Sculpture and Paradise Express

The Paradise Express has stopped.

Delphine Gitterman brought artists, designers, and garden lovers from all over the world to her digital salon, Paradis Express. She dazzled us all with beautiful images and ideas. Everything was connected, historic gardens, new gardens, the many artists who are inspired by nature by Delphine's wide ranging sensibility and her appreciation of this green world. 

Delphine featured my art several times on Paradise Express. Psychically, she often picked my lowest days to publish something. She showed that she and people do care about beautiful sculpture, beautiful gardens.........

I also had the privilege of meeting her and her husband when we went to France. A wonderful meal with them and a visit to Monet's home at Giverny was a day to be treasured.

Delphine and a small turquoise frog, the year of a thousand frogs, in her tropical garden.

Thank you, Delphine, for eight years of beauty and best wishes for new things in your life.

You can still follow Delphine's interests via on Pinterest.

Sculpture and To Grandmother's House

It's good to let your art (and yourself) rest.
Grandmother had been wrapped up for a week of bad weather, I unwrapped and stood her up.
Walked twenty feet away to study her and decided that she needed more focus.

"It's either gonna make it or RUIN it."

If you're not an artist, that "OR RUIN IT!!!" can stop you dead from pushing any further.
If you are, it's usually the goad you need to do just that.

I painted her eyes.

 with iris and pupils above, without below.    .... your preference?

It's a tad scary up close, but the standard viewing distance is much further - from a path 20 feet away.

The benefits outweigh the RUIN it factor. 

WHEW.

Sculpture and To Grandmother's House

"Done."
I've learned that this carving isn't over until they take it away.

More wood working was necessary to fit the sculpture into the corner angle of the metal housing.
Think how a corner cabinet isn't 90 degrees but an acute angle.....
That cutting showed us a weak knife edge that needed an alternative treatment. So more cutting and then finding another chunk of wood, aligning the grain pattern to be similar, and planing and fitting the wood so it looks on purpose. And then re-staining the new areas to match the existing finish.

Will they take it away soon? Please?

Sculpture and Modules

Architectural ornament is beautiful and meaningful.
It's also invisible.

Out of fashion, out of cultural awareness, its meanings forgotten, people don't see it at all.
So how do you get people to SEE it again?

I'm working on it: Take it off the building. Vandalize it with bright colors.
Ornament has always been used as modular units, repeated on buildings.
But modules are also a cornerstone of modernism, so intense repetition works.
             ......................................................................Just without the building.

What do you think?

 All photographs by David Bales 

Sculpture and a fine Finish

Wondering this would ever be finished, the carving section of project ended quickly and quietly.

I spent one day caring my signature, wrapped it up for several rainy days, and stained it today.

 I used a deck stain Penofil that has UV protection and a mildewicide.

To quiet the wood grain, I mixed in 1/4 tsp of raw sienna oil paint to a cup of the oil based stain.

For a bit of variance, I also mixed up a 1/4 tsp of raw umber for the darker brown.

Sculpture and a Visit to the Site

TriMet invited the artists out to the job site, I finally got to see where my sculpture will be installed.

......right in the middle of this puddle.

Anticlimactic? Yes, but it helps to keep a sense of humor. They took a chance on each artist being able to deliver on a sketch.  What is now a gravel mess of a parking lot will be a small green park.

Maybe this plan view will help you visualize...... That tiny red dot in the lower center is the site.



There's still a lot of work for them to do before they're ready to site my art.
Time for me to get back to finishing the carving!

Sculpture and Drawing

You never know what inspiration you'll find when you look at every single image in a magazine.

This tiny image of a 19th Century weather vane caught my eye in Architectural Digest.

It's exquisite, and sold for $370, 000.

Impressed? I was. Also inspired...

What if it were made by an 18th Century Korean faux'k artist?

What would THAT look like?

So I started drawing.....

You can see the progression of the idea across the page.....

It's a phoenix/pheasant/rooster from the late Faux Dynasty.

 I'll use  the sketch to cut out the wood blank and start carving!

That is AFTER I finish this current big project. 

It helps to have new work (quicker and much smaller) to look forward to making.

Sculpture and To Grandmother's House

I signed my name on the big carving so that means it's done. Right?

If only that were true. I thought the hard part WAS the carving.
No. The current step is the hardest part. (Remember this, Patrick, and stop complaining!)

We've redesigned the housing yet again to be simpler to produce, use less metal and cost less.
Hoping this iteration will work as it needs to be installed by the end of November.

Wish me luck.....

Sculpture and the Uncomfortable - Katerina Kamprani

Like a dream of Franz Kafka, utilitarian objects loose their function and acquire different meanings
in a series called  The Uncomfortable by architect Katerina Kamprani.

She's brilliantly................peverse.

Ms. Kamprani says of herself: "I am an architect and I do the work of a rational engineer by day.  I have experience in the designand construction of buildings,  interiors and exhibition booths.

 I am currently employed at ncmp architects.

By night, I am a design enthusiast, interested both in graphic and product design.

As a graphic designer, I have enjoyed freelancing on various projects from branding, to illustrations and print design. In my free time, I re-design everyday objects for my personal project  

The Unfomfortable

 I love image making in any way shape or form, but my favorite tools are 3dsMax and Vray.

Panic attack stairs?

Sculpture and To Grandmother's House

The end of this carving is in sight!
I'm down to cleaning up rough cuts and a few last minute refinements.

The focus now shifts to the metal housing. Bids have come back at 2 to 3 times the original estimates. That's a big set back that's forcing a re-design of the metal housing.

So while I figure this out, let's enjoy how far this project has come....... From this

to this.....

Sculpture - Tools and Materials

Do you collect beautiful papers, textiles, wood veneers, etc? If you do, then you know that
materials that inspire and delight you have a way of accumulating in drawers, chests, closets and sheds.

I've been wanting to replace my tool box of clay tools, it was too difficult to find the tool I needed.
A wooden box with drawers was a cheap solution, but I wanted it to be better than cheap. Using
wall paper paste and two different papers it is transformed into something useful that delights me.

 This project could be quickly accomplished, immediate gratification as there's that big carving.....

Instead of hiding in my paper drawers, now I can enjoy these papers and my new tool box.

Yes, I should get rid of my old tool box, but it was modified to also be a small easel.
Do I store this box in my box collection?

Sculpture and Drawing

We had LuLu with us at Brietenbush. Her 6th grade teacher assigned science work of observing something for 15 minutes every day. What better way to study something than to draw it?

We walked to the river daily.

There were several battered Chinook Salmon in the shallows around this rock.

They were shy and very difficult to draw. What now?

 You let her sharp eyes find what interests her! 

Almost invisible on the rocks above the salmon was this fragile 2 inch exoskeleton of an insect.
Perfect for close observation. We discovered it would blow away if either of us breathed on it!

( I think it's a stonefly nymph. )

My drawing...

 Lulu at work on her drawings above and below, the finished results.

Not an easy thing to draw, tiny and very complex. She did well, no?