Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Sculpture and Cars #2

It really doesn't pay to go against your gut instincts.

I HATE tatoos and piercings and low brow art. The gear shift design company wanted skulls, piercings, frankensteins and devils. You know the art, flaming eyeballs. I tried it as a test of my skills. How fast could I make something disgusting?

My starting concept was a burned out, meth-addled old biker devil. An old goat. The final thing was using a dress maker pin to stand in for a pierced tongue.

I was 90 minutes into creating this head for a gear shift when I realized it wasn't going to be worth finishing. I needed to spend less than half an hour on the art to make any profit at all. 

Now my problem is that there's something alive about his eyes. I can't just dump him back in the smushed clay bin. Can I close his mouth and change him from old biker dude to an even older Pan?
Change from cars, which have never held my interest, to the garden, which fascinates me. He might work as a finial hidden along the path. .......  I'll post new photos once I've overhauled him...

Monday, June 28, 2010

Sculpture and Cars

Sculpture is everywhere when you start to look for it.

Check out these gear shift knobs for cars. A company in town was looking for sculptors to create new designs. Unfortunately they want said sculptors to create new designs, model the original, make a mold, and cast a prototype, all for $150 or less!

No can do.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Sculpture and James Grashow

Talk about the pleasures of cardboard.

Delphine at Paradis Express featured artist James Gashow's "House Plants". The sculptures, architectural bouquets, are beautifully crafted and sureally funny.

I wanted to show you his bird or CardBirds as he calls them. His website says that the art is "Inspired by the James Audubon prints, Cardbirds strive to create a unique dimensional vision. The birds and their habitat - timeless and beautiful - are married to the most banal and overlooked of materials. These intricate sculptures are made entirely from corrugated board and twist ties. Beneath the beauty of these remarkable pieces, the materials from which they are created make a poignant statement."
All images from the artist's website.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Sculpture and Working Artists

Years ago when I had money from sculpting for the movies, I asked a friend if I should invest in the stock market. She asked if I could afford a high risk investment.

"You mean the high risk investment of life as an artist?" 
"Pay your bills and save your money!" was her response.

There's lots of talk about following your bliss, living passionately, but much less talk about what happens when you become a working artist. What happens in the working artist's happily ever after land?

With a boring day job, you do what you do and then go home and do something else. When you're doing what you love, there's no place to rest. There's always more to do. The art work which will take the rest of your life to master, and all the marketing and promotion which is of course another entire lifetime.

Sometimes it's best just to get out of town and see new sights and sites. We're off on a road trip for ten days. Camera, yes, drawing, yes. Computer? NO!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Sculpture and ADD

Attention Deficit Disorder is:

Carving a tiny ear with a razor sharp knife

while trying to eat scalding hot clam chowder

and deciding to call a friend because I've been alone in the studio all day.

Sigh, some things must be done one at a time.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Sculpture and Peonies

This relief sculpture of a peony is called "The Last of Spring."

I love that moment when spring tips into summer and imagined it as color diffusing into the darker greens of summer, when fragrance is diffused on a warm breeze.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Sculpture and Criticism

Seems there was some divine art criticism going on in Monroe, Ohio. A six story high statue of Jesus was struck by lightning and consumed by flames.
The statue was nicknamed "Touchdown Jesus". About 62 feet tall and 40 feet wide at the base, showed Jesus from the torso up and was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus because of the way the arms were raised, similar to a referee signaling a touchdown. It was made of plastic foam and fiberglass over a steel frame, which is all that remained Tuesday. photos and text from the yahoo article

Monday, June 14, 2010

Sculpture and Immortality

There is such a thing as immortality.
But it helps if you were born divine.

How else to explain Nefertiti's beauty?

She's been beautiful for 3000 years.

 Her daughters look like beauties from the distant future, deep outer space goddesses.

For best pictures of her and her daughters, get the book "The Royal Women of Amarna"
by Dorothea Arnold.  The text is informative, but truth be told? I look at the sculpture.
I can spend an hour just looking at each photo.

There's so much change that's happened in the last 3000 years but this kind of beauty really is eternal.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Sculpture and Stone Spheres

Head over to Paradis Express to see a wide range of stone spheres.

Delphine has posted a wide range of them, many sizes, though sadly uncredited as to maker or location. The spheres are perfect in themselves,  anchoring the area around them through their mass. I get a really visceral sense of the space surrounding them. How do you perceive the spaces that surrounds them? 

Would you place them differently? Would you put them in your garden?  

Monday, June 7, 2010

Sculpture and Easels

When working with bas relief, you are always looking for a decent easel. You want to be able to work on the clay or carving upright, but store the clay flat, so that the water in the wrapping rags doesn't run off. 

I found this easel by the side of the road. From the circular hole in it, I guess it was for quilting or some sort of needlework. I installed a solid flat background board and a strong lip board and voila, a relief easel that has three angles for working. It's great for medium to small work.

It folds flat for easy storage. I put in the eyebolts and bungee cord so that it hooks and stays folded when I'm putting it away.  There's no identifying maker's mark. It would work for canvases too.
If you're interested, contact me and I can give you the dimensions.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Sculpture and Adelman Peony Gardens

It's that time of year.  
If some peonies are beautiful, how about fields of peonies of every color and fragrance? 


Adelman Peony Gardens in Salem, Oregon was our destination. Visiting the growers lets you see acres of color. Walking in the rows that seem to go on forever, you notice when the sun backlights the flowers. Each different shade of pink, coral, red, yellow is illuminated. Thousands of flowers are glowing just for you. It is so beautiful that it feels like a kind of eternity.

Then comes the difficult part of narrowing your choices down to what you have room for and what you can't live without. 
 Welcome, if you are visiting from Rose Notes. Thanks, Carolyn.

Sculpture and Schreiner's Iris Gardens

I took a much needed field trip to Schreiner's Iris Gardens. Their display gardens and growing fields were in full glory. Every possible color of iris flower, and a few impossible ones. "Is that color really puce?" The long iris beds were also planted with blooming delphiniums, fox tail lilies, roses, and columbines.

Schreiner's is an iris lover's fantasy. The gardens were packed, a band playing, tour buses, hundreds of people all enjoying the beauty of  Iris Gardens on one this month's rare sunny days. Below, some of the bouquet iris flowers for sale.

Next post, pictures from Adelman's Peony Paradise.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Sculpture and Time

Far more difficult than making art is the art of making art about the art.

I've been thinking about it after reading Maria Killam's post "Is your blog ruining your business?" It's worth reading. Be sure to follow her links and read them and watch the video.

Damn, the last thing I need is more soul searching for my cosmic "WHY?" But I have been thinking about it.

My sculpture, while the subject matter is nature, is really about time. Time and mortality. I know that this will be a big hit with my marketing department. (That's me in a different hat.) "We're all gonna die? What is this crap? Bring me something I can USE to sell your sculpture!")

But it's true, in my sculpture, I'm trying to capture a moment, often a very quiet moment. Here's what I wrote last night, sitting in my car, listening to the rain.

Sculpture is Time’s Anchor

If you can,
slow down.
Pause long enough to become a sculpture yourself.

For sculpture is time’s anchor.
The rushing years are caught and held.
Moment after moment.

You’ll feel how much wetter the rain is
as a tear on your marble cheek.

The sun will move across the sky
heating your bronze body
till it radiates light and warmth
back out into the world.

You’ll know the heart of the carved dryad
longing for the tree she once was.

You are made from the same clay as the armies of the past. Could you wait a thousand years?

In a world moving faster and faster
sculpture matters.
There is still a thirst for eternity
and a great need for stillness.