A few sneak peeks of the studio as we get ready for the last hurrah!
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY OPEN STUDIOS 2023
OCTOBER 14, 15, 21 & 22 | 10am – 5pm | ARTIST #297
EARTH ART STUDIO | 2523 C MISSION ST | SANTA CRUZ
Please join me for my 18th and LAST year of participating in the Santa Cruz Open Studios Art Tour! The studio is going to be packed with art; new and old, big and small, so come find a treasure for your home or garden. Looking forward to seeing y’all soon!
All of the metal parts for A Feast of Flowers have been fabricated and are now on a field trip to the galvanizer. Huge thanks to Kirk McNeill for helping load them up and to Fox Welding for transporting them for me. It was quite a puzzle getting them to fit onto the truck and arrange them to be safely transported. Although it may look like a daddy long leg spider convention on the back of the truck, we figured it out.
Now we just have to keep our fingers crossed that they make the journey to the zinc dip and back to the studio again without incident. I’m looking forward to seeing how they’ll look with the patina that will go over the zinc coating. Always an adventure making art!
This project is sponsored by:
I’ve been busy getting the studio set up for Open Studios this October and wanted to share that there are only 3 framed Bone Series pieces left available. The two squares (seen in this photo) are 30″ x 30″ x 1″ and the last rectangle is 48″ x 24″ x 1″.
With their balance of organic and geometric shapes and amazing shadows these guys make really striking additions to any space. They can hang flush mounted on the wall or be suspended with cables to float off the wall.
Check out seeing them in situ, here, here and here for some ideas of what they can do to your space!
I have been so lucky to have collectors that give my art beautiful homes to live in. I spent a few days getting these last four pieces from the Vine Series and a framed Bone Series piece installed in their custom log cabin. This client has work from nearly every series I’ve created and I love how it looks as if every piece was designed specifically for their space.
Created in 2005, the Vine Series is practically vintage at this point, but they’ve never lost their luster for me. They grew outside my garage studio walls for years and I always loved having them there. Inspired by my time living in the woods, where the forest would take over and wrap around anything unmaintained or that stayed still for too long. I thought of these sculptures as if they were creatures with spines that allowed them to grow and move across the walls. Love that these guys get to live out their days here!
Looking for something unique for your space? Click here for some inspiration…
Big thanks to Crystal Birns for her beautiful photo and this sweet spotlight in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. More to come as this project develops…
With the flower heads finished, they made the big move from Freedom Forge to Earth Art Studio which is really just a quick forklift trip from one end of our building to the other! When I thought the studio couldn’t get any fuller, we somehow squeezed in 6 gigantic flowers into my space so that Kirk has more room in his studio to work on the stems.
Everything still needs to be galvanized and given a patina, but I had to test out putting the ceramic elements onto the flowerhead forms to make sure the spacing was correct and that everything was looking good. Meanwhile Kirk started tacking the sections of the stems together. It took a few tries to get the angles just right but as soon as it started looking like a Dr Seuss tree, we knew we had it right. The final welds will create a smoother transition between each section. We’re so close to seeing what these guys are actually going to look like!
This project is sponsored by:
Pretty cool right? I’m humbled and excited that my work was chosen for the cover of the Open Studios catalog this year. What a way to celebrate my 18th and last year participating!
This photo is actually from a few years ago but I’ve continued work on the Umbel Series and will have some Umbels available for sale at Open Studios. See y’all in October!
OCT 14, 15, 21, 22 | 10 – 5
2523 C MISSION ST SANTA CRUZ
ARTIST #297
The six umbel shaped flower heads are finished and will be moving to my studio very soon while they await a trip to the galvanizer!
My studio had the vibe of an alien invasion for a few days while I filled all the ceramic forms with expansion foam. The idea of the foam is to support the rods when they are epoxied together. The middle photo shows the washers where the ceramic elements will meet the metal and where the epoxy will seal them together.
Preliminary work on the stems has begun and it will be really exciting to have the segments come together and see height of them take shape! Onward and Upward!
This project is sponsored by:
When was the last time that you checked out the online shop?
There are lots of goodies in there looking for a happy home! Plus lots of great gifts for all of those upcoming birthdays. Choose FedEx Ground or Free Local Pick Up for your delivery options.
Freedom Forge is going full steam ahead with umbel production! All of the flowerhead parts have been fabricated and now we’re tweaking the angles to adjust for just the right amount of organic movement in each flower, allowing them to be uniform and unique all at the same time. The big stems are coming up next and then there will be an adventure to the galvanizer in the very near future!
This project is sponsored by: