Sculpture and School

Art Week at the Ivy School."Yes, I'll do an hour on sculpture."
What can I do that will keep the attention of 5th graders?

Hmmm, Let's bring the mannequin heads and the BOX OF GLASS EYES!

My first professional sculpting work was for a high end mannequin manufacturer in Los Angeles.
I went from creating one life sized sculpture a semester to one figure every two weeks.
And got PAID for the pleasure....

A few of the plasticine heads have been in the studio ever since.
You never know when they might be useful.

The industry was changing over from hand made glass eyes imported from Germany to much cheaper cast resin eyes. The level of craftsmanship of the German eyes was enchanting, fine red threads for the veins. They look grotesque on their own, but have an incredible realism once you install them in a mannequin.

And yes, the box of eyes was a hit with the 11 year olds.

Sculpture and a wise man

It was time for a starring role for this warrior, to prove he's more than beefcake.

But who is he going to play?

These holiday flowers came individually wrapped in this cool expandable mesh.

HMMMMMM, too cool to throw away....

The idea was he'd be a wise man. 

A king, yes.
But alas, tis a tragic king he plays.

Othello.

 The plastic mesh wanted to become Elizabethan lace and ruffs to hide my lack of sewing skills.

I'm fine with that.
So is he.....

Observation on sexism in toys: Toys for boys have hands that can actually hold things. They're sold with weapons, but I like a chunk of frankincense and green sushi plastic.
Barbies can't hold anything. What lesson is that?...

It's a wise man who knows how to play.

Sculpture and Christmas

 If you asked them if they had a sculpture collection, most folks would say "No."

But if you ask them if they have Christmas ornaments, most will say "Yes."

Ask them why they love the ornaments and you'll soon be having a discussion about sculpture.

Here are some of the ornaments sculpture on our tree.

 The carved articulated Christmas angel goes at the top of the tree.

Wood, carving, craft, tradition...

 The cold business man....and the library lion from the same series.

Scale, humor, allusions

 a delicate glass whale with spout from a trip to Provincetown brings back memories.

craft, traditions, scale and contrasts

 This new addition was our 10 year old's contribution. On her own, she had an idea, searched out all the necessary materials of glue, string, scissors, paper and made her own angel for the top of the tree. I'm so proud of her. Creativity is its own gift that keeps on giving.

Each year I assemble a creche scene of sculpture I've collected or made.

 Sculptures of old women and goddesses surround the Marys.

Small sculptures of animals make up both the manger and much of the procession.

Who is this dude?

A naked warrior being prepped for his role as a wise man.

Sculpture and Upholstery

It is the middle of the night.
That 3 am place
where pain has banished sleep.

The internet is tempting,
but a very bad idea.
At this hour, candle and needle are better companions.

These pillows are the last-chance incarnation of a Turkkoman carpet.
Hand spun wool is rough comfort.
Touching patterns thousands of years old seems an honest trade for my own dreams.

Forcing the curved needle through four layers of knots
takes all my strength at 3:48 am.
The waxed linen thread so satisfying to pull hard into each stitch.
Each stitch feels like a tiny measure of rightness reclaimed
in this broken world.

Sculpture and Jewelry

I'm winning on teaching her irony. It's a contested battle with her learning manners.
At least she'll know how to use tools properly.

Centering and punching holes in red bottle caps, using my tools, was a success with the 9 year old.

The inspiration was some beautiful black lava beads I'd purchased, white elk bones from soup stock, and lignum vitae wheels that needed to be used for something!

Black and white needed red. I like the symbolism of birth, life, death, and a good soda pop.

Then off to Dava Bead for wire and findings. Anita, one of the owners of Dava Bead raised an eyebrow at the heavy, funky necklace. (There's irony.)

I told her it was for a Buddha sculpture. 

Turns out she'd made a necklace for a Buddha too! 
Her friend's Buddha had been broken and then repaired. The necklace was to hide the repairs.

I think that her gift of the necklace IS the repair. It helps restore a friend's moral, and makes beauty and meaning where there was vandalism.

Have you ever made a gift of your art to help restore the world?

Sculpture and Faux Bronze #4

Using this method to create a faux bronze patina, you can dial up or down the effect you want to create. 

Want more BLING? Leave more blue and gold showing. Want the subtlest of subtle? Glaze away until your eyes glaze over.

The secret to this proces is to walk as FAR AWAY from your work as you can get.
Sit down and study your work for 10 minutes. Does it work from any distance? 
That will direct you quicker and more efficiently than hours of up close noodeling.

Bouquet for the City by Patrick Gracewood ©2012

The last step is to mix up a gold paint for high lights. For this use a very dry brush.

Logically these would be where the sculpture would be frequently touched. Since this is a fantasy, I use the gold high lights to direct your eyes thoughout the composition.

Shall we take a tour?

Look at the two slender branches hanging diagonally above. Those are pricked out with gold. 

Do you notice the gold? No, but you notice their delicacy and the weight of the leaves.

Since this is the first sculpture you see from my garden gate, I wanted it to read from 70 feet away, so I want contrast. If you want more subtlety, push everything back with thin layers of glaze.

Notice too, how the blues keeps the browns from going flat. 

With a very limited palatte you can get an amazing feeling of depth.

These blossoms, above, are the big finale as this sculpture reads right to left. It's where your eyes wind up. The blue drips are the most vivid right here.....

..........Where they lead your eyes to explore the ground, the suggestion of gravel, the fallen leaves.
At the far right, the first blossom to fall tells of time passing.

The plant that inspired this art was an enormous 70 + year old King George rhododendron. I took elements from it, like this torn and slowly healing branch to base the composition and contrast with the enormous fragrant spring blossoms.

In addition to being a tribute portrait of a great plant, this entire sculpture is playing games with relief depth and flatness, figure and ground, realism and abstraction. The paint, ooops, "patina" is just one more tool to help that illusion.

Until you can afford to cast your work in bronze, learn how to create a beautiful, beleiveable fake faux bronze patina it until someone is willing to make your vision a reality with cash.

It's what I'm doing.

Sculpture and Faux Bronze #2

Go look at bronze statues that have been outdoors for years. They're not brown, and unless someone has been rubbing on them, they're not shiny gold.

Often they are very dark with outrageous shades of blue and green.

Here's how I build up the background for any faux bronze. Start with a solid dark brown base, as in the upper left of the photo. I like to use raw umber or burnt umber with a touch of pthalo green.
Painted solid brown, the relief looked like a giant chocolate bar.

For the patina, I mix pthalo green with white and paint in in every recessed area. At this point, it's gaudy as hell. You'll feel like you're vandalizing your own work. Do it!

I'm playing with the fantasy of an ideal patina. For the Bouquet for the City relief that means I want the blues to evoke the rain and fragrance dripping off this "King George"rhododendron. 

To get that, I paint the color on, let it dry a bit and then hit it with squirts of water until I get the drips I want.

Just as I textured the background to give it a sense of movement, I'm using the drips to animate the background void and help tell a story.

Sculpture and Wreaths

Wreath by Patrick Gracewood

 Here are some wreaths I made of apple and red twig dogwood. The subtle colors of the apple prunings, murkey greens and umbers are very beautiful with wrapped and contrasted with each other.

Redtwig Dogwood.

This red one was a demonstration wreath. It was hard to teach and craft at the same time. While the process is simple, it does require concentration. Loose that and it shows in the work.

We had a surprise snowfall last night. Love the snow cap!

I've used several wreaths here to hide the support post of the sculpture base. These unbroken circles give weight to the base and help remind that everything is related and interlinked.

Sculpture and Paper Cuts into Metal

 Here are the laser-cut sunflower panels installed at the 2012 Yard Garden Patio Show.

Photos by David Bales

I chose to leave the finish on the panels the natural dull sheen of the metal. My thinking was that it would be a good foil to all the dark woods and back wall of dark green cedar. We'd planned on having a spot light blasting on the back side to cast sunflower shadows onto the counter. Alas, that was not to be as wattage had already been alloted to other things. Sometimes you just roll with what is out of your controll.

After this show comes down, I'm going to apply a rust finish to the metal. That will boost the contrast of light and dark. They really do cry out for direct sunllight and strong shadows.

Sculpture and Paper Cuts

At this point this project leaves my hands. I love that.
I also get freaked out because it's out of my control, but it requires skills I will never have.

David Bales photographing Sunflower World.

David Bales translates the photo into a DXF file that the laser cutting computer can read. He also prepares shop drawings that translate my little paper cut into a working plan to transform it into a large metal screen.

David designed a return on the metal panel to stiffen it and make it hold it's shape.

The files were sent to Laser Cutting Services in Tualatin, Oregon. Their price was good as it included both metal, 14 gague mild steel, and all the laser cutting.

Too big to fit inside the van meant a quick trip to the hardware store to buy tie down straps.

I love working on an architecutral scale.

What's strange is how a project keeps changing size, both in my head and in reality.
The paper cut is 24 inches x 16 inches wide. The photos and plans are really small on my computer. We go to Laser Cutting Services to pick up the art and "suddenly" it's enormous! It's on a pallete too big to fit in the van! Now it's off to the fabricators for bending and welding.

Sculpture and Paper Cuts

"The future is here. It's just not evenly distributed.  William Gibson

I love this photo as it shows exactly how life and art actually work, a mixup of daily and future plans.
Like any show, there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes.

In order to get the paper cut made into a metal screen, it first must be photographed and then transformed into a dxf file for the laser cutting machine to read. I asked for help from David Bales.

Here we are in the high tech photo studio of David Bales. his kitchen. The artwork is taped to a sheet of acrylic that is back lit by bounced light from the skylight. Large sheets of acrylic and paper are always useful studio tools. You use what works.

Sculpture and House Painting

What saves our new house colors from being too conservative is a little bit of sparkle.
23 carat gold sparkle.

House Bling: 23 carat gold leaf

Our very capable contractor, Mark Downing, suggested I make a sculpture for the apex of the roof.

I said, "Too fussy. It should be gold." We laughed but then thought, "Why not?"

The small touch of gold leaf is both a funny blessing for the house and an ironic commentary on the cost of stripping the building down to bare wood, priming and repainting it.

The first part of the building to catch the morning sun, glows and bounces the light back to the world.

Antiquarian and restoration expert, John Barrett, braved three stories of scaffolding, carrying all the necessary tools and his supplies in a small bag. He applied the oil varnish in the morning and came back in the late afternoon to apply the 23 carat gold leaf.

Antiquarian and restoration expert John Barrett applies the colored oil varnish base for the gold leaf.

 Does this count as conceptual art?

So with all the painting and gold leaf, and the decision NOT to use sculpture,
where does sculpture come in?
That's for the next post when the scaffolding comes down.

Sculpture and 3 Dimensional Printing

Have you thought of 3D printing when you need new ceramic dishes?

Reaction Spiral lamp by Nervoussystems. 

Adam by Virtox

Invase by Virtox

The company Shapeways has created a 3D printer that allows users to create food safe tableware like salt and pepper shakers, plates and cups. The printer uses layers of ceramic powder to create the object, which is then dried in an oven and then fired in a ceramic kiln at high temperatures to vitrifcation.

A human potter can make normal plates and drinking cups faster and less expensively. I'd argue that his or her work would be better because hand made will fit your hands better. Where this ceramic printing comes into its own is for complex computer modeled figures like the Invase.

Read more about printed ceramics. 

Sculpture and Feet and Shoes

Fashion may seem frivolous when compared to the lofty aspirations of sculpture.
Don't kid yourself.
Fashion has always been about influence, money and power. Always attractive to artists.

Inspired by Magdalene and the Flame by Georges de la Tour  .

Christian Louboutin worked with artist/photographer Peter Lippman for his fall 2011 shoe promotion.  

The photos are witty and beautifully executed. They're inspired by famous paintings with the hope that people will consider his shoes as works of art.

Shoes as fetish items have a long history. These shoes are designed to be outrageous and titillating to see. They have maximum visual impact. I've no problem with placing these shoes on a pedestal. They require  high craft to make them. They're far more attractive than Jeff Koon's vacuum cleaners in plexi boxes.  

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I do have a problem with shoes as "performance art." Form is utterly divorced from function.

My concern is the physical impact these "sculptures" will have on young women who are willing to be shaped to fit this fashion. I meant that literally and physically. Ankle, knee, and spine problems. Nasty falls. The designers claim no responsibility for the necessary physical act of walking.

Bound feet were only three inches long, impossible to walk unassisted.

Is foot binding/fashion barbaric if it's voluntary?

Fashion should look both forwards and backwards when trying to cross the street.

Glamour can take a long time to heal. 

Sculpture and Tadelakt

I checked out the book, "Tadelakt, an old Moroccan plaster technique newly discovered" by Michael Johannes Ochs. His book covers the history, the chemistry, and shows contemporary uses of tadelakt.

The traditional craft is being revived because it is hydrophobic and odorless. It has fungicidal properties. It's labor intensive. It's ethnic, it's expensive. All these give Tadelakt cachet.

I think the main reason for the revival is because it creates incredibly beautiful surfaces. 

Walls and floors have a subtle sheen and wonderful depth of color with soft variations and surface textures. There are several videos on Youtube, this one covers most of the process.

Sculpture and 17th Century Carved and Painted Saints

I could watch this video over and over.

It's so relaxing to see other artists patiently at work, not hurrying because they know their work will last. (And if they're working for the Getty Museum, they know they'll also be paid!)

Seventeenth-century Spanish polychrome sculpture was different from monochromatic stone or bronze figures, the carved wooden figures were made to be as life like as possible.

Artists created new sculpture techniques to achieve the presence of living saints. They used glass eyes, wigs, and paint for the figure and layers of gesso, paint, and metal leaf to mimic sumptuous fabrics like brocade.

Learn about the techniques of estofado in this video from the Getty Museum.
 

Sculpture and Janet Echelman

Janet Echleman takes her imagination seriously.

In return, her imagination has taken her on a world wide ride into the future of sculpture.
Echleman has created an entirely new form of sculpture. It reminds me of the Aurora Borealis

Her sculpture is a new direction for public art.

Echleman's sculpture is designed on an enormous scale that can hold its own against skyscrapers because it uses the sky and winds. Janet's goal is to soften the hard edges of the city through sculpture that is soft and flexible. Her work responds to the environment, the wind, water and the light, to engage the viewer with its color and movement..

Photos from Janet Echelman's website

It all began when she turned disaster, a show with a no show of her art materials, into wonder and exploration of an unexamined material. She began using netting to create her art.
Watch Echleman's Ted Talk



Count how many times Janet Echlemal says "The language or the technology didn't exist, so we had to create it." 

She is brilliant.

See more of her work here.
Read a CNN interview with Janet Echelman here

Sculpture and Expenses

 I needed 6 gallons of rubber to make the molds for these two carvings.

Nesting birds, carved concrete, 24"x 12" x 6" ©Patrick Gracewood

"Rich Autumn" carved concrete, 24"x 12" x 6" ©Patrick Gracewood

You can see where I ran out of rubber on the right side.

Somehow I confused gallons of rubber with pounds of rubber. It's sold by the pound. The result?  I was mixing and pouring rubber when I realized there wasn't going to be enough.

Stuck halfway. Go forward or retreat?

It was an expensive failure and a lesson in sculpture economics. To finish the project I need an 80 lb kit. That's $462.44 of material that I can't justify right now. So instead of buying more rubber, I'm scrapping the mold, and going to show the prototypes instead of casts.

The mold rubber I use is called Poly 74-45. It's made by Polytek, a company in Pennsylvania. I went online to see if I could get it directly from the manufacturer and save some money instead of buying it through Fiberlay, our local Portland supplier.

Polytek sells an 80 lb kit for $440.00, Fiberlay sells the same for $462.44. Their markup is only $22.00, which includes shipping it across the country! Comparison shopping made me realize what a slim profit margin Fiberlay makes on this product. A little understanding makes me appreciate them much more.

All this goes to show some of the material costs (and emotional costs!) involved in making sculpture.