Glenn Arthur

Glenn Arthur

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

I Like Soup

Hey kiddos!

I was recently invited by my super amazing friend, Jason Levesque, (a.k.a. The Stuntkid) to be a part of an awesome group exhibition at the Virginia Museum Of Contemporary Art. The exhibit is called I Like Soup and will be on display from May 26th - August 19th, 2012 during the museum's Andy Warhol: Portraits exhibit as an artistic tribute to Mr. Warhol's famous Campbell's Soup Cans. And to top it all off, all proceeds from sales will help benefit MOCA's educational programs and the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia!

I was extra excited to receive this invite, not only because I'd be showing along aside some of my favorite artist friends but I love any opportunity to have my work in a museum! This project was also super fun (and a little scary) because it meant working on a three dimensional object which is way outside of my comfort zone! Basically each artist received a blank soup can and had complete artistic freedom to decorate it. I decided to give my can a hand painted label with some pretty flowers and one of my hummingbirds bursting through the top and I labeled it "Hummingbird Nectar"


Here are some progress shots of my can in production. First I measured out and designed the label and then began to paint.


I constructed my bird from a styrofoam body that I glued feathers to and then painted. I dyed white silk flowers trying to keep the colors similar to those that Andy Warhol used to use in his portraits.
  

I hadn't realized how small a soup can label is until it was laid out in front of me. It was definitely a challenge hand painting those letters especially since typography is something I almost never do!


After everything was varnished, it was so cool to get it glued on to the can as it really started to look like a legit Campbell's Soup label!


Finally I glued in all of the flowers and the hummingbird and fixed the lid on the can to make it look as though the everything was bursting out of it.



So, if you guys are going to be in the Virginia Beach area between May 26th and August 19th, 2012 then I strongly urge that you check out this exhibit. I got to see some of the other artists cans in the show and they are AMAZING! Don't miss it!

Until next time!

3 comments:

  1. This whole time I thought you had to paint on the round can... that's awesome and so much easier that you were able to remove the label and paint a flat surface! Looks great!

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    1. Yeah, it was way easier just painting a label. A few artists did paint directly on the cans but I think most of us went with the label idea ;)

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  2. Oh mnaaaaan!!! I totally missed it!!1 I moved to Virginia last month and only found out VA Beach had a MOCA not to long ago :{ What a bummer :{...GREAT PIECE THOUGH!!

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