Sculpture and Drawing

These Parisian stenciled skeletons look as if they are wearing the grates as costumes.

Happy Halloween.

Sculpture and Dance

An understated but moving portrait of a dancer. Jerome Bel made this short documentary
for Veronique Doisneau, a corps de ballet dancer of the Paris Opera Ballet .

Watch the clarity of every movement she makes. This film was her last performance.

Watch them all as each segment has a different focus.

part 2



Part 3

Part 4

Sculpture and TriMet Public Art

The problem with trying to tell a linear narrative is that life ISN'T linear. 

Don't know about you, but my life is fractal, relative, and more than a little chaotic.
Especially since I've sworn to spend more time
at my workbench than at the computer.

 

Friends on FB told me about the article in the Clackamas Review before I knew it was running!  

It talks about the artists working sculptures for the TriMet Trolley Trail and mentions To Grandmother's House, my sculpture and the inspiration for it. 

Read the article by Raymond Rendleman

To Grandmother's House implies three generations, past, present, future, and a journey...much as people who last rode the trolley as children are now grandparents. “They and the community have worked for years to bring this project, the entire revitalization of trolleys and nature trail, to fruition.”

Photo is the third model of the grandmother and her shadow.

Sculpture and Upholstery, the bench #1

A most unfortunate series of events can lead to something good.

I'll spare you images of beautiful hand spun and knotted Afgan carpets roiling with wool maggots.  Left too long in someone's garage, it was tragic. I saved what I could. Cutting and exposing the remnants on the griddle of the driveway on a 105 degree day, followed by shampooing and drying in the summer heat. Sheep are tough, so is wool. Now what?

The plan is to use one remnant upholstering this vintage turquoise Greyhound bus bench.

In the studio is an old 8 foot long Greyhound Bus Bench. I love the goofy turquoise color.

This happens when you store upholstery foam in your wood shed during squirrel nesting season.
My goal is to use up all these stored supplies. Use them up OR GET RID OF THEM!

Potential applies to liabilities as well as projects...... 
How do you make the decision about saving materials and supplies?

Sculpture and Birthdays

My 58th birthday was this Sunday. 

I've been cleaning the studio, reorganizing and throwing things out!

Feels good to acknowledge what isn't working and clear space for new sculpture.

A calm and clean space lets me see signs and omens.....

In the grey days my sunflower panel reminds me of the Camus quote:

 "In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."

That is good to remember when I feel overwhelmed by ideas and inspirations 
and underwhelmed by my stamina and ability to prioritize. 

I was at the computer when this rainbow swung by the lovely Japanese sketch.
A reminder to stay present and notice ephemeral beauty.
This is what I think my sculpture offers people: its own narrative beauty,
but the art is also a back drop for people to notice the changing quality of the light.

For reasons yet unkown I'm studying smoke and steam.
That's going to be a challenge for a sculptor!
Here's to a new year of creativity.

Sculpture and Diana Vreeland

"There's only one very good life, and that's the life you know you want, and you make it your self!" Diana Vreeland



The Eye Has To Travel is a documentary by Lisa Immordino Vreeland on the life and career of Diana Vreeland. Vreeland was THE first magazine fashion editor, working at Harpers Barzaar and Vogue before becoming ambassador for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

She was a visionary with an incredible eye for talent, and theatrical declarations.
"All these people invented themselves, naturally as the editor I was there to help them along!" 

Look at how hair, wigs, and garments are treated sculpturally, or how the models and artists are photographed either in exotic places or in an Avedon void where their features become sculpture.
"Push their faults. Make it the most beautiful thing about them."

"You're not supposed to give people what they want.
You're supposed to give they what they don't know what they want YET." DV


The movie is better than the trailer, we laughed throughout. It really is a history of the 20th Century through her life and through clothes.

Sculpture and Drawing

People really do sit and draw in cafes in Paris.

A woman was kind to us in one of the cafes, returning D's hat after we'd changed tables.

I drew her luncheon companion, an exquisitely profiled and groomed woman wearing a simple white T shirt. French style isn't only expensive clothes, it's as much about attitude and presentation.
Money helps but isn't everything.

The artist at work.

When we left, I gave her the drawing of her friend. They both laughed and said "Merci!"
It felt good to to be in Paris and draw.  It felt even better to give it away as a gift.