Match

A little pyromania must lurk within me as I love to strike a kitchen match. The flare, the momentary blindness, the blue, the smoke, and the charcoal all speak to the artist. I painted a series of six 2x3 acrylics "Life and Death of a Match" and framed them on a black background.  Now if I could just incorporate that smell...

Seond Class

     I whipped the wire closure, plastic cover, and wet towel off my "head" and began to add more clay, eager to get the facial features on the "egg".  John, our teacher, said "Hold it, there is something we must all do first. When I checked your heads last week I felt some wires coming through.  If they do, your head will crack when fired and I will cry,"  He grabbed the handles of the cutting wire and did a craniotomy on my head!

     My wires WERE all awry and there were holes in my head  that would also cause it to crack (hold your remarks).  Good thing we looked.  I bent the wires inward again, picked out the dislodged scraps of newspaper (another cracker) and plopped my skull back on.  Uh, oh!  I never have learned to wait!

     John said to FIRST score the edges of the skull with a comb and then wet the patterns with water before putting the skull back together.  I had a h----of a time getting the skull back off.  Had to cut it off again. And the comb gets full of clay very quickly so it has to be washed several times before the job is done. I wanted to get to work on the chin!

     Skull back on, it was satisfying to make the egg look more human.  It didn't look like our model yet, but this is the second week of a 10 week class.  There is still a possibility of success. 

Surprise Craniotomy

Back to the beginning:  I had my first sculpture class last week.  We began with a pipe screwed to a wood board.  In that we inserted four twisted wire that we stuffed with tightly crushed newspaper.  On this we layered wet clay. Our goal was to make an "egg" with the small part the chin area of the head we were modeling.  I got this far in two hours.

Jewelry Commission

In one of my other lives I design jewelry.  This commission presented a real challenge.  A friend brought back several small matryoshka type dolls  from Russia and wanted earrings and a necklace made from them.  This client is always color coordinated, even to her tennis shoes when she wears them. And she usually prefers very simple jewelry.  What to do!?  I finally decided simplicity wouldn't work with these. The dolls themselves are ornate and incorporate many colors. I chose to add colors and textures.  The client loves the set and wears them with plain colored sweaters.

Still Abstract

I have been working on two paintings.  One is of the Orion Nebula, so it is abstract while still realism. The other is an interpretation of a photo of a sunset in Kona, Hawaii. Because of where the sun set in the photo, I had to move it to improve the composition. I am using glazes on both, so it will be drying time before they are finished. Meanwhile, here is an older painting done last year.  I guess I am still abstract.

Ireland

Ronan Peacock (http://www.ronanpeacock.com/) graciously gave me permission last year to paint one of his Kerry photographs.  I used glazes on this one, but it doesn't seem to glow as much in my photo.

Painting Again

During my painting recess I received two comments on my paintings from other artists.  It provided such a moral booster I am resolved to write my thoughts to creators when I admire their work.

Today I tackled the second part of the Calypso Movement challenge, to create a painting without a brush.  The good part is=no brushes to clean!  It was hard to do for me.  I really missed my brushes. Besides these restrictions I have a familial tremor where the tighter I hold an object, the more I shake.   I used many, many cotton-tipped swabs, my fingers, toothpicks and a medical syringe. (I am a nurse, after all.)  That was a disaster!  By the time I got the syringe loaded by squirting paint from the tube, the part near where a needle would attach had begun to dry.  When I put pressure on the handle, it balked with the dried acrylic but gave way all at once.  Instead of a snake I had a big blob of green on her head.  I just left it.  Who knows what a ghoul has growing on her head?  It was fun letting her be ugly.

The sculpture class went wonderfully and I am thinking of posting some photos of our work.  And maybe painting the classroom set-up?