A few days ago I made a comment on my favorite blog:Rancho Reubidoux
http://ranchoreubidoux.wordpress.com/
Reuben hadn't even come close to winning in the creative potted plant contest he'd entered. Bias aside, he should have won. His entry was deceivingly simple and devilishly delicious! The contest was obviously rigged!
Ditto on all of the above! How about having a RR “potted” contest? You wouldn’t be able to enter, of course, but you could reclaim your right to well deserved “snobbishnes” by hosting a “better” version. We, your admiring followers, could each send a little something cool to add to the prize mix(a piece of art, a plant, a pot, a baby’s arm holding an apple?)!
Firestarter Reuben Munoz
I was shocked and thrilled to see that my comment inspired Reuben to do a still life using the prize mix elements I had suggested. Whodathunk!
Inspiration can come from literally anywhere. In the case of the still life, above, it arrived courtesy of a comment made by fellow artist/gardener/blogger, Ginny, of Gypsy Girl Grounded blog. In the post previous to this one, Ginny proposed I have a contest where faithful readers would send “a piece of art, a plant, a pot [and] a baby’s arm holding an apple” as part of a prize mix. Well, that disparate list of elements intrigued me; I decided to set up a still life using each of them, and based on Ginny’s blog. I knew I had a baby’s arm somewhere, and after a little digging, I found it. Part of an advertising display, it had broken off long ago but I liked its classically cherubic posture, so I’d kept it. And, being that this would be a Rancho-based still life, the apple in the arm’s hand would be a tiny cactus apple. Now, to gather the other elements on the list …
The “piece of art” is a framed abstract painting from the flea market; the “plant”, two succulents from the Rancho’s front yard; the “pot”, a ’50s-era dark green ceramic half-cylinder with a rusted metal surround that features shapely cut-outs. Additional elements include the lid and base of a glazed ceramic box, a spiky seed pod found on Mt. Rubidoux, and a large aged steel tray as backdrop. Ginny’s blog, artwork, and photographs, are colorful, but with a boho-religious-Latino vibe, that sometimes verges on the dark, so the items I chose for the still life reflect that by being both bright and dark, rich and saturated. Complicated … like you’d expect from a Gypsy Girl Grounded. Thanks for the inspiration, Ginny, I hope you approve of the still life you inspired.
Still life a la Ginny Reuben Munoz
Yesterday I awoke to an overcast, but rainless day. The weather has been cold and wet all week and doing a number on my mental health. It isn't just that it is a pain to work outside in these January-like conditions but that it just feels wrong. Rain in June, Armageddon? See, I need my sunshine!
So, I started bringing things outside that I thought might work for the shot I had visualized the night before. The light was perfectly bright and diffused. Originally, I had wanted to use a poorly painted, but cooly seductive painting I had just purchased at Goodwill. I was thinking of apples and The Garden of Eden and Eve and all that. The honey told me what "a baby's arm holding an apple" meant. I was shocked that after all these years I'd hadn't a clue, just thought it was a surreal image that Fee Waybill had made up! I ditched "Eve" after not finding anything sexy to pair her with.
I had also bought a Mexican ceramic girl and old hand-carved/painted tray, at the same Goodwill, I thought I might use (could they have belonged to the same person?). With my garage as backdrop I began setting up various potential still-lifes. The first fabric was too new looking, found an old piece of silk that had accidentally been washed, perfect. Then to find a pot to put into the metal urn. Found a rough-glazed one but didn't like the plant that was in it. Then, I searched for an appropriate cascading plant. It was a spider plant but with tubers that were too big for the pot. I temporarily put it into the urn and realized that it was my pot all along!
I learned a long time ago that Still-Lifes are so much harder then they look and that I end up taking out a lot more than I leave in. So, the pobracita Mexicana and the tin-type didn't make the cut. I could hear a little voice on the sidelines saying "but I am all dressed up for the Siesta, Por Favor!". I have a problem with giving human characteristics to inanimate objects! I didn't want to dismember one of my antique dolly's so a wooden hand would have to do. I bumbed an apple from my neighbor and was ready to shoot. Then the frickin' sun came out! Seriously? Days without a glimmer of hope that there would ever be light and warmth again! I left everything sitting there and went out back to garden.
Finally, during the remains of the day, the sun hid itself again and I got to shoot! I'd wanted to do something with a boho-religious-Latino vibe, that sometimes verges on the dark (thanks Reuben for "the feel" and helping me get outta da funk! ) The first image is a straight shot, the second a better representation of what I had in my head.
Reuben-esque
