Category Archives: My Art
A Challenge to Collage
The challenge was to create a collage piece with this tree print and these two leaves (drawings) and something to represent the seed: Parts & Ages of the tree/life.
These are digital works only: I adjusted the scale and modified the seeds drawing in various ways. It took several iterations to get this far, and I am not quite sure which I like best at this point.
Resin Casts Finish Work
I am plugging away on resin casts (both this “Ruins” and my Moon Snail. Somehow they just look naked when they emerge from the mold. At first the new cast delights me: if the casting is a success I have a new “baby”! But after a few days I find myself a bit less satisfied…
So that is when I start to play with the surface, brushing or rubbing on a little pigment. This helps to bring these casts into the real world, where uniformity and cleanliness are rare. I take photos and or scans along the way: this helps me see what is working (or not).
This version of the Ruins has four pigments rubbed on here and there, and a clear matte archival coat.
An Art Sale
Cast Resin Moon Snail SOLD
My second art sale for the Moon Snail!
I just SOLD this guy today! I expected to sell the concrete cast for outdoor display, but … the buyer fell in love with this resin yellow guy instead. So she has decided on a place to mount or hang her “chicken head” moon snail inside her house.
She was a friend, so I sold it pretty much at cost of materials. But I am fairly optimistic that I will be able sell another one or two of these Moon Snail casts for a bit more. I could use a bit of money, so that I can justify my obsession, and so can keep buying the supplies and tools for carving and making more molds, and … all that!
And after all this my most a popular image: I sold the original limestone carving very quickly, and for a very nice price!
I am quite delighted to know these are enjoyed!
Finish Work
Holiday Time
A few days ago the holiday season hit me, and yes, that is how it felt!
So I made myself a very personal holiday season “tree”, after realizing that my resin casts of a piece of coral would be great hanging ornaments! Yes, it looks a bit more like a menorah than a tree, but that is coincidence: the brass candlestick is just heavy enough to balance my chosen curly branch, and the design went from there based on just the right things coming to hand in my studio. Well I did spend an hour searching for the dried poppy heads after realizing the one at hand was so perfect!
I had already started on “Three Ships Come Sailing In” but only have two ships so far…
New casts & more
Artwork in the Studio Today
I poured some concrete in the studio today: I poured concrete into my two most current molds. So I hope to have good concrete casts of the Moon Snail and the Blue Ruins molds for outdoor display. I will take them out of the molds Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning. I had a lot of air bubbles, so I jiggled & jiggled them (the manual vibrating table 😉 technique).
I don’t like doing concrete work indoors, but needs must: it is too cold outside! I managed to avoid too much mess.
And I did a little more photography this morning, in an effort to like my orange moon snail better. This photo was not a natural for the digital foil technique, so I did a lot of adjusting to get the image at right, but I am still not impressed by it. Clearly I need to get over this orange cast, and move on to new artwork!
Translucent colors
Enter the Ruins
These ruins were once homes: people lived here…
This is a cast “reproduction” of my stone carving “Blue Ruins”, a carved Bluestone paver. The paver is extremely hard, and required a lot of work with diamond power and hand tools. I polished some areas and left others rough.
The carved stone paver is darker in color and fairly uniform, but this cast is a lighter color with contrasting specks. I really like this effect.
For this photo shoot I added the face, cast in the same material. I may attach it permanently. The artistic warm lighting lighting at left is by digital effect, the right image (full and detail) was photographed with natural sunlight.
