Sculpture and Glass Eyes

Fresh out of school, I modeled figures for the mannequin manufacturer Wolf and Vine/ Greneker.
Instead of creating one life sized figure a semester, I made a new one every other week. And got paid instead of a grade for it.

I loved that job.

At the time they were transitioning from using beautiful handmade glass eyes to cheaper cast plastic eyes. This video by Thomas Leech shows how glass eyes are made. The mannequins use a full sphere eyeball with a small post left on them so that you can position them in the fiberglass head.

The Glass Eye Maker from Tomas Leach on Vimeo.
Video by Thomas Leech on Vimeo

Sculpture and Home

It goes against the stereotype of the chaotic artist, but in order to create, my life needs to be pretty quiet. Dare I say it? Even boring.

Academy Award nominated filmaker, Courtney Hunt talks elequently about how her home in East Chatham, NY. preserves and fosters her creativity.

“My mind is a very busy place, so I need to be in a place that is not. 

I love the wide-open spaces here. They make me feel clear, as if I have more room to think. 

Right now I’m working on a project for Focus Features and sometimes I find myself sitting at the window, just watching. It’s like a movie: always in motion. A squirrel darts across the yard. The mail carrier passes. A rabbit emerges. And always, the change in seasons provides a constant show. 

We don’t watch a lot of TV here but during big rainstorms we’ve watched little tree frogs drop to the ground. And during snow storms, we’ve observed the white as it gathers, layer upon layer, all around us. This kind of quiet is hard to describe. As is a star-filled sky. The other night I was awakened by the sound of a hooting owl. This is not the city."

Interviewed by Bethany Lyttle from the NYTimes article, House Tour: East Chatham, NY. 3/24/2011.

Sculpture and David Bookbinder

It's a bitter cold and grey rainy day, so I'm seeking solace in the photographs of David J Bookbinder.

What I enjoy about Bookbinder's Flower Mandalas is the feeling of structure, of organized forms. The altered photos are not literal representations of a flower. Like a kalidescope, Bookbinder selects aspects and mirrors those to achieve a symmetry that fascinates the eyes.

All photographs © David Bookbinder

David's current subjects include both street and nature photography, but his main interest, both as a photographer and a psychotherapist, is in transformation. Each image captured by the digital sensor can be the start of a sequence of related photographs or a set of transformations from one image into many.

Bookbinder is a photographer,psychotherapist, and writer living in Beverly, Massachusetts.
His website is here.

All photographs © David Bookbinder

All photographs © David Bookbinder

Sculpture and Jason deCaires Taylor's Underwater Sculpture

Atlantis is real.
It's being built as fast as Jason deCaires can make art.

What's exciting is to see how his work is evolving,
not just from concrete life cast's into vibrant wildlife habitat,
but also into strong social commentary on how we are living
and the world we leave for our children.

That his gallery is underwater,
open only to divers and sea creatures makes it funnier and more disturbing. Visit his website

Here's an earlier post on his underwater sculpture

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 Fred Astaire

This Fred Astaire dance clip is still worth watching.
 
Watch it to see how many ways the set designer and performers change your perception of the shape of the stage.

Alastair Macaulay, NY Times dance critic writes about Fred Astaire's homage to African American dancer Bill Robinson.   From the 1936 film Swing Time.

That last section of Astair and the shadow performers had my head spinning.
How about you?

Sculpture and the Romanesque

After visiting the nursing home, I stopped at
Fubonn, the largest Asian shopping mall in Oregon. I was in a mood to see something different.

Pick any country in south east Asia, if it's not the aisle you're in, it is one aisle over.

Couldn't find any almond cookies, the smell of fish overpowered trying to select incense. Over the sound system, Cher was braying out "If I could turn back time..."

I was transported. To the 70's.
As I left the store, I looked at the array of marble statuary outside.
There were really ugly marble horses the size of Shetland ponies. Ditto for dragons, and tigers. Then I saw this trio.

The "Family of God".

I've been looking at a lot of Romanesque art, trying to identify what makes it so quirky and appealing.

This group that would have been a big hit in Prague in 1200 AD.

Contemporary Vietnamese sculptors carving their version of a western European (Catholic)
image puts that quirky spin on all the features
and forms.

$750 with 20% off......... a bargain for "Romanesque" art?




If I bought it, I'd insist on getting the tag too. Family of God #25. There's something funny about seeing it in print. And on sale.