Peace pigeon project #17 - Pareidolia

In the fall of 2016 I decided to experiment with sculpture materials. I challenged myself to sculpt a new sculpture a week, each week in a different material. As my subject, I chose the German beak crested trumpeter with leg muffs pigeon because he allows me to express a lot of movement and energy. I have many drawings and a bronze sculpture of the German beak trumpeter. From a sculpturing point of view, his feathery feet keep him balanced without a pedestal allowing for lots of the expression of energy and emotion.

It turns out that the bird known in the US as a German beak trumpeter pigeon is the same bird that Picasso drew as the peace dove. Everyone knows His famous "peace doves". This particular pigeon was given to him by Henri Matisse. It is described as a Milanese pigeon. Possibly it was from Milan, but you can tell by the fancy feathers on his feet that it is a German beak-crested trumpeter with leg muffs. In German and French, the term pigeon and dove are interchangeable.

I am no longer committed to sculpt a peace pigeon a week but I don’t hesitate if a material or found object jumps out at me to turn it into a sculpture.

The very last beak break.  

Harvey Heroes- LIVEstock - “bringing home the bacon”

​I stared a new section in my Hurricane Harvey series of Harvey Heroes. These will all be LIVEstock rescues.

I made the first one today,

 “Bring home the bacon.”

44” X 30” watercolor monotype  

This is my first large monotype.
I have always wanted to go larger, but the temporary location of the Glassell School of Art did not have a big press. The pieces in this part of the series will all be 44” X 30” The Glassell printmaking studio has fabulous light, is super clean, and I love working in it. Alexander Squier, the head of the department and instructor makes sure everyone keeps it spick and span. This is the fourth time I have taken the class, print making is addicting and you need a press to feed your addiction. Plus Alexander is great.

Here is the ghost print. Something happened to the ghost. I am not sure what caused the mark that runs through the middle. When it dries I will try to fix it.  

Before fixing-

The ghost - “bringing home the bacon”  

Fixed  

My work space in the Glassell printmaking studio  

Me fake working for a photo op.  

March 3, 2013 - Woman Suffrage Procession -Inez Milholland- title of work update

Now that I have three pieces in my women’s movement body of work I have decide to alter the title and artist statement of this piece. 

March 3, 2013 - Woman Suffrage Procession -Inez Milholland

Riding aside historically represents oppression of women's rights. Suffragette Inez Milholland rode astride in the 1913 ride/march on Washington. Inez was not only protesting for the right to vote, own property, to sue, but also to ride astride.

This is my first piece of work that addresses the women’s movement. It first resonated with me purely from an aesthetic point of view, as I knew the aged leather would reproduce beautifully in bronze. What I did not realize, however, was that this sculpture would represent more than a stereotypical Texas western symbol. In my women’s movement body of art it represents the strength of Victorian women and the beginning of the women’s movement, the March 3, 1913 suffrage parade in Washington.

 For more information in the 1913 women’s movement see the links below. 

 https://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fimgs.6sqft.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F03%2F15104106%2FInez-Milholland-1913.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.6sqft.com%2Fbrownstones-and-ballot-boxes-the-fight-for-womens-suffrage-in-brooklyn%2F&docid=2ZnWV_e9x0g-OM&tbnid=YNNH9k49Fdl9wM%3A&vet=1&w=1024&h=726&hl=en-us&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim

 http://time.com/4391874/the-society-girl-who-became-a-martyr-for-womens-suffrage/

 https://goo.gl/images/bJeGyT

 http://www.lrgaf.org/articles/sidesaddles_and_suffragettes.htm

Sapling #7 - lath, 1st coat and second coat.

My daughter special requested this piece. She asked if I could make her a sapling. My response was I could try, but the pencil size steel limits how thin I can make the tree limbs. Long story short, the sapling grew old fast. After the first coat the sapling limbs we're no longer sapling thin.

Covered in lath

Keeping an eye on my mix

The first coat - the bronze leaves are covered in green plastic to protect them.

First, I paint on the bonding liquid.

The piece is now ready for coat number 2.

Coat number 2 ✅

Here is the image edited super light in order to show the texture.

More details

Detail of upper branches

A little more concrete need under the bird.

Detail of trunk

The lower trunk and base.

The abundance of knots is evidence that this tree is the host of many insects and good bacteria. Bees and other insects use trees for nesting and receive antiviral properties from the fungus and bacteria that grow on the tree.

Hurricane Harvey Project - confronted with humanity- Harvey Heroes - Solving installation problems

Have I done enough? Which should I edit? Include the cot, don’t include the cot???? How should I compose them as a group? 

Roots #4 building the Shell.

The handle for the tool  

The cup is cut off and I have lots of holes drilled in the sprues to blow out the organic matter.  

Hurricane Harvey Project - confronted with humanity #12- adding 1 light element

Art based on a natural disaster can weigh on one’s emotions. With that in mind, and the fact that I would like the viewer to have a positive inner feeling after looking at my work, I am playing with adding a shaking dog to the body of work. I want the dog to be generic so that everyone can see their dog in it and I would like the dog’s energy to leave the viewer with a smile.  

Below are my first attempts. I hope one works.  

Roots #2 rooting out the best concept

I have very strong views on the connection between agriculture and health. I prefer to only eat organic grass-fed beef. I prefer to not eat any gmo products and I feel best when only eating sprouted grains. I want to know where my food comes from and how it is produced. Agriculture has a huge impact on our personal health as well as on our environment. Roots play a large role in regenerative and sustainable agriculture. 

The first root - The root is fabulous all by it’s self. 

The trunk is not so fabulous. 

Off with the trunk- 

Failure #1- Experimenting with ideas- this idea emphasizes the important of roots in sustaining  life. - too obvious 

Failure #2- Another experiment- “burden”  I grabbed this marble sculpture I did a few years ago. I have always wanted to burden it with something on his back. 

I like the thought, I think it either needs more more more roots or a Sprout coming out of the root.  

The root would be bronze.  

Stay tuned to see how I will use the roots.  

1 wire a kiss, tango, waltz, jitter bug, and the rumba.

Flipping around this broken scrap of pig wire and you get so many gestural images. 

kiss 

tango 

waltz

jitter bug 

rumba 

Hurricane Harvey Project - confronted with humanity #7 “those teenagers pushed our truck”

Another Heroes piece-

Those teenagers

30” X 22” water color monotype  

the ghost

Roots- Thank you Soul Cycle

These two dead plants were in pots outside of Soul Cycle. The roots were exposed and beautiful. This summer every week I would ask the staff if I could have them for my art. Every week I received the same response, that they would have to get approval from the locations manager to remove the dead plants. They are mine now. 😊 thank you, everyone at Soul Cycle for not getting irritated with my constant persuit of these roots. 

My interest in roots has to do with my interest in regenerative agricultural. I will explain in the next roots blog post

Sapling #2

The welding is complete.  

Hurricane Harvey Project - confronted with humanity #7

A piece from a large series of work inspired by the everyday heroes of hurricane Harvey.

Who saved whom

the ghost 

Hurricane Harvey Project - confronted with humanity #4

A piece from a large series of work inspired by the everyday heroes of hurricane Harvey.  

He was wearing overalls

22” X 30”  

the ghost print 

What does sound look like?

Using the Schlieren Flow Visualization method of photography, scientists photograph sound vibrations (even with them moving at 761.2 miles per hour.) NPR does a beautiful job of explaining this complicated process that scientists use to see sound. See link below-

https://www.npr.org/2014/04/09/300563606/what-does-sound-look-like

It is amazing and inspiring to see photographs/videos of sound. With this additional visual inspiration and  conversations with art critic Laura Wellen and curator Kimberley Davenport, I have decided to create an installation in my new studio. 

I have moved my “score” (working title) sculpture to my new studio.

Everything else is in a temporary storage facility 

I will miss my dogs 😒

With some luck by the end of the summer  my new studio will be filled with a 4D installation of the voice of the violin. 

Seeing faces at Dachau -

We recently toured the Dachau concentration camp. It was known as the S.S. “school for violence.” The facility is now a memorial to those who suffered and died at Dachau. 

After seeing a few of the images in the memorial; I had to turn away. That is when I noticed that the immense suffering that was inflicted upon innocent people inside the walls of Dachau is not only told in the photos; it penetrated and lives in the structures of Dachau. The walls are scarred with the suffering. In every wall I saw the faces of pain, misery and stories that can not be ignored. Below are a few words That the images in the walls inspired. 

                               Dachau 

In the walls of Dachau  

the sunken eyes of starvation still cry.

Through it’s cracks,

faces of fear still hold their breath.  

In the walls of Dachau

the contorted faces of torture still moan. 

Through it’s scars,

calls for tolerance plea to be heard. 

In the walls of Dachau

the stripes of prisoners are held in respect.

Through it’s survivors,

stories are preserved and true heros are honored.

In the walls of Dachau.  

Below are are some photos of the images I saw in the walls when I turned away. 

sunken eyes of starvation 

The fear seen in eyes of those confronted with the evils of humanity watch helplessly through cracks in the cement walls.

  contorted face of  torture

an emaciated body 

face contorted in pain

human figures bent over in pain and suffering. 

After you walk through the tortuous halls of the Dachau maintenance building and walk around to the front of the building there is  a magnificent sculpture.  It is an abstract figurative piece that beautifully  expresses in monumental style the bodily harm endured by those who threatened the ideals supported by the S.S. . 

In front of the sculpture is an additional memorial: The foundations of the 30 barracks that housed the prisoners of Dachau are each marked with a tombstone style market and numbered. 

“Heritage-dust to dust.”

 “Heritage-dust to dust.” My dad was not part of the hat generation, he was a cap dad. He did, however, have the traits that are reflected in each of my Heritage pieces and I do see glimpses of him when I look at them. This is one of the two hats I worked on during his last weeks of life. The week after he passed with a large hole in my heart, we poured the bronze. When I broke off the shell I was not really surprised to see the large hole in the heart of the crown. 

Last week I completed the metal work on the piece and this week my siblings and I will celebrate his life, as he requested, with a simple bar-b-que in the feed store warehouse.  It won’t be your normal wake, with guest dressed in formal black jackets and pants.  We will all be in jeans, boots, or tennis shoes and he would like that. My sister and I will decorate the tables with two of the things he loved: tomato plants and footballs. We will drink beer, eat texas bar b que, and share memories and his love. He may not have worn a hat but he did leave a hole in this one. 

Gust- patina

before 

Installation day - “feminam”

 “Feminam” is Latin for feminine. I gave this piece a Latin name because she was purchased by two physicians. Over a year ago I agreed to sell G.G., my female wire cloth sculpture, titled “January 21st, 2017” as she saw it in our 2017 Spring Block Exhibition. I was amazed that G.G. asked me if she could buy the piece because I was already anticipating the problem of where I was going to keep her. G.G. was the first person who came to mind. G.G. loves art, is a very particular collector and any artist would be lucky to have their work in G.G. and Mark’s collection. A year later I was still having studio visits with people that I wanted to see “January 21st, 2017." However, I had said I would sell her so it was time to give her up. I decided to make another one for my studio.  I started the second piece and showed her to G.G. and the new piece is really a better fit for G.G’s collection. She has a beautiful run just off center down her middle and she has more whit  plaster on the surface. I am really pleased with the new piece. I wanted G.G. to have her pick and it worked out GG. for both of us. When I first met G.G. I automatically liked her, I tried to channel her inner  beauty into this new piece, “feminam.”

Diane and Nate of Level Arts were very patient as G.G. and I decided on the perfect height. 

They were also extremely patient as we played with the lighting. And I can play with lighting all day, it is so much fun.  

Job well done. I could not be more thrilled to work with Nate and Diane of level Arts.  

G.G. And me- both happy  

I  

Gust - grinding down the sprue stubs

tools