About Me

This is one of those #artistVSart blocks that flooded Instagram a few months ago. I made the above to introduce myself to a Facebook group.
My various creative facets!

Explanation and links, left to right, top to bottom:

1. Fluevog shoe repeats. I’ve completed two A-Z challenges (2017, 2018) using these as a theme. Which means I have 52 possible artworks to sell on my Print on Demand sites — Redbubble, Society6, and Spoonflower.
2. Big Orange Cloud, pastel on paper. See more pastels on my art website.
3. #dailytruck series — you know it well!
4. Selfie, fashion sketch. I will be showing a bunch of these in July in Riverside, CA.
5. Selfie (the format of #artVSart was to put a selfie in the middle of one’s artwork).
6. ’70’s silkscreen, recolored for today.
7. Syd Straw, ink drawn from life
8. Raspberry Jam, waterlogue. I make it. I make art with it.
9. Upcycled tee shirt weaving. The start of a renewed obsession, weaving.

Post inspired by the Daily Post’s weekly Photo Challenge,
this week’s challenge is Place in the World

Tech note and query: I published a Photo Challenge post on my [WordPress] art website’s blog and it wouldn’t link up to the challenge page. Anyone have tips? Is it the wrong structure on the website? I also lost the “Like” star, and I think that’s the fault of the template I chose. Sigh.

A Good Match

Here I am, matching the kitchen floor:

Why am I on the floor taking selfies?

It’s all the fault of Colors of the Day, a fun Instagram/Facebook fashion challenge.
Every M-F, Mercedes posts a two swatch combo of colors or a color and a print  on Instagram (@COTDstyle) and in her Facebook COTD Style Group. The combos are chosen by her husband Andy or on Tuesdays by a special guest COTDstyle takeover (I had the honor on 2/7/17).

My outfit was inspired by the prompt:

I had just purchased the perfect 70’s poncho from Poshmark (an online resale site).

Here’s the whole look:

Is it a good match?

If you enjoyed reading about my sartorial antics, consider perusing SpyGirl, my fashion blog.
I mix and match with abandon there!

This post inspired by The Daily Post’s weekly Photo Challenge.
This week’s theme is A Good Match

#June1-30Challenge Day 28: Pizza

Day 28 Twenty-eight Dominoes
June 28, 1914. Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated in Sarajevo along with his wife, Duchess Sophie. This assassinated started a domino effect resulting in World War I.
There are 28 dominoes in a full set of dominoes. Do you like to play dominoes? Do you like to play games? Why or Why not? What are your favorite games? Tell us about a time you played a game with friends or family.
Or write about The Big Game from your high school or college days.
Maybe you don’t like game playing, especially in relationships. Write about that.
Alternative: Write about your favorite pizza.

Pizza Print

My first job was Pizza Delivery Girl for Skip Perry’s Pizza, in Goleta, CA. This was during the summer after my sophomore year at UC Santa Barbara. A friend in the Dance Dept worked there and got me in.
Skip’s pizza was Chicago-style, thick crust, rectangular shaped. At that point in time, I disliked pizza. My friend Kim visited me for the summer and she got a job at Taco Bell in Isla Vista. We traded pizza slices and taco shells. It was a summer of carbs!

I decided to create some lithographs of pizzas and build them the way a pizza is built. (At that point I had advanced to clerk/cook and was making the pies). The cheese layer was not opaque enough, so I gave the prints “double cheese”.

Anne M Bray, Olive, Bell Pepper, and Ham Pizza, Lithograph monoprint, 15 x 22″ ©1976

I cannot seem to find any print with the pepperoni.
I would like to sell this on Society6 — can you imagine a duvet-as-pizza?
I guess I’ll have to recreate it all over again — digitally this time.

 

#June1-30Challenge Day 26: Marathon

Day 26 Marathon
June 26, 2016. Marathons are being held today in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii; Santa Cruz, California; Lubec, Maine; and Arlington, Virginia. The race in Arlington is indoors.
A marathon is 26.2 miles. Marathoners don’t start out running 26.2 miles! They start small and train for it. They work hard to reach that distance.
Tell us about something you worked for. Something you thought you might never accomplish, but you did.

On the Edge: US

In 2014, I did a solo drive, circumnavigating the contiguous 48 US states on US highways and Interstates as close to the perimeter as possible. 31 states, 32 driving days, 12772 miles.
Most memorable roads?

US1 Homestead > Key West, Florida (both directions)

US2 in the High Plains of North Dakota and Montana.

I’ve shown the first batch of art derived from the trip twice:

June – July 2014, TAG Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

February 2015, Palm Springs Fine Art Fair

Links:
Blog (of sorts) for the trip
List of driving days with links to photo albums on Flickr
The Art — 53 Waterlogues printed on aluminum, 4 x 6″

#June1-30Challenge Day 25

Day 25 Photo Challenge
June 25, 1967. Broadcasting of the first live global satellite television program took place on this date. It was a show called Our World.
Without the invention of the camera, we would not have television.
Today is your last photo challenge! This one may seem difficult, but you can do it!
Using your camera, take a video about Your World and share it.
Alternative: Post a picture representing the number 25. It can be twenty-five items, twenty-five people, or something showing the number 25.
Alternative: Post a gallery of 25 photos that have a shared theme. You can cheat a bit on this one and post five galleries each with five photos having a shared theme.

Twenty-five

Last week, you saw me at eighteen.
Here I am at twenty-five, climbing the pyramid at Uxmal, Yucatan, Mexico.

January, 1982

For giggles, I added this to Patti’s Visible Monday.
Wish I still had that dress.  Wish I could find that fabric! It’s stripes of cotton (yellow, looking light grey) alternating with stripes of transparent rayon (black parts). Dress came from Fiorucci.

#June1-30Challenge Day 24: My Treasure

Day 24 Twenty-four Carat Gold
June 24, 1509.  Henry VIII was crowned King of England.
Henry the eighth valued a male heir. He wanted one. He wanted a wife who could give him one. He left the Church and created his own church so he could get divorced and marry a new wife.
Twenty-four carat gold is valuable. Some value riches above all else.
Tell us what is valuable to you. What do you treasure? Write about your treasure.

My Creativity
My creativity is my treasure and I won’t hoard it

annembray.com

#June1-30Challenge Day 23

Day 23 In or Out
June 23, 2016. Britain votes today whether to stay in the European Union or get out of it.  The choice is simple: In or Out. But the ramifications of a vote to leave are complex and uncertain.
Have you ever had to choose In or Out? Maybe it was a job that you didn’t like. Or a business deal. Maybe you were in a relationship where you had to choose In or Out.
Write about making a simple but difficult choice.

Out

June 1993.
The ex gave me an ultimatum: either you quit Mattel or I’m out of this marriage.
OK, I quit.
I painted.
I tried to make a go of being a full-time fine artist.
I really missed a regular paycheck.

September.
Mattel calls with a temp offer.
I call back, agreeing to work 3 days a week.
The ex says “I’m gone,” and moved out.
I was sad for about a week.

Best out that happened to me.

One of the dolls that I worked on during my divorce:

[Image source: The Barbie Collection — site works intermittently]

Wait. I just remembered something.
We got married on June 23, 1979.
Cue eerie theremin music.

 

#June1-30Challenge Day 21: Art Hero

Day 21 Twenty-one Gun Salute
June 21, 1919. Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttled the German fleet in Scapa Flow, Orkney. The nine sailors killed were the last casualties of World War I.
In every was there are men and women worthy of honor for their sacrifices and bravery.
The Twenty-one gun salute is the military’s way of honoring someone. Who would you like to honor? Who do you consider a hero? Write about him or her.
Alternative: What would like to be honored for? How would you like to be honored?

Leslie A. Brown, Art Hero

Leslie and I first met 21 years ago at Dorland Mountain Arts Colony.
[Cannot find our early photo. Leslie will be relieved].

The creative sparks fly when we’re together.

Leslie A. Brown, Blissful Annie, Acrylic on canvas, 16 x 12″

We make each other laugh.

I’m so glad we found each other!

See Leslie’s amazing work on her website here.

 

#June1-30Challenge Day 20:

Day 20 Twenty Minutes
June 20, 1963. The United States and Soviet Union signed an agreement to set up a hot line communication link between the two countries.
If you could have a hot line to any person, dead or alive, who would it be? Who would you want to chat with if you only had twenty minutes on the hot line? What would you tell them?

I Hate the Telephone

When I was a kid, we had a party line. This meant that several homes shared the same wires, so if Mrs. Putnam was having a conversation with Mrs. Stevens, you could listen in. Mom drilled into us, “Do NOT play with the phone!”
Fast forward to the eighties to my first job out of college and call waiting.What was it, a horrible beeping when a call was incoming? The boss INSISTED that we answer the second call, in case it was her. I dropped so many calls.
I still have a landline, but it’s been unplugged for a long time. Sorry if you tried reaching me that way. Try email!

I like email.

#June1-30Challenge Day 19: For Dad

Day 19 Nineteenth Letter? No!
June 19, 1989. The movie Batman premiered. My Andrew thought Batman a great hero.
Can you be a blogging hero without utilizing the 19th letter of the alphabet?
Do not utilize the nineteenth letter of the alphabet when writing your article to be made public on your blog today. The topic of the article may be anything you like. It can be any length. But it cannot contain the nineteenth letter! 

Day of Dad

1982, Providence, RI

Hi Dad,
I now have your hairdo, though I go more trimmed on the lower part of my head. You’ve been gone for twenty now. We all yearn for you.  Have a great Dad Day!
xxox
Anne