Dead Fly 99 - Froggy Does the World a Favor

 

Dead Fly 99 - Froggy Does the World a Favor

pencil on paper 8" x 10"

     I had hoped to do one more Dead Fly Froggy Christmas card this year to add to the collection and send out to family and friends, but actually I was kind of depressed this year when Christmas rolled around. I really don't think anyone felt all that great. Let's face it Covid and other happenings in our country and the world have taken their toll on our good humor. However, on New Years Eve morning this image came to mind! Yes! Thank you, Froggy! Let's all hope for a change for the good in 2021. Hoppy New Year!

Dead Fly 98 The Last Supper

Dead Fly 98 The Last Supper

oil on canvas 8" x 10"

     Here is a Dead Fly painting I did in early 2020 before Covid hit. I wanted this to be themed for the Lenten/Easter season. I had an image in my mind of the last supper and figured that in a natural setting there probably would have been flies in the room. At first I was going to do the usual golden chalice for the wine but after thinking about it figured Jesus wouldn't have had a gold jewel encrusted chalice. Although he was special I doubt they had really fancy dinner ware. It seemed glass would be a better choice. I also like to think of this painting as "what Jesus saw." You can interpret this however you please.

 

Dead Fly 97 - REAL Dead Fly Solarium

Dead Fly 97 - REAL Dead Fly

Solarium

Mixed media

approximately 10" by 5"

     A few months into the Dead Fly project back in 2017 I had the good fortune of finding a mummified Dead Fly in my kitchen sink. It was completely intact, wings still attached, legs up*. Perfect! I carefully set it in a little glass dish with cellophane over it and set it in a safe place for future use. Over the next couple years, periodically I would examine it and toy in my mind with how it would be memorialized and preserved for posterity. Eventually, this object d'art came to mind. I have always enjoyed working with miniatures and found this project to be quite involved and a lot of fun. 

     I got the dome from Michaels (art and craft supplies). The rug is a carefully cut out and fringed piece of tapestry I got from JoAnn Fabrics. The doily is a piece of lace cut out of a ribbon. The vase is a small ivory bead with painted weeds for the flowers with a bit of moss for the leaves. I made the table using balsa wood for the top and bits of stems from the trumpet vine that grows on our porch for the legs. A tiny bead is the drawer handle. The vase is a wooden peg which I then marbleized, an old technique used by master painters. The leaves are ribbon and wire, cut, painted and shaped. The floor boards are balsa wood scored with a knitting needle and wood grained, another old master painting technique. The Japanese screen was tricky to make but eventually came together - cardboard, paint, duct tape and velum on which is a rather whimsical painting of a Dead Fly with cherry blossoms around it.

     *As I said the project was tricky and rather delicate especially at one point when in the course of carting this project and the fly back and forth to my studio I accidentally broke off one of the legs! But a magnifying glass to assist and a pin and a drop of Super Glue saved the day! 

 

Dead Fly 96 Apparel

Dead Fly 96 Apparel

Acrylic stamp on white cotton

All this stamping going on! Although I looked up how to do a silk screen, it really was beyond anything I could do, so as a way of creating some Dead Fly apparel, I stamped a white T shirt with a Dead Fly stamp from Dead Fly #94. Starving artist that I am, I hesitated to buy a brand-new T shirt for this project and instead went to our local thrift shop to look for a suitable one at a price I could afford. It's a one of a kind. I don't have any intention of doing a bunch of them and starting a Dead Fly clothing line at this time. But I'll let you know if I change my mind.

 

Dead Fly 95 - Dead Fly Swatters

Dead Fly 95 

Dead Fly Swatters

approximately 18" long - acrylic on plastic

Because an artist has to make money and until the series is complete and I have a show of all one hundred Dead Fly pieces, I decided to make up a bunch of Dead Fly Swatters for people who wanted to support this project and wish to have something to show for their support. They also work well to swat flies. It took me a while to find a place where I could get blank "promotional" swatters at a price I could afford. I found this at Windy City Novelties near Chicago. They even come individually wrapped in a cellophane bag which makes the sales look very professional. I was selling them at The Arts Underground (closed now forever on account of Covid) and will sell them if I ever get to do an arts festival again. I would sell them mail-order but haven't found a cheap way to package them yet. If I ever do have the BIG show, they will be available for sale there. I have lots! Each one is individually hand stamped (I used the stamp used to create Dead Fly #46) signed and numbered.

 

Dead Fly 94 - Red on Red on Red

Dead Fly 94

Red on Red on Red on Red

acrylic on canvas 18" x 24"

     This one took a long time. I liked the way Dead Fly 46 (Splotch in Red) came out so I wanted to see what a similar piece would look like but bigger! I had to cut vinyl pieces for printing and then of course glue them to blocks so I could use them on the canvas, There's no going back once the stamping begins so the piece is quite random. It is what it is! 

 

Dead Fly 93 - Froggy Goes Holiday Shopping

Dead Fly 93 - Froggy Goes Holiday Shopping

Pencil on Paper approximately 8' x 10"

The third, well, fourth actually if you include the Thanksgiving card (#41), in a series of Holiday cards I make for my family and a few close friends, here we have Froggy out doing her holiday shopping. This as well as the others are now available as greeting cards and proudly displayed at The Arts Underground* in Lewisburg, PA on a rotating card rack, an investment I made so as to get some money for the project till I have that big show and start selling off the individual pieces. To see the others in the card series go back to Dead Flies 41, 42, and 73.

The Arts Underground, the co-op of which I was a member, had to close down in April of 2020 due to Covid. We couldn't make rent and we couldn't be there. Fortunately, Steve Gibson bought the old Eagles Club building in Milton, PA. I now have a wonderful studio in the basement which allows me to do big paintings and use the rotating card rack at shows.

Dead Fly 92 - A Grand Experiment

Dead Fly 92 - A Grand Experiment

Acrylic and silicone on canvas 18" x 24"

I've been reading about pour paintings using silicone but have no idea how to do one. But I did have some extra packets of silicone laying around so one day slathered the canvas with it and then just started painting away. Sometimes the paint would sit on top of the silicone. Then it would sink to the bottom. It certainly didn't slow down the dry time, which I thought would happen. What was neat about it is that new colors layered over the old like glazes, but then dried so quickly that they could be blended. It's best to see this one up close and real to appreciate how the paint worked. 

Dead Fly 91 - Dead Fly on a Manila Folder

Dead Fly 91 - Dead Fly on a Manila Folder

Pencil on a manila folder

Harking back to the original dead fly which was on a manila folder, I created this piece of art using a manila folder and colored pencils. It took a long time and I have a stack of trial and error dead flies on manila folders that were all part of the process.

Dead Fly 90 - DIY Dead Fly Shadow

Dead Fly 90 - DIY Dead Fly Shadow

Mixed media on canvas 14" x 14"

Here is an experiment. Sometimes I see things in my mind and then just want to try them to see if they work out in reality. For this I made a base out of aluminum foil then stitched that to the canvas. Then I covered it with plaster tape even wrapping the wire legs. Then I filled in the gabs with caulking and after several days of drying time painted it. The canvas is painted "manila folder yellow" to recreate the first dead fly on the first manila folder. When it's hung, depending on the light source, the fly casts it's own shadow which changes because light changes.

Dead Fly 89 - The Executive

Dead Fly 89 - The Executive

Mixed media - 12" tall

This one was made using aluminum foil as the base, covered with Sculpey. The wings are made of copper wire twisted till it took shape. I tried again soldering them together buy need to learn a whole lot more about soldering before I'll ever be successful at it. The legs are pipe-cleaners, singed to make them look like fly legs, then covered with some Sculpey here and there. A quick trip to the thrift shop and I found a small lamp which I took apart for the base. This particular piece is sized right and would look great on an executive's desk. Hence the name - The Executive

Dead Fly 88 - Object D'Art

Dead Fly 88 - Object D'Art

mixed media 31" tall

Here is the first sculpture I've done for this series if you don't count the little flies in Dead Fly 45. I used a paper bag stuffed with newspaper, then covered with plaster tape for the body. Used wires coated with plaster tape for the legs. The wings were trick. I thought it would be easy to solder the wing wire together and after many failed attempts, just twisted the wires in place. Yes, that's an old lamp base for the base. I thing the design on it looks like fly wings. The whole thing was then painted with Rustoleum to make it look like iron. Originally I had in mind to do a model suitable for an executives desk but got carried away with this one and it ended up bigger than I thought it would which leads to...

Dead Fly 87 - Picnic

Dead Fly 87 - Picnic

acrylic on canvas - 14" x 14"

This one took a l-o-n-g time to do. I actually started this one a few months ago after I'd picked up a bunch of cheap acrylic paints from Michaels Art Store. I wanted to see what they painted like so went at it just kid of slapping the paint on the canvas using a picture I had in my mind. I wanted a dead fly on a picnic table. I painted in a glass of wine. Everything was all crooked as hell, but what the heck. Then came the struggle. I wanted clouds. Didn't know how to paint clouds so I went to YouTube and searched How To Paint Clouds. So many clouds! After much work this is what I came up with. The clouds looked good, The fly looked good. But the glass of wine looked like crap so eventually I gave up on it but had used so much paint in trying to get it right that the image was impasto. No amount of painting over it completely got rid of it so I decided to take sandpaper to the canvas and sand out the glass of wine. I was a little too over enthusiastic about this and went and sanded right through the canvas. Sigh! So much work and now I'd gone and wrecked the canvas. Well, I fixed it with a patch on the back and some plaster filler. You can still slightly see where the wine glass was, but it's not really obvious.

Dead Fly 86 - Self Portrait

Dead Fly 86 - Self Portrait

watercolor on canvas 14"x 14"

Unplanned subject, but I felt like doing a Dead Fly using just the black watercolor pencil. It started out as just a nice study of a Dead Fly in the middle of the canvas, then I added some water, then just let going. I had an original idea of doing one of those lovely little black and white studies of the subject but as I worked I started to see a face in the lines and shadows. Then I thought, Hm, that kind of looks likes me. So emphasized that area. Then saw another one, and another one, and another one... How many do you see? 

Dead Fly 85 Flying

Dead Fly 85 - Flying

watercolor on canvas 14' x 14"

Back to the watercolor pencils. I felt like just working with limited color to see what would happen. Like I said, at least I know what it will be a painting of.  It was tricky to add the yellow mustardy color to this one. One never knows what will happen when a new color is introduced. And like with all painting, you have to now when to let it go. Stop working on it. And say It's Done! After these watercolor paintings on canvas are thoroughly dry, I spray them with a quick coat of acrylic varnish.

Dead Fly 84 - We've Come to This

Dead Fly 84 - We've Come to This

acrylic on canvas with iron rust added

Six canvasses 14" x 14" each

This is my Fourth of July 2019 painting. I've been at this Dead Fly Project for a couple years now and each Fourth of July I wax patriotic and do a USA themed piece. This one took a while. First the layout. Then the painting. Then I carved the stars out of block vinyl for printing on the canvas. I carved six stars each one a little different and then as they were stamped onto the canvas, I took an extra slice out so that each one is different. Much like our own states. Each one has its own personality, problems, successes, political leanings. At this time I feel our country is falling apart. We're so divided. If we keep it up - well, Dead Fly. It's meant to be hung haphazardly like depicted. Troubled times. Even the stars lack order.

Dead Fly 83 - Experiment with Water Color

Dead Fly 83

watercolor on canvas 8"x 10"

I picked up a set of watercolor pencils and felt like trying them out.  One of the things that's fun about this Dead Fly Project is that when I do feel like experimenting with a new medium I don't sit there for an hour debating with myself about what I should paint. It's going to be a dead fly. So I just tarted drawing. Then brushing and spraying water on the canvas till it was done. I kind of like this medium. This one looks like stained glass. I like using it on canvas as well. That saves framing and matting which can be expensive when done properly.

Dead Fly 82 Modern Art Fly

Dead Fly 82 - Modern Art Fly

acrylic on canvas 14" x 14"

     I bought some really cheap acrylic paints from our local art store, Michael's, to be exact. Big tubes, six colors - red, yellow, blue, green, black, and white.With the 50% off coupon I paid $16.00. I wanted to see what they would do. So I figured I would just start painting lines, shapes, colors slapped on quickly until the painting no longer disturbed me. Figured I might as well work a dead fly into the mix as well and make it a part of the series. This one still disturbs me, but at a point you just have to call it a day and let them go. I don't think artist's are ever completely satisfied with anything they turn out. Joslyn says this is why when you go to an artist's studio there are so many paintings turned against the wall. On the other hand Greg - my husband who gets to see all the works in progress and beyond - when he overheard a phone discussion where I said I might just destroy this one - said -" I like it this one." I guess there's something for everyone.

Dead Fly 81 - Chaos

Dead Fly 81 - Chaos

acrylic on canvas 14" x 14"

     Still at it with the drips. I had a rather disturbing week and needed to work stuff out. Started with red paint on canvas - heavy coat with extender - dropped on some black - tried to make flies out of some of the drips and splotches. That dint work out. Decided to destroy the painting but not the canvas so took it outside and ran it under the spigot. At a point of all the heavy paint getting washed away the images started to take form and at which point I shut off the water and brought what was left inside to dry flat. Then played with it for a couple of days here and there till it looked done. I feel better for having painted this one. Thank you.

Dead Fly 80 - Swarm

Dead Fly 80 - Swarm

acrylic on canvas 8" x 10"

     This is another experiment using that same paint but this is a wet on wet. Slather a heavy coat of white paint on the canvas this time adding some extender, drop on some black using the same, then go at it with a pointy object to draw out the flies. My daughter has refined this technique to a fine point. She uses a steak knife. After watching her do this for several days I just wanted to try one myself. Hers are much better. It's kind of like Jackson Pollock. He had total control over his drips. Anyways it was fun to try.