Fortuna's Face

...develops slowly... fortunately, this part (the transparent glazes that build up the volume of her face)-- goes pretty quickly. Below, the sketch Tony's working from.
--L

Yesterday's Progress

Lisa here, blogging for Tony (cuz man, that guy has his hands full!) We had a good sized crew here yesterday, making progress on the Shrine Structure (or maybe now it's been upgraded to 'Temple' status?) Photos show, including Tony, Drew & Michael, Drew's brother Pierce, doing a ton of priming for us!



And fear not, those gorgeous sunsets & full moons have not been lost on this crew.

Last Drawing Day!

It's Five in the morning on the last drawing day before I begin the portrait painting.


Went over to Bob and Rebecca's for a reunion Monday Night Dinner--both to celebrate Rebecca's 40th B/day, as well as the temporary return of Anna! Of course-as promised, I got most of those in attendance to do a drawing --so thanks one and all (Bob, Rebecca, Ted and John, Anna, Erik, Claire and Gary, Prentiss, Leonardo, ...did I miss anyone?)

Jaclyn and David and Drew came over again, as well as two friends of Jaclyn's, Stacey and Sarah. Thanks to you all! And of course, MC and Tim, continuing the progress on the shrine itself. Tim and Drew worked until dusk--I'll get a good shot of the shrine tomorrow...
And here's a progress shot of Lisa's top plywood skirting. This is gonna look great!
And the shot from the studio just a short while ago. Click to enlarge.

10 Days Left!

I wasn't too swift on camera duties yesterday for our last drawing party, but there was a good group of drawers (including Joe Leonard--one of our highest volume contributors, and David (once again); Thomas, Lori, and Olivia, and Richard (a former student of Lisa's); Drew helped out once again, and we got some nice drawings from Chris Hataway, who visited with son Zeke! And then their were our "surprise" guests-- East Bay friend Amy Stabler; and Jaclyn Finkle, an inspiringly talented young woman that I worked with at the ArtStart program earlier this summer.
Thank you everyone! With two drawing days left before the painting begins, it's looking really great. Now if I can just get a few from our old "Monday Night Dinner" group tonight. David, Lori and Thomas
Joe, David, Lori
Chris and Zeke
Jaclyn
Fortuna
detail
detaildetail

Fifteen Days Left!

Here's what she looked like last night at 4:00. But hey, where's the top of her head? Ummm...I'll get back to you on that.
Meanwhile, back at the Shrine...floor joists!
This is the plywood skirting that will hang down from under the eaves. Lisa starts sketching out a pattern that MC suggested. Nice!

The Shrine Begins To Take Shape

Truman and Drew above, Tim McGinnis and MC below

One more week left to contribute drawings! For info-scroll down a few posts.
A huge day forward for the shrine! MC and crew ( his son Truman, Tim McGinniss, and Truman's band-mate Drew) totally rocked it out back, and after a long day, the shrine is taking shape.
Concurrently, we had another drawing party and Lori, Thomas, Olivia, their friend Joe, and David, Sandra Maresca, and Drew's mom, Ruthie all contributed some fine drawings. And while I didn't manage to get any drawing time in, Lisa continued to supply some really nice pieces. THANK YOU EVERYBODY!!!
Also, Jason D'Aquino sent us some amazing images. We're still tweaking them a bit to get them to stand out, so I'll post a few soon.
the drill team
here's the view from our gracious neighbor Catherine's back yard looking toward the back of Lisa's and my studio. We figure when it's all done it'll stand a foot and a half taller than our 15 foot tall studio. Yikes!
Two Art Farmers--David Aguayo (who has been such a great help on this project) and Ruthie.
Lori and Sandra Maresca also hard at work at the drawing. No pictures this time of Thomas and Olivia, but they also added more of their magic.

15 Drawing Days Left!

Closing in on the half-way mark, but if you are new to this blog and want to be part of our latest project, there's still time!
Scroll down for details. Here's the latest progress shots of our cut but not-yet-glued contributions. Thanks to Joe Leonard, Claire Cotts and Gary Amaro for some of the latest. And I've got some more names to add as soon as I print them out, hopefully tomorrow. And soon the Shrine structure itself will be staring in some progress shots. This last picture here is the little collaborative mock-up by Phyxx and MC and me.
(click to enlarge. Good shots to show how we start weaving the drawings and copies together.)

1st Art Farm Gathering

(If you are new here and/or wish to see guidelines for contributing artwork to this project, scroll down to previous post)

Well, things are slowly ramping up here--had our first drawing party last Sunday (remember; drawing parties now every Wed. and Sunday from 2:00 on for next three weeks). Still haven't cut and glued in any new drawings-but here's a few shots.
Thanks MC and Phyxx and Lori and Thomas and Olivia! Also huge thanks to MJ Lindo (from Art Start). Where are the other awesome Art Starters? OK-you probably needed a week off.
above is Lori Almeida, MC, and me (Tony). Next to me is a smaller Art Farm piece still under way.
details
Lori's cool hand
After the drawing party.

First Progress shots of "Fortuna"

I shot this a few nights ago...it shows our Fortuna outline and the first drawings (most on separate paper that hasn't been glued down yet)

For those that are new or past contributing artists, you can scroll down and read about the concept behind our new piece-"The Shrine of Fortuna". For those that wish to contribute their drawings (or more likely, good quality copies or scanned jpegs), we would LOVE to include your magic in our piece! Here's what we need: drawings that in any way relate to the theme of Fortune, Fate, Luck (both good or bad!) and Superstition. Drawings can be as small as several inches to 16 inches and generally we favor a good dark pencil or pen and ink, with a good outline (not too sketchy-we cut the drawings out and glue them down to our wood panels) Because we paint a portrait transparently over the varnished drawings, it's best if there isn't alot of solid black, but some shading is fine. If you check out the details from a past piece-"Headgames" on the post from March 2006 in the archives-- it may help you to visualize the kinds of drawings that we can use.

We'll also be collecting suggestions to write on our "Wheel of Fortune". Have a favorite fortune that you'd like to share? We'd love to hear about it, especially if it is thought or smile provoking.

Okay: to send us images (or fortunes)--you can e-mail (jpegs of 300dpi) to me (Tony) at: fallguy@sonic.net
-or you can send drawings or good quality xeroxes to: Art Farm Motel 211 Donald Street, Graton Calif 95444
Or stop on by-we should be around almost every day now--especially on Sundays and Wednesdays from 2:00 on for our drawing parties, where you can draw here with us or make copies from drawings or sketchbooks you bring. We're located in the 'lil town of Graton, three miles north and a bit west of Sebastopol. From hiway 116, go until you reach Graton rd., turn left and go until you come in to town. At the stop there (by the Underwood and Willowood restaurants) turn left on Eddison, go two blocks to another stop. Turn left again (on Donald) and we're the third house on the right--with the Art Farm painting on our garage door. The studio is in the back yard.
We cannot promise that all drawings will be used (but we'll try). If we do include your images, we want to list all contributors to Art Farm, so please include your name and city (and e-mail too, if possible, so we can tell you of future events for this and other Art Farm projects.)
Thanks to all past and future Art Farm contributors!

"Hope or Fear" on Magazine Cover!

(click image for enlargement)
The East Bay Monthly has put this detail from "Hope or Fear" on their May cover. Looks nice!

Art Farm's 2008 Burning Man Proposal Wins Grant!

Thanks to all at Burning Man once again for encouraging our foolishness. Here's our up-dated sketch, front and side view followed by a repeat of our concept-(as always, click to enlarge)
"The Shrine Of Fortuna"
A painting and altar installation proposal by Art Farm (Tony Speirs-designer)
Art Farm, the collective behind 2005's "HeadGames" & 2006's pavilion installation "The Game of Hope or Fear" are back with another mixed-media painting project.
This piece will feature an 8 foot by 12 foot depiction of Fortuna, the beautiful goddess of fortune and fate. Why Fortuna? In some ways, the theme grows out of the previous two pieces we made, both of which also employed spinning wheels and some aspect of game-playing and chance. We decided to personify the element of luck and create a shrine to the goddess herself.
She will be on a raised platform, painted and inscribed with symbols and perhaps prose relating to luck. And once again, the entire surface of the painting will be covered with hundreds of drawings, all touching on some aspect of fortune, chance, and luck-- both good and bad. These might include depictions of "lucky" charms, or talismans, or animals, thought to be omens of either good fortune or bad mojo. Or perhaps the drawings will be small stories--figures (real or imagined) that tell a tale of fate or superstition(above is a detail from our "Hope or Fear" piece)
Art Farm once again invites artists to participate by sharing their own visions of what "Lady Luck" might have tucked away behind that beautiful face of hers. In addition, there will also be a large "Wheel of Fortune" in front of our goddess, (half of which descends below the platform level) and we will feature an array of, we hope, amazing and thought-provoking fortunes. (Have a favorite fortune you've been saving and would like to share?-let us know!)
Participants may also make a direct plea or request of the goddess by writing on small colorful tags that they then attach to the side walls, becoming part of the piece. Lights will be recessed within the altar's eves above the painting. (We also know that Black Rock City has some fine and original fortune tellers, and we would welcome them to use our shrine as a gathering and meeting place to ply their craft. In addition, perhaps it would serve as an ideal backdrop for some wandering performers...?) Guidelines for fortune and drawing submittals will be posted soon, or you can e-mail Tony at- fallguy@sonic.net.
Thanks!

"Bringing Back The Fire" Opening Photos-

What a great show! And what a great opening too! While this blog definitely concentrates on all things Art Farm related-ALL the art in this show was kick-ass! Thanks Zack (our North Bay Regional point-person extrordinaire!), Cliff, Michael, SRJC, and fellow artists, but mostly thanks to Lisa for curating a really great show. For more-head on over to the blog she created for the event--here
above, at the Thursday preview show. below-a colorful character at Friday night's show (photos below by Clifford Hill)the crowd
an admirer of two of Jennybird Alcantera's paintings
Petaluma artists and veteran Burners Noah Elias and Jack Haye in front of another Jennybird painting

"The Game of Hope or Fear" at SRJC Show "Bringing Back The Fire"

getting the Game Board upright and in placeMichael Coy drawing out a diagram on his favorite suface (a real "hands-on" kind of guy. sorry)

Michael McGinnis-the SRJC Gallery exhibit specialist, did the real heavy lifting as far as installing our three walls. Much thanks Michael-and to his brother Tim, especially with getting the spinning wheels up and spinning
Jennybird Alcantara and her husband John surveying the scene

Finishing Up "Hope or Fear" for new Burning Man show @ Santa Rosa Junior College

Lisa is curating a show at the SRJC's great new gallery later this month, and it's given me a chance to go back into the huge Art Farm piece "The Game of Hope or Fear" and finish up some details that didn't quite get done for Burning Man 2006. Gary Amaro did a great job in designing and then doing the preliminary painting of the birds, but it was always the intension to tighten them up and flesh them out-- now finally I have some time. Click to enlarge-especially the bottom two.



You might also notice that there's been a lot more drawings added-especially around the birds. The wheels have been re-painted too. (as always--click for more detail)