“gust” building the shell

dip 3 - wet 

Ready for dip 4 

the top of the cup is cut off and the blind vents are cut open in order to allow the wax to expand and milt out of the shell. 

 In the furnace to burn out the wax and the felt 

with the wax melted out I now blow out what is left of the felt. 

burn out number 2 

With an pneumatic air hose I blew out the charred debris from each hat. 

A cure from above looking into the cup that the bronze will be poured into.  

After blowing out the pieces for a second time I seal all the holes with sparset. 

Last Thursday we did our best to pour these but............. plan B we will pour them this this Thursday.  

gust - patina - una mas

Thursday nights= patina night. One more ✅ 

the before 

“gust”

1/19/2018

I am starting two new pieces for my “gust” series. 

Here is the first one viewed from every side. 

I have two coats of wax on it. Now I need to clean off and wax that is clumpy and make sure it does not loose its shape and character. Then I can begin the molding process to cast it in bronze. 

“gust”

This hat is planned to be the 2nd in the series. 

I ended up with cool spots in the pour resulting in spots that the bronze did not fill, big spots that did not pour.  :( 

I am going to clean them up and see what can be done to save it.  

The sprues are cut to the stub  

I have cut the sprue stub off flush with the felt. 

I have repaired the texture . 

“gust” patina and playing with the artist statement

10/17/2017  

Another Thursday night of applying the patina  to yet another hat. 

Woven in felt, every hat tells a story, shaped with memories, recording beliefs, and veiling sorrow, some eloquent and some twisted. Cradled in our imagination, they blow in strange, wonderful ways, spinning from generations that are inhabited by our respect to balancing our present responsibilities and fears. In generations past, in fable and in legend, hats sheltered spirits, represented people and occupations, and defended against the elements. 

“gust”

11/10/2017

guess what I did last night? 

this is the first piece in the series where the lining has blown away and the moth holes have grown into full fledge hole.  

The torn grossgrain ribbon and rip in felt. 

I didn’t get to say goodbye

memories - unequaled  

I stopped by Sloan/Hall to give the sales staff my artist statement talk about my memories body of work.

https://sloanhall.com/

This is my first experience letting someone else sell my work. It has always been one of my favorite Houston stores. The staff is very friendly, attentive, and very knowledgeable about the products they carry. I they will do a good job of representing “Memories”. I talked about my work and about the pieces they are carrying and then Shannon Hall handed me an envelope. It was a payment for the the big piece “Memories- unequaled”, and I am still shocked. I didn’t expect anything to sell so quickly. -  I didn’t get to say goodbye. Clearly, I have some separation anxiety with regard to my art.

“memories”

Driving home from Austin, I was stuck in traffic and very stressed. My whole body was tense and I was gripping the steering wheel tightly. I looked up to see a giant billboard for one of the Hill Country lazy river family resorts. On the billboard was a stick with roasted marshmallows on it. Instantly, the tension melted away as I was overcome with happy memories. I thought, "Wow! That imagery is so powerful, it drastically changed my mental state. I have to share this." Working on the pieces I felt a little silly, but the more I thought about my bronze sticks with marshmallows on them, the more I realized that the American leisure time tradition of roasting s’mores is a story not only worth sharing but worth telling: families and close friends gathered around a toasty campfire, roasting marshmallows on a stick, telling ghost stories, and making warm, sweet memories.

Why are some people ready, why do some people know the moment?

People ask me all the time where  do I get my ideas. And I too am fascinated by where creativity comes from. I do not believe it can be taught and for most part it is not easy to describe as creativity, it is one of the great mysteries of the brain. However the Eudora Welty quote in Glasstire this morning beautifully states how I often find inspiration, or how inspiration often finds me.

 “The title That Day underscores the viewer’s sense of being there beside the photographer and the way in which the captured moment remains ever fresh in the image, some of which were made as early as 1979. That was the year when Dallas-based Wilson began assisting Richard Avedon with his own six-year photography project, In The American West. Describing Avedon’s portraiture process in her 2004 book, Avedon At Work In The American West, Wilson noted that he would wait for what Eudora Welty called “a story teller’s truth… the moment in which people reveal themselves. You have to be ready, in yourself; you have to know the moment when you see it.” “

                                                         - gene Fowler 

-http://glasstire.com/author/gene-fowler/

I guess the question should be why are some people

ready, why do some people know the moment?

a moment caught by a "gust"

“Gust” artist statement tweaking

I continue to tweak new versions of possible artist statements for “gust”, looking for the perfect words.  

How does this sound?  

“Gust”

Woven in felt, every hat tells a story, shaped with memories, recording beliefs, and veiling sorrow, some eloquent and some twisted. Cradled in our imagination, they blow in strange, wonderful ways, spinning from past generations that are inhabited by our respect to balancing our present responsibilities and fears. In generations past, in fable and in legend, hats sheltered spirits, represented people and occupations, and defended against the elements.

“gust” In my kitchen after applying the patina.  Living with this hat for a few days making sure I am finished with the patina in it.