Robin Schar » Altered Art

Vintage Lifeguard Photo

Robin Schar — Sun, 30 May 2010 20:08:32 +0000

He looked so funny, had to share. Use it in your next altered art project, sure to create a lot of interest lol. Love the knees!

“Oceans Promise”

Robin Schar — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 01:17:15 +0000

This was a gift for a friend.. felt great to get back in the creative mood after work has been so hectic lately. All of the pieces used are recycled from thrift and antique stores or given to me from other friends. Still hiccuping on what this type of art is supposed to be categorized as? For now I’ll call it altered art but I think it has some elements of assemblage and mixed media collage, too. Whatever the propery category for it, I have such a great time making them!

Old frame from thrift store, page from the fishing supply section of a 1900’s Sears catalog, word rolls created from a book of poems by Robert Frost (my fave), turn-key spring from a rusted sardine can that Carol found out in the desert (thank you!), wooden girl holding seashell figurine from a local thrift store, red wooden disk from a vintage stacking bottlecap game I found at the antique store. Lots of glue.

I’ve added a vintage photograph below my preview that you can download. You can use it in your art but not to be added to any collection of photos for sale or sold online as I have the original. Have fun, let me know what you create I’d love to see it!

Click for full-size image

“Weird” Art?

Robin Schar — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:41:37 +0000

For those of you who like recycled art, altered art, mixed media collage using found treasures, etc etc AND for those of us that get to experience all of the strange questions (“what kind of art is THAT?”… blank stares and “oh my” facial expressions from friends and relatives – my mom actually sent me email saying “it’s so original” on one of my best pieces… ouch!) here’s a one-up for us. I’ll count this article as a proverbial feather in my cap so to speak…. altered art, recycled art, found treasures and every other catch phrase that’s been thrown around to describe exactly what kind of art we’re trying to do is being celebrated everywhere. Take a look at some of these pieces of art by very famous artists, and yes they ARE very good! So excited to see so many people taking part of something so fun to do. I think I’ll pass this article on to mom, too

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/12/non-trashy-recycled-and-trash-art/

Painted Smiles – Mixed Media Collage

Robin Schar — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:10:51 +0000

Sheesh can’t believe its been so long since I posted. I’ve been busy with work and the holidays like most people, unfortunately art has taken a back seat. This is my latest creation… made with a lot of different elements which I always love to do. I couldn’t get the “smiles” the way I had them in my mind… maybe when I have some better techniques under my belt I’ll be able to pull it off, but for now I opted to create an X over their lips to convey the same feeling. The next time I make this they will have huge Cheshire-cat smiles that at the same time, don’t look goofy. How I’ll manage that I have no clue! Have an excellent day, RS

On the back, there’s a quote that says “they always seemed to wear painted on smiles”

“You Become Me”

Robin Schar — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:04:01 +0000

I tore it up and redesigned the frame for my mixed media collage. This was a lot of work but I’m satisfied with how it came out. I’ll be submitting this and a few of my other past altered art projects to be juried into the crafters guild on Tuesday night. Crossing my fingers and toes!

(Click for full size view)

Treasure Hunt Day :)

Robin Schar — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:21:20 +0000

On Saturday I was invited to go on a treasure hunt to a rummage sale and craft fair with Cathy. She always great company and we had a lot of fun poking into all the nooks and cranny’s we came across. First stop was the rummage sale, bah! It was postponed until next week. So whats the next best thing but to hit up the quilting shop and then an antique store? I purchased some neat vintage thimbles (or what looks like antique, hard to tell with all the distressing techniques that people use, lol) and a few placards of black snaps. I also got a neat silver bangle/charm bracelet thing (six bucks!) a silver ring, two Halloween themed kitchen towels and a rubber-band and bead bookmark thing. Fun fun! We ended the day with a trip to Cathy’s house to meet her bird (seems my lack of remembering names crosses over into pets as well) and her well-stocked studio. Hope we get to do this again, really a great time all around.

On the 27th I’ll be going to the crafter’s guild to see about becoming a member. To do that I’ll need to bring in samples of my altered art. Since I’ve spent the past year learning techniques and also trying to get a community started for altered artists in Las Vegas, I haven’t made too much to show off. I have an idea of what to bring… and yesterday I created one additional piece that they can look at so they can see what direction I want to lean toward in the future. I love creating collage in 3d bases such as frames, shrines, wooden blocks, boxes… etc. Anyway this is my latest creation… just coming out of a two month hiatus and glad to be creating again.

I think the inside composition (made with polymer clay!) and the wire thing across the middle looks way better than the frame… I’ve really got to think of something that looks more polished.

Altered Art Collage - "You Become Me" by Robin Schar

Altered Art - "You Become Me" (closeup) by Robin Schar

Polymer Finger Bones

Robin Schar — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:35:07 +0000

I visited with the ladies of the Las Vegas Crafters Guild today and finally made some art! Remember the Halloween finger-bone necklace tutorial I shared with you a while back? Well I finally got a chance to make it this morning and it was extremely easy to do. Here are my results… only hint I can offer to anyone else is to remember that bones are white, not beige like skin. What was I thinking, lol!? No wonder Cathy kept suggesting I add more white to the mix, roflol! I didn’t realize my error until they were baked but truly… I am very happy with how these came out and will definitely be making more. Bev was kind enough to let me know about Primo clay… and true to her word Primo baked up much harder than Sculpey did. The trade off is that the Primo takes more muscle to blend than the softer clays but for my uses (making accents for altered art and assemblages) polymer clay is perfect. Thanks again to Marie Segal of “Art from my Heart” blog for her tutorial… this was too much fun to create.

This is after “squishing” in my hands, before baking them

This is after baking and a little smidgin’ of acrylic in burnt umber

Finished Altered Shrine

Robin Schar — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:38:13 +0000

This week has been interesting! First off the good news that my shrine is completed and it came out better than I expected my first would look like. Have to say I wrote out plans of what I wanted, even drew diagrams of what went where, and also wrote a checklist of step by steps… so I think that helped to get it done quickly. Well, quicker than I thought it would at least!

On Sunday the family was bored so I decided I’d pay the 16 year old $20 to help me move out of my office/art room… then move me back in after I’d cleaned things up a bit. We didn’t finish until.. well most of it is finished.. just a few straggling boxes left in the living room… holy sheesh if I never have to organize more altered art supplies I’ll forever be grateful. The new setup has my work desk with computer at one side of the room (yay! no art stuff to distract me) and a dedicated art area to the other side that isn’t strewn about with work folders. This is truly a winning combination!

Last that happened was on… I think Monday… I contracted a virus from a program I downloaded online. Ick it was a nasty one… two anti-virus programs couldn’t lick it so today I had to wipe the drive and begin again new. Thank God for my portable drive, I remember when having more than one hard drive was unheard of but now I have five! Watch out for any… never mind if you have this virus you know it… but here’s the name: PAV or, Personal Anti Virus. It’s horrid.

Here’s some photos of the shrine… ready to take a trip to the Las Vegas Altered Art group on Saturday. I’ll be making a paper one then… looking forward to that too!

(Click on photo for close up)

Cheers!