I'm Here Again

I can't believe it has been three weeks since my last post but I have been busy in the studio.  I have put aside the deer head and got back to what seems to be the easiest thing to do:  make Organic Guardians.  Here is the latest group:

Organic Guardians

I have been back in the studio making figures which I named Organic Guardians.  I make the faces with air dried clay and the bodies are fashioned with the stuff I find in the street. I can make quite a few on a good day and I like using up my collection of junk.

Here are a few of my latest:

 A plastic thingy for oil, a strip of canvas, metal leaves from a lamp, and a piece of metal

Piece of wood, metal parts and rubber for the arms

Piece of wood, bone, lens

 Frame with bottle caps, metal and parts from a bolo tie

Frame, bottle caps, chain, cast paper clay

New Work

I have been working faithfully at the studio for several days on a project for the Attleboro Art Museum national juried show coming up soon.  The theme is Patterns which until a few days ago was stumping me.  My friend Laura gave me the idea of making something out of dress patterns so this is the result.  It was a fun project and I must also thank the unknown woman who donated bunny patterns to Savers.  She carefully cut out all the patterns and placed them in carefully labeled envelopes.

More People

I spent a less than successful day at the studio today.  I was reworking one of those reworked pieces and I mostly came up with mud.  I decided to cut the one I hadn't messed with into 4 x 4 squares and it still didn't speak to me.  I am ready to toss it.

But moving on to more successful pieces, here is the last of the brush people for now.  I need to come up with a better name since not all of them contain brushes.

This is found objects mounted on a piece of wood.

This is a sea shell on found wood with rope and a piece of rust.

This is mounted on a horse shoe I found in Tucson.  I have since changed to face to copper.

What is Next?

Now that I am more or less finished with my landscape picture and another assemblage piece, that means I need a new project.  All that will be put on hold for now as I signed up to work for the next six days.  That means no studio time for a while.

I don't recall posting this.  The body is made from found rusty parts on my walks for coffee.  The headdress is from a car part and the arm and necklace comes from Mexico which I have had for a number of years.

Here is something I started a while ago.  It was a book end and I wired sticks onto it and there it sat until recently.  A friend gave me the face and I sifted thru my rusty parts collection.  I got some small stones from Michaels and glued them on with clear caulk.  I can't wait to use this stone thing again.  I do have another book end so it is half done.

Of course it needed to be two sided.  The little yellow face was one of my more successful resin results.

So I am thinking that this might be my next project.  I got the head for 10 cents and the green vase from the Salvation Army and turned it upside down.

Something from Nothing

Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.

Frank Zappa

I found this quote to be true to what I do and in case any of you were wondering what I am doing with the things I find on the street, here is a sampling

I decided to make some people out of my collection of parts. The bodies are glued onto those pieces of traffic cones and the rest comes from my collection of old parts found in the cellar of our studio which was formerly a textile dying factory.  I am having problems making the arms and legs stick so I have to go back and either use more glue or wire.  Now the question is what to do with them.

Street Treasures

I wanted to share some objects I found on the street as I was walking to my favorite coffee shop on a recent very cold day.

These are pieces of a traffic cone

I think the back side is more interesting

Here are my real treasures

The large circle is from an errant hubcap.  I now have quite a collection.  There are also a couple of bolts,  random pieces of metal and a large washer.  When I picked that up I felt like I had found gold.  Now the white thing is a piece of plastic which my studio mates told me came from a urinal but the bigger question is how did it get onto the street.  I really washed my hands after that bit of information.

Do you believe it has been snowing all day?  Just that annoying kind that flies around and makes everything wet.  No accumulation however.