Recycled Light-Bulb Snowmen Christmas Ornament

I started last Christmas making these Snowmen ornaments. I am currently working on the second batch for this Christmas. I hope to sale about 50 or 60 light-bulb ornaments this year. I hand paint each light-bulb and then work on each detail with the smallest paintbrush I own. I love to experiment with the different types of light-bulbs. Depending on with type I use gives me different shapes of snowmen like: a fat snowman if I use this light-bulb...

Or a tall snowman if I use this lightbulb...

           (This is the finished product)

Functional Art: talks with Hayden Hall

As Hayden Hall knows best, these days people are just as interested in functional art as they are fine art. In our conversations, he has offered me the advice that people these days are looking for art that is more than a good wall hanger or unnoticed sculpture. They want functional art; art made to be used. Functional art can be as simple as an old pallet taken apart and put back together as a wooden canvas for painting and added hooks, mechanical parts repurposed as a candle stick, to more elaborate pieces like a Module truck door  turned into a masculine frame for a bathroom mirror. Here in the delta native people have collected and curated fading objects from decades that have since flashed by like rolling credits at the end of a movie. Those items and trinkets need someone to see their potential as a repurposed piece in someone's artwork. Mr. Hayden is a home-grown creative spirit. He is a Mississippi native and has turned his passion for repurposed / functional art and love for food into a small-town grocery and catering store called Oxbow. In an adjoining building that is connected to the store, he has a gallery / showroom that he displays local finds, artifacts, and the art that his wife (Erica Hall) and him create. When they host a pop-up restaurant, they use this showroom as a small sit-down and eat place for their customers. I find their store a relaxing, hometown, refuge where I can escape the pressures of the day, enjoy talking to my friends (Mr. Hayden & Mrs. Erica Hall), and an artist oasis. Oh. and occasionally I find my favorite food; Hayden's very own Tuna Tacos! You know those questions about what would you take with you if you where going to be stuck on a deserted island? Well I would take Mr. Hayden's Tuna Tacos and my iPhone so I could post articles to my blog! 

(Display window of Hayden Hall's Oxbow)

(Locals enjoy Mexican Colas and Tuna Tacos during a pop-up taco day at Oxbow)

(One of my Tuna Tacos that I took a picture of because I wanted to savor the flavor!!!)

Bone&Rust Art Co: Jewelry

I have created some of the most insane pieces of jewelry; from fishing lure lux, to down-right odd, and weird. Some of my pieces that I have made are more minamal like my shotgun shell and leather necklaces, and some are over-the-top statement pieces like my fishing lure necklaces. I collect pieces of scrap and little trinkets every time I go on an adventure. I have just now started to turn them into necklaces and bracelets. I have a few necklaces that I am working on that are some of the biggest and boldest statement necklaces that I have made. 

These Shotgun Shell necklaces are some of my more minamal jewelry makings.

These two fish lure necklaces are by far my favorites that I've made!

Repurposed Lock-plate & Skeleton Key

Work in Progress. (Pearl and Wood)

"Tupelo Honey" Necklace

Work in Progress

Creating

Recently I have noticed that I am creating more art. I have been working on a prototype creation that I don't want to say to much about and give it away just yet. I can tell you that it has to do with displaying and that it is repurposed from natural by products. Since my fist solo art show back in August I have been turning out many of my ideas as paintings, mixed media, and sculptures. Here are just a few:

"Bruises" (x) 

Acrylic & Gold Leaf on Canvas

"3 Oysters" (12x12) still life 

Oil Paint, Acrylic, Mixed Media on Canvas

"American Flag Cotton Field" (4x12) landscape / Oil on Canvas

"The Patch Worker" (4X12) portrait  

Oil on Canvas

This is an arrangement that I'm working on. I have previously made two more of these salvaged panel artworks. 

"Plus Size Monster" (16x20) Surrealism 

Acrylic on Canvas (work in progress)