Wednesday, October 14, 2009

So many different interests pull at my attention, but it's all good. One of the perks of not having deadlines to meet. I can do whatever I please. And there is much that pleases me. So on that note, below are some recent studio projects.

A few weeks ago I traveled to Portland, OR, to take part in a week of various art workshops. It's all good fun and a great excuse to play with abandon (not like I'm doing that already!). One class was all about resins, which I've long been interested in. I confess I didn't do all of the intended projects for the class, but as I was working with the material my mind started buzzing about the potential it held for other projects. Specifically, resin is a great substance to reinforce some of the natural materials I'd like to incorporate in other pieces. I have a growing collection of natural eggs of different kinds. Some of these are extremely fragile and hard to come by, so I'm not experimenting with those. But button quail eggs are a dime a dozen. I used a cutting wheel to cut off the top to make little cups and have been using the resin to reinforce the inner chambers. It's working very well and I'm pleased with the results --


Below is the piece I did in a Michael deMeng class. His classes are mostly technique-based (my preference) but with enough of a "theme project" idea to get everyone over that dreaded hump of "what do I do"? Plus he plays great music while we work. I also like that he gathers us all at the end to do a group critique which really extends the learning as well as the inspiration. Good stuff. I apologize for the snapshot photo here. Hard to tell what's going on, but it involves a nice rusty tin, various bits and pieces of.... well shoot. I'll just promise to take some better photos and discuss this in a future post --

The drawing below is not a recent one, but I pulled it out after going to a recent show of an artist/friend of mine, Ellen Garvens. She had several drawings in the show done on mylar and had used the translucent nature of the material to great effect, with layering and utilizing the impermanent and delicate quality of graphite on the surface. I've also used mylar for some of my drawing work and really love working the surface of it. Below is a mylar drawing done with graphite (on the right) layered over a graphite on paper drawing (on the left). Never did finish this piece, but may yet go back to it and continue the process as it pulls to me.