In order to register for the Downtown Racine’s 2011 Public Art Event, you have to submit an artist design packet. You fill out your information and you also sketch out your designs and list materials while also providing ‘proof’ of previous artwork.
These are my submitted designs for my piece entitled Nelumbo Nucifera. This is the Latin name for lotus flower. (Horrible scanning quality!)
For what I thought the flower was going to look like in the design packet above, but it turned out have 9 petals (instead of six) so the color combination wouldn’t work like my design. So I tried an ombre look instead. But the butterfly turned out pretty much the same.
The flower pot will be a mosaic, if you can’t tell by my crappy little squares. I’ve only started on it, but nowhere near even begun on it!
The Beginning
This is the original flower pot. I had to sand off some of the the finish that was put on it, but it’s made of fiberglass and really light.
Garden Stakes
I put a coat of polyurethane on the stakes this weekend. The paint was chipping off too easily, but I hope this helps for a little while until I get them sealed. They turned out alright, but I put more work into them than I thought.
I smudged the corner which will need to be retouched.
When I first got ready to start the Downtown Racine Corporation Public Art Project I was excited to start my plans for the mosaic design on the flower pot. I never realized how large the garden stakes were before I saw them in person. I wanted to get “the small stuff” out of the way before I started the bigger project.
The rust had started to show through! Even on the butterfly which was only in the priming stage. To fix this, I spent about four hours on a Saturday sanding down the paint to get the rust off. But the acrylic paints I used were too thick and I had to use some turpentine to remove some of it.
Then I bought some RustOleum to use as my primer. Here’s how the butterfly turned out. Nice and white with no rust coming through! Now its ready to paint.
See the rust:
May 14 Update
This is my progress from last Friday. Saturday and Sunday I started the grouting and I’ll post more pictures soon! It’s looking great so far and I’m excited to finish it this week. It’s turning into a more beautiful project than my design at the top.
Finished Flower Pot
I forgot to take pictures before I turned in my flower pot for the Downtown Racine’s 2011 Public Art Event: Potsarazzi. Otherwise I would’ve posted it sooner! These were all taken at the hoedown preview party at Wingspread in Racine, Wisconsin.
XOXO,
Katie
