New York City, Part 2

So not my art! This is a piece by Seth Apter, an extremely generous, skillful and prolific artist. We are twin brothers, we are quite sure, separated at birth but linked by karma. He got all the talent but I got more hair. [Susan speaks: As if.] We were lucky enough to see him at ArtExpo, surrounded by other artists, none of whom had a better booth or better art.

Seth with adoring groupies:

Actually, some of the art we saw was interesting and we talked to lots of artists, all of them probably hoping we'd buy something.  A few years ago we had to make a monetary choice in our life: Plan A)  Buy art or, Plan B) go see art.  And, after having to downsize drastically, we definitely have to continue to stick with  Plan B because we've run out of wall and shelf space for .

David Adshade did interesting stuff with rust.

 

Michelle Williams painted on metal and had a interesting way of mounting the pieces.

 

Ricky Havens is an artist who spends long hours putting his soul into his art.  We had fun visiting with them and I can't believe his wife would be wearing these shoes all day.  How do you women do that? 

 

 

 Finally, just so you (Seth, are you paying attention?) won't think I'm not back at work....

 

 

The larger one is about 2" long, the smaller ones less than 1" long.

New York City, Part 1

Miss me? I've been getting my eyeballs scorched by looking at way too much art, my brain fried by pondering too many techniques and my feet exhausted by museum tromping. New York City is an under-4-hour non-stop flight away for often less than $175. Thank you, thank you, JetBlue. The hotels are another story but we economize by not eating anything but sandwiches or grocery takeout or museum cafeterias.

We have a friend in New York City who is alternately amused/horrified/disgusted/unbelieving about the number of people we make friends with in her city. New Yorkers cold and unfriendly? NOT! Of course we always start out with a smile and put on our Texas drawl as we say "Hey, how ya'll doing?" whenever we encounter someone.

Never fails. Proof positive in the picture above. That is Lu, or Liudmila, the cabdriver who brought us from the airport to our hotel. She has been driving a cab for 3 years and wants to bring her mother here and has a son in college who hopes to go to medical school in San Antonio. It was a 45-minute cab ride and lots of conversation about current events also, as she is from Russia. She's also half Polish, as is Susan, so they bonded right away.

First up was the Museum of Arts and Design. 

 

 

The top image is one we took in the museum, the second is one from Google Images of a similar piece. The artist is Angelo Filomeno and the piece is "As the Lilies Among Thorns, So We Fall Like Love".  I couldn't find a website for him specifically so you might want to check Images yourself.  Susan recognized him from a show called "Pricked: Extreme Embroidery" a few years back. The piece he had there was "Death of a Blinded Philospher and it was 42" x 10'2" - huge!

 

 

One of the interesting things about seeing pieces in a museum is the shadows they make due to the lighting. The pictures below are of an enormous display (floor to ceiling, about 10 feet across) made up of three "screens" by Piper Shepard, "Lace Meander". This is her description, which I find absolutely incredible, " ... gessoed muslin that has been coated with black graphite and entirely hand-cut using an X-Acto knife". Based on the amount of work shown on her website I don't think that knife ever leaves her hand.

 

Detail:

 

More travel and museum talk to come.

Three Keepers and a Lot of Give-Aways

This little park is near where we live and I've put a lot of "learning experiences" out here. We'll see how long they stay.

 

These guys are keepers. They are made from a different clay than browner ones and I'm still trying to decide which I like best.

 

Speaking of keepers, we like to keep Austin weird.

 



 

 



Tweet, Tweet

 

Here's what a birdie should look like if I'm doing it right.

 

 

Nope, not my birdie. Just Austin street art.

 



Another successful birdie.

This particular wall gets a lot of street art and a lot of repainting by the property owner. Maybe they really like the changing art or maybe they think a blank wall could possibly just stay clear. Ha! Not in Austin.

What NOT To Do, Version 2

First, you don't make the bird so big it looks like quail on steroids. It should fit nicely in your hand and not feel like a boat anchor. Second, you don't put dried clay shards in the wing area thinking it will look like nice texture. Birds do not think that is a nice look. Third, you don't overdo the raku.

The bad news is that the perfect examples of poor work have to leave home. The good news is that they become Give-Aways. I like to think that eventually someone will find my Give-Aways and be absolutely thrilled. I don't like to think that someone will find one and say "What the  %$#@  was he thinking?!?"

From a distance -- he's in the tree bump in a nearby cemetery.

What NOT To Do

First, be sure you make sure your ears are put on correctly. Second, try not to use the wrong glaze, unless you really want to look pukey tan. Third, try to remember that there is such a thing as too much texture. Susan constantly tells me "Edit! Where IS your focal point?" I constantly try to throw everything I can on one piece of sculpture all at once. Isn't that called Good Time Management?

Here is an example of what I should aspire to:

This guy was at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Way cool. Here's the info on the piece, by Frank Fleming:

Martha's Stars

I'm lucky enough to have Martha as a friend. More than a year ago she gave me some little metal? aluminum? stars. I've started finding a way to use them. Above is Kupka and below is Yoyab. Where do their names come from? The same planet they come from.

Yoyab is actually a lot happier than he looks. Honest.