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Tag: Art
Making Tools
Even with all of the gadgets, gizmos and tools you just have to have out there sometimes, you can’t find just what you need and you have to make your own. I’ve seen artists use everything from pool noodles to pipes as they support their work in the wet building stages, but my work needed support in the kiln, which means I needed something that could survive the firing process.
I’ve been firing flanged pieces from my bone series with some good results but I often get a small crack line along the length of the pieces during the glaze firing process. I realized that some more support might be what’s needed to help them survive the firing process with a higher success rate. So I started building some angled clay shapes for the sculptures to rest on. But because the glaze can’t touch anything during the firing, I added short lengths of heavy gauge nichrome wire pins poking out of the clay everywhere. So the glazed piece rests on the pinpoints instead of on the clay support. The result looks like some crazy torture device but so far so good, my new tool appears to have worked its magic. Making the tools to make the art makes artists inventors as well as creators!
Driftwood hunting
In search of some driftwood for an upcoming art installation, I spent the morning driving up the coast on Highway 1 to a remote area where I thought I might discover some good finds. Typically the driftwood piles up on our local beaches in winter storms but with the two year drought in full effect, winter storms have been non existent and driftwood has been sparse. As normal as its become for me to see the amazing vistas the coast road has to offer, I’m still in awe of being steps away from a major road and just 30 miles from large cities and yet in the middle of summer, there is no one on this stretch of beach. Spending a quiet morning with my dog meandering along, searching for whatever gifts the sea has washed up is a good way to start the day. If you have never driven the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway), you need to add this to your bucket list. I’ve lived here over 15 years and it never gets old, the wild open spaces of California enamor me again and again.
Fingers Crossed
Off it goes! 200 pieces that make up my Hive Series installation are on the road destined for Artprize 2015. The piece will be showcased at the Calvin College (106) Gallery in downtown Grand Rapids Michigan. Fingers crossed that everything arrives safely AND that it finds a happy home in Michigan, so I don’t have to ship it back!
Flashback Art Attack: newish stuff
As my 3 weeks on the east coast visiting friends and family wind down to the final hours, here are just a few more images of art from my parents house, minus the stuff I’m just too embarrassed to claim I made and they won’t get rid of. Sometimes its good to see a retrospective of how your art has evolved over time and where influences have been injected into your work and sometimes, not so much. The top image is a silhouette of small pieces from my Sprout Series, I love the way these pieces look against the sky. Below are pieces from my more recent Nest Series and Linked Series, both focus on the connections between organic shapes. Enjoy!
August Studio News
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Making art and wearing it too
I wear my bone series necklace all the time, so much so that I often forget its there but I am stopped by people regularly asking me about it. They want to know what its made of, where did I find it, did I make it? Since I’ve been exhibiting much larger works from this same series lately, I’ve been going to openings wearing my ‘matching’ necklace and its become a sort of name tag for pairing me up with my art work, which has been a fun way of starting conversations with art show patrons. There were only 10 of these unique necklaces made and there are only two of these left in the SHOP and there are no plans for more to be added. So if you want to get your unique wearable art, grab one today!
Relics of the Tide Opening
Relics of the Tide opened on Saturday evening at The Compound Gallery in Oakland and debuted pieces from The Bone Series that had yet to be shown outside the studio. This show was in The Fabrefaction Gallery while the main gallery exhibited 3-D printed artwork from a selection of artists. The exhibit is up until Sept 6th so be sure to stop by and BUY ART! Thanks to everyone who came out for the opening!
‘Relics of the Tide’ exhibit opens Saturday
Installing Relics of the Tide today!
I got up really, really early today to make my way up to The Compound Gallery in Oakland and install my Bone Series pieces for the Relics of the Tide exhibit. I’ve got a few hours to get everything up and looking amazing before I have to buzz back to Santa Cruz to teach class this afternoon. Whew, its a crazy day, but it all seems to be coming together. Hope to see you at the opening Saturday June 18th from 6-9 pm!