…another head:
There's something intense about this guy's face, almost sinister. Maybe part of it is that wonky eye that I didn't notice until I was painting him. I can't decide whether to try to fix it or just leave it as is.
Still pondering the many options for what to do next, so for now I think I'll just keep making these heads.
I started another sculpture the other day. Finally.
I'm not really sure where it's going yet. It'll be a full figure, in the round (as opposed to the half-round mounted torsos I've been doing lately), and I'm contemplating making it poseable, with real clothes instead of all sculpted. But beyond that I'm not sure yet. I'm hoping to turn it into another small series, so I'm trying to come up with ideas that I could use for other sculptures too. A few thoughts:
* party people, like these, because I friggin' loved those little hats. Or maybe people with different hats? Or masks?
* circus & sideshow people, because the last novel I read was Water for Elephants, Mimi Kirchner made some inspiring tattooed men, and the circus is just cool. This could make for a large and very involved series (maybe more involved than I have time for right now?): ringmaster, lion tamer, unicyclist, clowns, sword swallower, trapeze artists, Siamese twins, bearded lady…
* people in animal costumes. totally trendy right now and probably overdone, but also fun to do and might look pretty cool.
* characters from nursery rhymes or children's stories…Jack Sprat and his tubby wife, Goldilocks (and people in bear costumes, as above?), little red riding hood
* a chess set? would have to switch back to just torsos, but could be pretty awesome. or maybe just a little person with a crown. crowns are cool.
* something with nature, 'cause I like it…moss, rocks, trees…I have no idea what this means or would look like
* members of an imaginary band. It could be fun to sculpt little guitars etc. Or totally infuriating.
* no theme, no clothes. just little naked people. maybe this would be more "fine art"-ish, less crafty (something I've been struggling with lately)…something about fragility and vulnerability, blah blah blah
So, that's kinda what my thought process looks like right now. Votes for any of the above, or other suggestions, are welcome!
acrylic on birch-veneer ply, 6x8.5 inches
So, here's the product of my recent painting experiments. I've been wanting to paint on wood for a while now and decided to finally give it a go with one of my favorite pictures of Ryan as a kid*. I used thin washes of acrylic; between acrylic's fast-drying tendencies and the way it seeped into the wood, it felt similar to watercolor. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and am hoping to do some more painting on wood over the next few weeks.
*How great is that rainbow belt??
Well, I'm a day late, but here's the latest sculpture, as promised.
I've been trying to set some small art goals to get myself back in the swing of things; right now I'm hoping to spend thirty minutes every day working on art of some sort. Of course, with the amount of time these sculptures take I'll only be able to finish one every two weeks at that rate! But, it's a start.
Well, the holidays have kind of kicked my ass, but I'm hoping to be better about blogging (and making art, and exercising, blah blah blah) in the new year. I'm usually really into gift planning, trying to pick out the perfect presents for everyone, shopping, wrapping, the whole bit. This year I really only planned one gift though. Ryan's been saying for years that he wants more art for our walls, so I've been shopping for prints on etsy for the past few months and sneaking them into the house. Here's what I got:
Naturals postcards from photobird
August 2007 postcard by yespress
little papercuts by myfolklover
Up in the Trees by myfolklover
Also, I love Jen Corace (oops! can you tell this present was also maybe a little bit for me?!), and was excited to get this print of hers from Tiny Showcase:
I ordered a bunch of frames online and am kind of kicking myself for not getting less art and spending more on nicer frames, but we'll at least get some stuff on the walls, and maybe at some point down the line I'll replace some of the frames.
Of course, I waited too long to order mats and I couldn't get them made in time for Christmas. Gah. But Ryan seemed to like all of it and it'll be nice to finally have art on the walls. I'll put up pics when I get around to getting the mats, putting hanging hardware on and figuring out where it's all going to go!
What did you get or give for Christmas?
Well, we didn't make it out to Boston, which turned out fine, since no one else did either (but poor Paul & Maura are stuck with thirty pounds of ham!). And the upshot was that I finally got to spend a little time finishing up some sculpture work. Say hello to Lulu!
Quick post today, I'm mired in baking and cookie planning. I messed up one of my doughs tonight so I'm running behind and will have to try to get twice as much done tomorrow. Sigh. No finished cookies yet=no photos.
The drawing above was commissioned by Insight Meditation Center of Pioneer Valley and I was finally able to deliver it this past weekend; a bit of background on Buddhist teacher U Bha Khin (and the picture I was working from) can be found here.
*updated to add: the drawing is approximately 12x16in, pencil on stonehenge paper
So, I've had a few different sculptures in various stages of completion lying around for the past few weeks, and was going to wait until they were all done to unveil them here, but I've hit an unexpected snag with the supply for my wooden plaques and it may be a few weeks before I can finish the rest of them, so I figured I'd put this one up sooner rather than later.
I'm really happy with how this turned out; I've been oddly drawn to lacy patterns and filigree lately (so not typical for me, I'm not usually into "girly" stuff) and I like how the background echoes the lacy collar.
detail:
with my hands, for scale:
I've been really itching to do more sculpting, the past few days especially, but I need to focus on holiday stuff and get it out of the way first. The next week's going to be a frenzy of baking madness, but I'll try to post some photos (and recipes!) as I go along.
Hope you have a great weekend!
One advantage of having a baby is that Christmas presents for the grandparents (and great-grandparents) will be easy this year—pretty much anything related to Emmett will probably be welcome. And while I could've gone with "I LOVE MY GRANDPA" mugs and sweatshirts emblazoned with "WORLD'S #1 GRANDMA" in puff paint, I decided to take a somewhat classier approach (with no disrespect to all the #1 Grandmas out there).
I'm hoping this will be the start of an annual tradition—I think it'll be nice to see the progression of these over the years (well, for the first few years at least…I don't know that there's much difference in the profile of a fourteen and fifteen year old!).
This was a relatively simple project, and went pretty quickly (the hardest part was getting Emmett to sit still enough to get a good photo).
1. Take a good profile picture. Good lighting and a solid colored background are important (I used a white background, but a dark one might work as well or better).
2. Crop the photo if necessary and resize to the desired size in your favorite photo editing program. You should set the resolution to your computer's screen resolution (100ppi in my case).
3. Lay a piece of white paper (thin computer paper is ideal) against the screen and lightly trace the outline of your profile. It helps if the room is dark when you're doing this.
4. Cut out around the outline, lay the resulting stencil (wrong side down) on a piece of black paper, and trace around it.
5. Cut out the silhouette from the black paper, being sure to cut inside the line you traced. You may need to improvise a bit around small details and sharp corners, as using a stencil tends to round corners a bit.
6. Cut a piece of nice white paper the correct size for your frame. Use spray adhesive to lightly coat the wrong side of your black paper silhouette. Center on the white paper and smooth down. Sign and date if desired, put it in your frame, and voila!
Okay, maybe just a tiny sneak peek…
I'm so excited about these and can't wait to show you the rest! I still have a lot of work to do on them though, and don't know when I'm gonna find the time! I'm off to run errands, gotta try to fit in some holiday planning asap, and my parents are coming over for dinner. ah, the holiday season…
Totally unrelated note: I realized that I could see the google search strings that people visiting my blog have used, and I am apparently the NUMBER ONE search result for when+where+peas+domesticated. haha.
