Tom Sawyer and Me, Sort Of - Or, Painting the Chairs

Tom Sawyer whitewashed a fence and I painted some old metal yard chairs white. I did it outside on the brand new balcony of my mountain cabin. Paint and white are about the only things my venture had in common with Tom Sawyer's, though. His was a communal pursuit that brought him many valuable items such as dead rats, partially eaten apples, orange peels, and other assorted treasures. My solitary pursuit brought rewards of a different nature, but I didn't want dead creatures and partially-eaten food items anyhow. Aunt Polly was happy that the fence was done, but I'm not so sure how happy my husband is going to be about the chairs.
You see, paint and I don't really get along. I like paint fine but it likes me too well and insists on decorating my body, clothing, and, really, any other surface nearby and not so nearby, in addition to the object being painted. It's a one-sided love affair.
I guess I could blame it on my sisters. They like antique stores and one day we found one going out of business, everything 35% off. I spotted a real treasure - three old, joined-together metal chairs that had once been part of a glider. They were really cool and reminded me of my youth. Actually, I'm not sure we ever owned any metal yard chairs when I was growing up, but if we didn't, we should have. These were rusty with peeling red, white, and blue seats, but the main selling point was that my feet reached the ground when I sat in them! Only $211 also - with that 35% off.
Wow! I could buy them for the cabin and I could repaint them myself! Never mind that I had never sanded, primed and painted a piece of furniture. Inspired by having recently decorated a friend's old dining room table with hobby paints, I felt ready to take this on. How hard could it be, really?
Buy paint. Colorful paint to decorate the finished product with. Hold on - Rust-oleum only comes in a few colors? Ok then, the decorations will be yellow, red and blue, the primer gray and the chairs white. Sparkling, pristine high-gloss white Rust-oleum. My husband got the sandpaper, I took it all up to the cabin and voila! Ready to start.

What Can a Full Wall Mural Painting Do For Your Home Improvement Decoration

Full wall mural, self explanatory, covers an entire outdoor or indoor wall. It is a decoration, usually painted by an artist - muralist and customized to match the client's taste and expectation. The meaning of the word "mural" depicts any artwork, painted on a large, permanent surface like a ceiling, window or a wall of the building - indoor or outdoor.
While the first murals date back to prehistoric times and have been done in many different styles and techniques from abstract to "trick the eye", today's full wall murals have become more easily available and affordable.
It seems like the full wall murals are popular in celebrity nursing rooms, in kids' rooms and private bars, in cafes, restaurants and waiting rooms of the doctors' offices. They cover big or long empty walls, bring in an outdoor feel, and make every living space brighter - especially when depicting a view of the body of water, a meadow or a scenery.
Sometimes the full wall murals turn one's room into a fairy tale of "faerie" tale, an African plane with wildlife, a jungle, into a prehistoric time with dinosaurs or field of sunflowers, a sky with airplanes or birds and clouds, or calm sea with tranquil sales boats, sailing by at all times.
Only imagination is the limit to what image a single wall can be turned into. A dull, dark room can become bright and inviting with a motif, borrowed from mother nature.

How To Mask Your Vehicle Before Painting

You will need:

1. 2 or 3 rolls 18mm masking tape

2. Newspaper (full size sheets)

3. Magazine (average size)

4. Safety razor blade

Masking windows

Lay out on a flat surface, eight full size sheets of newspaper stacked on top of each other. Now pull out the bottom sheet about 25mm and run a complete strip of 18mm masking tape along the edge about 6mm on to the paper. Pull out the second to bottom sheet about 50mm, over the top of the first, and do the same. Carry on until all sheets are taped, overlapping each sheet about 25mm more each time.

Before applying the sheets to the windows, run a strip of masking tape around the edges of the glass or window rubbers. Pay careful attention to ensure that the tape is not touching the paint work, or showing part of a window rubber, or chrome molding. Press down the outside edges firmly as you go.

When this is completed, peel off the top sheet of the previously taped newspaper, and stick the taped edge on to the tape applied earlier to the window, positioning the sheet to cover as much area as possible.

Now fold the overlapping edges inward so as not to trap dust, and tape the remaining edges onto the tape that surrounds the window. Try and use long strips of tape rather than short pieces. A long piece stretched tight will maintain a straight line.

Side windows can usually be covered with one sheet, and front and rear screens two. Very deep screens may require four sheets.

Always tape joins in the sheets completely to prevent over spray getting through or the paper billowing up whilst spraying.

The razor blade can be used to trim any large excess of paper from an awkward shape before taping.

Masking moldings

Chrome moldings, door handles, small lights, etc. are best covered entirely by tape. Headlights, rear lights, and larger items, are more quickly covered by using the same technique as for windows, but by using the smaller pages of a magazine. Use the razor blade to trim excess tape from any narrow moldings.

Bumpers and grilles

These are plain awkward, and are best tackled as for windows, but before taping, fold sheets length ways to provide a narrow, more easily handled shape. Don't be too fussy about being neat under the bumper edges. These areas normally remain clear of heavy over spray.

Wheels

It is desirable to cover the wheels completely, particularly if they are not to be painted. If they are to be painted, they may be left uncovered as tyre paint will cover over spray on tyres.

The Purpose Behind Nude Oil Paintings

Historically, western nude oil paintings depicted the naked male body long before the naked female body. It is interesting to look at why this might have been so.
Some of the earlier paintings of naked bodies aimed to display the physical strength and prowess of males. This was especially true in Greek and Roman art which captured and emphasized the strong muscular features of the male form.
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Greek and Roman artists continued to give attention to naked males rather than females. In fact, there seemed to be an unspoken taboo against trying to depict the naked female form. There appeared to be a sense of shame and sinfulness associated with naked females which did not seem to apply to naked males.
Some art historians suggest that, in the west, this had to do with religious beliefs originating in the Biblical story of Adam and Eve. In this story, Eve was considered a temptress who had persuaded Adam into the sin of eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.
In modern art, nudity has been more liberally depicted with artists using it in a variety of settings and styles. The naked human form has been painted in impressionist compositions, as fantasy art, abstract art and in cartoons.

So You're In The Market For A Body Kit?

Have you ever walked out to get in your new car and just felt like it is missing something? Do you feel like it looks too much like every other model on the road? This is the first sign that a body kit may be just what you need.
Types of Body Kits

Body kits come in all kinds of styles, materials and qualities. There are basically three styles of kits you can choose from; a lip kit, a bumper replacement kit or a wide body kit.

A lip kit consists of a lip you attach to your front bumper, a side skirt for each side and a lip for the rear bumper. These kits completely attach to the factory bumper and are normally the best fitting kits available. The downfall of a lip kit is that it is a more subtle change and for some people, may not deliver the dramatic difference they are looking for.
The second style of body kit is the bumper replacement kit. A bumper replacement kit uses completely new front and rear bumpers to alter the appearance of the car, in addition to side skirts for each side. Bumper replacement kits provide a much more dramatic styling change than the lip kit. The downside of a bumper replacement kit is the fitment of the pieces. These parts are not molded on a factory bumper so many times, these parts do not fit the vehicle correctly without major body work.
Lastly, the most costly and most dramatic styling change is achieved with a wide body kit. These kits typically include a replacement front bumper, replacement rear bumper, custom side skirts, new front fenders and rear fender flares. Many wide body kits require excessive bodywork or fiberglassing to get a correct fitment. Vehicles with a wide body kit exhibit the most dramatic styling change of all three styles.

Women, Painting and Power

I'm standing in my studio, watching ten women painting in silence with exquisite focus and concentration, and the energy is just humming. All of a sudden I hear a groan from one of the women and the words "Oh no, I hate it. It's so ugly". I smile, feeling a sense of great relief and dread.
Relief because another woman has just blindly stumbled into her gateway to creative freedom. Dread because I know the resistance and arguments I am going to be coming up against as I try to talk her out of destroying what she deems ugly and to even to begin to take the radical step of accepting what she has created with curiosity and compassion. I have to be quick here because women are nothing if not stealthy and crafty and will waste little time in eradicating the evidence of what they consider unattractive art.
This is a class in what's known as intuitive painting or process painting. The purpose of this kind of painting is to learn to listen deeply to yourself and to then courageously express what you find,without censoring anything,in a spirit of spontaneity, surrendering to the creative process.It's very different from typical art classes where the primary focus is on developing technique and ending up with a pleasing product. This type of class uses art and painting as a way to get more in touch with the inner world of soul and psyche. The focus is exclusively on exploring and expressing that internal process.
This road is difficult for most women, because even though many of us have done some kind of self investigation and recognize the value inherent in that search, we are still fighting an uphill battle against a very strong cultural bias that teaches us to place the greatest value on what is outside of us. We are taught that feelings and an inner life are fine as far as they go, but what is truly worthwhile is how we look, what we own, who we know, and where we find ourselves on the economic and status hierarchy.
The mysterious stirrings of our soul, the needs of our hearts, the messages from our bodies,and the genius of our intuition, are STILL, even after all of the battles for liberation that we have fought, denigrated and considered trivial and unimportant, unrealistic and immature. But in the world of the process arts the realm of psyche and dreams, imagination and feelings are staunchly defended as sacrosanct and even given center stage.

Paint Your Used Mustang Or Other Classic Car on a Budget

How to Paint your Mustang or other Classic Car on a budget

Can you get a good paint job from a low buck paint shop? Yes! Professional paint pros and high dollar restorers may scoff, but it's very possible to get a good looking, long lasting paint job from a discount paint shop like Earl Scheib or Maaco. It's not appropriate for every car. I wouldn't hand them the keys to my Shelby GT500 or '53 Corvette, but for those on a budget it's a very good option. The key to a successful budget paint job is to prep the car yourself. Leave nothing to the shop except actually laying down the paint. (note: For purposes of discussion we'll use a classic Mustang as the example, but this process holds true to really any older car)

Analyze your existing paint

The first step before determining if a budget paint job will work on your Mustang is to assess the current condition of the paint. In many cases you can prep and paint directly over an existing paint job, but only if it's in solid shape.

Look for any signs of cracking, crazing, bubbling or peeling. This indicates that there's a problem with the existing paint and it's not adhering properly to the layer underneath. If this is the case you'll need to sand through any existing layers of paint, down to solid, stable paint or primer. In some cases you'll need to get all the way down to bare metal, but doing so increases your labor and costs.
Also, when checking the paint, be realistic and don't ignore areas just for the sake of convenience. It will cost you more in time and money later. Typically if one area of the paint is cracked or peeling, then the paint on the entire car is suspect. Maybe the rest of the car just hasn't quite reached that point of decay, but it will shortly. So if you only fix areas that look bad, you'll likely find that you wasted a paint job when the other areas start to crack or peel in a year or two.
On the other hand, in some cases there are legitimate reasons for one area to be bad even if the rest of the paint is solid. If poor body work or rust repair was done in the past then maybe just that section of paint will need to be removed.