BRICK AUCTION, October 26, 2008

Through a friend of mine, I found out about a brick auction which raises funds for breast cancer. This event has been going on for several years. You can read more about it at http://www.breastcancerbricks.org/.

The bricks can be simply painted or items can be added to them (mosaics, cloth, beads, etc.). The main criteria is that each brick must have the pink cancer ribbon displayed on it somewhere. I think it’s a novel idea and always wonder if my brick will “sell”. They have a silent auction with the bricks set up on tables and then they usually also have a live auction at some point with a local newsman officiating. Various sponsors have raffles and of course there is food and wine, so it makes for a pleasant afternoon or evening.

The first time I entered a brick, several years ago, my first brick was “Gina Lola Brickada”, based on Gina Lola Brigida (of course!) I had read somewhere that she is an artist and I thought that she would get a kick out of finding herself the basis of a “sexy brick” (never would have thought you would hear those two words together!). Here are photos of that one. Be aware that this is a digital photo of actual photos – they were taken long before I purchased a digital camera. Gina has been painted from all sides – she’s just headless! Also legless and armless, but, hey, she’s a brick after all!

Gina Lola Brickada

Next there was “Racing for the Cure” – below is another digital photo of my photos – and when I painted this one my son was impressed! He said I pretty much got the muffler, etc. correct on the bottom of the brick. If you cannot see it well, I tried to paint it as though you were looking at each side of a race car (both sides, top, bottom, front and back) so that all sides of the brick were painted.

Racing for the Cure It is interesting here to note that there was a brick with the title “Race for the Cure” this year! It involved little toy cars on a race track around the brick! There was also a Marilyn Monroe brick and “Brick Jagger” – jagged brick with big lips painted on – too cute!

The following year I painted “Checkmate” – you can view this one at the above website on the “Contact us” page! I must not have taken photos of this one myself.

This year I’ve done two more – “Monday on Birdbrain Lane” which was prompted by my locating tiny clothes pins at the Michael’s store and then some little bitty birdhouses! Once the idea was formed I searched throughout the store for something to use as “grass” and found some sort of plant cover that worked great, as well as the little tiny birds.

Monday on Birdbrain Lane And, last but not least, the one I’m most happy with – the “Memo Brick”. This one was a couple of years in the making since I wanted to do it last year, but they canceled the event then. So this brick languished in my studio for almost two years! I had the idea bouncing around in my head but couldn’t figure out how to make it look like a blackboard, etc. I finally borrowed a really neat tool from my husband so I could cut the wood and miter it for the frame around each side. This one took a long time, since I had to paint each strip of wood, then cut the miter and glue them together so they had a tight fit - not that easy on a brick! – and let them sit overnight to make sure they were solid before moving on to the next side – and there are 6 sides to a brick!!! The “blackboard” was made by spraying Krylon blackboard paint and the magnetic board by spraying Krylon magnetic paint. My daughter and I searched for small office items and happened upon a cute little kit at the dollar store! So that’s where the little stapler, tape dispenser, pencil and scissors came from! Then to get a piece of “chalk” I was forced to purchase a small set of pastels! In order to keep them all attached I used Velcro tabs. To keep the paper clips in the container I glued a small piece of magnet in the bottom. I think it would make a cool gift for a teacher, or actually anyone with a desk (which is pretty much everyone!).

Memo Brick