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 Ritual - The Money Dance #2

Q: How do you create group interaction with people who don't know each other?
A: You create a ritual.

Q: How do you create a ritual?
A: One way is to create objects that invite participation. 

Design parameters for money dance costumes:
1 It's got to be quick to make. (We're leaving in two days!)
2. It's got to be easy to stuff in a suitcase.
3. It's got to be easily understood and require no explanation.
4. Extra points if it's funny and colorful.

Start with a man's suit vest.
David volunteered his.....

Shop for metal clips so people can give their gifts to the couple. By attaching them directly.

Who knew clips come in bright colors at Office Depot? Fun!

Sew clips to vest.

 Lots of clips for lots of money.....Sympathetic magic?

Do I know if this is going to work, NO! but now I'm committed to finding out!

 It's important to do product testing.
Money clips on easily.

Sculpture and Faux Finishes 2

It is a ridiculous color.

But it's the right ridiculous color, and the perfect situation to ask a nine year old help me paint.
"Don't worry, Lulu, you can't make a mistake."
She had fun- she got more paint on the panel than on herself. A success.

 Both panels with patina base.

I'm glazing that blue way back into the background.
This begins the maddening swings back and forth from too garish to too subtle.

Sculpture and Color

I wanted to have sunflowers blooming for the open studio and garden. 

Luckily all it took was yellow paint and some lumber.

 

I want to see how the Sunflower World design looks with a rusted finish, 

so why not get it OUT  from behind my workbench, OUT of the studio 

and up on a wall to be enjoyed?

 

There's was nothing to look at in this corner of the yard but the very tired wood and mold shed.
Primer and yellow paint and bang suddenly you don't notice the shed at all.

Sculpture and Franken-shrine

It was dead and broken. 
But now, it's Alive! It's Alive!
It's FRANKEN-shrine!

Once upon a time, it was a perfect tiny Japanese cedar shrine.
A friend wanted to get rid of it, so it was packed carelessly for a two state road trip, the bag of parts has gone missing, and three dusty years on the to-do shelf left it a shadow of it's former self...

..........which made it easier to just play with it.

I used scrap cedar for the back wall, (Love those knot holes!), maple branches and my pin-nail gun to put it back together. A small Tibetan bell hangs in the center bay.

It will be great in the garden on the path to Still Thoughts,
and ready for Saturday's Open Studio and Garden

Sculpture and Folk Art

This goofy front yard sculpture tableaux always makes me smile. Especially if the fountain is on.

Not sure if this is an homage to the Northwest or the Southwest????
Or is it process art? It took a lot of time to affix all those white rocks.
Is it outsider art?

It has classic vignettes of forbidden love.

Take a brief tour?

Sculpture and the World Naked Bike Ride.

It gives new meaning to the term "flash mob."

The shouts and noise and flashing police lights got me out of bed to see 10,000 naked people ride their bikes, skateboards, unicycles, and run past my house tonight.  Bodies of every possible size and shape coasting downhill and around the corner. The normal rules seem upended when there are more naked people laughing and zooming by than fully dressed bystanders.

The police were there to serve and protect and enjoy the exuberance, their flashing strobes adding bright blue and red highlights to all the passing skin.

I did not take any pictures, it seemed antithetical to the event. There are videos but they don't really give you the sense of giddy naughtiness. You simply had to be there.

What does this have to do with sculpture? 
In one evening, I feel like 10,000 models auditioned for new sculptures!

Sculpture and Parade Lions

It doesn't have to be serious to be sculpture.

I planned on a focused series on sculpture and the garden this month. Between daily visits with my fragile 87 year old mother in law, broken plumbing and damaged floors, that's not going to happen.

Instead I'm going with the flow and letting myself be surprised with the posts that do show up.

Not what you expect to see in a back yard!

Picking up the new toilet from the warehouse, I saw the king of the jungle across the street!

Peering through the gates, I couldn't stop laughing.
Why does changing the scale of something make even a foam lion magical and funny?

This is also a good example of how a great paint job makes a mediocre carving work. The bitter truth is that color trumps form every time.


Put the emphasis where it's needed most, on the face, with good color and the rest, like that big sloppy seam across the chest, is given a free pass.


Turns out this noble beast represents George Morlan Plumbing Supply in parades. 

Wouldn't it be wonderful if more companies sponsored sculpture?

A noble beast amidst the broken toilets.

Sculpture and Cappella Romana

Rose papercut by Patrick Gracewood © Patrick Gracewood 2011

Cappella Romana gave a concert called Baroque Christmas in Russia and Ukraine last December.
The vocals were angelic. I closed my eyes through the entire concert to avoid distractions.
Their music is available here.

I finally finished the paper-cut the music inspired, above.

I made a quick sketch for a paper cut of roses on the only paper I had, the program.The church frowns on drawing in their prayer books......

Here's the drawing. The finished paper cut is at the top of this post.

Sculpture and the New Year

As artist's we can get so focused on Selling our work that that we forget that our work is also a gift. 

Our art is a gift that we can freely share with everyone in our world. 

Give some of your art away and charge a fair price for rest of your art work. It's a good practice. It helps you be very clear about why you are making it and what your expectations are for each piece.

In this new year, where can you give the gift of your creativity? 

Is there a place you can share it with the very young, or the very old? 

Art is about abundance. Share it with the world.

Here's the large bees wax covered pine cone, on top the cake and stuffed to capacity with colorful prayers.

 There is the pine cone in the heart of the fire, prayers long gone up in flames and smoke.

7 year old cub reporter taking photos. I love her stance!

Lost in the warmth and the glow of the fire.....

Still shots of the fire are inspiration for new works....

Sculpture and the Fire of Intention

Susan Gallacher -Turner came to the New Year's Burning. She's got photos and writes about it on Sculpting A Life.

Here's how I made it.

Take two pallets and one old shipping box,  The first pallet was cut down by one third to be the base. The other was cut in half for the pedestal. Here they are with a layer of cardboard between the two. It was quicker to  cover the entire base first instead of trying to work around the upright portion.

I put all the wood scraps back inside the structure for kindling.

My grandfather had an expression, about when they were butchering animals on the farm:"We'd use everything but the squeal." That's what I strive for when I'm creating this sculpture. All the mess gets put back inside and becomes part of the art. When I'm done so is most of the cleanup!

Here's the main structure, ready to be covered in cardboard.

Here's the first coat of paint for the mandala and the frame for scale.
More in the next post.

Sculpture and the New Year.

New Year's sculpture under construction.

Finished artwork on the way out of the studio.

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

 -- Robert Frost

This poem was in my thoughts as 

I constructed the New Year sculpture.

More on this in the next post. 

For the back-story on Gracewood Studio's 

New Year sculptures click here 

or here

Sculpture and Christmas

Christmas is a high point in the year for working sculpture.

Think about it. The holidays involve people creating, choosing, using, decorating, appreciating and placing objects sculpture in their homes, work places and public areas.  


You might call it by other names: toys,  a christmas creche display, gifts, Christmas trees, ornaments, wrapping, presents.  You own a lot more "sculpture" than you think. It's all around you.

Philippine santo head as Mary, Porcelain Chinese doll as baby J on antique stand.

Japanese bronze rat signature chop, two of my own carvings, Pipe cleaner Fox, ivory horse...

Glass birds, Balinese carved figure, Chinese votive figure, Mexican clay cactus

Disney's Alladin, an antique wooden Door of Hope doll, and two of my own carvings

Every year all my tiny sculptures are assembled on the mantle into an unorthodox nativity scene.
Balinese bone demons, a carved ivory horse and an Eskimo walrus carving from my parents time, Chinese votive figures, Mexican wooden animals, plastic toys are all part of my library of sculpture, loved for what they are and what they evoke.

Merry Christmas to all.

Sculpture and Illuminated Letters

I hated the hand lettering and graphic desing classes in college. It was all about an impossible perfection that computer fonts soon "rendered" obsolete.

Christmas wrapping paper with nice illuminated letters.

Chinese prayer paper works well because it's cheap, small scale and makes a nice present.

Hand lettering has come back to haunt me. I'm still practicing painting letters by hand. But now it's fun because I use it to practice both letter forms and an endless vine pattern. I see the vine pattern in Florentine papers, on old buildings. It's beautiful and deceptively difficult. All too easy to turn into a bramble vine smothering the letter.

 I used the C from the Christmas paper as inspiration for the ornament. Here's a case where the vines got out of control. Frustrating, but once it died I began to loosen up and experiment.  With this gold foil card stock paper I realized I could use stamping as addition texture, see lower left above.

 

Here's the finished birthday card for Christine. I like how the blue outline makes the red C pop. The foliage is ok but I've got a long way to go before it grows naturally. Anyone else haunted by these vines and their endless patterns?

Sculpture and Canstruction

What is sculpture doing in the NY Times food section?

Canstruction pumpkin pie

Raising supplies and money for the hungry.

Canstruction, the annual challenge for architects and engineers to create sculptures with cans of food, runs Nov. 11 - Nov. 22 at the Winter Garden in the World Financial Center, in NY's financial district. Free admission with the suggested donation of a can of food. City Harvest will be the beneficiary of an estimated 100,000 cans of food.

A good example of serious play.

To see more canstructions visit the website.

Sculpture and Paper Cuts

In the bright summer light, the shadow is as real as my paper cut artwork.

But when I saw this new black stencil graffitti a few blocks from the house, I looked for the little girl and her balloons. All that was left was her shadow.......

I hate grafitti's ugly tagging, but I do love a good, clever stencil....