 🇺🇸🐅 I’m so excited how vibrant my new patio rug thru Society6 turned out(!) ( …no filter on the pictures ) There is a 4th of July sale running on it in now… See link: https://society6.com/product/bengal-tiger6519376_outdoor-rug  This rug is created from a painting I did years ago and can be used indoors as well since the fabric is soft…  An image from the Facebook page: Cincinnati Reds & Bengals Art by Chrissy Breslin Schroeder: 🐅 🇺🇸 Happy 4th of July Weekend! 🇺🇸 🐅 
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Welcome April and TGIF. Happy 04.01.2022. This is my next canvas in my made-up “Is It Bigger Than A Breadbox?” art project. I call the painting “A Bonnet, Bouquet, & Bees”. The title includes a seasonal theme being that there was a time when the fashion of wearing an Easter bonnet carried much weight and the date for Easter this year will fall in the middle of this month of April. ( It is always curious to me when Easter is because it changes every year based on the spring equinox and the cycle of the moon. ) Read about my painting project that uses vintage fashion magazines and takes inspiration from an old-fashioned guessing game in my previous blogs linked below where I explain that I am creating a series of paintings inspired by the game “Twenty Questions” also known as the “Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral?” game. Sometimes I also call it the “Is It Bigger Than A Breadbox?” game. The concept of my art project is to reference a fashion model ( or mannequin in this case ) from my collection of old fashion magazines and catalogs, then imagine and create a painting that somehow includes in the composition what could be identified as an animal, a vegetable, and a mineral. Find a review of the game of questions mentioned and my made-up project including my first five canvases of this series of paintings in the blogs linked below: “Is It Bigger Than A Breadbox?” ~ “TV Land”, “Saturn”, “December”, and “Parrot Wallpaper” “March On… 2022 So Far” Canvas #6: “A Bonnet, Bouquet, & Bees”  “A Bonnet, Bouquet, & Bees”. That alliteration and title of this painting should cover it for including an animal, a vegetable, and a mineral in this April creation and canvas number 6 ( number 6 like the 6 number of sides found in a hexagon = the geometric shape that repeatedly makes and defines a honeycomb. ) For the hat model in this painting I will note that the figure or face in this piece was actually created based on a picture of a mannequin in an ad. The disproportionate humanlike features may be noticeable in this regard, for example how oversized the eye is relative to other features. All the rest of the elements in the composition I just made-up to include in the design what could be classified as an animal, a vegetable, and a mineral each of which can be found blooming or buzzing with a brim. Here are a whole bunch of pictures that I snapped at different times and in different lighting along with a changing palette during the process of painting this canvas as my ideas for the composition evolved: My ideas for this “Is It Bigger Than A Breadbox Project” won’t stop but as always the ideas are just the spark - - then there is the process. “The Process” or work of journeying through the creating is a whole other matter, a different animal. In the spirit of the Easter season that is upon us one could call it a “rabbit hole”. Nevertheless, though the process may be much more time consuming than the quick conceptualizing that pops in my head in the form of words or visualizations, I do find the work of making the art valuable to me. For me I find it inspiring, insightful, and meaningful. ( In keeping with the theme of the title of this artwork/blog, I guess you could say it allows a little space to use a combination of all my senses, my “6th sense”, and serves as a form of meditation. ) Of course doing the work is also fun and probably most valuable of it all is that it is healing. Art in its many forms has always been my medicine and therapy, and in the end the quiet time put into it never ceases to continually reveal to me much more than my initial thoughts or imaginings even if my pictures may not show it. I have some other projects I am working on this April and I won’t be spending much time in my home studio space in May because that is the merry month that my family celebrates all our birthdays ( aside from mine which is in December ). In May we celebrate my two sons’ birthdays as well as their dad’s ( my husband’s ) birthday. We will also celebrate Mother’s Day too of course, and will be traveling together throughout the springtime. I have begun sketching out some summer holiday artwork however and see my next piece as having a little 4th of July flair. It will be my 7th canvas of the 20 canvases I have for this series of paintings and will likely groove with some 1970’s vibes. …I think I may call it “Bicentennial Spirit”. For the fifth canvas of my made-up “Is It Bigger Than A Breadbox Project” that I created with some springtime vibes for this month of March and called “March On… 2022 So Far”, I included a field of sunflowers for Ukraine, a tiger for my Bengals fandom, and a bright green classic for my Irish roots. What is the “Is It Bigger Than A Breadbox Project” I created? The answer to that question can be found in the previous blog: “Is It Bigger Than A Breadbox? ~ “TV Land”, “Saturn”, “December”, and “Parrot Wallpaper” “March On… 2022 So Far”  See my next canvas in this series of paintings and some artwork for April: Canvas #6 and “A Bonnet, Bouquet, & Bees” In the spirit of the New Year that is upon us, like many I have been using my energy to clean house a bit and look forward to new adventures and projects; and in that spirit of cleaning and making room for new things to learn, explore, and enjoy, I dusted off an old box of collectibles that I pulled off the shelf and created a new art project for myself. I decided to invent a new art exercise based on a small random collection of old fashion catalogs and magazines that I have saved from younger years. I probably have a magazine from every decade of my life on this planet making them practically a collection of antiques. It is through these old magazines as well as my memory of an old game that I decided what I will make this project be and what I will design and paint on the twenty brand new 8” x 10” canvases that I bought for myself with a Christmas Birthday gift card. First of all, in terms of the theme of the project and my painting designs, I will share the old game that I mentioned remembering and the one in which I plan to conceptually integrate in each created canvas composition. The game I am talking about is/was known as “Twenty Questions”. It may also be remembered by the questions, “Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral?”. For me, I often remember it as the “Is it bigger than a breadbox?” game. This particular game is familiar in my imagination and memory because it is a game of questions that my family would play on road trips or long vacation drives when I was a kid. I remember my dad, who was born in 1928 and grew-up through the 1940’s and who taught all us kids this relatively old-fashioned game, would always begin the questioning by asking, “Is it bigger than a bread box?” …And in those days I remember thinking to myself, “What’s a bread box?”. - - Because of course my Captain Crunch eating, Scooby-Doo Saturday morning cartoon watching 1970’s childhood self understood from commercials and trips with my mom to the grocery, that bread is stored on a shelf in a twisty-tied brightly printed thin plastic bag spotted in the primary colors of red, blue and yellow with bubbly circles and the word “Wonder” boldly stamped across the loaf. Nowadays of course, the existence of Wonder Bread along with the game known as “Twenty Questions” or “Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral?” or the expression “Is it bigger than a breadbox?” can begin to be understood with a simple search on the internet. ( A simple internet search or “Goggle” can also bring understanding to the children’s market in the 1970’s and the culture that colored it including the breakfast cereal composed of practically 100% sugar called “Captain Crunch” as well as the original Hanna-Barbera “Scooby-Doo” cartoons { I always loved the mystery. } ) As far as a simple search on the internet about the game “Twenty Questions”, Wikipedia says: “Twenty Questions is a spoken parlor game, which encourages deductive reasoning and creativity. It originated in the United States and was played widely in the 19th century. It escalated in popularity during the late 1940s.” When googling of the words “Animal, Vegetable, Mineral” an educational website can be found that explains that the (quote): “Animal, Vegetable or Mineral Game is a travel game and activity for children of all ages that will occupy them for hours.” It goes on to outline how the game it is played:
For me in my childhood however, I always identified this game as the “Is it bigger than a breadbox?” game since over the years all us kids followed my Dad’s lead and began the game of questions with that inquiry. A google search of the words “Is it bigger than a breadbox” directed me to a page with an answer to a posted question where I could somewhat relate to the generational confusion. Here is a quote from the Q & A: Q: The other day I told my dad that I had gotten him a birthday present, and he said, “Is it bigger than a breadbox?” Where did this expression come from? A: The question “Is it bigger than a breadbox?” was popularized by Steve Allen when he was a panelist on the TV quiz show “What’s My Line.” The breadbox question became a comic refrain on “What’s My Line,” the longest-running game show in the history of prime-time network TV. It lasted for 18 seasons, from 1950 to 1967. Descriptive phrases like “no larger than a breadbox” and “not much bigger than a breadbox” were known in the 1940s. But it was Allen’s “Is it bigger than a breadbox?” that kept the usage alive long after breadboxes were a distant memory. Now that the game with the collective understanding of an animal, a vegetable, and a mineral has been reviewed, I will share the concept of my new art project. My project is to take a figure from the old catalogues or magazines I have and paint her on canvas in a composition that also somehow includes what could be classified as an animal, a vegetable, and a mineral. - - That is it. Think of and include all three. Those are the only parameters of my made-up project. On the surface I may ask myself or want to explain why I am doing this art exercise. Of course I know that I could come up with a multitude of answers to that question because I know that there are layers of meaning and creativity involved; but essentially the most basic and true answer to that question is that I like to draw and paint animals and flowers and plants and all of earth’s bounty, and I also like to draw and paint still life. I like to draw and paint people and figures and faces; and I like to create abstract paintings as well as being attracted to a degree to the art of realism. Finally, I want to make note about my little pile of random fashion magazine finds from younger days. Considering that my stack of periodicals is a collection of old magazines and catalogs some of which date back to the 1960’s, the 1970’s, the 1980’s and the 1990’s and all of which are mostly just composed of elaborate full page ads, it is not surprising to me that I recognize that demographically, culturally, and physically speaking the diversity represented is limited. Also considering that the females were called ‘models’ meaning they were molded and fashioned to represent a somewhat narrow ideal or model to appeal to the era, it is not hard to observe and measure a limited profile in terms of attributes; so at times I choose to alter them and their colors as I did with the colors of their hair and their clothes in these painted canvases pictured. I have also taken the liberty to redesign their fashions and most of the painted fabrics as well. “High fashion” and whatever that may be or may have been is not necessary the study here. Essentially, I selected a figure to incorporate into the painting based mainly on her posture or expression. I then take the liberty to alter those expressions a little at times as well. ( It is a similar exercise to the ones I explained about it the blogs: “Calendars, Planners, Doodles, and Painting” and “Sketchbook Afternoon” and even in a painting in the blog “Air to Water: The Revolution of Ten Koi” ). When looking through the catalogues and magazines, it is basically just a few of these physically expressive captures of the photographed fashion figure that I am looking for so that I can animate some created subject through the paintings and invented integrated scenes that I completely imagine then piece together and create. Needless to say then, in view of these old magazines I got inspiration from, maybe it is pretty much understood that the figures from this era are not necessarily a study or profile in diversity culturally or otherwise. This is just a point I wanted to recognize especially in this new year of 2022 when challenges to expand diverse representation are striving to be understood. Nevertheless, at the same time, I remind myself that these are my catalogs and magazines. These are my catalogs and magazines that came into my hands because they were marketing to someone of my cultural profile that was actually in a position to consider buying all they were trying to sell. Pictured below are the first four canvases I played with in my painted “Animal, Vegetable, Mineral”/“Is it bigger than a breadbox?”/“Twenty Questions” inspired paintings which I titled “TV Land”, “Saturn”, “December”, and “Parrot Wallpaper”. On these canvases the most obviously identifiable classified elements, subjects, or objects of a TV and chair, playing cards, globe, fully-full margarita glass, flamingo, owl, domestic cat, parrot motifs, garden with orange or peach trees, forest and fall leaves, red flowers in a crystal vase, and a lime are the most easily seen. “TV Land”  “TV Land” painting by the actual TV in different lighting:   “Saturn”  “Saturn” painting in sunlight:  “December”  …And for the fourth piece in this series that I called “Parrot Wallpaper”, I designed each element on the canvas by first taking a picture of a fully-full margarita glass then painting it. Then I searched for some images of classic vintage cat-eyed sunglasses to further the fashion of a model in a magazine with a head scarf; and then like on the other canvases, I had fun designing and creating elements of the setting like the stylized parrot motif wallpaper I made-up to make part of this composition. "Parrot Wallpaper"     Continuing with the canvases, see #7, #8, #9, and #10 in the blog: 7,8,9, and 10: “Skateland USA”, “Strawberry Fields in an Octopus's Garden”, “Boxes and Butterflies Under a Billowy Cloud for Canvas #9”, and “Sea Turtle Café” Find an additional blogs for this October 2022 and my Canvas #12 in
this series of paintings here: Canvas #12: "Six Elements Plus Six Green Figurines" Christmastime at the Metropolitan Museum of Art including this season’s exhibit “Inspiring Walt Disney” as well as the ongoing exhibit of my great-grandfather’s artwork of Chief Joseph.           My Great-Grandfather's artwork of Chief Joseph in The MET Sentimental Reminder ~ "Seeds of Suns" - Chrissy Breslin Schroeder  A wonderful holiday visit with my son who lives in NYC.
Walking through the aisles at the stores, it is clear that “Back-to-School” time has come around again. Although there are no longer any back-to-school kids in my house ( thankfully at times especially during these sad and scary days of the increasingly dangerous spread of Covid and its variants ) for me it is still a new beginning of sorts. For me it is still a new beginning of sorts because it is the time of year when I again go down the back-to-school supplies aisles to get a new one of those many “planners” or organizing calendars that they sell this time of year. I am due for another one being that the calendars usually run from July to August of the following year. I love shopping through them since they come with all kinds of fancy organizing designs and layouts. My favorites are the ones that help you ‘color code’ to keep things organized. When paging through my planner or calendar organizer from the past year, I came across this quick gel pen doodle that I had filled in on one of the many unused pages. It is not unusual for me to find unused planner pages as I tend to go with my own flow as life comes to me; and though I have usually taken pride in my organizational skills, I am pretty far from being a strict planner. On top of that, prior to my Covid vaccination shots this past Spring of 2021, organizing a busy calendar of events, plans, travel, etc. clearly wasn’t what life in this world called for or even allowed in some cases. So, needless to say, the pages unused for planning in recent times are many. Now I am starting to think that with this new calendar I am going to need it more than ever as events get scheduled and then rescheduled again with the end of the summer once more bringing uncertainty on this earth. Doodle on old calendar planner page:  Actually, it is not unusual for me to find random doodles in notebooks of any kind; but when I came across the quick loose sketch in one of my actual sketchbooks pictured below, I remembered how seeing that loosely drawn sketch ( artwork that in general appears unfinished and a pretty lethargic effort ) had put the subject in my mind to doodle a similar posture again on one of my many doodled planner pages. Sketchbook page:  I believe that I did that quick sketch in my sketchbook a long time ago and first found the figure in an ad or something like that. It was interesting to me that I doodled the likeness twice, so I decided to give the subject and her posture more focus by creating a painting. To expand on the canvas, I just thought up different elements and created a setting to place it. The painting itself became inspiration for another series of painting ideas that I have had spinning in my head to do as a creative exercise. Those painting imaginings that I have can be part of an art project that I can ‘go-with-the-flow’ and plan to expand upon later. Painting on 8 x 10 Canvas:  As we celebrate Father’s Day this month, I remember a blog from years ago I called “Remembrances of Loving Fathers”. In the blog link below, you can see the artwork I did of my Dad and where I reflected upon his “heartfelt sentimentality, his endless generosity, and his genuine & giving spirit.” “Remembrances of Loving Fathers” All those that knew and loved my dad miss him so. I know that my husband had great admiration for him as they shared a mutual love and respect for each other. To say the very least, the same could undoubtedly be said about my now young adult sons and their dad. Here is painting I did of my sons Sam & Joey and their dad ( my husband, Kyle ). It is based on an old favorite summer vacation snapshot of my boys that shines light on the love and happiness they continue to share when they are together. { For the painting, I customized the palette for their t-shirts to match our traditional family board game colors: A blue painted t-shirt for clear-blue eyed Kyle. A bright yellow t-shirt for the warmth of my sunshine Sam. And an emerald green shirt for the lucky Irishness of loving Joey. - - Red is my game piece color. }  Unlike in the Spring of 2020, on the first of this month of April 2021 we got to say, “Happy Opening Day” in the U.S.A. ~ Baseball is back for the fans ( ...socially distanced style. ) Here are some hometown baseball players from seasons past that I painted:  “The Timeless Charlie Hustle and the Geometry of a Rose” Blog Link: "The Timeless Charlie Hustle" and the "Geometry of a Rose" - Chrissy Breslin Schroeder  “Number Eleven and the Four Elements” Blog Link: 'Number Eleven and the Four Elements' featuring Barry Larkin - Chrissy Breslin Schroeder  “Bench Number Five ~ The Earth is a Baseball” Blog Link: Bench Number Five ~ The Earth is a Baseball - Chrissy Breslin Schroeder  The Flame Throwing “Cuban Missile” Blog Link: Hope Springs Eternal on *Opening Day* - Chrissy Breslin Schroeder  “Dat Dude Double Play” Blog Link: Hope Springs Eternal on *Opening Day* - Chrissy Breslin Schroeder   “Fly Me To The Moon” ~ All Star Home Run Derby Champ Blog Link: Hope Springs Eternal on *Opening Day* - Chrissy Breslin Schroeder  Remembering #8 This year, along with my hometown, I will also remember one of the most timeless Hall of Fame greats who was a central piece of one of the world’s most legendary teams = “The Big Red Machine”. This celebrated “Big Red Machine” is famously remembered for its renowned starting lineup of players dubbed “The Great 8” who led the powerhouse team to back-to-back World Series Championships and league dominance in the 1970’s. The beloved great of “The Great 8” that will be forever remembered is none other than Cincinnati’s #8: Joe Morgan. Sadly Joe Morgan, whose #8 was retired in 1998, passed away last fall in October of 2020. ~ I will always remember him. When I was a kid in the 1970’s, number 8 was my favorite number and Joe Morgan was my favorite Red. I wrote a little about my memories of those victoriously diverse and dynamic “Big Red Machine” players that Joe Morgan ( the 10-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove winning best-second-baseman-of-all-time Hall of Famer ) was such a pivotal part of in my reflections on my painting of the whole collection of those “Great 8” players plus their manager Sparky Anderson. I called that piece: “Colorful Success”. Blog Link: Colorful Success - Chrissy Breslin Schroeder  “Colorful Success” = “The Big Red Machine”
See and read about more paintings and memories of some more of Cincinnati's Championship teams in other blogs including: “My Wire-to-Wire Summer with Twelve Stars and A Piece of American History” and ”Opening Day Delay” Sometimes I pull out a sketchbook just to relax and/or to clear and focus my mind. It’s a form of meditation I guess that can often release old stresses or grief and reveal new layers of insight or hope and renewal for me. ...Or sometimes like in this case, it can be mostly just fun. Today I pulled out my sketchbook after doodling in an old calendar a little Polynesian girl wearing a head wreath that I saw in an ad. Being motivated to see and find the simple childlike joyfulness, sincerity, and wonder in life (especially after living through these seriously troubled times in the world and more than a year of an ongoing global pandemic), I recreated the girl in the style of a cartoon. I then meandered with doodling throughout the rest of the page while not thinking too much about what it was I was drawing. When I put the sketchbook down, I reviewed the simple drawing of the young girl and found the figure endearing as if being captured with a sense of awe. Then I looked at the whole drawn page of doodles and reflected further on some of my many perceptions. The round imagery roughly outlined that resembles a figure eight mostly made me think of interpretive forms of the earth & sky and an awareness of the powerful cyclical, interconnected and recycling nature of nature. My interest in sacred geometry also had me reflecting on the structure of a torus in the language of geometry. During this season of this year especially, when the celebration of the earth’s recreation can be found all around on painted eggs and in all that is finding the power to bloom, I like to see the youthful drawing of the young figure reflecting the renewed spirit of springtime. The renewed spirt of springtime with a fresh appreciation of the awesomeness of the force of life and its great potential rediscovered as well as a perception of the concepts of the globe’s circular flow as bringing a healing reflective wash that resurfaces endless growth and the returning view of life as new once again.    |
AuthorI am a 'self-taught' artist who can hardly remember a day when I wasn't in the process of creating something... Thanks for visiting my site where I can share some of my work. Archives
February 2023
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