News and Muse

Putting Ads in their place.

2012-01-23T14:28:00.000-08:00

Roger and I headed out in the rain to the reception at the Dump last Friday night. The show was very interesting as always but I want to talk about one artist in particular. Donna Anderson Kam produced a series of pastel and or crayon drawings that were interesting in themselves and is her usual work and style- abstract realism with a very strong social content. Her process for these pastel drawings was interesting , she takes a series of photographs of young actors re-enacting a recent news event (she stages these “re-telling’s”), she then collages the photographs along with other street photographs, edits /deletes and creates what she calls a narrative puzzle. The resulting collage becomes the inspiration or study for her drawing in pastel or crayon. BUT what I found most interesting was her use of advertising material, for example, a Budweiser beer vinyl banner. The banner she abstracted by cutting out organic shapes, like fingers or decay reaching into the banner, abstracting the imagery. She used this abstracted banner as a runner along the bottom of her drawing – 1/3 covered. She cut out enough of the banner to abstract the ad but allow the viewer to put together the beer can … very very cool because she managed to defeat the advertising! I have often tried to defeat the ad on cracker boxes by placing bag imagery on top of them using the box ad imagery as a back ground to collage on to. I thought to abstract the advertising by covering up the imagery. However, the advertising imagery – the ad- often took over and I could not escape it/ignore/ or make the back ground effectively talk to the foreground because the back ground (advertising) screamed at me so successfully that the resulting collages often did not work. But an overlay, an abstraction of the advertising imagery itself … brilliant… perhaps the ad will not yell quite as loud due to the abstraction by reduction. Very very cool and a brilliant idea!!!
http://sunsetscavenger.com/AIR/nextshow.htm

thought keys

2012-01-12T09:32:00.000-08:00

ART

Instinct- the bags told me or tell me what to do, I see an image and see something else in the image and run with that.

Intent- I decide what to create and use the bags and bag images to do so.

Focus- Along with instinct and intent I also study other paper artists for example, Matisse’s paper cutouts, and other paper art techniques such as papal picado, to create art that tells stories.

Instinct, Focus, and Intent are the keys to life, art, meditation and magic!!!

Tiny

2011-11-28T16:09:00.000-08:00

I have some work in the tiny show at the STUDIO Gallery

small pieces under $400
November 3rd - December 23rd, 2011
8th Anniversary Party: Sunday, December 4th, 2-6 pm

STUDIO Gallery1815 Polk Street(between Washington and Jackson)
San Francisco, CA 94109
415.931.3130
Our Hours:Wednesday - Friday, 11am-8pm
Saturday + Sunday, 11am-6pm
Monday + Tuesday by appointment

http://studiogallerysf.com/home.html

BagLand About Edit

2011-10-27T11:28:00.000-07:00

BagLand started with the idea of art created from the everyday objects that we throw away, or at best recycle. I set out to create art that explores humanity and humanity’s use of resources centered on an every day accessible object, the paper bag. Paper bags come in a variety of sizes, shapes, colors and are readily available. In fact, paper bags have so many different images and designs printed on them and come in so many colors that I decided to create collages using paper bags as my medium. Collage and the paper bag seemed a natural fit since collage is the art of image and material recycling and re-use. By limiting myself to bags I discovered a bag jargon; a bag lingo. Tomatoes became BagLanders, wine glasses were helmets, bowls are boats, surfboards a rocket, and the end of the world is the bottom of a bag; BagLand was born!

In BagLand I met Fat Rabbit, created a space opera, learned papel picado and you know what, pigs CAN fly!

Tiny, small pieces show

2011-10-26T09:08:00.000-07:00

I have some small 6X6 pieces at the Studio Gallery in the tiny, small pieces show; November 3rd - December 23rd. Opening reception: Sunday, Nov 6th, 2-6 pm

STUDIO Gallery1815 Polk Street(between Washington and Jackson)
San Francisco, CA 94109415.931.3130
Our Hours: Wednesday - Friday, 11am-8pm
Saturday + Sunday, 11am-6pm
Monday + Tuesday by appointment.

http://studiogallerysf.com/home.html

Altered Barbie 2011

2011-10-25T16:52:00.001-07:00

The 9th Annual San Francisco Altered Barbie Exhibition 2011“In Barbie’s Name: What Would Barbie Do? and Ken too?”www.alteredbarbie.com

Where: Shotwell 50 Inc., 50 Shotwell St. San Francisco, CA
When: October 26 - November 20, 2011
Days and Time: Wednesday - Saturday 1:00pm - 8:00pm, Sunday 1:00pm - 5:00pm

10/28/11Artist Opening Reception 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Come dressed as your favorite Barbie or Ken and tell us what you will do? Meet artists who have resurrected and reinvented Ken and Barbie into art and performance. The evening will include Barbie Films, Barbie Performance, Barbie MC Donna Davis, Gregangelo’s American Icon & Ken, the Jenn Kerr band, SpaceKraft, Roaddawgz homeless youth organization, Cynthia Tom’s A Place Of Her Own: an arts organization fostering the growth and development of women artists in San Francisco and much much more!

10/29/11Make your own Altered Barbie Workshops
10:00am - 1:00pm $25.00 per person + a $5 Barbie fee
In Barbie’s Name Think Barbie out of the box! Alter and recycle your own Barbie and or Ken by embellishing and/or building an environment. Ruby Pearl will lead the workshop. To sign up for classes: Altered Barbie Workshops

11/02/11The Artists Process: A Conversation 6:30pm - 8:30pmThe artists will reveal how and why they alter Barbie. This will be a fun filled eye opening evening into the inner workings of these most creative and fun artists.

11/03/11Dinner and Fashion Show 7:30pm - 10:30pm, $45.00 a personA romantic dinner hosted by Chef Shawn Miller featuring his Altered Edibles. The intimate evening will include a set gluten free dinner, a no-host bar, music, ending with chocolates from xocia. The evening highlights are a fashion show directed by Marque Cornblatt and Hester Michaels. This will be a What Would Altered Barbie Wear Fashion Show. PURCHASE TICKETS HERE

11/09/11Barbie Poetry Night 7:00pm -10:00pmWith Sean Labrador y ManzanoContact: kahilisun@hotmail.com

11/10/11 Film night featuring UCLA’s First Barbie Video Girl Doll Film Festival 7:00pm - 9:00pmAltered Barbie 2011 is proud to present UCLA’s Barbie Video Girl Doll film festival featuring UCLA students who created two-minute films using Barbie about Barbie. Along with this festival other shorts will be shown including, Tifffany Shlain’s The Tribe & Susan Stern’s documentary film Barbie Nation. All films will be shown throughout the exhibition.

11/18/11Closing Artist Reception 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Kitten on the Keys, Ethel Merman Experience and much, much more.**100% of proceeds from sales of all Roaddawgz created Altered Barbies are given back to the youth artist. Exhibition = sculptures, photography, painting, performance, film shows, video installations, fashion, jewelry and poetry.

Underfoot

2011-09-28T14:00:00.001-07:00

BagLand "about"

2011-07-07T15:55:00.000-07:00

BagLand

BagLand started with the idea of art created from the everyday objects that we take for granted, the things we throw away. I set out to create art that explore humanity and humanity’s use of resources centered on an every day accessible object. Paper bags come in a variety of sizes, shapes, colors and are readily available. In fact paper bags have so many different images and designs printed on them that I decided to create collages using paper bags as my medium. Collage and the paper bags seemed a natural fit since collage is the art of image and material recycling and re-use and paper bags are routinely recycled. By limiting myself to bags and the bag images I discovered bag jargon; a bag lingo. Tomatoes became BagLanders, wine glasses were helmets, bowls are boats, surfboards a rocket, and the end of the world is the bottom of a bag; BagLand was born!

What I know now that I did not know then is that BagLand is a destination. BagLand is the place paper bags can go when we humans have finished carrying our groceries, our knickknacks, or our gifts. BagLand is somewhere other than the trash or the recycling bin.

BagLand has a postal service, a freight service, a grocery store, and crops to harvest, a militia, silos, a space program, a power plant, and see the end of their world every time we reach the bottom of a bag. Welcome to BagLand!

Memory

2011-07-07T15:48:00.000-07:00

The world seems to be losing it's memory. Day after day, unknowingly, feeling all the wiser the more it forgets.

Paraphrased from The Shadow Of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Day of the Dead Oct.9th - Nov. 14

2010-10-04T08:35:00.000-07:00

A soldiers poem

2010-07-08T13:19:00.000-07:00

A soldiers poem,
In July of 2005, near the end of his time in Afghanistan, Orrin Gorman McClellan wrote a bitter ode to military recruiters:

"take your pleasantries
your generalizations, good intentions,
sweet words, and half truths,
put them in a box.
drape a flag over it.
and bury it with the rest of the dead."

Orrin Gorman McClellan committed suicide this last May. The number of suicides are growing among our returning veterans, 37 out of 100 at last accounting- a huge %. We must not forget our veterans and the wars we are STILL fighting. I am sorry, his sorrow and hurt is evident from his poem.

More 50-50 paper bag collage images

2010-07-01T10:34:00.001-07:00

woman - is a combo of bag image and cut out. I have been obsessed with silhouettes/profiles so I did a few of them.
Paperglyph I, is found paper cutting cast offs put together. I almost called this floorglyph because I had found the central image on the floor under my work table.
Dreaming, I have fun cutting out stars and found that great hat on a bag. I also had allot of that metallic green and as I said was obsessed with silhouettes/profiles- I think that I have gotten it out of my system... or not (I do have allot of solid color bags!)
Bear Essentials, I really wanted to play with text and just could not leave those colored circles alone... combo cutting and found image

50-50 paper bag collage images

2010-06-30T15:55:00.000-07:00

Light Junky, was inspired by a colony of moths in AZ and some great bags from Japan. This was all cut out with a little background thrown in (after the beetle I felt comfortable with bugs and had to do another bug).
Banksy on Health Care, was inspired by some Banksy graffiti in the mission- all cut out.
B-Day II, was the second of the Bunny Wars images. All cut out with some great graphics from a department store shopping bag.
80's superhero library was a classic bag image build with found bag images and pieces of bag images.
Beetle, was my first paper cutout in the classic, papal picado sense, combined with found bag images and background fun
Kilroy was here I & II, I wanted to update Kilroy was here for the two wars we are presently fighting and explore my own cut outs and backgrounds.

Btw, all these images were created by Leigh Radtke and belong to Leigh Radtke. All were created using paper bags, and are collages of the cut and paste kind.

50-50 update

2010-06-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

Well I now have 37 pieces created (I hope to get some pictures up soon) and I have been doing quite a number of "studies". For example I love Matisse's paper cut outs.

Henri Matisse, http://www.henri-matisse.net

so I decided to do my own paper bag version inspired by “The Clown"(Cover of Jazz) 1943 - wow what fun! Then I came across an old birthday card whose image I love and I decided to create one of my own out of Safeway Logos. Then I found a small globe on a Cala/Bell Market bag and realized that the Bunnies have declared war on us in WWB = World War B!!! I have also been creating my own papal picado or paper cutout patterns in preparation for my Altered Barbie piece and this years Day of the Dead installation. Now I am by no means as accomplished as this amazing artist cutter-

Carol Menninga, http://www.paper-cutouts.com

but she is something to aspire to! So far 50-50 has really pushed and pulled me in new directions and helped me to discover something new to be done with paper bags. During the last 50-50 stories emerged as I meditated on bag images and built new images with them. But this year I am an explorer, going where no baglander has gone before.

50-50 Day 24

2010-06-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

It has been interesting- with all the solid color bags I have been cutting out more shapes instead of just building images from existing images or pieces of existing shapes so I am combining paper cut out with existing and built bag images. This actually gives me more freedom- or perhaps I just realized that I actually can draw/cut and I am now not relying on just finding the images or pieces of images that I need, but I am creating my own from scratch much more often than I did before. I am also experimenting with backgrounds, not so much white… not sure if this is a radical departure or not but it feels like it is!!!! Here is an example, I was listening to the Baseball game yesterday and looking out of the window, I saw the image of a tree, telephone wires with clouds and blue sky behind, and I liked that so I used paper cut out for the clouds(a blue bag with cut out clouds on white mat board instead of using TJ waves), a plant from a book store bag, cut out black strips from a Tokyo Banana bag, the inside of a TJ palm tree provided the fence pole, and wallah, I created my own version of tree /plant, wires, blue sky and clouds. I am starting to think of how to create more of what I want – rather then create what I see or intuit only (intuit example, cut off the head and claws of a lobster and it becomes a ray gun or the TJ waves = clouds). Another example, I was given a beautiful red and yellow bag with the red coming up from the bottom with a wavy transition line between red and yellow, wavy line intuit or see waves, so I created a viking ship, I cut and detailed my own ship(I created what I wanted), to ride these wild red waves and the wind is howling! .... fun!
What is really fun about 50-50 is that I am living in a constant state of creativity due to constantly working on all these pieces. So I am always looking for inspiration, today it is

Kilroy Was Here

... I am going to make my own bag version and try to update him for the 2 wars we are presently fighting. I will either find a loaf of bread or head to use and cut the hands or cut the whole thing, we shall see. I draw roughly what I want then fine tune by cutting.... some people use paint/pencil to add details, I cut!!!

50-50 art show @ Sanchez

2010-05-26T16:42:00.000-07:00

Well well the 50 pieces of artwork in 50 days has once again started. Today is day 10. I am not as nervous or driven as the last time but I am determined to push it a little with my paper grocery bag collages. And as it so often happens the bags gave me a way in to do just that... I have gotten several one color, no design bags, a green, pink, blue, and a purple. Solid color bags do not offer any images to play off of, no arm, spoon handle, or bowl as a helmet, so I began cutting out my own images. Paper cutting means that if I want a car I cut out a car. And if I want a blue car that has yellow in the background of the windows, well I can do that by just putting a piece of yellow bag behind the cut out window. Wow, interesting. Also as I have said before, I have been experimenting with backgrounds, so, for example, dribbling and scribbling white out became thin curly strips of paper and in a couple of instances I have just added big squares of color (those darn solid color bags!), for no reason at all. This 50-50 show is a chance to experiment, to what the hell- go for it, to be brave, and let my collages go where they need to go... I hope to combine it all, the orig paper bag image inspirations, the paper cutting, solid color bags and new background appreciation to create something new... We shall see.

Art News

2010-05-18T09:24:00.000-07:00

I worked diligently on the sketch book experimenting with backgrounds. I discovered that the backgrounds need to communicate with the collage on top and I decided to experiment with different media. I did find that I can usually translate the different media into paper bags so the sketchbook was a valuable exercise in discovering backgrounds other than white. I am not entirely happy with my sketchbook but I did write a poem about it called, Liquid Paper (see below).

Liquid Paper

I am an artist. I am an artist who needed a project. So I signed up with the Brooklyn Art Library’s Sketch Book Monthlies. The library sends you a 31/2 by 4 inch blank page journal. I am supposed to fill in the pages and send it back. I am a collage artist. I create paper grocery bag collages. I use the images off of the bags, I cut, I re-arrange, and I paste these images to create new ones, often on a white background. But for the sketchbook, I decided why not add a little color?

I tried paint.
The paper was too thin, it wrinkled, and I had to wait for it to dry.
Why not white out, it dries quickly, spreads evenly but well it is still white.
I tried colored pencil, not smooth enough.
I tried pastel, too smooth.
I scribbled, dribbled, and even added text.
I tried to think of these backgrounds as a clean slate.
But backgrounds and the collage on top have to connect, to communicate.
Kinda like, We The People of the United States
But look at the health care bill
Today the news is full of
Tea Parties
Reckless government spending
Obamacrats not democrats
Death threats to government officials
Tea Party patriots
Sheriffs with private militias
And technicals waiting for the end of days

And how is it that to support fairness is unconstitutional?
To support a little more equity is the road to socialism?

So I spent the day looking for white out,
Liquid paper correction fluid,
Fast drying,
With smooth even coverage

And do you know what?
White out comes in different colors

White out came out
And discovered that it was pastel pink, legal pad yellow, sky- high blue, everyman beige, money green and Caltrans orange

And all comes in the same 22ml size
Equity in a bottle

So I went back to my sketchbook,
I put my collages on
pinko pink, trickle up money green, and even everyman beige
All provided wonderful back grounds for my collages.
I now have the security of knowing that my blank pages will be covered.

That is when it hit me,
it just could not be plainer
White out is socialism in a bottle.

Back to Art

2010-04-07T10:21:00.000-07:00

I have not been art active and have not posted so let me start by including a link for the Art House Co-op at the Brooklyn Art Library; Sketch Book Project Monthlies.

http://arthousecoop.com/projects/Sketchbookmonthliesmarch

Art House sends you a 3.5 X4 sketch book for you to play with and then send back to them when you are done.

"The Sketchbook Project Monthlies are similar to the big Sketchbook Projects but without all the pressure. Each month there is a theme voted on by the community and then you will have two months to work on your book. The books are smaller with less pages and allow for you to use this as an opportunity to try out new things, tighten up your skills, or just have fun. All the sketchbooks we get back will be included in the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Art Library where anyone can come in and look through the pages of your sketchbook!"

The Sketch Book has been great as a tool to get me creating again. I am exploring the use of color in my backgrounds, it has been interesting. I tried paint, white out (I just found out that there are other white out colors, so wo wo, I really liked the white out but thought alas it is also white!) and after all the torn out and glued together pages I discovered bags as backgrounds... LOL. But if I can find colored white out, well well we shall see. I will post when I get an image that I like.

Day of the Dead 2009

2009-11-19T16:26:00.000-08:00

Space Opera

2009-09-21T21:35:00.001-07:00

Space Opera is a series of collages ; the cut and paste kind. The medium used was paper grocery bags. I cut, re-arrange, and use pieces of bag images, and bags to create new images. Each 6"x6" piece was conceptualized; cut, arranged, (not always in that order) glued, and then mounted to a board. All are the creation and property of me, Leigh Radtke. 6"x6" Titles Top to Bottom: A Battle, The End, Victory, Rocket, Ray Gun, Resistance, Invasion, Landing

Nothing has changed and all the politicians do is bicker

2009-09-21T14:55:00.001-07:00

hell is a lonely place

he was 65,
his wife was 66,
had Alzheimer's disease.
he had cancer of the mouth.
there were operations,
radiation treatments which decayed the bones in his jaw which then had to be wired.
daily he put his wife in rubber diapers like a baby.
unable to drive in his condition he had to take a taxi to the medical center,
had difficulty speaking,
had to write the directions down.
on his last visit they informed him there would be another operation:
a bit more leftcheek and a bit more tounge.
when he returned he changed his wife's diapers put on the tv dinners,
watched the evening news then went to the bedroom,
got the gun,
put it to her temple,
fired.
she fell to the left,
he sat upon the couch put the gun into his mouth,
pulled the trigger.
the shots didn't arouse the neighbors.
later the burning tv dinners did.
somebody arrived,
pushed the door open, saw it.
soon the police arrived and went through their routine,
found some items:
a closed savings account and a checkbook with a balance of $1.14
suicide,
they deduced.
in three weeks there were two new tenants:
a computer engineer named Ross and his wife Anatana who studied ballet.
they looked like another upwardly mobile pair.

another great poem by Charles Bukowski
from the book Septuagenarian Stew: Stories and Poems 1990

STILL NO CHANGE TO OUR HEALTHCARE SYSTEM!!!
And the politicans bicker!

Shelf Life

2009-09-20T11:19:00.001-07:00

Shelf Life is a collage; the cut and paste kind. The medium used was paper grocery bags. I cut, re-arrange, and use pieces of bag images, and bags to create new images. Each 6"x6" piece was conceptualized; cut, arranged, (not always in that order) glued, and then mounted to a board.

An East Coast City Beach

2009-09-16T08:36:00.000-07:00

There is nothing like an East Coast City Beach
it’s not the no swim cold water Northern California beach
nor the topaz blue and pink sand isolationist beach
but an east coast city beach
with the tiles of towels
the crowds of people
the murmur of their voices
the crashing of the waves
I jump dive get knocked down
try to ride them
I’m yelling
laughing
screaming
I am five years old again

If I could do this every week I would be renewed
and have no reason NOT to love life.

playing with a 100 strangers
who are all like you

about the age of 5

by Leigh Radtke

Altered Barbie Reception Thursday 9-17-09!!!

2009-09-16T08:29:00.000-07:00

Ariel - A great poem by Charles Bukowski

2009-09-11T12:38:00.000-07:00

Ariel

Oh my god, on my dear god
that we should end up
on the end of a rope
far from Paris,
far from thighs that care,
above the simplicity
of stained tile,
telephone ringing,
letters unoppened,
dogs pissing in the street ...

greater men than I
have failed to agree with Life.

I wish you could have met my brother, Marty:
vicious, intelligent, endearing,
doing
quite well.

Charles Bukowski
"Mockingbird Wish me Luck" - page 82

My Barbie Angel Shadow Puppets are in the Altered Barbie 09 show!!!

2009-09-11T10:53:00.000-07:00

ChatterBox presents - The 7th Annual San Francisco Altered Barbie Exhibit Happy 50th Birthday Barbie! Over 60 artists who have resurrected and reinvented Ken and Barbie into art and performance!

Where: Shotwell 50 Studios @ 50 shotwell San Francisco, Ca. 94103
When: 9/10/09-10/04/09
Tuesday - Saturday 1-7, Sunday 1-5
Website: http://www.alteredbarbie.com
Phone: 415-240-2202

*9/17/09-5pm-10pm: Happy 50th Birthday Barbie ARTISTS RECEPTION!!
Come dressed as your favorite Birthday Barbie or Ken and meet the artists and thier dolls, MC John Hell of FCCFreeRadio, Barbie Haiku & Poetry, Velocity Circus’s-American IconBarbie
Films: The Tribe-Tiffany Shlain, Barbie Nation-Susan Stern, Documentary-Michel Fraser, interactive puppetry by little blue moon theater, Live Music by Dogs Playing Poker & DJ.
*9/18/09: Barbie Haiku and book reading night.
*10/01/09: 7:30-$20.00: The Barbie Diaries: A Barbie Puppet Theater: Little Blue Moon Theater presents The Barbie Diaries: An intimate view from a dolls perspective, humorous, yet with more depth than you might expect from a blond, plastic, fashion icon. www.magicalmoonshine.org/bluemoon
*10/03/09: 6pm-10pm: A Barbarella Closing Artists Reception:
A Fantabulous futuristic night of Altered Everything with Evolution Control committee, velocity circus, DJs and more!

My Trip to NY 8-09

2009-09-11T10:49:00.000-07:00

My Trip to NY

AT MoMA- http://www.moma.org/ I saw so many big names at the beginning of modern art ,Gauguin, Signac, Matisse, Van Goghs, the starry night, and his incredible Portrait of Joseph Roulin Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890) which I just love love love. http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=79105 , Serat's pointillism, just the who's who at the birth of modern art, 1880's and up , in an exhibit called, Cézanne to Picasso: Paintings from the David and Peggy Rockefeller Collection http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/972

I also saw a Cornell box always a treat, some incredible collages, and an architect designer who did the most amazing - incredible furniture and made chandeliers out of led lights that cycled messages like "what are you looking at?" very very cool = his mane is Ron Arad, and the the exhibit is called , " No discipline" http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/301

another incredible installation was by Projects 90: Song Dong http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/961
who took everything out of his mothers house (she lived through the cultural revolution in China and threw away - NOTHING) organized the plastic bottle caps- put them together, the shoes, the plastic soda bottles, the bags... oh what bags.. I was considering left.. what a legacy I would leave, " ... caught steeling paper bags from an installation at MoMA collage artist , Leigh Radtke stated - sir I just could not help myself... what incredible bags... " from the 6th floor his installation was an amazing aerial shot and when you got down there your first impression was - ok trash but as you walked around, you learned about his mother, china, and the time she lived in , it was amazing!

Manhattan city scenes out of every window MoMA is at West 53 and 5th- ate at a cafe near by and breezed through an incredible building that houses art in it's lobby... but with all that the absolutely best thing was being 5 again at a city beach (my sister owns a coop on the beach in Long Beach), the crowds of people, the murmur of their voices , the crashing of the waves, I would jump , dive , get slapped, then try to ride them all while yelling , laughing, and screaming, I was five years old again. Such pure joy - I loved it and if I could do this every week I would be renewed and have no reason not to love life. Playing with a 100 strangers who are all like you ... 5 again. An east coast city beach, there is simply nothing like it.

Angel Barbie Shadow Puppets meet Cubs and Poochie

2009-08-06T11:57:00.000-07:00

Angel Barbie Shadow Puppets, the top one is Cubs and she has movable wings, the second one is Poochie and she has her very own bone.

Altered Barbie 09

2009-08-06T11:32:00.000-07:00

Well I submitted my Barbie Angel Shadow Puppets to the Altered Barbie 09 - we shall see if I am accepted by the juror. But I wanted to share my Barbie Angel Shadow Puppets with you. The one above is Angel Barbie_ Cotton, and I have attached my Barbie Angel Shadow Puppets Artist statement below.

Barbie Angel Shadow Puppets
Altered Barbie 09 show Artists Statement

When I decided to do the Barbie show, all I had was a crazy idea that I would knock off Barbie, make her an angel, then dress her up in funny outfits. Of course I would do collages and since my medium at present are paper grocery bags and their images I thought, OK, I will create Barbie Angels and dress her using paper grocery bags. As I worked I realized that they had to be free standing, and unframed because I wanted the shadows to appear on the wall behind her. I wanted Barbie to not only be deceased but become a shadow of her former self; the Barbie Angel Shadow Puppet was born.

Meet Cotton, she has fixed wings. Cotton was designed to be held in front of a light source with the puppeteer creating wild shadows because of her wings and her fantastic ears. The next is Poochie, who also has fixed wings and her very own bone. The there is Cubs, she has movable wings each controlled by a stick; Cubs has wings that flap! I hope you enjoy them. I had a lot of fun making them.

Leigh Radtke 8-6-09

Story Telling at Farley's, Tuesday, July 21st

2009-07-09T10:11:00.000-07:00

STORY TELLING

Farley’s

with
storytelling, poetry, spoken word, music and sing-a-long

3rd Tuesday of the Month
July 21th

7:00-9:00

featuring
Keith Cooley, Margaret Cooley, Linda Ayres-Frederick, Marvin Ramos, Debi Ham, Phyllis Holiday, Lee Jenkins, Geoffrey Lake, Carl Macki, Daniel McKenzie, Leigh Radtke, Alice Rogoff, Tinker, Ron Jones and Susan Ford

Open Mic to follow

Info: Susan Ford
415.474.5580 suford@earthlink.net

Farley’s
1315 18th Street
San Francisco 94107
415.648.1545
www.farleyscoffee.com

50/50 is Done

2009-07-08T11:24:00.000-07:00

The 50 days are over! I have completed my 50 pieces. Funny this has become such a part of my routine that I still need to work on them. So this morning I sat and just stared at the last 5 completed pieces. This is my usual before work, morning cup of coffee ritual. I just sit and look at my completed pieces. This ritual usually results in ideas for improvements or new pieces so it is no surprise that piece 50 needs changing, some additions and some subtractions, piece 48 needs an eyelid, and one guy just needs a nose- so most likely I will continue to work until I install the show. I am also making some extras- just because I have the material and some ideas that are still nagging me. BTW The Space Opera story is done. I completed the last image called appropriately, THE END. But the story, Shelf Life, is ongoing; the key remains hidden but the red minions are close, so very close.......

I stayed true to my paper bag medium. All 50+ pieces were made with paper grocery bags and by me, Leigh Radtke

50/50 Day 43

2009-06-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

50/50 day 43 and I am still going. Did not add movement to my pieces (except the inevitable pinwheel!) but did add depth or some 3D elements and used some quilting techniques to add 3D-ness. But something else happened that I did not expect, I began telling stories! I created a piece with a key, then another - the key, the key someone was hunting for it. But what does the key do? Well it opens doors between worlds, hummm, so someone wants to enter worlds not their own... well others do not want that to happen so more pieces, and the story Shelf Life was born. In between postcards a story in images is being told and that is not all, there is another story, a space opera with ray guns, flying saucers, and even war poster propaganda! Wow and the end is in sight, I can't wait to see what happens, will the war end or the planet end up rubble?! And let us all hope that the red minions do not find the key! But with the last piece, they (the red minions- the guys hunting the key) are here in this world but very badly disguised in some kind of costume; is that a bear suit?

Each 50/50 piece was created by me, Leigh Radtke. All are collages; the cut and paste kind. The medium used was paper grocery bags. I cut, re-arrange, and use pieces of bag images, and bags to create new images. Each 50/50 piece was conceptualized; cut, arranged, (not always in that order) glued, and then mounted to a board.

50/50 show- progress and update

2009-06-18T10:31:00.000-07:00

Today is day 32 (June 18) and I actually have 32 pieces done! So far all were made using paper grocery bags/images as my medium. It is interesting because I am limited or inspired (POV) by the images on the paper bags. I play with bags until something comes to me or I stare at an image until I see something else. I come up with an idea, cut something out, then discover that the left over cut out reminds me of something and off I go creating something else. Or I will have this little piece of scrap, like the way it looks, then at some point remember that it looked like the hand of a robot and use it. At 20 I did not know how I was going to come up with more bag art, now at 32 I am exploring the possibility of adding movement and quilting to my pieces. I already added depth to my images using foam core; it is really interesting where this is all going. I think that I will stay with paper bags as my medium. I have not as yet added cardboard or spray paint to my peices but there are still 18 left to go!!!!

StoryTelling at Farley's on June 16th - update!!

2009-06-18T10:14:00.000-07:00

Farley's last Tuesday- June 16, I was not able to attend but Susan sent me this update:
The Potrereo View (monthly newspaper) listed our evening of Storytelling, so we had an interesting woman Marissa come and two young (19 or 20 year olds) very cute. Their mom told them about it. All three loved it and will be back. We had a nice audience of locals they stayed for the whole evening. We had two readings of 10 minute plays that went well, a monologue, two storytellers; one was a beautiful warm story of a mean dog who she'd run into each day in her small town. She really made the town so alive. My nephew, Paul, was visiting from LA and he did a story. I read a poem called 'The Queen' about my grandmother, I created a story before and after the poem that made it interesting. I had not planned on it, but it worked very nicely and gave me some ideas for blending work.
We did sing 'Happy Trails' and people loved it....of course we really needed you for this, but voices were strong and delightful on the words people remembered.
Next Farley's is in July, 3rd week, July 21st. There are always lots of talented people reciting plays, stories, poems... and remember there is a sing-a-long !!! I will definately be there in July!

STORY TELLING at Farley's - JUNE 16

2009-06-02T10:37:00.000-07:00

Story Telling
At
Farley’s

with
storytelling, poetry, spoken word and music

on the 3rd Tuesday of every month!
the next is: Tuesday, June 16th
7:00-9:00

featuring
Bill Alvarado, Keith Cooley, Margaret Cooley, Marvin Ramos, Obo Help, Kate Frankel, John Harrison, Phyllis Holiday, Leah Hunter, Lee Jenkins, Geoffrey Lake, Leigh Radtke, Alice Rogoff, Tinker, Ron Jones and Susan Ford

Open Mic to follow
5 minute poetry, 8 minute stories

Info: Susan Ford
415.474.5580 suford@earthlink.net

Farley’s
1315 18th Street
San Francisco 94107
415.648.1545
www.farleyscoffee.com

It is June, Story Telling in May, 50/50 Show at Sanchez

2009-06-02T09:14:00.000-07:00

June is here and alot has happened. Roger and I went to AZ - early monsoons, thunder, lighting and incredible skies in the high desert. It was just beautiful out there.

May's Story Telling at Farely's went well. I told the story that I will post below, fun story that has violence, dogs, and a happy ending all in one. I also read a couple of poems from my Angry Girl Series- it was a good night.

Visual Art wise I am participating in the 50/50 show at the Sanchez Art Center. The goal is to create 50 peices in 50 days. Today is day 16- so I am supposed to have 16 peices of art, paper bag collages naturally! Well I am on peice 15 so I am only one day behind- yippppeee ( I had visions of day 25 coming around and me with 4 peices so I feel great). I call the 50 peices Postcards From The Edge, the fun part is that being postcards I can float text so I can literally have words written in the clouds. I am having fun with that. At around postcard 11 or 12 I got a little crazy with wild imagery and mixed messages… but what is really fascinating is that I feel (already egads) that my imagination and creativity are being stretched- which I guess is the whole point! Anyway I think I am going to mix in some other elements with the paper bags. I am thinking a lot about tacs- creating an image with tacs!! Ann Weber does these amazing scultpures with card board, hummm, I just may have to add a little cardboard of my own to the postcards. Check out Ann Weber's work, just amazing, incredible, and inpiring!!! Ann Weber's website http://www.annwebersculpture.com/
We shall see where Postcards From The Edge takes me. More postcard news soon. Any way here is the May Farelys story:::

Making a Wish.

The other day I was walking in Golden Gate Park. A head of me was an older man probably in his late 60’s, walking an equally old beagle and a young guy, an early 20 something with two smiling golden retrievers. The kid was doing all the talking. He was telling the beagle owner the story of his dogs names, and this is what I heard, or over heard, well ease dropped. OK I listened shamefully and actually had to quicken my step to make sure I didn’t miss any of it. The kid had me hooked with the first couple of lines of his story
“My dogs names?.”
“Ok, it all started when my roommate cold-cocked me. As I fell to my knees I heard him scream,
‘No body uses my Tea Towels!’
And then he slammed out the door. I sat back on my heels, held my cheek in my hand, and thought of the first time I was punched in the face. My father and I were in the kitchen. His fist smashed into my cheek and snapped my head back into the refrigerator. I wanted to kick him but all I could do was be sarcastic,
‘Why don’t you move my head to the left and even out the dent, Dad? Good one, full contact on my cheek! What no body shots?’
My father was drunk. A neighbor of ours, a 22 year old alcoholic himself, heard the yelling, came in, brought me home, gave me a beer, and told me that I better spend the night with him.
I was 14. And here I was 5 years later holding my cheek after my roommate had just punched me in the face because I was sarcastic about the use of his tea towels. I just lost my job and it was very foggy. I needed to change my luck. It was August, August 12th, The Persieds meteor shower peaked on August 12th. Peak is the day you can see the most meteors, the day the earth moves through the densest part of a comet’s tail. In August the earth travels through the comet Swift-Tuttle’s tail and you see shooting stars or meteors or would see them if there wasn’t so much fog! So I went to the Planetarium. I scrunched myself down into a comfortable red chair and with the lights out and some astronomer droning on about the discovery of Perseids radii, I woke up hours later alone in the dark. Not muted soft light but lights turned off. I felt my way along the seat backs to the EXIT sign and tried the door, it was locked. Then I turned around and saw the oblong dark of the projector.
I bashed my knees a couple of times on backs of the chairs trying to get to the projector, they are all connected like a pew, until I finally ran into a half wall with a small door. Inching sideways I got in and found a panel with lots of knobs and some switches. I flipped switches and turned knobs so fast that constellations and streams of meteors, blinked in and out. The moon rose and set. Textbook visions of the solar system appeared, Jupiter, Levy-Jennings impact sites, Io, Europa and its water ice layer, Mar’s red desert, Saturn’s rings, Neptune’s blue, and the Uranus weather, all in blinks. Suddenly the lights boomed on and I heard,
‘What do you think you are doing?’
So I told him,
‘Making a wish.’
A cop and a security guard stood in the open doorway. The cop came and dragged me off.
‘Let’s go.’
I tried to explain but he badgered me with questions about how I had gotten in, cuffed me and put into the back of his police car. We drove through the park passed the Legion of Honor, then the Japanese monument, and finally headed toward the Presidio. The fog had lifted and the sky was clear. The dashboard clock said 2AM, and the Persieds peaked. As we approached the Lands End Sign, I saw a brilliant shooting star fall in between the two towers of the Golden Gate Bridge! The cop saw me smiling in his rearview mirror and said,
‘Pretty, isn’t it?’
I made my wish. The cop ran down a dog. She wasn’t dead so the cop and I picked her up; he seemed to have forgotten that he’d arrested me and removed my handcuffs so I could help. We maneuvered the dog on to my lap in the back seat. The cop called over the radio and woke the vet up. He raced to the Animal Hospital and blared the sirens the whole way! The dog panted so fast that my body shook like I had just put a quarter into a Magic Fingers. The cop just kept saying over and over,
‘Oh My God, I didn’t see it, I just didn’t see it!’
In the waiting room we didn’t talk, but I could not stop tapping my foot. The stray’s blood was drying on the knees of my genes. The cop, Bill (I read the name on his badge) paced like an expectant father. When the vet finally came out we leapt to our feet and met him before he got all the way into the waiting room.
‘The dog was dead.’
The vet told us that he was able to save two of the puppies. The stray was pregnant but not to full term and there were a couple that just might be big enough to make it. He led us back to the examination room and there on the examination table were two tiny gold puppies with their eyes closed; no bigger than your fist. I turned and looked at the Vet and could see that he was sizing us up. The cop- Bill, and I received all sorts of instructions about the proper care necessary, what to feed them, how to use an eye dropper and bottle to administer medicine and food and walked back out to Bill’s police car with our arms full of towel rapped puppies. I was settled in the back seat surrounded by liquid food, eye droppers and puppies when Bill asked,
‘How did you end up in the Planetarium anyway?’
I laughed and asked if he minded people using his tea towels. He said no, as long as they washed them. I laughed again, told him my story, and asked him if he needed a roommate.
So for the past three years Bill and I have been taking care of these dogs, Swift and Tuttle. Bill works, I cook, clean, do the wash (especially tea towels), care for him and the dogs. I named them after the comet that sent me that shooting star and to the planetarium in the first place.”
Then the two dog owners sat down to let their dogs run in the meadow, and after a comfortable silence, I heard the old beagle owner say,
“Funny isn’t it, sometimes you get what you wish for.”

© 2009 Leigh Radtke All rights reserved.

2009-04-06T08:25:00.000-07:00

STORY TELLING AT FARLEY'S
with
storytelling, poetry, spoken word and music

on the 3rd Tuesday of every month!
the next is: Tuesday, April 21st
7:00-9:00

featuring
Bill Alvarado, Keith Cooley, Margaret Cooley, Marvin Ramos, Obo Help, Kate Frankel, John Harrison, Phyllis Holiday, Leah Hunter, Lee Jenkins, Geoffrey Lake, Leigh Radtke, Alice Rogoff, Tinker, Ron Jones and Susan Ford

Open Mic to follow
5 minute poetry, 8 minute stories

Info: Susan Ford
415.474.5580 suford@earthlink.net

Farley’s
1315 18th Street
San Francisco 94107
415.648.1545
www.farleyscoffee.com

New Poems and Stories at Farley's

2009-03-05T14:47:00.000-08:00

I recited a couple of my poems this past Feb 10th; at Farley's. There were Story Tellers, other poets and muscians there that night, fun fun fun! Don't miss the next stories, music, and poems at Farley's on March 24th!!!
One of my poems was inspired by some incredible art work by the German street art duo Herakut. http://www.herakut.de/ (see the image above as well as check out their website)
They are a collaborative team of artists that produce incredible images of women, creatures, and people. The images are full of tension and the paintings have something to say; so much so that I wrote a poem about them. The specific exhibit that inspired the poem was called "Streichelzoo". Here is a blurb from Juxtapose magazine describing Herakut's show at the Carmichael Gallery of Contemporary Art , http://www.carmichaelgallery.com/ . "Artwork featured will include a combination of spray paint with charcoal, watercolors, and other paints on a variety of media, including wood, canvas, and paper. Streichelzoo means "petting zoo" in German, an apt label for a showcase of the quirky cast of creatures about to enter Carmichael Gallery. The artwork in the show embraces a brand new phase in Herakut's artistic evolution, as they continue to take risks and blend their signature styles into one unique, refreshing urban voice." Well, well enough said here is my poem,

Beauty Is Me 1-28-09
Leigh Radtke

I saw some art the other day. Realistic paintings of girls with antlers
bunny ears
a wolf nose
and yellow eyes

Beautiful bodies
not model pretty but women pretty

Big hips, breasts the right size and thighs that made the hips look small
in poses of defiance
Challenge
Determination
As if to say conventional wisdom be dammed

Beauty is me

I have antlers to fend off you nay say-ers you Barbie lovers
A wolf nose to smell you
Bunny ears to hear you
And yellow eyes to see you in the dark

Beauty is Me

LOVE ME

There will be another Story Telling, Poem Reciting, Music night at Farley's, 1315 18th Street, San Francisco, 94107 on Tuesday March 24th at 7PM

Happy New Year and 2008 wrap up

2009-01-07T09:51:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!!!

Well my storytelling debut went great btw- my audience laughed and listened- I was terrific - if I do say so myself and I am working on new stories for 2009. I copied below my poem - I told two stories and recited one of my poems, here is the poem, Green is Low Risk

According to the Homeland Security Advisory System,

The United States government's national threat level is Elevated, or Yellow.

The U.S. threat level is High, or Orange, for all domestic and international flights.

However there continues to be no credible, specific intelligence to suggest an imminent threat to the homeland at this time.¹

In the war on terror nothing is as it seems

Sheep herders no longer herd sheep they ride the subways with bombs

Religious piety is violent fundamentalism and wears a scarf.

We must be vigilant and see what is not there

Why even the colors are no longer just colors

Red is severe, orange high, yellow elevated, blue is guarded

and green low risk.

Red is delighted by its new position on top of the warning pallet

and can often be heard humming,

“♪duck and cover♫, ♪duck and cover♫”

Orange not used to such a lofty status has everyone line up, empty their pockets and put the contents in a tray

Yellow dramatically sighs and drinks mint juleps in the heat

Blue is withdrawn, stays inside and watches TV, mostly reruns of ROME

Green resents the new color relations and scatters scandals to the media

Orange is the love child of red and yellow. Orange is not even complementary. Yellow has a drinking problem. Blue covers 70% of the planet. Beware Blue tyranny! Red fears the blue menace! Primary Power Rules! Red will bleed us all and still not admit to oranges parentage.

But no matter how public opinion blushes

Red is a color lost in a sunset
overwhelmed by Yellow
Orange a cross over color
is the bridge between
Pink is another peace maker
Sky Blue a negotiation
Aquamarine a compromise
but Green
Green lends itself to any other color
and always stays Green

Leigh Radtke

1. http://www.dhs.gov/xinfoshare/programs/Copy_of_press_release_0046.shtm

Day of the Dead 2008 was a great show full of amazing art. I took away from this a better understanding of ritual and the need to hear your ancestors stories- to get their take on the events of their lives, memories are important and I want to encourage everyone to put those memories up to your lips and blow.

I also discovered that I need to make very large pinwheels! Stay tuned for news on that front.

Art wise the end of the year did not involve any other shows for me other than the Day of the Dead and all my creativity centered on story telling, writing and creating my own gift bags.

CHEERS

Story Telling

2008-11-04T14:26:00.000-08:00

I am going to try my hand at storytelling! My debut as a storyteller will be Wednesday, November 12, 7PM at Farley's Coffee House (www.farleyscoffee.com). Here is the scoop:

Finding the Story in the Facts
An Evening of Story Telling

Tellers: Bill Avarado, Kate Frankel, Maria Minder, Leigh Radtke, Susan Ford and Ron Jones will tell folktales, myths, personal stories and spoken word.

Listen, laugh, cry and be amazed at the stories they tell!

Where: Farley’s
http://www.farleyscoffee.com/
1315 18th Street, San Francisco 94107
Phone: 415.648.1545
When: November 12
Time: 7-9 pm
Free
Open Mike to follow, 6 minute limit
Please bring your own poems and stories to share as well.

Oakland Museum Exhibits

2008-10-13T10:55:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,
I went to see the Day of the Dead and I want to say that the show is amazing. The leather mosaic is incredible, the hand made books by students and teachers- you can pick them up and browse to see all the individual artwork- very inspiring or the extinct or endangered species by the Skyline students - egads all of it was absolutely incredible and I am not even mentioning the individual altars or the other installations... really incredible... I really liked the show!!!

There is also a show of LA artists with some incredible work by some low brow art- artists = Armando Lerma and Carlos Ramirez (who collaborate as The Date Farmers) who paint and collage on/with found objects; an interesting mix of pop culture and Mexican cultural icons, very cool.

http://www.museumca.org/exhibit/index.html

Day of the Dead

2008-09-15T22:40:00.000-07:00

I have been honored to have been asked to participate in the,

Evolution of a Sacred Space: Días de los Muertos 2008,

October 8– December 7, 2008 at the Oakland Museum.

The Community Celebration is Saturday, Oct 25, and the hours are 12–5 p.m. Please check out the website and upcoming exhibits, http://www.museumca.org/exhibit/exhi_dod_08.html

I have had a wonderful journey creating this alter. I rediscovered my grandparents, discovered my great grandparents and relived childhood memories. I created my own rituals and ceremonial tools for feeling joy at the memory of my grandparents. In fact I share my joy with them every time I celebrate their memory.

I have included my Day of the Dead Artist's Statement below for those of you who need more explanation. But I encourage you to see the exhibit because it is very , very interesting to see so many examples of sacred spaces, ceremonial tools, and the implied rituals that accompany them.

My Grandparents and Pinwheels
Leigh Radtke 2008

My grandfather was a man who loved to laugh and eat Tootsie Rolls. My grandmother was a flapper in the twenties, a wife and mother in the forties and a grandmother in the sixties; that is where I come in. When I was a little girl my mother worked weekends so every Saturday my sister and I were dropped off at my grandparent’s house. My grandfather would let us eat way too many Tootsie Rolls then take us to the 5 &10 store to see what treasures could be had for 10 cents. It was on one such Saturday that we discovered pinwheels. My grandfather let us loose in the back yard to make them spin to the sound of his laughter and encouragement. We would twirl with arms outstretched, pinwheels whirrrrrring, till we collapsed with laughter onto the grass. The world tilted beneath us and my grandmother’s flowers swayed. We would spin till candy was not such a good idea, then grandmother would bring us toast, tease my grandfather for indulging us, and tell us stories of her artist father (our great grandfather) who was a painter and of our grandfather’s heroic deeds in WWII. Then she would plant our pinwheels in among her flowers to keep till next Saturday when we would spin and whirrrrrr again.

I have created pinwheels for my grandparents but I have also created a brightly flowered glow-in-the-dark pinwheel for you. Please pick it up and make it spin in honor of my grandparents. If you would, please place the pinwheel back in the box when you are done. Or if by any chance you have collapsed to the floor with laughter then stay to hear the stories of your own loved ones, have a friend return it for you.

Will Marino, wound and folded paper as medium

2008-08-25T16:05:00.000-07:00

I saw some great art last weekend at the Sanchez Art Center, http://www.sanchezartcenter.org/

Will Marino was one of the 4 Rydell Visual Arts Fellows in the main gallery. I have included an image from his website, http://willmarino.com/index.html

His work is made from wound and folded paper. His pieces are 2D but with depth, a fat 2D, Ha... His backgrounds remind me of Van Gogh's, Starry Night, sky and I thought just look what can be done with recycled paper. Impressionist assemblage! Just amazing, don't miss his work.