Way way back in February (remember when it used to be cold outside?), 40+ artists gathered at the Blue Nile for the inaugural drawing of names for Art Lotto. Created and organized by Brandy Somers and Denise Kanter Allen, this event brought [mostly local] artists together to create portraits of each other. During “Luck of the Draw” night, the artists pulled ping pong balls from the lottery and then had to create a portrait of the artist whose name they drew. For example, I pulled Ben Fraits’ name out of the lottery, and my name was drawn by Jay Herr, thereby assigning me to create a portrait of Ben and Jay to create a portrait of me, and so it went for all 43 artists.
This project was a very unique idea, a chance to meet other community artists, and an opportunity to have your portrait done, which isn’t something that happens every day. Someone told me at the show this evening that “having your face on the wall is the only way to get artists into an art opening,” which I had to laugh at because I am one of those artists that rarely goes to shows.
Now remember I said we drew names back in February. I had a general idea of what I wanted to do with my portrait, so I got started immediately and then promptly came to a standstill. This is a familiar pattern – I start a project with some serious gumption, followed by a mostly subconscious, paralyzing fear that I won’t be able to complete it or it won’t be good enough, so I just stop working on it altogether. I waited until approximately 3 weeks before the due date to get started again and then spent 40-60 hours on evenings and weekends cranking it out.
Without further ado, I give you Ben…
This piece was created by posterizing a photo of Ben to separate the colors in the image. Each shape was then filled in with small pieces of colored fabric, using acrylic medium to attach it to the canvas. There is only one other piece I have created that is similar to this in technique, but this portrait took it to a new level with the amount of detail and overlapping colors. It measures 24″x30″.
Here is a detail of one of the arms…
I got a shot of the portrait done of me by Jay Herr. He used an ink pen on paper to create minute designs to create the black portion of the portrait. He worked from a photograph taken by my friend Sandy. I loved the piece and someday very soon it will be hanging in my art room!
Both pieces on the wall among some of the others….
Looking forward to next year’s Art Lotto!