Quadrupedal 2009, Bike through S.W.Wisconsin

Here's information about the 2009 ICHS QuadruPedal Spring Century...
an excellent charity bike ride through the hills of SW Wisconsin...
35-100 miles...routes climbing from between 1500-9000 feet.
All proceeds from this ride benefit the animals at the Iowa County Humane Society.

................and the Quadrupedal t-shirt has CATS!

I wired up a couple pins..........
(cat on left: 4.5"high by 3.75" wide, copper and other wire, aluminum flashing, etching ink and archival varnish........ SOLD
cat on right: 5.25"wide by 4" high, glass eyes, copper and other wire, aluminum flashing, etching ink, archival varnish...SOLD.
The handmade velvet wall support is about 2.5" thick, and each with hook...SOLD)

Watercolor #1

It's done...

(WakeMaker...22"x30" on TwinRocker Handmade Paper )

watercolor, chasing/repousse in progress

Haven't posted in a long time...
this is some of what I've been up to.

(22"x30" watercolor...WakeMaker)

There'll be better photos when they are completed.

(various incompleted small poundings)

I never looked at a watercolor with the poundings like this....they feel good together...guess it does make sense...same mind....same world...so these must be some of the remnants of the world I'm always arting...like an historian collecting things from the places he goes to document.

Fibulas...at the Mercury! Madison, Wisconsin

Here are the Fibulas I brought to the Mercury show...

in the order I made them:

copper wire, sardine tins

Copper wire, aluminum flashingcopper wire, eyes, coke can copper wire, eyes
unknown wire, copper, eyes

steel wire, copper, eyes

steel wire, copper wire, glass eye, some kind of jaw with teeth
copper, chased/repoussed aluminum flashing, printing ink, glass eyes

Convent Gallery Show Gang is Back!! - by L. Kelen

absolutearts.com Portfolio

WATCH YOUR HEAD!  a silly little art show

One Night Only....
MARCH 14th, 2009  6-9PM

The Mercury Cafe & Lounge 
117 E. Mifflin Street 
Madison, Wisconsin

featuring works by: 
Adrienne Applegate 
Mark Cullen 
Linda Kelen 
Edwin Maguire 
Rebecca Sadler 
Dan Schuknecht 
Linda Takaha

absolutearts.com Portfolio

Watercolor in Progress

I was trying to decide between turning this into a multiple color woodblock print
or just stick to one color...but, it needed to get out fast....

(WakeMaker...in progress)

this is the first watercolor I've done since before the house burned down....(it's laying in a flat-file drawer)
it is interesting that I used to think 22x30 was a huge piece of paper....
now I'm wondering why I started on something so small.
It's not done...

SardineTins for Woman Made Gallery

Pounded (chasing/repousse) sardine tins...

re-assembled with necessary materials: which might be copper, steel, aluminum, leather, a paperclip or two...sometimes glass eyes...and a little paint....

They will be in the
Woman Made Gallery's "and You Think That's Funny?" show...
January 23rd-February 26th

SardineTin#10...7"wide, 4"high, 1.5"deep ($1200)

SardineTin#11...5"wide, 5"high, 1.15"deep ($900)

SardineTin#12...3.25"wide, 7"high, 1.15"deep ($1000)

Artist Statement: "My arting has to do with whatever is in front of me,
although, I do seem to have an on/off relationship with fish...RedHerrings in particular...
which I've never been able to see as stinky fish to avoid, but beginnings of fit and beautiful and humourous visions.
Sardines, a relative of the herring, travel in wonderful containers."
Written for the show, but was lost.

Sardine Tins in Progress!

A perfect day:
13 hours in the studio on the last day of the year
preparing SardineTins for a show in Chicago....
almost done....I'll post official photos in a few days...

Altered "Camper Birdhouse"

A friend found this at a local variety store called Nina's in Spring Green, Wisconsin...

(made in China)

bought it...
handed it to me, saying something like...
"Here, maybe you can do something with this for Tony's Christmas present...don't you think?"

That was three weeks ago.

8.25" long, 5.5" high, 4.5"wide, some kind of poured resin...
now with wood, 2-part epoxy, paint and acrylic (glass) windows

$9.00 Trailer

"Here...maybe you can doctor this up for Tony..."
or words like that got this up and running.
(Tony never looks at this blog...
so if you see this, and know him...please don't mention you saw what I'm up to.)
It's a $9.00 birdhouse....
and he's been collecting trailers...
so......
Tomorrow I'll varnish the "paintings"...and finish the wheels...next day the "glass" goes in.....
I'll post it when it's completely done.

Metro Elves

(I've gotten a lot of encouragement to repost this....so here are they are....Happy Holidays!
oh, these are photographs that I actually painted on...wish you could see the originals, which look way cooler in person than anything photoshop or digital manipulation could do.)

These are my "photographs" proving that Eleves moved into the local gallery/art supply shop, Metropolitan Art, which, sadly, no longer is.

Jeb tell this elf that he can't take her frame.
"that's what you Elves do...make things!
"Now put that back", she tell him
as she begins to get the idea that Elves might be difficult and hard to control. 
(Perhaps that is why there is only one Christmas a  year). 

(Special photographs of actual Elves in Santa's Dodgeville workshop, made by Linda Kelen.)

I painted a sign for the gallery-art supply store,
which said:
"Elves Shop Here."
Because some "town people" were not believers,
I made these pictures.
No one said another word.

"Jeb is pleased to see Elves use white gloves,
leaving no finger prints on paper. "

Elves lost their shopping list.

"Elves love cookies."

"Mega, (studio dog)........................................ 
is a handy mode of transportation."

"Some Elves are too short."

"After a successful shopping spree...
Elves carry the last of their supplies out to the sleigh....(parked around the corner)."

Uneventful Tuesday before Thanksgiving

(Uneventful Tuesday before Thanksgiving)

5"x7" artist proof, original print, drypoint with mezzotint on plate of aluminum flashing...

printed on Mulberry paper....2008

Drypoint-Diogenes

4.5"x6" drypoint on 6"x8.5"Arches BFK, artist proof...printed with Renaissance Black Ink

Sick today

nope, don't like this...although, the Nurse Dogs have been excellent as bed warmers and worried companions....but, I'm suited up...taking a thermos of hot ginger tea and one of these kleenex-eating mentholated-curs with me...heading to the studio........it's a better place to be sick.

Fall Art Tour Fish

I hand colored a print of the plate I was working on during the Fall Art Tour...

4"x6" , printed on Rives BFK

Because I can't leave well enough alone
there are no two plates which are the same....
I think the official term for this is "Edition Variation #2"...
$80.00
yes, there is a #1....