New sculptures and necklaces are now online in the portfolio sections. The heart and the boxes with the maquettes are a continuation of my exploration of my faith. They feature scriptures written in cursive with a black underglaze pushed into the script and then wiped away. The globe is heavily textured and finished with layers of watercolor. I want to thank Kira Miles for photographing these pieces! If you have any questions about any of the new posted work, please leave a comment or email me at muddgirl25@live.com
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This weeks sneak peek is actually more of the process of my wire sculpture (which I finally finished!) After all the cuts, scratches, and sore muscles from working with this type of metal... clay wins and the metal lathe loses this round. I will say I am please with the finish piece and will probably forget the blood and frustrations and try the wire again, it just might be awhile. I only have a few pictures of the progression of the piece. It has been hard to get in a habit of photographing the process, but something I am working on.
This figurative wire sculpture was inspired by my drawing and clay sculpture of "Eve" (2010). Orginally, I was going to do a rendering of "Eve" in metal, but I began to struggle with proportions, and just in general with the material. I choose the metal lathe versus chicken wire or hardware cloth because I was drawn to the surface area of it. In retrospect, the chicken wire would have been more flexible to work with as well as handled better for me considering I was trying to handle the metal lathe like clay. Logically, I understand metal does not handle the same as clay, but it was still the approach I used for this figurative sculpture. I worked on the thighs first with a loose pattern and created clean edges that I later took a thin wire and sewed up the seam of the metal lathe. The body torso was created next with the same sewing approach, although I did not get as clean of lines as I did on the thighs. I attached the thighs to the torso which was very difficult. I used very thin tweezers to run the wire in and out for the attatchments. I created the bottom part of the legs next and basically eye-balled the proportions. The knees were formed separately as well and then were used to attach the two parts of the legs. I feel that it became a pretty rough transition, and my approach will be a bit more calculated next time. I formed the feet out of the leg wire and only had to add on to one of the legs to complete the foot form. The finish piece has the addition of fabric batting inside the torso with a ceramic model of "Eve" sitting ontop of it. The project was to use the metal as the exterior and something soft, fragile, or breakable in the interior space. With the use of the fabric batting I get the textural soft element and the ceramic model brings a breakable element, but together I feel it takes on a deeper emotional element of how people bury and protect their feelings and thoughts inside themselves. This was an unexpected turn in the meaning of my piece that I discovered. I hope everyone enjoyed the behind the scenes look for this weeks sneak peek! Tune in next thursday to see what other surprises I have up my sleeves! Today was my first day of teaching my 6-9 year olds drawing class. I have five kids in the class. Kids really do say the funniest things. I had all the kids say what they wanted to learn in drawing and my only little girl of the class said, "I want to learn how to draw dinosaurs!" It was very cute and got the attention of the boys! She is a girl after my own heart. When I was a kid, I loved dinosaurs and always spent the most time looking at the fossils at the museum and making my parents take me to anything that had to do about dinosaurs. It also was very exciting to hear that drawing makes this one little boy very happy and he likes being creative! Last semester all my kids could talked about, thought about and even what they were drawing was video games. I am thrilled that not one of my kids today talked about video games or the t.v. Its going to be a great class!
This first friday art walk at Sunset in Amarillo, TX had a great turnout! Everyone was so glad the weather had turned from negative wind chills to the 20's! It was a bittersweet night for me as the owners of Vastu gallery were doing their last first friday and turning their gallery space over to David, a photographer. I have been very blessed to have spent the past 2 years and 3 months as the three diminsional artist in their space. I met some wonderfully interesting people as I almost always do and got to share the experience with one of my friends from Texas Tech!
Although I am currently not showing in a gallery, I feel this will give me not only an extra motivational boost, but also the time to create and build up my portfolio. I am also going to be looking into juried expositions and art fairs to attend. I almost didn't get this weeks sneak peak in! It is a little later getting posted than I planned, but I got caught up in my wire sculpture and waiting on my pipes to get unthawed so I could have cold water!
This week's sneak peak is part of the new pendant designs I am working on for my jewelry design line. The pendants are still made from clay, but instead of being carved, stamped, or watercolored I am doing image transfers onto them. It is a bit of a process, but so far I have been very pleased with the results. What you see on the pendants are my ink drawings of rope knots. I am keeping the necklace design simple and very natural by using leather and hemp. Keep a look-out for these on my website and facebook! They will be coming soon! The joys of living in an apartment... even with the facets in my bathroom dripping, the cold water lines are frozen. Yes... even my toliet is frozen. I am having to buddle up and run 20+ feet in the cold -18 windchill to my boyfriends apartment to use his bathroom. I now have a small glimpse of what people went through to run to the outhouse. Thankfully I still have running cold water in my kitchen and heat!
Well there really hasn't been that much snow, although it has been coming down lightly for the past couple of hours. The wind and the -18 wind chill I woke up to this morning is what is keeping me at home today. Classes were only canceled until 10 am today, but I am still not getting out to go to ceramics at noon. Instead I am enjoying a bowl of oatmeal, have the tea kettle on and my cat, Ziggy curled up at my feet. These are the relaxing days of winter that I enjoy. Later I plan on getting back to work on my wire sculpture and watching some more episodes of friends. Stay safe and warm! Yay for really cold weather, negative wind chill and just a bit of snow in Texas. I get a day off from classes and teaching and get to stay home and cuddle on the couch with my tabby cat, Ziggy!
Brushstrokes, my intro to adult painting class started last night! I have four students signed up, but there is room for up 3 more students. We started with some basics, gradation wash, a wash with two colors and experimented with texture. Next week we will start with some color theory, some basic design layouts and start our first paintings. Call Hodges at 806-767-3706 to sign up or more information! Starting this week, every thursday will be a sneak peek day of what I am working on. A behind the scenes look of work in progress and my thoughts, ideas, possible frustrations of current work. So be sure to check in to get the insiders scoop! I had a serious case of productive procrastination this weekend. I never pulled my wire sculpture out of my trunk, but I did vaccuum the living room and my sister's room. Clean, decorate and organize her room. Hang up a shelf and my dry erase calendar over my desk. I started on the bookshelves, dusting, getting rid of a few books, and my new favorite thing... organizing books by color! Thank you apartment therapy and design sponge for that inspiration and a weekend of productive procrastination! I really needed to do some major cleaning (even though I am not done yet) and I love the way a clean and organized home feels. Now I have a sculpture to finish because it is due tomorrow and unfortunately my body is exhausted. And the scores now stand.... Apartment +1 Clay +1 Metal -2 Lets see what the day brings!
I have spent a lot of time up at the ceramic studio this week working, but I have a deadline for a wire sculpture for tuesday and need to get busy. Usually my philosophy about deadlines is... "I love deadlines, I love the sound they make as they go swoshing by" but I am trying to break this philosophy and as a senior in an underlevel art studio class, I need to be deligent about getting assignments done. This class has been beneficial for me as a three diminsional artist. I love clay and it tends to be what I am drawn to and consitently work with, but this class has introduced me already to the possibilites of paper sacks and the frustrations of wire (metal laith and chicken wire to be precise).
I am translating one of my figurative clay sculptures into wire. It is not going to be as realistic and I have had some issues working with the metal laith already. Issue #1... I have to man handle the wire for it to do what I want and even then I am not always satisified with the results and end up with sore arms and hands. Issue #2... work gloves.... Men's work gloves are cheap (always a plus on a college shoestring budget) but feel like I am wearing mickey mouse hands and I am very clusmy with them on. They do make ladies gloves, but they cost more. So I have ended up with a pair of smaller mens gloves with the deerskin leather and they work better than the cheap mens gloves but not as well as say the leather mechanic ladies gloves (which are super cute too!). Issue #3... wearing work gloves and wearing a T-shirt is not a good plan. Protects your hands, but not your arms. I have unfortunately learned this the hard way and my arms look like I got in a cat fight. So a tip for anyone wanting to try out metal, at least wear a longsleeve shirt of some kind. So far working with a metal sculpture, I am still heavily leaning toward my prefrence of clay. Clay Score +1. Metal is batting ZERO. Off to work and hopefully keep the cuts and blood to a minimum. So I have been working with texture and these organic forms that I have been told look like a variety of things. I am excited that everyone I have talked to views them as something different and are drawn into the details just as I am! Now these photographs are of the pieces still in wet clay. They are still some ways from being finished.
I am curious to see what people think they look like, so feel free to leave a comment! |
the not so starving artist blog:Here's the deal... I am an artist and I love food! I refuse to be labeled or included in the "starving artist" category. Now, while I have been broke... I want to be an artist and eat my cake too (metaphorically and literally!) Archives
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