Two luscious days of nearly 50 degree weather and the snow is melting. Other things that are melting?
My heart when I see looks like this…
Winchester. Winnie. Winner. Windog. Nubbin. Nubs. Brindledog.
On the art front, still plugging along getting work finished. Here’s the bunny/mask piece sitting on my table. I’ll photograph more work so we can have a preview here on the blog before the big show. And we should have a giveaway again too, don’t you think?
The weather was beautiful today. The sun is shining and the snow is melting. I thought we’d try the dog park. Didn’t really go as planned. Going to be awhile. Lots of snow out there. In the photo above Sage hasn’t sunk to the bottom. It is belly deep for him in most places. Wish we could use the dog park…
We came home instead. I tried to encourage the hounds to run in the backyard. Mostly they looked at me, but Annie and Sage did play a little tug to blow off steam.
I have mixed feelings about February. On one hand, I would like it to be over so that we will be closer to Spring. On the other, the deadline for the DSU exhibition is at the end of February. The 25th to be exact.
I know I can get everything finished. But its going to take some work.
I’m shooting for 24 pieces finished and ready to exhibit. Some of those are not fired yet. Ulp.
I’m worked on four pieces today – putting the finishes on them. Several are going to need wooden bases, so that’s sanding, staining, more sanding, and then finishing. I want to start them now so that they have time to dry thoroughly. That’s #1 on the To Do list for tomorrow.
I’ll fire the unfired work on Monday. The kiln is loaded but I’m not *quite* sure everything is dry – especially the trooper’s hat piece. That piece along with the new Prey Drive piece, the rabid rabbit, and the Faith In My Lucky Rabbit’s Foot are all in the same kiln load.
The wall pieces need their hanging devices. Not quite sure how I want to do this yet. This is also on the list for tomorrow. No weekends off until all the work is complete. All the work will have to be photographed before it’s packed to go to the gallery.
Also, I’m fairly sure that all of the work will not fit in my vehicle for one trip to Dickinson. Going to have to make two trips – that’s 180 miles round trip for one trip. I’ll all work out. Need to get to work.
I’m entertaining titles for this piece. Warped Speed perhaps?
Because we’ve got a warping issue here.
From the side… not too bad. But from the front and the back the trouble begins to be more evident…
This puppy is leaning.
Like a LOT. And see how the right paw is warped too.
First step, grinder.
Four feet all making contact. What Was I Thinking?
(Sorry for the atrocious late night kitchen lighting. I assure you my kitchen does not glow yellow. At least I hope so! And yes that is a yellow snow shovel in the corner of this photo. I’ve worn out a snow shovel this winter).
or Watching Clay Dry. Nothing exciting to report (which is a good thing, I guess). Waiting for work to dry so that I can fire. Hoping to bisque fire tomorrow. Don’t want to be too hasty. Blowing work to pieces is no fun.
Until I know more, thought I’d share a photo of Winchester and Sage – who look somewhat like one LONG dog. Keep warm.
The furnace just kicked on blasting warm, dry air. It’s Cold outside. Currently -16 F and dropping. It’s hibernation time.
Hard to believe I took this photo a couple of weeks ago – most of the snow had melted off the deck behind the house and Frank dog sculpture needed his -her?- photo taken. Nearly impossible to get a resident Greyhound to sit like Frank for the photo. We got close…
Also during those weeks I began a nasty rabbit sculpture. Grumpy and it comes out in the art. Hard to find photos of snarling rabbits even with Google images. Not pictured is the nice, but overly eager Greyhound she’s snarling at.
The past weeks have been dog park-less and the hounds have had to be satisfied with occasional leash walks and romps in the backyard. I’ve tried to capture them in the snow in the yard with the camera, but the results have been less than satisfying. Dogs probably feel that way about the quality of the exercise. So much snow, but nothing like last year… yet.
Also worked on a new piece tentatively titled, Faith in my Lucky Rabbit’s Foot. This is a piece that I’ve wanted to make for a long while. I’ll find those original sketches in an old sketchbook and post them. This is another piece I hope will be ready for the exhibition at Dickinson State University in March. Going to be close.
Sage waits for the weather to break. He is a tough dog and tolerates the weather more than any other Greyhound I’ve owned.
But we all want the weather to warm up.
If you’ve been counting, which I assure you every North Dakotan has, this is Too Much Winter #3. I realize that for the rest of the US, North Dakota means Cold and Snowy. But Bowman is located in the “Banana Belt” of North Dakota. That usually means that we’re warmer and have better weather than the rest of the state. Usually.
Really, I can stand the cold and snow. I can put up with the layers. The ice layer on my windshield. The ice layer on the streets. The layers of clothing required for any outdoor (and several indoor) activities.
Wish my dogs had a place to run… The snow is too deep and too hard at the dog park. Walks are possible, but the roads are slick and nobody around here shovels sidewalks. Guess we’ll have to check out the indoor horse arena again. Because they are bored, bored, bored.
As am I. In a way. Just too much same-ness. And so I made a sculpture that illustrates (I hope) how I feel about the winter… The dull, underwhelming sameness of winter.
Greyhound in Winter Trooper/Bomber hat. The challenge of fur. I wanted to capture my feelings about winter – I think I was successful and am pleased with the result.
Now onto firing and finishing. I hope to have that done by the time Spring rolls around here.
Oh to go somewhere. To get in the car and drive. Somewhere far from icy roads and winter wind chills…
Instead I’ve been finishing up some sculpture for the exhibition at Dickinson State University in March. Like this piece – Prey Drive 2.
You might remember the previous Prey Drive sculpture-
Prey Drive 1 didn’t survive the firing process and was never finished. It hung around the studio for a long while until I finally threw it to Mr. Hammer… sadly. I’d always meant to attempt to remake this piece. These photos and the ability to compare both version side by side show how “remaking” doesn’t produce identical results.
I had every intention of adding more bunnies. I made more bunny passengers. When I placed the driver in this guy’s head one seemed right.
I might make another with more bunnies. But this guy is one bunny. One super cool, top down, wind in your hair (hare?) solo driver.
Thought I’d show you the center of a hollowed out sculpture. The insides of these pieces is as interesting to me as the outsides. Just the “skin” remains. They begin solid. Solid mass o’ clay. That doesn’t work at all in the long term. Heavy + firing complications + “waste” of clay.
This is the piece that I’ve finished hollowing today. Since my camera tripod was nowhere to be found I did the old “hold-camera-at-arms-length-and-see-what-you-get” technique. Okay… so the sculpture was out of focus, Frank is happily in the background and my winter Sorel boot is lazily flopped next to the door. Did you know Sorel boots are the favorite toys of bored Greyhounds? I grabbed the boot out of Sage’s mouth as he was attempting to sneak it out the door. They make excellent tug toys. Very durable.
Finally… after a few tries… the camera snapped the photo I was looking for… kinda. But you CAN see inside this piece. See the underside of the nose/muzzle pointing up? You’re looking up this creatures neck.
I cut the head and part of the neck off at roughly the shoulders. It is easier to deal with sections rather than the entire heavy head, though I suppose I could hollow out the entire bust without cutting the piece apart. Oh my aching back. These guys are heavy – I go through about 45-50 pounds of clay for one of these life-sized bust sculptures.
Here’s the shoulders of the above head/neck. I have already carved away most of the center, making a starter hole in which to begin the removal of the insides of this piece.
I use a wooden clay tool for most of this. It’s way easier to use a wire loop tool and sometimes I’ll use that for the center most portion of the piece I’m hollowing. Mostly I use a wooden tool.
These photos show the process of scooping out the center. As I scoop, I support the outer wall with my hand, and scoop, scoop, scoop. Compressing the clay and removing the excess.
When I’ve removed all but about 3/8″ of thickness of the clay, I smooth the inside, then reattach the head/neck to the shoulders. You can see I’ve got more work to do before I’m to that point with this piece.
The entire process of hollowing takes about 2 days of work.
While we’ve had snow this winter, the current storm seems to be the one producing the most snow. Local talk says up to 10 inches. The day is white. The sky is white. Everything is white.
The best part about this – all the yellow snow in the backyard is covered by a fresh white blanket.
Aside from shoveling the white stuff, I’ve been working at finishing work. The upcoming exhibition at Dickinson State University in March is looming.
First on the list was finishing some bunnies. The rabbits have been a winter project – I was inspired by a rabbit from last fall that was so successful. They are the creatures I make when I’m irritated with my “other” job.
Every time I found myself feeling uber stressed about the other job, I made a rabbit. Let’s turn that frown upside down. Sometimes it worked!
There are real advantages to being an artist and having another job – stability, getting out of the studio, better use of time, steady income, health insurance – and my job is malleable enough to accommodate studio time. But that doesn’t mean that the other job doesn’t seep into the artist job sometimes… and that I get frustrated when that happens.
So I make bunnies. They are a way to be productive in the studio when I don’t have time to tackle the big projects.
Also, when displayed together like on the photo collection above, aren’t they a good example of how no two sculptures are alike? Look at ‘em – same basic design, five different feelings.
Another piece that is fairly near to finished is “Frank” – the sitting, life sized Greyhound sculpture I began November 2009. Frank desperately needs a proper title.
So I spent my Christmas working. I’ll admit it. But it’s not really work in a way. Putting the finishing touches on this two Greyhound sculpture. Hard to stay away once these pieces get close to finished.
Not quite finished, but getting close.
Annie says, “Needs a bit more work right there!”
Also worked on some bunny rabbits. For some reason I kept thinking of toasted marshmallows as I was working on these. I know the hounds can read my thoughts, but am I starting to pick up on their’s?
Three slightly bored Greyhounds are not the best of studio partners. Work? Who needs to work? Like Winchester here, as I was attempting to photograph these pieces for this blog. How do you get dog slime off the camera lens again?
Then Sage kidnapped a roll of bubble wrap – trailing it around the house as he RAN.
Who? Us? We aren’t guilty! 
The heater in the studio has been acting up lately. Of course it is when it is most needed. Is this because I’ve noticed the problem or because of some Murphy’s Law phenomenon and/or the Karmic laws of the Universe?
Outside minus seven Fahrenheit. Inside a ton of clay that must not freeze.
So I fired the kiln. Kiln = big electric oven = warm studio for a while.
There are some masks in the kiln and some three-toed Greyhound feet.
And bunnies. Lots of bunnies. They are roughly the size of the bunnies that have been running around the backyard at night. To these live bunnies romping though my yard: Please bunnies. Please. Go somewhere else. While the bored Greyhounds would love to run after you, I don’t relish dealing with the little tapeworms that live inside of you – that might live inside my Greyhounds if they catch and eat you. So please. Go Somewhere Else.
In a fit of out of character-ness, I dug out the holiday decorations. In all the seasonal rush, I rarely hang decorations since time is so scarce between shipping packages and the like. Check out the box they are in…. a Sony Betamax box!
The box itself reminds me of Christmas when I was a kid. Especially the year when Dad brought home the VHS player from the high school library over Christmas vacation and the one VHS tape the school owned, Old Yeller. This was the 1957 Disney version. VHS in the home was new technology. My brother, Hamilton, and I must have watched Old Yeller a dozen times that Christmas break. I remember how we laughed so hard when the fast forward button was pushed and the people moved so quickly and how we cried each time Old Yeller died.
We got the Betamax not long after that. We had A Christmas Story on Beta. And The Breakfast Club. I know there were other movies but I can’t recall the titles. The Betamax’s remote control had a cord. That cord eventually died thanks to a bored Standard poodle puppy. The machine wore out eventually. I still know every line to The Breakfast Club.
Miss my brother. Wish he hadn’t died. Memories are good. Must learn to think of the good parts and not let the story play out to the end. It’s the end part that’s sad.
And so today is the 12th of December. We are so close to my favorite day of the year: December 21 (or 22) when the days begin to lengthen and the light returns.
, Just Kids
, Steve Jobs
, The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
and The Help Deluxe Edition
.
