I'm sure there are experts out there that we can ask for advice and suggestions on what materials will work best. Anyone know someone who works in an auto body shop?
- I am still waiting to hear back from Will Shortz to see if he will design me a special puzzle for the car (grin) Who knows someone who knows Will???
Have you tried emailing Will to ask? shortz@nytimes.com (elsewhere listed as will.shortz@nytimes.com)
ReplyDeleteYes, I tried both of those email addresses and they bounced. Any other ideas? If there are only 6 degrees of separation between any two people then we should be able to get a message to Will somehow... what goes around comes around!
ReplyDeleteDear Joan
ReplyDeleteHappy PRe - Birthday. 50th - Wow. Well, here's my suggestion for words.
I recently laser cut a poem out on a sheet of acrylic for one of my MFA art pieces. The poem was shut down as a viable solution, but I saved the letters from the cut outs. Then, one day at the start of this semester, I poured these out on a sheet of paper and spray painted the random arrangements of letters on the page.
Then, one can begin a poem or story - like in a year book - on what ever angle or letter - in sharpie -
Or, following up on that idea, I bought twelve sets of magnetic letters from the dollar store - and plan to use these to "write" words, and spay paint the letters -
Sorry I will not make it out for your birthday party. I will be full on involved in writing my thesis and making work for my advancement review.
love
Caorl
Joan,
ReplyDeleteI like the theme. Concerning the language, have you considered something more universal like pictograms? You can use simple icons like isotype to create the saying "What goes around comes around". If you would like I can sketch up how i think it could look for you. Let me know, you have my email.
Also, two years ago I spoke to one of the art car exhibitors at Artscape about what he used on his car to make it so vivid and shiny. He used resin coats. A lot of them. The effect was eye catching and really set his car a part from the rest. It also preserved his car well. Altho if you are using fabric, i dont know if it will work.
Just two thoughts to chew on. Good luck and I will see if I can make it on that weekend.
-Reid