P.T. Artist Sandra Stowell

UPDATE: I have completed Blue Witness II, and added the photo of the finished work. I do need to finish sealing parts of this, and so there will inevitably be subtle changes to the color and gloss, but I don’t plan any new elements, TBD!

More witnesses are in work, in my new set of two Blue Witness Drawers. Once again I was able to plunder a free pile for sturdy wooden drawers! I love working in shallow drawers and boxes. These contain and protect both 2-D and 3-D artworks that I assemble to create a finished work. I can make good use of my prints and photos to create the background for various casts of my sculptures. The pieces also include a few found objects: usually altered scrap and natural items. Some drawers will have bones, leaves, stones, shells and/or twigs in addition to my own creations.

Here are the photos of the work so far. The first image is a prototype for the first drawer, but as you can see the finished work in the center is quite different!

Examine the lower images to see a possible arrangement for the second blue drawer, with only a few of the backgrounds already fixed in place. I do think this is the dimensional “witness” that I will use. But that could still change!

I would like to find a place for the surprisingly expressive face that I drew on cardboard, but I think not in these two drawers… if only I had a matching third drawer!

I have actually finalized some of my arrangements for the Six Drawers series. And I have the first drawer finished! And what a struggle it has been to attach and light this drawer!

If only I could/would plan ahead, and do things in the most sensible and efficient order. That rarely happens in my studio though. Think about it: I really should have considered the lighting first. But no, I left that until last, even though I have made this mistake before. It is much more difficult to cut into the drawer or box after the interior is fully mounted and detailed. The risk of damaging the contents is high… but all is well.

See the progress here, with the “skylight” photo below:

And now with added cutout/skylight. This provides a little natural light and will allow addition of LEDs if desired.

I sometimes toy with abstraction, but most of my masks and faces are attempts at realism. I don’t know why I make faces (no pun intended!) but I think it is just human nature.

Here is some recent work with paper clay built up over a ready made plastic face mask/mold. After the paper clay dried, I was able to remove it from the plastic, but not without some minor damage.

I made a mold of this face in order to cast in cement or epoxy resin, but it is not a good mold. The silicone was old and I probably should have scrapped it! Instead I wasted my time and materials to make a fully cured & sealed plaster support mold for it. The mold is flawed with air bubles and larger voids, so the casts from it need too much cleanup.

Now I have a cleaned & modified cement cast, shown at left & center below. I plan to make a new mold that I really hope will be better. But I will experiment with a gelatin & glycerine mold, just to make things more interesting! And that could easily be a grand fail, so fingers crossed!

The other photos are also worked on casts from the original flawed silicone mold. I do like that the necessary clean up, along with the different materials used, makes them unique!

When I pour material to fill my cast, and if I plan well, I “float” a properly sized removable block in the cast. This reduces the quantity of the expensive material, and makes for a lighter weight cast.

Below are the outer “mother” mold and the inner silicone molds used for that and the first faces shown above. The wire mesh face was formed over the cement face that will also be used for a new mold.

Below is an oil based clay face, and the “eco-resin” Mix-2-Mold cast from this original. I don’t love it, but it is just right for Drawer #6 in my shadow boxes in Six Drawers series. There are several brands of “eco-resin” which seem to all be gypsum plaster based, but modifed to be a bit easier to mix, faster curing, and stronger. However they are heavy, and also quite brittle. They are not strong as thin pieces, and they chip easily or break if dropped or hit by a hard object.

This update on casting the bird is about relearning lessons learned! I am not methodical, I don’t track, write down, or review all the steps, tips, and lessons learned from my endeavors in art or life. And of course that can create trouble!

Before I made a new mother mold for my Fat Baby Bird, I did briefly review the process. But sadly I didn’t think it all through carefully enough! The outer mold failed when it leaked resin. I had two options for the remake: use the original stone carving with my still intact silicone mold, or use the new resin cast to support the silicone mold.

Foolishly, I chose the most convenient option: the resin cast. I pulled the silicone mold over the resin cast, instead of cleaning up and drying the original carved bird. Since the resin has leaked in the casting, it is about 1/5 shorter than the original and of course the silicone mold. So I added a bit of oil based clay to fill the bottom of the mold, and built my new plaster mold over that.

This was a mistake! I took the time to dry the plaster fully, coat it with oil based polyurethane, then rushed to make two cement casts without examining the first one carefully. It was only after I pulled the first one out of the overnight water cure that I saw the problem. My new mother mold was fatally flawed. My casts had misshapen heads, and I needed to make another rigid outer mold!

Here is the flawed mother mold, and the flawed cast, after I whacked them with a sledgehammer, which was somewhat satisfying…

The broken bird will not be part of the edition, but may become an amusing installation, TBD.

So now I have made a new plaster mother mold, using the original stone as the base. This was still problematic because the stone is mounted to a base, which crowds the silicone mold but this should be a small issue that I can correct readily in future casts. I have yet to use my new mold however, I may be a bit afraid to do so!

As of this post, I have made fifteen good casts for my limited edition from the Fat Baby Bird limestone sculpture. I still hope to complete the planned edition of twenty-five. And that is the update on casting the bird. Stay tuned to see if the new mold will be a success.

Note: it may be telling that I do not find any photos of my flawed castings prior to destroying them. I was so disappointed, and not at all proud of them. So apparently I did not document my error. So much for even trying to learn from my mistake…

Some figures emerge, slumber, then reappear in my work. When they reappear they are generally quite different: in a radically different context, in different material, or with very different mood. Most of my imagery emerges from my subconscious, but I have used well known symbols from various cultures in the past.

Long ago I drew a simplified version of the flute player who appears in rock art around the Southwest USA. I did this to create a few silhouettes in wood that became a gift for my mother, and for other family.

Recently I repaired and scanned one of wooden flute players, and used this scanned image to make a couple of collages.

I have also experimented with a new material in an old cast of my draped field worker figure. And I found a home for him, lifting a fallen planet! This background is an old linoleum print that did not have enough value as a stand alone work.

So here are the Flute Player and the Field Worker: my most recent collages.