AU catch up: Mirrors & Metal

   Check one of the coolest pieces of artwork I've donated for sure: a wooden mirror frame with my logo in it; the annual Machine Head art work day; and the main event itself!

Art Unleashed 2012

Tonight was Art Unleashed, and another good one at that! (I found out a couple weeks later that we raised over $77,000 in a single evening, with over 400 pieces of artwork, and hordes of volunteers making it all happen). It was held at the historic American Royal again:

This sweet dog greeted everyone at the door. I WANT HIM.

The crowd grows

Posing with some of my metal artwork

LOVE this pug painting! Didn't win it. BOO.

LOVE Mary Ann's mixed-media collage!

LOVE Charlotte's drawing!

LOVE Donna's new mosaic!

And Joni & Jack's pieces in the live auction... WOW.

Kelley's "downward-facing dog" yoga bag

Dawn & Ginny with their wins (Ginny won my dog frame!)

Britten won the surly monkey photograph!

Sawako, me, Britten, Nicole, & Amy (with Rich hiding in back)

Art Unleashed: Mirror, Mirror

   Amber happens to work at 3Axis Inc., and they happen to be experts in woodworking and happen to have a CNC router, and I just happened to create a design that we thought would make the perfect frame for a mirror! So here is her friend & coworker, Bryce, showing off the cut piece that we will be donating to the Art Unleashed auction.

WOW.

Amber with the CNC router (not to be confused with the C+C Music Factory)

The router at work! It took over an hour to cut all the intricate details...

...almost there...

Bryce shows off his work

Amber finished the mirror & frame beautifully...

They're supposed to be making one for me to keep. I think I might have them leave the circle out, and make it a coffee table with a piece of glass on top!

HSGKC Mug Shot

   Check out the Art Unleashed mug that I just created. Shutterfly generously sent me a code for a free mug (I only had to pay shipping), so I decided to create one that commemorates this year's event, which I plan to donate to the art auction. Here's hoping it will bring in some good money for the animals!
   Click & drag the image below to see all sides of the mug... this preview is almost as cool as the real thing! And did you know that if you post about your Shutterfly project and email a link to shareproject@shutterfly.com, they will give you a $10 credit for a future order? Talk about paying it forward. Thanks, Shutterfly!

Mug

View the entire collection of cards.

Annual Machine Head Day

   Today Dick once again opened his fantastic metal shop up to the motley crew of volunteers to make cat & dog artwork for the annual Art Unleashed auction. As you can see, Dick, Robert, Jana, Connie, Randy, Jason, Amber, Ricky, Matt, Jared—even Aki, Taylor & their new pal Lambert!—and I, had a blast.
   We made about 40-50 pieces of metal art for donation, and this year we got extra creative. Our best collection yet! Sincere thanks to Dick Jobe for his generosity!

"You're not thinking of putting US to WORK, are you?!"

Lutes family photo

Connie & her adorable grandson

Whoa. Ricky is TALL. And I am SHORT.

Dick & Matt get down to business

Cutting begins

A tribute to my dear Gypsy

Ricky prepares the rods for garden stakes

Sandblasting

Amber's in the grind

Artwork, and the dog who inspired it

The all-important lunch order: Jimmy John's this year

Artwork piling up

Tons of yard art

Artwork almost taller than me!

Frame me up

Sitting down on the job

Look at us—we're ART!

Art Unleashed invitations

   Oh, sure... It doesn't look like much now. But Monte & I met to discuss the format & layout of the invitations for this year's AU event for HSGKC, and I'm really excited... Gonna be the best ones yet!!!
   This year's logo is one that I submitted last year, but another sketch was chosen. Very glad  to get to do this one now. Here are the shirt colors. See if you can recognize any of the animals:

Ready for their close-ups

   Today I took the pups to VanDeusen Photography in Brookside, for the photo shoot that I won in the silent auction at Art Unleashed back in August. What a great experience! If you need photos, call Lori. Seriously. Check out their work on their website... Fun stuff!
  I could tell it was going to be good as soon as I walked in the door. They have a gorgeous studio, and Lori and Stephanie greeted me immediately. The dogs LOVED them... Aki, who is usually hesitant around strangers, ran right up with tail wagging and jumped on them. Taylor did the same. (Okay, shame on me for not training the dogs better, but at least they were excited!)
   Clearly these guys, who have been in business since 1978, know what they're doing. They were super super patient with the dogs and gave them lots of time to explore the studio and get comfortable in their surroundings. They worked as a team and had plenty of toys and noisemakers on hand to make sure the dogs were "on" for the camera. Paul took tons of shots of the pups on top of a table covered with a fuzzy black cloth. Once they got used to being up high—and to the sudden sound and flashbulbs—they did great. Taylor kept jumping down from the table to explore, and we had to keep hoisting his chubby butt up there again. I even got into a couple of shots. Can't let the dogs have all the fun!  ;)
  After the shoot, Paul shared some of the best shots with me, and I'll get to come back in about two weeks to review them onscreen and choose my favorites. Can't wait.
  Thanks to them for a fun experience, and especially for graciously donating your services to benefit the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City! The photo above is another shiba they've photographed, Mr. Miyagi.

More than a month after Art Unleashed...

   The KC Star finally posted 3 of their photos. Including a great shot of Jana with her prints from the live auction, a shot of board members & volunteers... and me. The photographers coached me to gesture with my hands & pretend like I was talking about the artwork. How's my acting? (Steph was unable to attend that night, Kelly hadn't arrived yet, and we couldn't find Jack. So I had to represent.)

Art Unleashed final wrap-up

   The KC Star reported that we raised $76,000 for the Humane Society! (Please don't ask how much of that was from me, between the 3 items that I purchased...)

Art Unleashed wrap-up

   It took me a week, but I finally got all of my Art Unleashed posts online! I posted them under the real dates, so they're several pages back. So I'm linking to them all here for ease of viewing:

The event, 8/27/10

The making of the metal art

Not-so-hidden dangers

Dick is famous! And hilarious!

The Hallmark work

The making of the group canvas

The group canvas: who did what

Kelley's work

Advertisement 1

Advertisement 2

ART UNLEASHED 2010

   Art Unleashed was a great success (and a TON of fun!) tonight, with over 500 pieces of artwork for the silent & live auctions. The live auction + fund-a-need raised about $22k, and the total for the whole event was about $74k! The auction was held in Hale Arena at the American Royal complex again, which was a nice, big space to accommodate the crowd. At 6:15 when it opened:

My shirts for sale & yard art for the raffle:

Donna, Madeline & me, ready for fun!

A reminder of why we're all here:

The long table of "doodles" (small Masonite squares):

Rie's giant dog pillow. So funny!

   Robin's mom made this awesome quilt out of Humane Society shirts over the years. Can you guess which ones are mine? (Hint: I can spot 10.) I bid & lost.

A great Dane:

One of Kelley's purses:

Great Revilo cartoon (I bid & lost):

   Ceramic tiger head by an 11-year-old girl. Perfect for me, since I was born in the year of the tiger!

Another one of her works (I bid & lost):

Love this flat cat plush:

A panel of dog & koala art:

One of Tad's prints (I bid & lost):

Checking out the doodles:

Wolf head by Joni, and purse by Kelley:

lsrael's painting (I bid & bid & bid & lost!):

The silent auction comes to a close:

And the live auction begins! Robin & Brett Anthony, Meteorologist on NBC Action News:

Jana's cute prints:

Donna's incredible mosaic of Steph's chihuahua, Diego:

Jeri & Robin show off a painted chair:

The Nigro brothers serve as auctioneers & get the crowd going:

Whoa!!!

Our group piece made the live auction!!!

Robin shows it off:

   Kelly & me with the winner. We were SO THRILLED with the total. I had goosebumps the whole time & about fainted when it was all over. 

   Connie, Randy & Amber with their haul, which included Kelley's fish purse, Anthony's dog head & Israel's painting:

Here's one of the pieces I brought home: a beaded cat by Lynda Calvert-Weyent. I also won the tiger head ceramic (above) & a pet photography session by VanDeusen Photography! That makes up for being outbid on EVERYTHING last year!