Sculpture and Cars #2

It really doesn't pay to go against your gut instincts.

I HATE tatoos and piercings and low brow art. The gear shift design company wanted skulls, piercings, frankensteins and devils. You know the art, flaming eyeballs. I tried it as a test of my skills. How fast could I make something disgusting?

My starting concept was a burned out, meth-addled old biker devil. An old goat. The final thing was using a dress maker pin to stand in for a pierced tongue.

I was 90 minutes into creating this head for a gear shift when I realized it wasn't going to be worth finishing. I needed to spend less than half an hour on the art to make any profit at all. 

Now my problem is that there's something alive about his eyes. I can't just dump him back in the smushed clay bin. Can I close his mouth and change him from old biker dude to an even older Pan?
Change from cars, which have never held my interest, to the garden, which fascinates me. He might work as a finial hidden along the path. .......  I'll post new photos once I've overhauled him...

Sculpture and Cars

Sculpture is everywhere when you start to look for it.

Check out these gear shift knobs for cars. A company in town was looking for sculptors to create new designs. Unfortunately they want said sculptors to create new designs, model the original, make a mold, and cast a prototype, all for $150 or less!

No can do.

Sculpture and James Grashow

Talk about the pleasures of cardboard.

Delphine at Paradis Express featured artist James Gashow's "House Plants". The sculptures, architectural bouquets, are beautifully crafted and sureally funny.

I wanted to show you his bird or CardBirds as he calls them. His website says that the art is "Inspired by the James Audubon prints, Cardbirds strive to create a unique dimensional vision. The birds and their habitat - timeless and beautiful - are married to the most banal and overlooked of materials. These intricate sculptures are made entirely from corrugated board and twist ties. Beneath the beauty of these remarkable pieces, the materials from which they are created make a poignant statement."
All images from the artist's website.

Sculpture and Working Artists

Years ago when I had money from sculpting for the movies, I asked a friend if I should invest in the stock market. She asked if I could afford a high risk investment.

"You mean the high risk investment of life as an artist?" 
"Pay your bills and save your money!" was her response.

There's lots of talk about following your bliss, living passionately, but much less talk about what happens when you become a working artist. What happens in the working artist's happily ever after land?

With a boring day job, you do what you do and then go home and do something else. When you're doing what you love, there's no place to rest. There's always more to do. The art work which will take the rest of your life to master, and all the marketing and promotion which is of course another entire lifetime.

Sometimes it's best just to get out of town and see new sights and sites. We're off on a road trip for ten days. Camera, yes, drawing, yes. Computer? NO!

Sculpture and ADD

Attention Deficit Disorder is:

Carving a tiny ear with a razor sharp knife

while trying to eat scalding hot clam chowder

and deciding to call a friend because I've been alone in the studio all day.


Sigh, some things must be done one at a time.

Sculpture and Peonies

This relief sculpture of a peony is called "The Last of Spring."

I love that moment when spring tips into summer and imagined it as color diffusing into the darker greens of summer, when fragrance is diffused on a warm breeze.

Sculpture and Criticism

Seems there was some divine art criticism going on in Monroe, Ohio. A six story high statue of Jesus was struck by lightning and consumed by flames.

Oy!

The statue was nicknamed "Touchdown Jesus". About 62 feet tall and 40 feet wide at the base, showed Jesus from the torso up and was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus because of the way the arms were raised, similar to a referee signaling a touchdown. It was made of plastic foam and fiberglass over a steel frame, which is all that remained Tuesday. photos and text from the yahoo article