SITE Gallery- Sculpture Month Houston - Building the support system
Finally, I feel like I can make some progress. Step one is to make a structure that I can hang my sculptures from. The gallery owners are trying to preserve the space in its original condition, and ask the artists to deface the silo as little as possible when installing our work. Normally I use acrylic hangers that I designed to hold the pieces. Each bracket takes four anchors. I feel like that is too much destruction to the silo. Instead, I decide to buy some black 14 gauge wire fencing, 20 feet X 36”. The silo funnel has metal bands tack welded to it. The middle metal band is 31” from the wall. I cut the fencing in 31” pieces. I cut one end in a concave shape and the other end convex. The convex end will rest on top of the metal band and the concave end will be supported by two screws in the cinderblock wall. This is 19‘ high, and I feel pretty good that my screw holes will only be minimally defacing the silo.
The moment I got off the scissor lift and looked up at my support system, I realized I had made a big mistake. I should have painted them white. The black stood out too much on the white walls. I could not sleep that night trying to decide if I should repaint them... It was not easy, but I spent the next half day painting the system 19’ in the air white.
I hung from the support system 8 fishing tackle swivels with 25 lb filament attached to each swivel. Four of the swivels are 36” apart 18” from the wall. At these distances the pieces will not touch each other or the wall. Everything should move independently. These are for the big pieces. The other swivels are for smaller pieces and are spaced randomly. I am guesstimating where I want these. Tomorrow I will start hanging work.
Packing the hanging pieces for transporting to the silos.
Last week I spent everyday packing and boxing the pieces I made this summer. I needed boxes they could hang in. Regular wardrobe boxes are not wide enough, so I made my own wardrobe style boxes to transport the sculpture pieces. I took two 30” X 30” X 30” boxes, stacked them and taped them to make them 78” tall.
Then I wrapped each element of each piece in thin plastic dry cleaning bags and kitchen zip lock bags. I don’t want any thing getting tangled. Each little section is in its own plastic cocoon.
Glyphosate #7 (working title) kinetic sculpture - adding some details
In order to help the large abstract shapes read as botanical or floral shapes I have added some smaller botanical shapes and vines. I think they help.
hopefully this flower is abstracted enough but not too much.
Here is another
When my worlds collide my heart sings.
Three things that I love are sculpture, dance and tennis. And if that is not enough, one of my sports heroes, after having her first baby, is in a tutu at the US Open tennis Tournament. My heart is singing and bubbling over.
I may have to make a bronze Serena in a found object tutu. It won’t be the first tutu I have ever made. 🤗 And it won’t be the first sculpture I have done that was inspired by Serena.
Below is a little back story on “the little Dance”
“Edgar Degas created a sensation when he presented his Little Dancersculpture at the Impressionist exhibition in Paris in 1881. His intention was to portray a young girl who dreamed of having an “illustrious life” in ballet, but who also kept “her identity as a girl from the streets of Paris.”
The public, accustomed to sculptures that showcased idealized women in marble, was outraged that Degas’s work depicted such a common subject—a young dancer drawn from everyday life and whose attitude reflected nothing goddess-like or heroic. Moreover, instead of chiseling her nobly in marble, he had rendered her in beeswax and found objects. In the face of rampant public disapproval, Degas removed the sculpture from display and stored it in a closet, where it resided in anonymity for the next four decades until financier Paul Mellon acquired the original wax sculpture in 1956 and gifted it to the National Gallery of Art in 1985.” -
smithsonian.com
November 4, 2014
Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/true-story-little-ballerina-who-influenced-degas-little-dancer-180953201/#6te5BSIJRy3wVyYX.99
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Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/true-story-little-ballerina-who-influenced-degas-little-dancer-180953201/#6te5BSIJRy3wVyYX.99
Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv
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A moment with my violinist and Aretha
Picasso Museum in Paris
Three of his and a few of mine.
Dove/pigeon - bronze
Doves/pigeon and a fish
Dove/pigeon
Two of my Herman Beak trumpeter pigeons with leg muffs in charcoal
Two frill back pigeon is one in Talc powder and one in charcoal.
“score” #26 adding some icing
My favorite part of a cake is the icing and my favorite part of this sculpture is the part I am just getting to - the icing. The little pieces, that create the quiet moments. The little nuances that add the extra flavor and detail that will hopefully make it sing. The pieces that will visually depict those tiny, fragile notes that are unique to the violin.
ΟΧΙ ΚΑΡΤΕΣ - post #9 retitled Broken when completed
I added 30 more lbs. to the forearm , cup and foot.
sculptural pedestal
"that ball is not going to throw itself"
1 gallon of paint and counting
peace pigeon #20
Last fall I started a project - an experiment with new materials. My subject the German beak - trumpeter pigeon. He is graceful, interesting and conducive to expressing energy. Picasso drew this same pigeon and called him a the peace dove.
http://www.arttimesjournal.com/art/reviews/May_June_10_Ina_Cole/Pablo_Picasso_Ina_Cole.html
I can't seem to stop the project. Here is another pigeon.
Below are two of my drawings that inspired the project.
peace pigeon project #6 - grounded
Roots
These roots have been taking up space in my work area for at least three years. It feels so good to finally use them.
Drawing that inspired the series.
New piece in the works- I am still working on the name. It will be part of my "shake shake shake" work.
9/26/2016
I started a new sculpture. I hope it works with my shake shake shake work.
I Moved the piece from my garage to my studio at Glassell. It got a little banged up in the move. There is a lot of negative space involved in these pieces so it is important to have a clean white background behind whichever side I am working on. I have created a movable partition that I move around it as I work.
I will address the head in a deprecate post.