Endangered Knowledge: Soul of Humus #17

I started the lower jaw today. I spent the majority of the day researching the structure of the lower jaw and its movement as the bison chew.

Here is a collection of my reference material.

Bison grab a tuft of grass with their tongue, then they pinch it off by pressing it between their tongue and their front lower teeth. They do not have top front teeth. They then swallow it whole. That is the beginning of a 24-hour digestive process.

I love this image, I took it last January at Roam Ranch right before the roundup. I think this is the one they call Poppy. Poppy is very curious and friendly. She is checking me out as she catches rain drops on her tongue.

You can see the lower jaw through the upper jaw here. It is slightly off to the right of the bison. I want him chewing away and want to exaggerate the movement. I will probably bend it a little more askew this weekend.

Here the chewing lower jaw is more obvious.

View from the rear or top down.

Friday, I am committing to writing the Lawndale proposal- rewriting and rewriting and rewriting.

Inspiration

I am committed to walking 10,00-15,000 steps every day. During my walks, I listen to audiobooks or podcasts on subjects that interest me. A lot of them have to do with regenerative agriculture, the history of soil, native bees, and various Environmental issues. Often I switch it up and learn about something completely new to me. The information or music I absorb during my walks is a big influence on my work.

Below is a quicky Ted Talk that I was very excited to hear today. It supports my belief that environmental change has got to come from our people in our cities.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ted-talks-daily/id160904630?i=1000485487124

I sent the link to city councilwoman Sally Alcorn and her assistant Hannah. Who knows. Like the piet said- make sure your reach Exceeds your grasp.

I took a screenshot of the description. It feels good to hear other people who believe what I believe.

Faux bois Wedding gift ❤️❤️#17

I needed to make some new concrete sculpting tools. I cut the bristles from a dog brush and glued them to the handle from a sponge 🤞

The small bronze root left a stain on the seat. Oops. I expect I can grind it out.

Work work work

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus #14

I am getting close to finishing the head and upper jaw. The next step will be to create the lower jaw, then I will put the head aside and start building up the piece from the hooves.

More work on the cheekbones and connecting the horns to the eyes.

Side view of armature

Bottom side view

Bison's left side view

Back of head looking down

For the full story see Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus #1a

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus - #7 cowbirds

As I work on the hooves, it has occurred to me that maybe the cowbirds should be bronze.

5 cowbirds of seeds, grass and wax just in case. Off to the foundry. I will have Legacy Fine Art Foundry cast these.

for the full story see Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus #13

View l from the mouth

The cheekbones are added.

For the full story see Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus #12

My favorite measuring tool when building the armature is a sewing tape measure.

For the full story see Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus - #11 head

The head is a lot of detail work. Bending small pieces of steel takes time and strength. It is easy to bend large pieces of steel because I can use leverage to bend it. Small parts are too short To get much lecerage. This is the first time in my life strength is an issue., I have not been doing my regular weight lifting due to COVID 19 quarantine. So I have to think of creative ways to make the shapes I need. It takes longer to figure out.

Examining this work I have decided I need to raise the left horn.

I have only welded the horn in one location. This will make it easier to correctly position the horn once the head is connected to the body. I can find them if I want, or I can cut the one weld and resend them in the correct position.

I moved the horn and added the front of the upper jaw.

I added the back of the upper jaw and two pieces to stabilize the head. The stabilizing pieces run through the center of the head, the length of the face to the back If the skull. I used the angle grinder to separate the front and left sides of the front jaw separating the two stabilizing pieces. This will make it easier to make any adjustments in the head structure when it is finished and attached to the body.

The skin and coat of the finished piece is the most crucial part if this piece. This steel armature is purely structural.

For the full story see Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus - #10 head

I have cut the steel for two sets of horns, the center of the face, top of the scull and part of the nisee. .

Working on the horns

This bison skull was a Christmas present. From Griffin and Alex my son and daughter in law. They have been unbelievably supportive of my environmental works. They are the best. The skull is proving extremely helpful in figuring out how to build the head armature.

For the Full story see Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus - #4 reference images.

When I start to build a new piece the first thing I do is gather and organize all the reference images and information I am going to need.

I staple all the images to a piece of cardboard. This way it us easy to see as I work. This secti n focuses on the hoofs. I am starting with the hoofs.

For the full story see Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus - #8 Hooves

One of the most critical problems to solve is the placement of the hooves. They will be welded to Steel plates that act as the base. The base serves several purposes; it will make it easier to transport the piece without damaging it, it will make working on a large piece safer and less likely to fall on me. I am going to use 4 - 14” X 14” 1/4” steele plates. One for each hoove. This will give me the flexibility to adjust the placement of the hooves as the piece develops.

I am sending the hooves to Blumenthal metal and having them weld the hooves to the plates. It is tricky welding to a thin plate and not warping the plate.

Why is this important to me? Please see Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus

Lawndale Art Center - support image

It does not stand to reason that gardens or yards in Texas, Maryland, California, Iowa, and Illinois should all be landscaped with the same selection of plants. The below image from Native Texas Gardens says it all. In a country with great diversity from coast to coast, shouldn’t the sculpture garden landscapes be embedded in plants that define the place?

It will be more interesting to see sculptures in gardens of indigenous plants, plants that define the place, terrains that have attracted its people and impacted its economy. A sculpture of a boat marooned in a desert landscape might imply global warming and the same wooden vessel docked in a sea of woody pines congers up thoughts of concervation. one thing the same boat Sculpture changes across geography. What does sculpture look like in a coastal prairie sculpture garden?

Page xviv of Native Texas Gardens, maximum beauty, minimum upkeep by Sally and Andy Wasowski.

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus - #5 the welding begins

I am starting to design and build the armature (the support structure) of the piece. The structure will be supported with welded rebar and then covered in a steel lath to help hold the mud and dried native plants to the sculpture.

I begin with the hooves It takes a lot of muscle to bend a piece of rebar enough to make a complete hoof side, I will have to piece it.

I did not measure the circumference of a hoof but I do know the ankle is 12” and hoofs are bigger.

I think best in wire or a material I can shape by hand - by feel. I decided to wrestle up a wire sketch of a hoof to get me started.

The front part of a front hoof

Front hooves started

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus - #3 Collecting raw materials

I reached out to the Houston Arboretum describing my project and my need for native plants. They responded immediately. They are steadily cutting plants out and I made a big haul today. My studio floor is covered in drying plants. I am drying these on my patio. Curtis suggested every morning I flip them, so rodents don't decide to nest in them. I love all animals but I am not a fan of rodents nesting around my house. They offered me to raid their compost bend as I need. :)

Lawndale- dream opportunity

I have shared ideas regarding environmental land art concepts with Stephanie over the past few years, and this spring Lawndale Art Center decided to allow me to see what I can do. After some time thinking about what the work should be, I verbally made a proposal recapped in the letter below. I am pumped about his opportunity, the Lawndale sculpture garden feels like a traditional front yard in anywhere USA. The sculpture garden is lovely, but this is the Coastal Prairie, and Coastal Prairie landscapes offer many environmental benefits. I am addressing many of them in Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus. This Lawndale piece will provide an example of a native plant landscaped area of the same scale as their yard. People need a project they can mimic. They can see native landscaping at the Arboretum, Katy Prairie Conservancy, and Buffalo Bayou. Those sites are enormous tracts of land, and most people can not visualize those landscapes in front of their homes. The Lawndale Sculpture Garden will be instrumental in communicating what a reimagined urban native landscape can be. It will inspire change.

Emily, Stephanie, and Will,

First, I want to introduce you to Will Isbell and thank you for meeting with me regarding the Lawndale Sculpture Garden, again. Now that I have had time to think about the space in the greater picture, I am proposing that Will Isbell, work with me to create a plan that will reimagine the Lawndale Sculpture garden as a work of living land art. Will is an artist, past President of the Harris County Master Gardeners Association, oversees the Family Garden at McGovern Centennial Gardens and makes educational videos for Herman park and works at Sicardi Gallery. I have pasted for your enjoyment a link to an Educational video Cooking From Your Garden that Will created a few weeks ago. Will's knowledge, credentials, and experience as a sculptor and gallerist at Sicardi Gallery will be extremely valuable to the project from conception to funding. 

Will and I had initial discussions regarding the space last Friday evening, and we are like-minded regarding our landscape philosophies and vision for Lawndale's Sculpture Garden. As artists, we see our involvement as sculptors of a living piece of land art and environmental art activist. The long-term goal of our land art will be to take the garden from it's beautiful traditional landscaped state to a holistic living sculpture garden that works with the Coastal Prairie native landscape and, at the same time, showcases Lawndales sculpture exhibits. The living land art will be educational, functional as an exhibition space, and an environmentally healthy ecosystem/habitat. It will be groundbreaking in the art community to have a sculpture garden that showcases work in an ecologically conscious native landscape and will save Lawndale future dollars. 

The first step is to get Will and I the landscape and irrigation plans and a key to the outdoor garden closet. Will and I will then do the research to reimagine the space and give you a conceptual proposal. If you are on board with our vision, we can then work with you on creating a site plan, securing funding, installation/timing plan, and estimate the volunteers needed. We are aware that this may be a long term staged project but are hopeful that it can be realized in the short term.  

I am also looking forward to creating a piece that addresses the connection between humans, the natural world, and landscapes. Emily and I discussed that we should discuss the details of this future piece after my Sculpture Month Houston opening on October 10th. I would like to add the growth I realize as an artist from my experience creating the sculpture Month piece to my future Lawndale installation. 

I am grateful for the opportunity to work with all of you and know this is going to be an amazing experience. 

This is Will’s cooking from the garden video

https://youtu.be/tWDLXyN1jj0

Best,

Cindee

It will be groundbreaking to look at sculpture in a landscape unique to Houston Texas. .  

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus - #2 A closer look at the materials I have so far.

I am in love with these textures and I can hardly wait to incorporate them into my Endangered Knowledge piece. I do need to figure out how to fade the green out. I do not want a green bison. I think the answer is sunlight.

Endangered Knowledge: The Soul of Humus -#1b Collecting raw materials

I reached out to the Katy Prairie Conservancy, and they put me in touch with Bill Stransky with the Texas Rice Coalition, Bill a founder of the Katy Prairie Conservancy is a rock star in the nature Conservancy world. He very kindly offered to help me identify native grasses. He met me on a Sunday morning with his college-age daughters and not only pointed out native plants, but they helped me cut and bag them. It was such an honor to meet him and have him support my environmental work. I can not finish these piece without help in accessing native plants. It was a great day. I am hoping to meet Bill again in the fall when the rice plants are ready to harvest. It is important I have rice grasses since the exhibitiion space is a Success rice grain silo. The plants we harvested are presently drying in ny studio. My studio smells like heaven covered in plants. It is also the new home to a few spiders.

Bill Stransky and his daughters.

A bag of prairie seed mix. - donated by Bill to my project

The mix-

A new studio mate.

This is just the beginning, I need a lot more plants to dry for this large old male beast.

Same Time Next Year 2017, 2018, 2019

Same Time Next Year, is an annual survey of organic found objects preserved in the form of a bird’s nest cast in bronze. I retrieved these objects in a given year. I started making these modern-day fossils in 2013; each piece is a smidgen of a historical record of the natural world found in urban Texas. I include things I pick up gardening, walking my dog, flipping my compost bin, and daily outdoor chores. They are things that find me; I never go out hunting for them however I am always looking. Neighborhoods today are exceptionally manicured to the point of being sterile as opposed to full of life. Mosquito home misting machines and heavy weed control chemical additives keep the insects, birds and available organic matter relatively bland. I am campaigning to change the landscapes of urban settings. One day I hope there will be a greater diversity of found materials.

This year I am playing catch up and created the pieces for years 2017, 2018, 2019, in these pieces, there are bug casings, dried flowers, bug carcasses, twigs, wings, feathers, leaves, seeds a beetle, cicada and a dead bee. In January - March, I coated them in wax, sprued them up, dipped them to make the shell, and did two burnouts at the MFAH Glassell studio school foundry, and then the COVID 19 quarantine kicked in.

The MFAH responsibly closed the school but allowed us to pick up any work. I picked up the shells and took them to Legacy Fine Arts Foundry. They are great people, I have used them on several occasions on projects over the last six years. Their work is phenomenal; they finished burning out the shells and cast them, broke off the shells, cut off the sprues, and sandblasted the nests. I could break off the shells, but I have torn my shoulder twice, breaking off shells. I am so grateful for their help and enjoy working with them. I am excited to have the pieces cast, and I am ready to do the finish work and patina. 

Below are the images I took as I worked on the three nests. 

Shaping the dried organic matter.

Creating a system to get bronze into the sculpture.

The best with the wax sorue system.

The sprue system after the first dip in slurry.

All three pieces after several dips.

Drying after the last dip to build the shell.

My tools to cut off the top of the cup and blind vents. The wax will drain out if the tuop of the cup. I also drill holes to keep the shell from cracking as the wax expands in the furnace.

After cutting the cup and blind vents.

The pieces at legacy as Victor is breaking off the shells.

The three nests and some small bronze casting to use for studio visit gifts.

Nash Baker is my art photgrapher, Nash lost his photography studio to a fire studio during COVID. I will wait to have these pieces photographed when he is back in operation.

Sapling #9 to kindling - finish details

The finish can make or break a sculpture. I decided to lightly ground down the gritty textured surface on the concrete branches and polished the leaves. The highly detailed branches contrast with the simple almost primitive or crude Leaf-like forms. The leaves are smooth except any fingerprints and marks accidentally made by the process. The roughly made leaves have more energy and life than a realistically detailed leaf.

I made the leaves by pouring a thin sheet of wax and then tore leaf shapes out of the wax. Then I crumpled and twisted them Into fall leaves and cast them in bronze.

The little bird is also highly textured but in a more organized pattern.

I have not made a decision on the stain of the concrete.

Another view

The base mimics dirt under the tree.

Sapling #8 to kindling - finishing touches

It needs a light sanding, a patina on the bronze and the concrete.