Give Away Or Never Let Go

When we moved  (and did major downsizing) I had to give up (and throw away) a LOT of stuff. Rusty, cruddy, gnarled stuff I'd collected for years. I did manage to set aside 3 small boxes worth of selected pieces. 

Never look back on what you left behind,

only look forward to what you can start collecting all over again.

 

Susan just grits her teeth when I say that but she's the one that taught me that men don't go to estate sales and garage sales and antique fairs to go "shopping" -- they are going "hunting".  She hates to drive my car so that's a good place for me to hide stuff I capture.

For a long time I made a lot of ceramic boxes, mostly with open tops and bottoms.  The goal (somehow there is always a goal there but maybe that's just an easy way to say "I don't have a real plan") was to stack them up in a window on their sides so they would look like ruins of a city but you would still be able to look through them. 

This give-away is still there after 30 days.

 

Planned Chaos

This ceramic piece went to a new home during our estate sale. The metal pieces in the center were just dropped in, sort of like a steampunk bride's bouquet.  The shaping of the ceramic piece was inspired by a great sculptor named Ruth Duckworth.  The glazing didn't come out the way I wanted so Susan told me to throw some paint on it.

Back then I hadn't learned a lot about ceramics and how it was supposed to be done so I did what she suggested.  As I learned more about ceramics and took more classes I stopped doing that because ceramic pieces were "supposed" to be glazed.  I'm now in the process of trying to un-learn what is "supposed" to be done and am planning on going back to more pieces where I do just what I want to do to make it look the way I like - old and worn and covered with patina and stories to tell.

Speaking of stories to tell... Here at Woodchuck Manor we are all "of a certain age". That means we are all O-L-D. Bet  you thought old people in retirement centers sat around in rocking chairs just staring off into space, didn't you? Wrong! We have 24 apartments on the 4th floor and we know how to party. It's BYOB (bring your own booze) and BYOC (bring your own chair) and we meet in the lobby by our elevator about twice a month.  I'd tell you who all these people are but I think some might be in the Witness Protection Program so we'll move on past that.  At the very end of the video a very shady character is insisting on knowing what is in the blue bottle and for your information, it was white wine.

No Bugz

It's very possible you have already seen pictures of this bug I made. If you did, pretend it's new. If you didn't, it's new to you. He is about 18" long. It is one of the few pieces of metal art I made that I brought to Woodchuck Manor.

One of the really great things about Woodchuck Manor is being on the 4th floor and going out on our balcony in the evening and sitting there with NO mosquitos. We gave up a great house on a creek to be here and we sometimes miss it but every night we marvel at what it feels like to be ouside and not hear "Zzzzzzzzzzzzzmmmmm" in your ear within 3 minutes.

I don't weld anymore because I blew out my elbows doing heavy welding without knowing what appropriate ergonomic positions should be. Susan reminds me that it cost me only $1800 of useless therapy and steroid shots to learn that there are some things I should just pass by. Ceramics was the solution but I can still get my metal fix by making very small metal sculptural pieces.

A good thing about having a spouse who sews is that she has a button collection and all bugs can benefit by having button eyes.

Baby, Baby, Baby

Looking at these past few pieces you would probably think I was pregnant. Nope. Not a chance. Not unless pigs fly. I have no freakin' idea why I've done baby bumps and babies. (Piece shown above is unfired.) I'm desperately try to get my head in a different place and I think it's going to be ... boats.  Below is a copper one I made years ago, when I was doing metal stuff.

 Now I think I want to try ceramic boats. We'll see.  When I first started in ceramics many years back I took two workshops from Debra Fritts - a great instruction and motivator.  She traded me some small ceramic birds for one of my copper boats. The piece she made (image below) was called "Tall Tales" -- what a creative use of a boat! I am humbled.

It's A Guy Thing

Feats of Clay here in Austin is a great place to shop for ceramics -- and some of my metal sculptures. Judy, the owner, has a great garden area on the side of her shop where she manages to grow stuff despite our drought and heat (102 today). She generously lets me display some of my metal yard art Guys there (all about 3 - 4 feet high) and I am hoping someone will decide to take one home with them.

Some of the sculptures are anatomically correct - Happy Father's Day.

Adorn Me - Tool Making 101

Earlier this month I spend 6 days in Houston at the annual Adorn Me art retreat. The site is an Embassy Suites with great breakfasts in the morning and a manager's Happy Hour every evening. All classes focus on jewelry or something closely related and I have a great time revisiting old friends, learning new stuff, shopping at the vendor show and just having time that is 100% art-related with no pressure.

This year my instructor for all classes except one was Richard Salley. Usually I have several different instructors but this time I just happened to want to sample everything Richard had to offer.  In Tool Making 101 we made steel tools that can be used for jewelry making or, in my case, mark-making on ceramic sculptures. We actually used the tools we made in a class the next day, Repoussé Without Pitch.

The picture below is Richard, working with my friend EJ.

If you are interested in taking some of Richard's classes, check out the ArtUnraveled website -- look for me there this August (don't worry about the heat, you'll be inside in class all day).

More pictures of my classes to come in the next few days.

The First Niche

As usual, I am heading off in a new direction. Anytime I start ricocheting between a lot of different ideas my Blog Wrangler reminds me that behavior is often referred to as "farting in a colander." But I am continuing to make little cups.

This niche is only about 6" high and hangs on the wall (see photo below). There are a number of ceramic artists who make niches and at this time I'm still developing the technique so my work is very derivative and similar to theirs. Eventually I'll feel more comfortable making the niches and then my work will become more individual and mine.

I'm enjoying making these because it gives me a place to display some of the odds and ends of metal pieces I've acquired over the years. Also, a while back I was ripping apart dolls (here and here) and maybe now some of those body parts will find their way into these niches.

Cool or Not Cool

At times I have doubts. So I read over what Sol LeWitt wrote in a letter to Eva Hesse:

"Don't worry about cool, make your own uncool . . .

He had a lot more to say to her about listening to your own inner critic. Do a Google search (here) to see the full text, uncensored, on many websites/blogs.

Terra Cotta Warriors

While I was in Houston I saw the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit at the Natural Science Museum. The $24 exhibit fee was pretty steep but I'm glad I spent the money.

The picture above is of a reconstructed set of limestone armor from the First Emperor's tomb mound. The Terra Cotta Warriors were made to accompany the Emperor in his afterlife. Obviously, stone armor would have shattered on impact, not to mention being way too heavy. In fact, the complete sets of armor weren't even on the terra cotta figures, they were on stands in the tomb mound. But some of the terra cotta figures did have partial armor sets shown as part of the detailing of their figure. In reality, the actual warriors had armor of lacquered leather.

The overlapping stone plates are joined with flat copper strips threaded through holes drilled in the stone. It was interesting to see that the upper parts of the armor had the plates overlapping in one direction, then at the waist, where a person would bend, the plates overlap in the other direction.

The picture above shows how the armor looked before it was reconstructed (great patina!) and the picture below shows a Warrior.

Disintegration Finale, Part Two

The backing sheet of the diploma showed a lot of rust but not much else. Susan did some kind of tricky cutting where the whole piece came apart into one huge long strand. We just hung that as ShovelHead's hair. We'd thought about leaving the long strand hanging from a tree but it was too much trouble to get out the ladder to do that.

So, the final part of my Disintegration piece has gone back outside to continue to disintegrate. The nasty plastic film on the paper will probably keep it from being useful to the birds but I'm contemplating rubbing peanut butter on it to see what the squirrels will do. Since the squirrels gnaw through the metal on my "squirrel-proof" bird feeder, I'm sure the plastic will just be an appetizer for them.

I made the ShovelHead people when I was taking welding. There are about 3 more stuck around in our yard. They don't particularily have personality and therefore they don't have names but they do a good job as sentries.

Thank again, Seth, for getting us all involved in Disintegration Collaboration.

Man and Metal in Motion

My Blog Wrangler, Susan, has figured out video!!! Yes, I am real! The music you hear in the background is She Ain't Me by Carrie Rodriguez.

My workspace is one large corner of her studio space. I have strict orders to keep flames and clay out of the house so all my ceramics and soldering work is done in the garage. But here in her studio I can work in air-conditioned comfort and you see me working on bezels like I showed you in a previous post.

The painting shown above and in the video is by James Janknegt, an Austin artist. Susan bought it for me the 10th year I was in the corporate world. At that time it cost us an amount we could NOT afford and it scared us both enough that I worked even harder, thus becoming even more like the man in the picture. The scene is downtown Austin, next to IH 35, and the figure in the car is a woman.

Man and Metal

These first three pieces were made in a class I took. They probably won't get any more work done on them as Susan doesn't wear jewelry, but some of my ceramic dudes might wind up wearing them. They are made of old roof tin, copper tubing from old air conditioners, copper wire (soldered), copper rivets, and rebar wire.

The next picture shows my first attempts at soldering. Yes, I can weld but until I took a class from Stephanie Lee I didn't seem to be able to solder at all. I was trying to create an organic look around some bezels made from 1" copper pipe.


Finally, the pieces below are what I'm going to be working on next. The flies and the turtle are bought pieces, the mask is a button, and the hand is a charm I found. I plan to solder the bezels and then do a resin cast for the pieces in the bezel. That's the Plan anyway, Susan Lenart Kazmer will be my mentor in this.

Ceramics is taking a back seat for a while. Since we are projected to get to 106 degrees today I find it much more enjoyable to be inside working instead of in the garage.

Spike

My tribute to all those kids who spike up their hair. What do they do when they go to bed at night?

I built the head to fit around the metal pieces that I'd found in the trash can at the blacksmithing class area. The head will fit on a welded body-like piece I had. Because it's real tall I'm not sure now to photograph it for the blog. Robyn does well with pictures of her tall pieces. I'm thinking I need to make Susan do a video of the tall pieces I have. If she does, we'll be sure to make them short so my dial-up followers can easily see them.

Yin and Yang

I have trouble reconciling my desire to whack the hell out of stuff while welding with my desire to make little people that talk to me. This little guy is only about 4" high.

As for yin and yang, it is more familiar in our house as the blue and grey symbol of the Army's 29th Infantry Division. Susan's step-father was with the 29th Division when they went onto Normandy Beach on D-Day. The reason for the yin and yang symbol for the Division was that it was composed of units from both Maryland and Virginia that had fought on opposite sides (blue or grey uniforms) during the American Civil War.

Fishing and Forget It

These were welded out of old scraps of steel that students threw out. I rescued them and used a laser cut and a Mig welder to make them into fish. They used to be welded to stakes and stuck in our yard but we decided to have them swim along the side of our garage. The big guy is about 2 feet long.

These chairs were priced at $100 for the four of them at a garage sale Susan went to. She was very tempted but even though it was the 2nd day of the sale the owner wouldn't even discuss a lower price. To be honest, her top offer would have been $40 despite the fact she was already envisioning them in our backyard woods. The owner said "We can get $100 for them, all they need is to have the rust removed and they'll look fine."

What!?!? Remove rust?!?!? We PAY for rust!

The Soldiers

I was visiting with my friend Jim at the Amtrak station and Susan wandered off down the railroad tracks where she spotted these pieces. They just looked so human-like with their big eyes that she had to have them. When we took this picture Peppy was with them but he's been moved to a different area now because The Soldiers thought he was not Reg (probably the earrings and not having pants on).

That's a firebush plant blooming in the background. This picture is from last weekend, and, believe it or not, the drought has ended and we now have RAIN!!! The farmers and ranchers are crossing their fingers it keeps up a little longer as we need a lot to make up for being in the category "Extreme Drought Conditions".

Welding + Ceramics

I miss welding but my elbows don't. When I was taking my welding classes I made a series of small sculptural pieces, mostly chairs, all about 2' feet high. This guy's body is a sewing machine treadle and his ceramic face is made with a pseudo-raku technique. His face was hanging on the wall and one day he finally claimed his body. Susan named him Elias.

Disintegration

Seth at The Altered Page has set up an interesting project: Disintegration Collaboration. Not being much of a social person meant that I ignored his general invitation but made the mistake of mentioning it to Susan. She immediately remembered the certificate I had started to distress a few years ago with my daily used coffee filters. They did a good job of staining the certificate but then what was I going to do with it? It waited for me to decide while Susan stuffed it away in a pile of papers. Disintegration, Susan said, was now the solution.

The next question was where to put it. My back yard had the perfect answer: Inside this nameless welded sculpture. Nameless, like I was to the corporate headquarters who knew me only as a 6-digit employee number. Inside, where I held back the knowledge that I did have, that I had been tested on, that I knew backwards and forwards, but inside where I kept it because few people trusted that I really knew what I was talking about. Inside the gut of this sculpture because every day for 32 years I started out with a knot in my gut, hating what I did for a living.

The certificate was rolled up and pushed up the middle. Symbolic? When I let go, it was held in place by the tension of the paper unrolling. More symbolism? How long will it take before nature takes my piece of paper away from me? Seth set a general endpoint of May 1. We'll see.

Two Winners and Mr. Goofy

He's from my old welding days, made of metal roofing scrap, the first and one of only a few pieces I cut with a plasma cutter. He's on the outside where we can see him from our kitchen window.

For the OWOH giveaway we created our random numbers by adding up birthdates, time, the year, etc., to come up with two winners. Congratulations to Nicky Linzey and Carol Stocker -- please stop by their blogs for another look at their work. And thanks to all of you for your thoughtful comments.

Bedsprings Bob

You can have your Joe the Plumber and Joe Six-Pack. I have Bedsprings Bob from Ohio, spotted outside Athens on Hwy 50 early in the spring and very early in the morning.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.