I walked into the grocery store one day and was immediately drawn to a small green piece of art. After looking suspiciously around me, I studied it closely, turned it over, and saw the name of a familiar artist. She was a local favorite of mine so I was excited to have my hands on her work. Again, I looked around, and began spinning different scenerios in my head,"hmm..." I thought, "could she have lost it? Is it some sort of self promotion, and I should leave it where I found it? Was it a gift ,left here for a friend of hers?" . Against my instinct, I left it where it was and rushed home to email her about my find, that's when I was introduced to ,"Found Art " . Wow, a way to share art with the world with no strings attached. Freedom from judgement, from money, from expectations... I have been painting for many years now, and yet , I approached my first found art piece with no paint at all-not even realizing that I'd done so until I sat down to write this. I'm eager to see what other walls will come down. I look forward to this expedition . -Oh, and when I went back the next day, Pachas piece was still there, at the store, waiting to come home with me, now it lives in my kitchen ( :

Thursday, February 3, 2011

WRONG BLOG

Chances are you happened here on accident(unless you are part of"found art tuesdays") while trying to reach the blog that has my paintings on it. I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Click here to be on your way   http://lenarushingart.blogspot.com/
thanks.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

"envelope"


i painted a white envelope,decorated it , stamped it, filled it with things that i've been meaning to do, and set it free in hopes that someone else will have time to do them. A GUITAR PICK= everyone in my house owns, but does not play(well) a guitar, oh if i had a dime for every instructor i've taken a buisness card from , fully intending to give them a call. A PACK OF FLOWER SEEDS= everytime i see that pack in my junk drawer(one of many) i set it out so i'll remember to plant it..then i tiddy up,put it away, and find it again 4 months later, only to repeat said action. MASSAGE THERAPIST BUISNESS CARD= you can see how tattered it is, i've been carrying it around forever..seriously...years. i've met her, but never taken advantage or her services(my husband has). BACKGAMMON SCORE CARD= everynight my husband and i hope that we'll have a chance to hang out, make ourselves a drink, chat and play a game, but that rarely happens, by the time we can stop and hear ourselves think we're too tired to do anything that requires being in the upright position. BIG SCARLET BEAN RUNNER BEAN= i grew this one year, the beans are beautiful and amazingly enormous. the blooms are stunning as well. when i did grow it i plucked the beans and took pictures of my baby holding them because they were as big as she was. THE BUTTON= o.k. , who doesn't have something they need/want to mend-laundry aside. to be honest though, i picked it because the white stripes lyrics,"the hardest button to button" have been reeeling through my thoughts all day long.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

light 'found art'















a few days ago my kids and i found a broken dying itty bitty baby bird lying on concrete on his back in front of michaels craft store. it's a wonder he hadn't been stepped on considering the woman who worked the counter testified that he'd been there,"like that" all day. i scooped him up and told the kids that he was dying but that we could make him more comfortable. they named him 'cutie pie'. cutie pie had a twisted broken leg that caused it to catch on his little wing when he fluttered and he had a very swollen middle. we took him to a pet store where employees took turns looking him over and wincing. we bought him some orphaned baby bird formula mix and took him home. i did a lot of internet research and helped him as best i could. cutie pie seemed to have a miraculous recovery, by the next morning he was chirping away and eating well and opening his eyes! i was so happy, i really thought ,"wow this little fighter is going to make it!yay!" . the third day he was even stronger(yesterday). i went to give him his usual feeding and he opened his little beak, i put the dropper of food in and he tilted his neck to the side, he'd never done that and i knew right away that i was losing him.his eyes closed and he was gone. i felt like i had to reverse it, i mean he was still warm in my hand and was alive a minute ago, i had to fix it, i parted his beak and breathed into it, i rubbed his belly, i ran around chanting ,"no,no,no,it's ok,you'll be ok, c'mon litttle bird, don't die"..but all in vain. i was so sad. i had to quickly go and get my daughter from preschool and showed up looking like i'd been crying my eyes out, i'm sure they all think i'm crazy now. i told my 6 year old son that it was okay and that we'd bury him and he'd become part of the earth and help the plants grow and that it's an amazing cycle etc.. he asked to write a poem to read at the burial. he wrote," cudtey piy, you wor a eegg, and you hacht out of yor eegg, and you wor a bord".


my 'light' found art is a bird. 'light' as a feather. fashioned from a light bulb ,wire, and leaves. if the person who finds it parts his little paper beak ,they'll find the words,"i did my best,i'm so sorry".

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

found art LOST

with this weeks theme being,"lost", i tried to just draw what ever came to mind ,without thinking too much about taking any particular direction(no direction=lost) and came up with this little sketch. after looking at it ,i felt like if i had to describe what i had lost it would be my head ( : ..or worse my mind. after the drawing i went in search of an appropriate poem about loss and found this emily dickenson poem,"the lost thought"
"I FELT a clearing in my mind As if my brain had split; I tried to match it, seam by seam, But could not make them fit.
The thought behind I strove to join Unto the thought before, But sequence ravelled out of reach Like balls upon a floor."

i have a book of poetry that i found this poem in,however when i went online to copy n paste it on here i found that some sites quoted the first line as ,"i felt a CLEAVING" and some "a CLEARING" in my opinion they both make sense because she describes her "split" feeling.

i "lose my head' a lot, usually out of excitement, i tend to be a happy overreactor ( :

Sunday, May 6, 2007

found art-mother







appropriately, this weeks theme is,"mother". i remember when i was in my 20's having an epiphany- my parents were just regular people! just like me! it wasn't fair that i had always held them up to super hero standards, measuring them up and feeling cheated. oh, it was refreshing; a relief, sitting there going,"ohhhh, i get it, they are actually their own people, with lives and titles outside of ,"mom" and,"dad". though, at that time, i had not yet had children of my own. after my first(of two) was born and my whole life changed ,i had another epiphany..this mom stuff's not so hard, in fact ,i love it! it's fun, and fulfilling and has truely made me happier than i have ever been in my entire life-i mean it- really.
first i drew a mom and a young boy and a baby, it's a sort of self portrait..sort of ( : then i wrote things that were the staple of motherhood to me,"home" ,"patience","great deep love", compassion" and "sacrifice". i also drew a bandaid ( : , and a few hearts. then i put them all in a globe(xmas ornament). i felt like the mom, the kids and the other ingredients(patience, love,etc..) made a "mother" and i put them in that globe to set them in their own little world because thats how it is-the relationships between mothers and their children, it's exclusive and safe and close.
my materials were: shrinky dink plastic(i'm startin' to love this stuff!)for the words ,journal paper for the drawings, glass globe, and a ribbon to hang it with. i plan on setting it free on moms day ,near the beach where all the moms will be having brunch ( :..or as my sister(who is now participating) would say,"all the mums".



Tuesday, May 1, 2007

"water" found art





i had a hard time comming up with an image for this topic so i just started gathering blue material. i really had only the idea of movement in mind as i began attaching things to blue card stock.
the materials used are ,foam paper, card stock, oragami paper, fabric paint, braided rope, ribbon, seed beads, thread, a brad, and the fish was cut out an orange popsicle box ( : the ribbon is only attached at the base ,so it can move, the beads also are free flowing..or dangling, and the fish is attached with a brad so that it can swim..in circles anyway-he he he.
i was planning on saturating the small town of halcyon with my found art, in hopes that someday they would discover that over the period of several months they had all had similar ,"found art" experiences, and that would lead to a lengthy dialogue on the topic. that however, has proven to be too difficult to pull off anonymously. halcyon has a population of about 50 and i could sense how quickly they became suspicious of an outsider visiting so frequently. i went several times to drop off my "travel" found art, but chickened out under the watchful eye of a shop owner, now it's sittting in a book on "collage" in the local library. i'm toying with the idea of sending them away to reletives to abandon in their cities so that it will have a farther reach.
---THE TOP PIC IS WHERE I SET IT FREE ( : IN SHELL BEACH CA DURING AN EVENT CALLED,"ART IN THE PARK"


Monday, April 23, 2007

TOY found art











the topic-TOY




on" shrinky dink "paper I drew 13 seperate pieces, cut them out, baked them, and bound them to each other with clear stretch bead cord. i left him clear because he is imaginary ( : doesn't every kid want a robot?
THE TOP PIC IS WHER I SET HIM FREE ( : IN A TREE BY A PARK, IN SHELL BEACH CA