Last weekend I received a gift, a place to explore that’s been left behind. Thank you universe .
Thendara's Blog
The odds and ends in the creative world of Thendara M Kida-Gee.
going through old images...Tottenham Cemetery circa 1999
back in pre 2000 days I was using a camera that had seen better days. it had a light leak one fix did not completely fix. sometimes it created beautiful images sometimes it just fucked things up.
This is one image in which the camera's faults worked for me in my opinion.
This is from the cemetery next to Bruce Castle in Tottenham which I lived near. I visited frequently it was one of the cooler things in Tottenham which at the time was a place where people did not choose to live. We could afford to live there, I have always been next to the place people want to love, the bit to the side that hasn't seen the gleam of modern consumerism and gentrification hit it.
Mixed media Painting with Rock companion
created at the same time, without intent to be a pairing of rock and painting but ended up so. maybe every painting needs a rock friend?
Unity at Bemis
This weekend the Seattle Art Fair comes to town. In addition to this huge experience the art community about town is sharing a lot of other great work, perhaps slightly more representative of Seattle Artists. One such event you may like to check out in the hot hot heat is Unity at Bemis.
I have two pieces of work in this show both Mountainscapes, one small one large.
the best thing? well that would be that 50% percent of the sales goes to Facing Homeslessness, the other fifty goes to artist, both groups in need and appreciative of your support.
Bemis Arts page: http://www.bemisarts.com/welcome#unity-at-the-bemis-summer-art-show
Unity at the Bemis page: http://www.unitedcreations.com/unity
Unity at the Bemis FB:https://www.facebook.com/unityatthebemis/
Life has been a lot about this for the past few months
Talula and our duck Jemima. named after Jemima Puddle duck by Beatrix Potter
we have been busy here on our little farm on the edge of the Puget Sound. We hatched six duck eggs, who needed assistance in hatching ( a very stressful week I will not get into now!)
However despite the stress and worry we now have a flock of six ducks and I am trying to return to my artistic practice. slowly slowly surely surely.
These ducks will be introduced to you in the week to come. if you want more instant duck satisfaction I have been much better at keeping my Instagram up to date so please check that out.
My first Resin Tabletop
So it began with a little brown wood table from the goodwill. it was the perfect height for a using next to the bath tub to hold your water or soothing tea or a book and a hand towel for those who like to read in the bath as I and my daughter do. It was a nice shape but the surface was a bit rough so a spray paint it would receive to even the surface color and make way for a table top collage.
I spend a lot of time hanging out as well as imagining the edge of the forest. My name Thendara means edge of the forest in Iroquois and having that name must have set something in motion of love and appreciation to the divide between ruled by man and ruled by tree. In between big projects I work on these collage fascinations of the edge of the forest. I just completed the first iteration of a project entitled Through the Threes which is an installation of collages in this theme (see my previous blog post for more images from this project.) This table fits into my Through the Trees theme.
Through the Trees
my collage contemplations of this edge fascinate over the interplay of light that exists on this edge, as well as confusion of depth, just how deep is the forest? one can never tell on it's edge one must enter.
my process is not only a visual creation and object at the end all of this but the process itself is a moving meditation, I cut each strip of photograph by hand, I could expedite this in many a mechanical machine but it would take away from the connectedness and the process is really what helps me, cope, breathe deep all those wonderful things that happen of a moving meditation. Making art and calming the mind. All this goodness while also using my own previous creations (photographs, as a photographer I have many) and self recycling - it's the circle of life here in the art studio, sometimes the old art gets eaten and when it does it's thrown back up into something new, something more abstract and generally a hit with kids who get my vision!
I will be using PVA glue and trying to keep everything firmly down, a lot of my collage work I allow for it to have varying heights and pieces that reach through the resin but for this table top I am gonna keep things smooth and flat!
I am creating this project with Art Resin, who have not paid me to use their product but have given me a 32oz sample pack to share what I made with that pack.
I switched to Art resin from another non toxic resin a couple years ago and have found it an easy to use product, I am quite sensitive to chemicals so it is a welcome relief from the insanely toxic resins out there and its price is better then the previous brand I used which was also non toxic but way more expensive.
Pre Collage cutting up of photographs. piece by piece.
beginning the collage with a little help from my dog Tiggy!
Final Trim! I will pick through the pieces and add them back to my scraps box to make an appearance elsewhere.
Now we need to wait until tomorrow take it to the garage, hopefully with some sun to assist. managed to keep all the pieces somewhat flat and looking forward to a nice thick clear coat - no bubbles and a new table.
The table is prepared for resining! used some spray art to blow off any debris, wearing at hat to keep hair out and still of course a hair finds it's way in, plenty of sticks on hand to fish it out.
I'm trying to not over cover as I don't want to have to sand resin off where its not meant to be afterwards. after mixing letting the resin sit for a few minutes for beginning the pour. I find resining in cold weather much harder to do as the resin moves differently- preferential to the warmer weather resin but what do you do when you live in the Pacific Northwest? wait till summer? Never!
After pouring I use my torch and skewers (those disposable ones for shish kababs, cause I am out of toothpicks!) to pop the last of the air bubbles that haven't settled out ( I can get very anal retentive during this phase.)
Coming tomorrow final images ...
I'll be back...
When it's raining all resin stays tacky longer, brought the table inside the house to avoid some of that moisture and help things firm up, all good!
I hope you enjoyed my project and thank you for checking out my work, if you have any questions please feel free to get in touch!