Rue de Suze

January 2012

suze — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:49:00 +0000

Well, my fellow Francophiles and Eiffel Tower lovers. It has been an entire year since I started my insanity of making as many Eiffel Towers as I could. fait accomplish, I have made almost 60 individual and highly unique Eiffel towers out of what started as simple balsa wood bird feeders. If you only knew how many sizzzors, glue pots, sponge brushes, paper, and Deft I have used this past year.

I started out trying to make an Eiffel every day and that was mission impossible. Then I tried to make one every few days, uh uh!! I had to sand and paint many times over to get the finished look I wanted. In actuality I finished an Eiffel per week plus.

We could barely eat at the dining table as it was always covered with Eiffels and paraphernalia. There were days when nobody could use the kitchen counter. When my knitting group came for dinner on Friday nights they had to eat with the Eiffel Towers. They just kept on reproducing.

In November I took the first group of Eiffels to my friend Marybeth Adkins of Natural Light Photography for her to photograph. Once photographed they were then turned into fabulous prints and greeting cards. Which are now for sale, and you can purchase them by clicking” on the Eiffel Tower prints and cards button on the front page of my website.

On Febuary 29th you can nurture your French addiction at the Leap into Paris Gala. There you will find an exhibition of the original Eiffel Towers, prints and cards (Please bring your wallet). The location is Coquelicot From Provence, 503 Magnolia Ave. Larkspur, Ca. 6-9pm

I look forward to meeting all of you that can come.

I am a quarter of the way there…

suze — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 21:22:50 +0000

It is June 2nd 2011.
I have almost finished one quarter of the 100 Eiffel Towers. My house is a mess, we can barely eat at the dining table. Every where you look there are Eiffel Towers.

I started this project because I was in a lull. I felt I was at an impasse with my art work, little did I know it would ignite.
Shortly after I started working on the towers I was contacted by a British magazine to write an article about me with photos…and build a three story “how to” project for them. Needless to say I was overjoyed to be discovered. Soon I was overwhelmed. Not only had I been discovered but I got two covers and three issues….boy I am on a roll this year.
However I can not loose sight of the Eiffel Towers…..I am committed to finishing all 100 of them.
I will let you all know when I have finished the 25th tower because I will be officially one quarter of the way through…Oi Vey !

Eiffel Tower Project/Saturday

suze — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:59:28 +0000

Here comes Saturday. Linda was at my house by 8:30am with maps and a plan to hit all three stores. First we went to Concord. We found 12 towers but the manager would not sell us the samples. Off to Dublin next..even with maps we managed to get lost, but persevered and eventually found the store. I found six towers but stood in a checkout line for over half an hour as they only had one checker. Then on to San Leandro. What a dump!! I found ten towers and the employees sold me the samples. What nice people.

It was now 2:30pm and we were back in Sausalito, two exhausted people. I now had a grand total of 115.

Where was I going to put all these Eiffel Towers???I was beginning to run out of room, and I couldn’t leave them on the floors as my floors were being replaced, and the house was a wreck!!!!

Everyone should have their own personal Oscar (my own personal handyman) god bless him he created spaces to put them all.

We still had one minor problem I was short on towers…
Linda called one of her post-doctoral students who headed to Vallejo. She found six more towers for me. We even had one student on call for the Chico store in case we needed still more.

The following day Michaels ran an ad in the Sunday paper advertising my Eiffel Towers for $2.00 less than what I paid, the joke was on them because there were no more Eiffel Towers in Northern California to buy.

Now the work really begins.

Eiffel Tower Project/Monday

suze — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:36:05 +0000

Linda was off to the Pinole Michaels in her quest for more Eiffel Towers…only that store never has the best selection. She only could purchase four towers. She called to tell me she was off to the Emeryville/Oakland store. What a friend to do this in the 5:00 commute traffic.

The next stop was well worth it as she found ten Eiffel Towers, two samples and lots of info…The manager carried a hand held computer so she was able to tell Linda how many towers were in the East Bay stores.

Now Linda had a plan !!!!!!

The following Saturday we planned to hit all the stores.
However I remained worried that 365 towers was an impossibility and it was going to take three to four days to produce a finished tower. Linda being the scientist divided 365 by 3 and decided I would need 122.

I was still worried I wouldn’t be able to find the rest of the towers needed so I got on the phone and called Rix and Helen in Mission Viejo, Ca. and sent them on the search. As soon as Rix got the message he went right down to the local Michaels. He was able to locate a total of 12 towers in total and actually drove them up to my house and delivered them to my doorstep.

At this point my two sons were ready to kill me and were not in favor of this project Why couldn’t I be a normal mom. They shook their heads as once again the dining table filled up with my art projects and there was no place to eat. The only ones not complaining were my two dogs Molly and Sasha….but I had a plan!!

Eiffel Tower Project/Sunday

suze — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 00:39:08 +0000

My usual day to ride my horse.
I drove to the ranch threw my saddle on Miracle and rode for one hour.
I threw my poor horse back into her stall jumped in my car and the hunt was on once again.
Off I went to San Mateo a hour and a half drive from the ranch. In this store I hit pay dirt and the rolling ladder was used to climb up to the top shelf and recover ten towers. Some were slightly broken but I didn’t care I took them anyway.
I placed them in my car which was overflowing and drove to Woodside.
In Woodside I found I had competition as the president of the Notre Dame de Namur University was also looking for Eiffel Towers.
I waited once again while the rolling ladder was brought out.
In the meantime my cell phone was ringing my kids were calling looking for food.
Worried that I wasn’t going to be able to find anymore towers I called Linda who promised to go to the Pinole and Oakland Michaels stores after work the next day.
So feeling a little better I head home with my towers and stopped to get food for the boys.

Eiffel Tower Project

suze — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 00:23:06 +0000

Day 2

My friend Linda was on the search. She drove to Serramonte Michaels after work taking a tall man with her. At her height she saw six Eiffel Towers on the shelf. She called to tell me what she had found, when I heard someone yelling in the background “I found eight more”. It’s wonderful to have a tall man around.
Now we had 26 towers in total.

We arranged to go to Petaluma and Santa Rosa on Saturday.
In Petaluma we found friendly employees and we piled ten more Eiffel Towers into my Chevy Tahoe. Since we bought out all their stock they were kind enough to sell us their painted samples which were labeled not for sale.

On the road again we headed to Santa Rosa, oy vey!!!
The employees were nice as we bought out their entire stock.
We asked if we good buy their two display samples. We were told yes so we pushed our cart loaded with Eiffel Towers to the checkout counter. The checker said we could not buy the samples so we asked her to call the manager. The manager rode her broomstick all the way to the checkout. She was rude, nasty and turned purple as she grabbed the samples out of my hand shouting No No No !!!!

We took our eight towers and got the hell out of dodge.
321 Eiffel Towers still need.

Eiffel Tower Project

suze — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 01:36:31 +0000

January Day 1

I’ve got a plan!
This simple sentence I say when a new idea pops into my head.
The year of the Eiffel Tower began this way one afternoon as I was walking through the Marin County Michaels Arts and Crafts store.

While walking towards the pot section to buy an urn for a topiary, I spied an Eiffel Tower out of the corner of my eye. I didn’t see one, I saw twelve on the shelf and my mind started working in overtime. The adrenaline was pumping in my veins as the plan began to formulate in my mind.

I got out my cell phone and called my friend Linda to shout out I’VE GOT A PLAN ! OMG! There was no response from the other side.
Finally she said cautiously, “okay what’s the plan”.

“I am going to do an Eiffel a day!”
“You what?”, she exclaimed, “are you F….ing crazy!!!”
The bad news is they only have twelve here and I need 353 more.
Because Michaels is a strange store that doesn’t take orders or sell on its website…..THE HUNT IS ON !!!

STAN BECKMAN

admin — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 22:13:15 +0000

STAN BECKMAN

May 8, 1931-
Graduate of the Philadelphia Museum School of Art

30″width
12 3/4″height
12″depth

This is the fourth piece in my artist series entitled L’ARTISTE

It is a “take off” on Stan Beckmans’ art booth at the SAUSALITO ART FESTIVAL (which is ranked #1 art festival in the country) over the Labor Day Weekend.

I met Stan about 25yrs ago at the SAF when my children were in strollers (gees has it been that long !!!) I instantly fell in love with his work, and his representation of France, Italy and other European countries. Throughout the years I have collected his lithographs and have a “gallery” of his work throughout the house. He is my inspiration for my art work.

The idea to make this piece came while I was recovering from shoulder surgery. I created this piece one handed , and could only work for limited amounts of time. Merci to his assistant Mike who helped me by printing the many “mini” glycee prints.

L’ARTIST will be permanently on exhibit at Stan Beckman’s home in Sherman Oaks, California.

2010

FRIDA KAHLO

admin — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 17:10:19 +0000

THE BLUE HOUSE

Frida Kahlo
1907-1954

This is the third piece in my artist series.

The idea for this particular piece came to me while in was Austin, TX in 2009.
While walking through a series of shops I came across a Mexican store which catered to Frida Kahlo. When I arrived home I started reading about her, viewed movies about her and found her quite fascinating. I then realized that I needed to recreate a small portion of her life in the THE BLUE HOUSE. Note the painting of Stalin on the easel.

Frida Kahlo started out life planning to become a doctor until she became a victim of a tragic bus accident when she was 15. Throughout the rest of her life she endured over 30 operations, and life long pain. She became an artist, a political activist, communist, and was married to muralist Diego Rivera. Frida passed away at the young age of 47 due to health complications.

While I was an art history student in the early 1970s, Frida Kahlo was unknown. It wasn’t until the 1980s that she became a cult icon with movies, books, jewelry, socks etc..

The Blue House is located in Coyoacan, a former suburb of Mexico City.

To learn more about Frida Kahlo you can read up on her in the book entitled KAHLO by Andrea Kettenmann.

FENG SHUI

admin — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 21:57:42 +0000

Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese system of aesthetics believed to use the laws of heaven (astronomy) and earth (geography). Historically it was used to orient buildings in an auspicious manner.

This building was created for the HBS 2010 Creatin Contest, The building is named Feng Shui which is a complete departure from my other projects.

I combined two of the contest kits to create the structure. The pagoda style roof was made of foam core board. Red, being the traditional Asian symbol for good luck was decided as the central color for the project. Red lends itself to the faux finish called faux bois which I used for the roof, overhang and the interior ceiling.

Bamboo, a tradition in Asian houses, surrounds the base of the structure. Bamboo was created from cake dowels that were treated with stain and antique varnish to create the color. The ridges were created by using a toothpick and glue.

The traditional shoji screens found in Asian structures lent itself to the 1/2th scale. The screens were made in the traditional manner with rice paper and the red color was carried through. These small screens provided the same lighting as their full size counterparts.

The remaining lighting inside the building is provided by three handmade lanterns from Celebration Lights set into aquarium tubing and covered with rice paper.

Additional creations included tatami matting, tonsu chests, musical instruments, small table and a typical Asian meal. The small wishing well on the deck was created from a old pencil sharpener. It has three coi fish swimming happily around.

The Feng Shui house sits been and heaven and earth hence the blue sky background and the green grass.