Back in 2004 - 2008, I chaired the Open Studios Committee and we were responsible for, among other things, artist selections for upcoming Open Studios.  Over the years, we had more than a few applications we called "groaners" - they had something "bad" in their presentation.  And there were a lot of slides to look at - overwhelming .  So I decided to enter a few "fake" applications, just to make us all laugh.  Here are some examples:
2006 - My first "Hoax"
These images were born from one artist's application which always included a dreadful background - one year, his canvases were propped up against his BBQ, along with the grasses and weeds.  We always asked artists to be professional in presenting the slide images of their artwork:  no frames, no matts, just the image.


So I created this "spoof" where paintings of a Weber BBQ (all different approaches) were propped up against a Weber BBQ in the yard.

The year was 2007 and I wanted to "carry on" the hoax tradition.  The Committee didn't know I had put a hoax application in the works, so it was always funny to listen to them figure it out.  Much needed laughter!


These images were inspired by an artist who always hung their work on the side of an old building with peeling paint, etc., and they didn't crop the slide to get rid of the excess.  So I created various paintings of the side of an old peeling wall, and placed them on an easel against the old wall.


2008 - Our OS Coordinator, Ann Ostermann, loves the color chartreuse green.  I took a bright green mop-mitt, used to wash cars, and scanned it in various positions.  I then edited the images creating a series of paintings, making them look like they were on canvases.  I got creative and included a "process" image (scanning the mitt in), and a studio image where the canvases were displayed in my studio.
2009 -  No longer on the committee, I still managed to sneak in another fake application.

Having been taken by images of cats whose fur had been died in various patterns, I decided to take images of white cats and superimpose images of famous artist's paintings, and tried to make it look like the cats had been painted. 

In my process explanation, I described raising white cats - preferring short hairs, and used non-toxic organic dyes to paint them.

In my studio photos, you see the cats lounging around all over, along with the finished canvases (images of the painted kitties) hung on the walls in the studio.   Hilarious!   One committee member commented:  That is so NOT right!!

2010 - snuck in my last fake application - I had been eating a cereal in the mornings, called "Zen", and really liked the individual pieces of cereal floating in my bowl of milk, so I started photographing them.   I then took the images I liked and played with them in my painter program, turning them into abstract which struck my fancy.

The studio photos show the individual canvases spread throughout my studio.  All created in my digital environment.  One of the committee members really liked the artwork and thought it was one of the better applications she'd seen!  Whooop!