"the perfect storm"

"the perfect storm" 

24" X 19" 

Mixed media 

I did this piece a week ago and it was one of those drawings that just happened. I didn't struggle,  I didn't question if it needed more. It was  the perfect storm. 

Insectum series

Insectum I

24" X 19"  

oil stick and graphite  

stratis de insectum

I knew it needed something - more bugs and a dash more color and tears on the upper right .

stratis de insectum 

40" X 50" X 4"  

collage, ink and charcoal  

Detail  

Drawing experiment post #3 "Heritage abstract"

"stratis de insectum"

See the process below  

stratis de insectum 

50" X 60" X 4" 

collage and ink  

Early October my daughter, Sage baby sat our two labradors while we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary out of town. While out of town we received a text from Sage with a picture of the beautiful coffee table book we gave her last Christmas. The book has amazing pictures of the most beautiful insects you have ever seen. It was a very nice gift and Sage loved the book. Tobi,  our 2 year old Labrador had chewed on it.  The book was ruined. I decided  to offered Sage my book ( I have the same coffee table book) in exchange for her chewed up book. I thought I might use some of the pictures  for a image transfer on a drawing or something.  When I saw the chewed up page edges in layers I thought they were beautiful. Below is the book. 

Coffee table book with chewed up pages.  

That morning I went into my studio (garage) to start a drawing. Laying on the floor was a monumental abstract drawing of a hat  from last week. I had abandoned the drawing in frustration. The piece just did not work and had several large tears in the paper.  Today the tears reminded me of the chewed up layers of the book.  

Last weeks monumental drawing of abstract a hat  "gust"  with tears

I decided to see if I could work the book pages into the abstract drawing tears. As I tore off the crumpled pages they reminded me of leaves with beautiful insects on them. I decided to not glue them flat against the paper but to only attach them like fallen leaves with bugs/insects/beetles on them. 

Adding layers of pages from the book  into the tears of last weeks drawing disaster.  

More more more  

The pages/leaves stood out too much so I added color to blend them in or camouflage the insects. 

Detail

I am not sure if this is a finished piece or if it still needs something. It is very sculpture ish and maybe I should build on that take it further or maybe not. I will live with it for awhile. Any thoughts?

I have a very stubborn side.....

......and for some reason I am challenged to find a way to interpret the stereotypical western hat in a modern artistic way. I just don't think you turn your back on your heritage, you reinvent it, you see it and use it in a fresh and modern way. If I was from Europe and came to Texas I would be disappointed if I did not see western  hats. And if I saw them in a new light I would think. Wow! These people have an interesting history and are very contemporary. 

"Gust I abstract" 

24"X 19 " 

kwink and ink  

 How was that?

 true to my heritage ✅.   

???? 

Chicken soup ole is so so perfect for rainy weather

I am guilty of adding too many fresh ingredients and I would do it again.  

"Rattenkonig"

Rattenkonig

Found object 31" X 44"

ink, and charcoal 

 

The drawing assignment - create a drawing with the subject matter of a Rat King. If you do not know what rat king is I will just tell you it does not make for good dinner conversation. Please do not look it up until after you see my drawing and story. I am not joking do not look it up.  For me the challenge was how to make a drawing of a rat king palatable to look at. I was not sure why in the 1600s they called this freakish event rat king but to me it looked somewhat like a mythical crown for a mythical king. As a result my "Rattenkonig” requires a narrative and aa lot of abstract imagery.

Below is a brief summary of a narrative to explain the rat king phenomena and my drawing- 

The story of Rattenkonig is the story of a boy king. In fact his father the King mysteriously died when the evil queen noticed his mother Alina, the king's mistress was with child. When the King died the queen ordered Alina's head to be cut off. Alina was barely able to escaped into the black forest. She knew the queen would never stop looking for her so she had to hide in holes and caves places no one would ever dream of looking for a woman and a child. Alina gave birth in a hollowed out tree trunk inhabited by all kinds of gnarly creatures. She and the baby boy king spent their days in the under world of the forest  only to walk freely in the forest at night. The living conditions were safe from the queen but horrendous at first. The boy king was gentle and smart he was able to train the animals    of  the Black Forest to be  to loving and kind. They would protect the boy king  and his mother. Even the grimmest of creatures became sweet and loving and played with the boy. When the evil queen finally died the forest celebrated.   The forest animals wanted all to know the boy was the rightful king of the land and wanted him to have a crown.                                                                    The rats of the forest wove their tales into a rat knot to form a crown for  the boy.  And that  is why they call this phenomena the rat King. The young boy and his mother were able to return to the castle and lived happily ever after and the boy loved his crown and often went into the forest to be with nature.

I felt it was particularly suitable to make this piece on a found object.

BLT w egg Sculpture

Normally I like to exercise first thing in the morning outside but hurricane Patricia is still hanging out in my neighborhood so  I decided to be creative in the kitchen. 

B.L.T.

2" X 4" X 4" 

 Fresh local tomatoes, cilantro, local free range egg, pepper bacon, revival market mustard

on  

Ezekiel flax seed bread toasted

We were out of avocados.  A little avocados would have been nice. Those of you who know me are probably shocked I am eating bacon. Sometimes you have to break the rules.  

"murmur of water" post 2. The drawing process step by step.

Step 1- rough in stripes w pencil.  

Step 2- apply black house paint in large horizontal stripes. Texture black stripes vertically with broom. I think it is this step that makes the piece.

Step 3- apply ink. Let the ink work itself into the texture from the broom.  

Step 4- apply pastels in rows of individual stripes until satisfied.  

Detail if pastel

 See "murmur of water"  post  I to see what inspired this piece. 

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Lessons from our bullfrog.

Background -

About eight years ago we converted our small 15,000 gallon swimming pool into a water lilie, goldfish, koi pond. It was a family event Curtis Griffin and Sage all helped with the manual labor.  Like life, and beautiful art a beautiful pond is a matter of balance. For the pond all you need is  good algae (bacteria), green plants and animal life and the water will be perfectly clear.  Chemicals are not necessary. If you know me you know I really mean chemicals are not necessary. 

Back to the  bullfrog-

This little guy has lived in our pond for about six years. When he was just a tadpole I could get in the pond with my camera and photograph him from an arms distance. He is very wise and cautious now that he is older so we rarely see him. Today with the rain from hurricane Patricia he is out and about.  He is the perfect reminder that to have a balanced life you must embrace the moment and put yourself out there. Kind of like writing a bog I mean blog. 

"murmur of water" post I-Dealing with an uncomfortable drawing assignment.

I did this monumental for a drawing class. I am taking the class at MFAH Glassell Studio school. Brian Portman is the instructor as well as a very accomplished artist and I really like his work. His advice in class has always been spot on. I have immense respect for his work and his comments about my work. He has always given me a lot of freedom and I really like drawing whatever strikes me. 

This semester he gave me an assignment. (Not what I was expecting)

When I first read this assignment I wanted to find a way to get out of it. The assignment was to study the work of an established artist and then do a series of drawings. The idea of trying to be like someone else - literally made the hair in the back of my neck stand up. I just did not like the idea of drawing "like" another artist. The whole concept made me very uncomfortable. Very very uncomfortable. I have been working very hard to find my own style, trying not to have the trained look, trying to see if there is anything natural that is good about how I draw, trying to find out if I have a gift to express a feeling through a line?  That said (after a mental battle with myself)   I decided to roll with it (do what makes you the most uncomfortable is my new motto at 58 years old) - My way of dealing with my comfort level was to  learn about an artist whose work looks very different than what I am currently doing and see what the results are??????? 

I studied Sean Scully who draws/paints huge monumentals of stripes.

In case you are not familiar with Sean Scully's work I have attached below a screen shot of images that come up when you google Sean Scully.

Screen shot of Sean Scully images on Google.  

"murmur of water" is my expression of monumental stripes.  (I decided since I was doing a monumental that I did not have to do a series)

 I think I found a new me. Thank you Brian for making me try something new. 

murmur of the water  

charcoal,  pastel,  ink and paint 

79" X50" 

Tomorrow's post will follow my process step by step. Sign up to receive the post by email at the end of the blog on my website. www.cindeeklement.com

shake shake shake -Katrina

8" X 10" lenticular print for the Lawndale art centers 28th annual Dia de los muertos auction tonight.

Headstand sculpture #8

I cleaned up the tallest figure, shaped the fingers and feet and attached the cup that the bronze will be poured into.  

Me holding the cup checking for drips  

The shirt I am wearing is made from red mattress ticking. I found it at the antique mall in Austin. I think it is a 1960's Weatern shirt. I just love it.  

Detail of the back, neck and shoulders

I want these pieces to be expressive full of whimsy and energy so I have intentional left them what I call unfinished, unpolished. The red wax is armature peaking thru. 

Gust- post #1

In 2013  I had an idea for a sculpture composed of a series of bronzes hats caught in a gust of wind. As the hat blows, and tumbles it changes shape. I could visualize the cool abstract shapes the wind could force the hat into. I have a lot of experience with wind as I grew up in the west Texas town of El Paso and spent my early years on a Cotton farm in Dell City, Texas. I am all too familiar with the power the wind can have.  

The last piece of the series in wax. The last piece is completely  flattened. This last piece may end up flat against a wall. 

Here is the piece sprued up. I have attached the system that will create the cavity the bronze travels through to get into the sculpture.  

Blind vents in place  

Above I have attached the blind vents that will allow the gasses to exit when the bronzes is poured.  

Below I have added the return vents. When the bronze fill the piece the gases will exit the piece through the cavities created by these last two cents.  

Return vents added

To see how this piece develops  subscribe to the blog at the end of the last post on my website blog. Cindeeklement.com

Drawing experiment post #3 the abstraction

#16

#15

#14

#13

#11

#11

#10

Drawing experiment post #2 the abstraction

Step #2 draw a few abstracts of the same object that I drew a rendering of.

Rendering of hat  

"Heritage rendering" 

48" X  50" 

The first abstraction  

"heritage - simple abstract"

30" X 22" 

ink

I also did a "scream" parady (not for public view), very goofy. 

I ended up drawing 16 plus abstractions of hats. I decided to change to the second hat in my sculpture series "Gust".  Some of these drawings are temporarily on exhibit at Glassell near the drawing class.

Glassell near drawing room. 

I will post a few of these separately.  It took me about 12 hats until I loosened  enough to get something I liked. Looking back at these drawings in  order you can see the gradual changes I made in strokes and materials. When I compare the first with the last  I realize why abstract art is so interesting. 

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From wax to a bronze sculpture I

It will take several post to cover this topic. 

Wax sculpture (still thinking of names but for now I am liking sweet serendipity).  

 Step 1- I will make a ceramic shell of the wax sculpture. Then I will burn the wax out of the shell and pour in the bronze.  But first I have to add a system  of wax channels to the piece in order to have a way to get the bronze into the ceramic shell.  I made a wax cup and attached a 1" wax sprue to the bottom of the cup. The sprue is used to attach the cup to the sculpture. The cup will be the opening the bronze is poured into. I  inserted a hanger into the cup to use to hold the piece while building the ceramic shell.   Now that I have a channel to get the bronze in the sculpture I need  channels to get the gases out. If you don't get the gases out you will have air pockets and the bronze will not fill the piece. Since the bronze will push the gases through the piece I will attach sprues at the bottom and attach them to the top of the cup. I attached small sprues to tiny areas like fingers to make sure gases do not block the bronze from filling the shell. 

This piece is ready to start dipping and building up the shell. The Glassell foundry is having growing pains and it will be a few weeks until I can start dipping this piece. You can sign up at the end of  the blog to get emails if you want to make sure you do not miss any steps of this blog post.

Drawing experiment

Drawing assignment - experiment with rendering and then abstraction.  Step one  - draw a rendering of a common object. Not my favorite thing but I have decided to embrace new ideas even when I am not fond of them.  

I drew  a black and white MONUMENTAL rendering  of one of my bronze hats "heritage".  I drew it from a photo Curtis took of the piece  while it was on exhibit at Kinder Morgan last 2014.

Photo of "heritage" on exhibit at Kinder Morgan

In my drawing I decided to exaggerate the shadows - as the photo is very well lit and there are few shadows.  I do not really enjoy rendering and it was all I could do to not draw it in a more spontaneous style. I guess experiments should make you feel uncomfortable............................. 

Sadly I fudged from a realistic rendering- just could not make the beast in me  just - render.  

A day after I drew the hat I took a long look at the drawing   -   I think it already looks abstracted probably because the hat is about 3' tall and the exaggerated contrast is harsh.  I have maybe failed the 1st step of the experiment. 

The class instructor Brian Portman very subtly suggested I add a touch of color. My experience with Brian's suggestions is that he is knows what he is talking about. I decided to add a touch of walnut oil. I think it was the perfect add.  Brian is not only a gifted artist but a great instructor. 

 "rendering of heritage"    With the walnut oil

 Step two will be in an upcoming post. You can sign up to receive post in your email at the very end of the blog. 

Headstand post #7 more armature

I have had problems with gravity making the legs sag. Now that I know how I am going to arrange them they can not change. In order to insure they don't sag I am going to add sprues supported by dowels between the extended parts of each piece.  

Me reinforcing the armature at the new temporary foundry/sculpture studio at Glassell. I love this place and the people.