Whimsical Bohemian Lantern Vintage Tea Pot

This project took me a very long time to complete for 2 main reasons: 1.) poverty, 2.) lack of understanding of others.

I'd first acquired the in the summer of 2014 at my father's house in New Jersey. (I live in South Shore Greater Boston (Weymouth, MA). I'd finally finished it in the summer of 2017. Originally it was a busted, dented and broken old tea pot kettle. In the boho blogisphere there was quite a lot of art movements for a number of years in which artists would purchase old vintage or antique items from thrift shops or items from the elderly whom no longer wanted them, and repurposed them as art, took photos of the decor, and posted them onto their blogs or instagram, or even made video journals/vlogs of it.

I have an affinity for these sorts of boho, boho chic, gypset, and hippie styled arts, but I also very much like Tribal Fusion, Rave culture, and all sorts of whimsical things, and am somewhat eclectic.

I had saved nickels, for some items, and eventually my family members in Philadelphia PA, or a friend in Burbank CA, actually helped to fund me to finish it. Trying to explain what I'd planned to do with the pot was difficult, and also trying to hand drill it at home in New England was painful to my back without my own machine shop. So, I had to drill it down at my father's house in Philadelphia, and had to lug it down with me on the train, then back.

The crystals on the handle, were a number of accidents. Originally, I'd planned to wire wrap a single, simple, crystal point. But, someone stole the one I'd had, so I had to save up to purchase one. Since I'm very artsy, working retail jobs, or whatever job I had, caused a lot of people to misunderstand me, or dislike me for my honesty, and I had a lot of difficulty keeping a job because they were afraid I might start a union, or tell the other employees what their rights were, or I could only acquire temp jobs.

Needless to say, it was a major struggle to get a crystal, but once I found one I wanted on Amazon, and measured EVERYTHING perfectly, they still managed to send me THE WRONG SIZE. After much contemplation I'd reached out to the dealer on Amazon and asked what to do because I couldn't even afford to mail it back.

I'd read their website, and their product lists, and had presumed they were a kindly group of people with spiritual beliefs, so I appealed to their humanity, and the owner was so gracious and kind that he not only sent me the right size, all the way directly from India, but extra ones.

Once I realized I'd had all of these crystals, they idea of wasting them seemed ridiculous. So, since I had many times been to the MFA art museum in Boston, I'd recalled that many art objects can be over the top. So, the handle became very much an art statement of whimsicalness.

Mostly, I'd wanted to make art to be BEAUTIFUL, despite much academic artists insisting on art that MUST BE UGLY otherwise it wasn't art.   Well, I don't believe in these ideas. I had zero interest in making UGLY art, but art that's Beautiful.

This work also looks one way in the day light, and another in the evening.

I also liked the idea that it has a dent in it. Much like the crack in the Liberty Bell (Philadelphia) the dent gives it character.

That fact that it was broken, and remade as a glamorous, bohemian, whimsical lantern is rather sentimental.

Another contributing factor to the progress of this work was the fact that I'd gotten funding to further my education at UMASS Boston. It got me exposed to many instillation artist, and instillation art, as well as getting back into visual arts as a serious matter. (I'd already had a degree in Computer Animation from the Art Institute of Philadelphia, but the economy & outsourcing had destroyed my entire career.)

Like many DIY projects I'd done over the years, I'd documented and published the work-in-progress on social media. I'd frequently posted it to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

Drilling it in Philadelphia

Several coats of spray paint.

I had also had the opertunity to use this in my Experimental Films class for Cinema Studies at UMASS Boston.

Plus, I like to continue using my work in other artistic projects such as photography, and film/video.

So, I'd done a number of photography experiments using cross filters, and set it up in my boho decor displays.

Now that I've been working on films, indie films, filmmaking, and a variety of projects, I actually use this art piece in other projects. I was asked to create some graphics for a TV Show. So, I did many video and photo experiments for that.

Somehow, or another, I ended up as the Director of Photography (DP) on one of the films I've been working on since 2017. I started out as just a Production Assistant (PA), but I'm honestly still learning, and experiementing.

Testing out the AKASO EK7000 Action Camera