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Friday, December 31, 2010

Hyper Realistic Paintings of Vintage Board Games; Tape, Tears and All.




At first glance, these look like vintage board games one might find on ebay, complete with frayed corners and masking tape holding them together. But look a little closer and you'll see that they are the impressive photo realistic paintings of Missouri based artist Tim Liddy.




Using oil paints and enamel Tim recreates nostalgic Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley board games- some of which are no longer made and others that are still family favorites, on copper.

















Tim will take commissions as well. The prices for these works vary from $3,000 to $11,000 + depending upon size.

Tim Liddy

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Our 2010 Christmas, Part 2

With our bellies all full from Christmas breakfast, we resumed opening up some more presents! Ilah was mostly in awe of the boxes wrapped up in pretty paper!.....

She didn't even know what was inside yet she seemed so thankful! Ha ha!....

I think at one point Ilah actually thought the wrapped box WAS the gift as she took to climbing on top of one! That silly girl!!....

One of the presents that we got Ilah was her first little riding toy! My husband and I sure did enjoys ours when we were around Ilah's age!

She seemed pretty happy about it!.....


A full, cute little belly! And indeed, she's been good this year : )


Daddy opened up Ilah's Disney Princess riding toy right away so that she could start playing with it....

She loves all the little sounds that it makes and the different things that she can play with on it. The seat lifts up too....she gave Minnie Mouse a little ride in it on Christmas Day! Ha ha!


"Does this thing have a cruise control button?"....

"Question. Can I make outgoing calls on this phone?"....


Things that we bought for Ilah this Christmas:
  • Play N' Go Pony Stable Playset
  • Disney Princess Riding Toy
  • Playskool Garden Bench
  • Infantino Matching Colors & Textures Puzzle Pieces
  • Mickey Mouse Book
  • Dora the Explorer Feeding Set
  • Dora Shoes
  • Dora Slippers

My inlaws came over to our house around 3:3o p.m. and we did our gift exchange with them. My husband's parents bought Ilah some clothes and my husband's sister bought Ilah V-tech's 2-in-1 Smart Wheels. She is going to love that!! My Aunt Janice also shipped Ilah some gifts from California! I'd say she was one blessed girl this Christmas!! And not just because of the gifts she was given, but also because of how much love she was shown. Everyone just doted on her and she got an abundant amount of kisses and hugs and endless looks of adoration and unconditional love.

After exchanging gifts with my inlaw's, I changed Ilah into her Christmas dress and we all headed out to dinner at Fogo de Chao!! Yummm!! Not surprising, Ilah was the center of attention as she sat at the table making funny faces, showing us how independent she was with feeding herself, making high pitch laughs and giggling away, and "talking" away....it was such a fun night with her!!

The night ended with a drive home in the snow {!} and looking out of the window and taking in the beauty of a white Christmas. The day was so special and so memorable in so many ways.

So it's now onto the next big thing!! "Someone" is turning 1 in just a few weeks!!

Wishing you all a very Happy {and safe} New Year!!

Those Crazy Leaf Carvings; What, How & Where To Buy Or Create Custom Ones.




In the past year, several sites (Treehugger, Toxel and Neatorama to name a few) have shown images of the asian art of leaf carving and more recently the Gblog from Gessato via lost at e minor, posted about the leaves again which got me wondering if you could have custom images made (the answer is yes, as you will see later in this post).

The tacky artworks have their kitsch appeal especially when it comes to using them to showcase religious and celebrity imagery.



Whether it's the Virgin Mary, Obama, Marilyn Monroe, Victorian Silhouettes or a tourist leaf selling Amish Country, the carved leaves seem to elicit a certain fascination.

















Custom Carved Leaves
You can actually have custom ones made from a photo or purchase previously carved leaves for about $25.00 from several sites (links at the end of this post).




How Do They Do It?
The Sixty Step Process



above: Huang Taisheng, master leaf carver at work

Creating leaf art is a long and complex process. Leaves are put through a 60 step process such as, manually cutting and removing the outer surface of the leaf while leaving the leafs veins intact which add detail into the subject matter of the carving. Pressing, curing and dying are also just a few of the steps needed to prepare the leaf.





Talented artist using magnifying glass, then skillfully carve their masterpiece by hand. No painting or printing is involved. The most common leaf used in leaf carving is the leaf of a Chinar tree, which is native to India, Pakistan and China. Chinar leaves closely resemblance the leaf of a maple tree:



Where To Buy Them:
Several websites will make custom leaf carvings from your own photo or sell already carved leaves in various Western and Asian themes.

http://www.foliagesart.com/Products.asp

http://www.leafcarvingart.com/

http://www.longal-craft.com/leaf-carving-art.html

http://stores.far-eastgifts.com/-strse-Art-of-Leaf-Carving/Categories.bok


Thanks to the above links for images and information.
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