Sculpture and Creative Time.

People think that if you're an artist you do whatever you want, when ever you want. If only that were true.

Granted I haven't punched a time clock in years, but I have to buy my time to create just like everyone else. The rent and paying gigs take priority over what I'd like to do.

The trick is after the rent is paid, while actively searching for the next commercial sculpture job, is to remember not to panic if it's not immediate, and go to my workbench and get to work.

I began to carve again on the little queen. It's been 3 months or more. The little girl it's based is now 6 and is changing physically so quickly that it is now or never to finish it. Right after this next two paying jobs.....

Sculpture and Hughes Water Lily Festival

Hughes Water Gardens is a destination nursery. Once you're there surrounded by the sounds of water, it's a delight. From lotus to the enormous Victorian water lilies, they have everything a water lover could ask for.

I'll be demonstrating relief sculpture for tonight's Artist's Reception. Stop by and say hello.

Heidi Wastweet and Bas Relief Sculpture

Combining her love of sculpture and drawing Seattle sculptor, Heidi Wastweet excells at bas relief sculpture. She created this time lapse video of the sculpting of one of eight St paul church door panels. It follows the process through clay, plaster, to the final bronze and shows the installation in the church doors.

For more information visit www.wastweetstudio.com

Sculpture and History = Paleoartist

Way back in June, the New York Times ran an article on Viktor Deak, paleoartist.

What is a paleoartist? It's someone who combines archeology and art, using a scientific approach with bone fragments to reconsturct what our ancestors might have looked like. Deak has just finished a massive 78 foot mural that is the setting for the exhibition "Lucy's Legacy." Mr. Deak’s work can be seen on his Web site, www.anatomicalorigins.com.

Check it out for a little science fiction, a lot of science fact.

Sculpture at Hughes Water Lily Festival

Just finished setting up my sculpture and fountains.I will be the featured artist at the Water Lily Festival at Hughes Water Gardens in Tualatin. There will be lots of art inspired by the beautiful gardens, including large relief sculptures and the premier of a new carving by yours truely. I designed this paper cut after last year's festival.

Janet Riehl - A Creative Life

Susan Gallacher Turner is interviewing artists about their lives and work, posting on her blog. The latest interview is with artist and author Janet Riehl.

Riehl describes how when she moved to Lake County, CA, a sparsely populated, breathtakingly beautiful, poor, rural locale, she made it her mission to promote arts and culture within the county, in every media possible: writing, visual art, and performance. She sponsored poetry readings, a monthly writing circle, as well as creating outdoor celebrations-performances-installations in both state parks in the county.

A creative life is often perceived as solitary and self involved, Janet Riehl shows how often art grows into activism and community involvement. I love how she sums up her life, "In other words, my life was not unlike the lives of most practicing artists: I did what I could, when I could, as well as I could."

Those are good words to live by.

Sculpture and Animation

New media means new way of seeing.

The new tiny jerky videos we're watching on our comuter now exploit the limitations of the medium, evoking a cartoon flip book or silent movie. The jerky animation makes one watch more closely and allows for more playful fantasy. Inanimate objects begin to live and move. Pillows become clouds or stairs. Socks become fish, bubbles, a little pet.

So nice to see humor, tenderness, play and ambiguity in a music video by Oren Lavie.