Modern Eden Group show up intil Jan 16th!

If you havent gotten to Modern Eden yet, it's up until Jan 16th.

The work looks great!

Opening In San Fran

December's show will showcase Modern Eden's favorite exhibiting artists with works in San Francisco sizes.  Featuring new works by Jaxon Northon, Leilani Bustamante, Bradley Platz, Kim Larson,  Sakuna Daring, Aaron Hodges, Ryan Gannon, Justin Loney, Daniel J. Valadez, Steve Javiel, Tanem Davidson, Kurtis Rykovich, Hilary Williams, Sheri DeBow, Anderson Lewis, Natasha Dikareva, Slug & Squirrel, Christine Benjamin, Helen Wilson, Double Parlour, and more!   Live music provided by DJ Edward Aten

Got to meet the Guerilla Girls first hand!

Been using their  "The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art"
 for years as an auxiliary text in my Art History classes for years...so cool. 

Public Sculpture

Just participated in my first Public Sculpture through the Palomar Sculpture Department were I teach.
It's at the Vallecitos Water District in San Marcos and is a solar driven fountain.
Using the hand of one of the students that created the design for the garden I made a bronze hand for the piece. Karen Wooten poured and I finished it. 
I think it turned out quite nice. 
The department is listed on the sign. 

North Beach Art Walk

Heading North to spend the weekend in San Fran. I'm going to be showing my work at the North Beach Art Walk

Come on by, I'll be in the garden at 2029 Powell. It sounds like the weather gods are with us. What a great way to spend a beautiful weekend, walking around North Beach looking at Art! 

Family Portraits

In my Wallet Portrait series, I’m thinking about real families. If you want to know about whom someone considers family look into their wallet. These are the people that we choice to carry around with us. These people choice to call themselves family by documenting their relationships through photography. People’s wallets tell stories. Some caricatures make multiple appearances as they move through their lives.  I’m using children’s toys to create these stories; after all we already have histories we bring to some of these caricatures.

All Images copywritten.

Wallet Portraits Proposal

The proposal for this piece is simple. Create a life through someone’s wallet photos.

One wallet setting on a pedestal, Large photos framed and hung behind on the wall, a family gallery with extra wallet portraits to be taken home. 

Eight Rattles Together

Rattles are instruments of ritual used to put the participant in the correct state of mind for the ceremony. They also have a history of being toys given to infants, also to put them in the correct state of mind, i.e. quite.

The rattle babies seem to scream quietly, until shaken. They are a combination of our animal and human selves.  As is the tradition in composite creatures they are given aspects of the animal they are combined with, sort of a shadow self and or an animal guide. I also feel compelled to give them the tools they may need to survive. A baby human, bird or deer all need protection and camouflage. A hawk needs the rabbit, a fish the sea. Batboy instead carries the weight of our fear of our animal selves in his little body. He carries the burden of the love/hate relationship we have with this myth of the super hero/monster. A human who carries too much animal, the unwelcome aspects (the wolf-the bat) becomes either a hero or quickly an evil creature to be avoided or stamped out.  But as a baby we feel connected somehow to this animal and thereby to ourselves. I know some may look and see only the strangeness of it all but I’m hoping for a small recognition of the self. 

Tuesday Nights: PROJECT ONE: THE EXQUISITE CORPSE

Tuesday Nights: PROJECT ONE: THE EXQUISITE CORPSE: " We will begin by playing the game Exquisite Corpse. This is a method by which collections of w..."

New Blog for Tuesday the Tuesday night class.

I've made a new blog so that the Tuesday night crowd will have a place to brain storm together.

Class to begin in Aug.

It's time to start thinking about school again.

Project 4: Mold Making, (Replacement Method)

I know the semester is over but I had to share this project!

Project Description: The project concept is personal identity and the aesthetics of  duplication. What does it mean to be masked? What do you identify with? Who is your shadow self?

 

The cast is just a starting point. So once you have casted your face you have just begun. We will be using Alginate to cast a portion of your face. After we cast we then cast from this mold in wax were you will rework it into a mask; other things can be added at this point. From this we will make a ceramic shell mold, which  we will cast in either Bronze or Aluminum.

 

Two More Baby Rattles...

Two new arrivals, the Feathered Serpent and the Mt Lion rattles, both of royal blood. That is if Gods and Royalty are the same.

New Sculpture: Louie

The new sculpture Louie was excepted into American Art Collector.
Welcome to my world Louie and congrads.
If you must know... Louie was the name I gave to my stuffed lion, he was given to me in hospital when I was burned at 2. I went every where with him.
He was lost in the Cedar Fire when I lost my home and studio.
Came with a fire and left in a fire.

The rest?

One more Mixed Media Soft Sculpture.

I forgot Ruth's piece Menopause how could I forget to include this wonderful one....

two finished rattles...The Easter Bunny Baby and the Elephant.

Project 5: Soft Sculpture Media & Meaning. (Construction Method)

In this assignment you get to play like a god, really let the act of creating (process) influence your art object (product) .

Project Description: This project is about alternative media and what meanings that provokes. Sculpture for Centuries has been made from hard media, marble, clay, wood, stone and steel. This project is in part about what happens when you change that. It also covers the history of images and more specifically our history of naming species. It’s your turn. 

Project 3: Hyper Realism Carving Project (Subtractive Sculpture)

Using polyurethane foam the project is to replicate an object as accurately as possible by copying the shape, proportions, color and texture of the object.  The light weight  quality and history of foam added content to many of the objects. i.e. a rock is normally heavy and a tool is useless in foam. They were asked to think about simulation, were does real begin?

Right to left:Barbara's fake of a fake book, Drue's strawberry candle, Rose's Fantastick, Ruth's glass pear, Gosia's souvenir horse, Liz's antler, Karen's rock, Ryan's Counterfeit drug bottles,  Marc's Pair "O" Hammers, Mateo's  spray can, Ron's ukulele and Antonia's R.I.P. pillow.

More Sculptures

Project 2: Modeling, Transformation and the Surreal Project. (Additive Sculpture): 

We used a product called Carton Peidra to transform an object into something surreal. What would you never combine and why, how would that change the meaning? What strange combination would make you laugh and why? Or use chance, let the object guide you. Remember you’re on a journey, you don’t need to arrive anywhere.

Left to Right: Christian’s La Fuente Original, Drue’s Grave Digger, Joseph’s There’s Always a Bigger Fish, Ruth's This Boys Life, Antonia's Nature and Nurture, Ryan's Shedding and Karen's Stock Still. In the bottom row is Jeremiah's A Babies Hunger, Malgorzata's Perfect Female, Lauren's Sir Real and Ron's Happiness.

All the photos didn't turn out so sorry if your piece is missing...next time. 

 

Sculptures

Thought I would share some of my sculpture students projects.

Project 1: Drawing in Space, Wire Project. It’s time to move off a page into space. Think of the wire as a line that has come alive, moved from the flat world of 2 dimensions into our world of three.  Use a roll of wire to create a three dimensional object. 

Left to right: Antonia's Advance in Women, Ron's Ewa Beach, Marc's Oh Honey, Mateo's Tree, Karen's Pointy Bird and Barbara's Female Movement Through Life. In the second row is Drue's Smooth Operator, Liz's Wire Hair Terrorist, Ruth's Evolutionary Pondering and Lauren's Sunbating Vulture.

 

Rattle Musings

I sent the rattles off to a show in Santa Ysabel, at the Santa Ysabel Gallery and it got me thinking...what was I thinking you ask? 

Rattles are instruments of ritual used to put the participant in the correct state of mind for the ceremony. They also have the history of being toys given to infants, also to put them in the correct state of mind, i.e. quite.

         The rattle babies seem to scream quietly, until shaken. They are a combination of our animal and human selves.  As is the tradition in composite creates they are given aspects of the animal they are combined with, sort of a shadow self and or an animal guide. I also feel compelled to give them the tools they may need to survive. A baby human, bird or deer all need protection and camouflage. A hawk needs the rabbit, a fish the sea. Batboy instead carries the weight of our fear of our animal selves in his little body. He carries the burden of the love/hate relationship we have with this myth of the super hero/monster. A human who carries too much animal, the unwelcome aspects (the wolf-the bat) becomes either a hero or quickly an evil creature to be avoided or stamped out.  But as a baby we feel connected somehow to this animal and thereby to ourselves. I know some may look and see only the strangeness of it all but I’m hoping for a small recognition to the self. 

Exquisite Corpse Fun

In October I invited seven artist/friends to play the game Exquisite Corpse. A method by which a collection of words or images (Images in our case) is collectively assembled, the result being known as the exquisite corpse. The game was invented by the Surrealists and is similar to an old parlor game called Consequences in which players write in turn on a sheet of paper, fold it to conceal part of the writing, and then pass it to the next player for a further contribution. The technique got its name from one of the initial writings, "Le cadavre / exquis / boira / le vin / nouveau" (The exquisite corpse will drink the young wine). It seemed like the perfect game for fall and Halloween.

We played with abit of a twist. The body was broken into proportionately correct sheets of paper, i.e. the head is around 1/8 of the body. First we word associated body parts to warm up. For example what does arm make you think of? Then we all drew, one part at a time. The results were then put on the floor were each of us choose in turn our body, part by part.

This is where we really changed the game, everyone went home with there body and we agreed to reassemble in January. Once home your body was the inspiration for a piece of art. Everyone received canvas, paper or velum that was 2’ x 4’. Your only obligation was to your art and to keep the sense of play, after all this is was a game.

The players are Antonia Consentino, Judy Nachazel, Tracy Potter, Nancy Ferguson, Susan Bainbridge, Rath and myself. If you’re as interested as we are, (no one has seen all of the finished pieces) come to Packards Pluss on January 14^th at 7:00 for the unveiling. If you would like to get into the swing of things, we planning on coming dressed as a favorite artist, you can play too. The work will be up for at least a month.