My “Kiss Goodbye” sculpture was accepted into the “Artfully Reclaimed” show at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art. Juror was Jack Fischer, owner of one of my favorite SF Galleries.
Details from the website:
| Artfully Reclaimed V Summer National Juried Exhibition Creating fine art from recycled and repurposed materials. May 28 – July 10 Juror: Jack Fischer Click here to see the list of accepted entries for Artfully Reclaimed V. |
I’ve taken a fairly long break from blogging. Instead, I’d been getting a lot of pieces finished in time for the “None of the Above” show last Friday, which, in case you’re wondering, was a great show! I’ve got several more pieces that I’d like to get done in time for Open Studios – specifically the pieces with objects that you look through – as they are really the culmination of the “Magnifying Glass” idea.
I’ve been taking a detour from the magnifying glasses with the Gas Mask series. These grew out of the magnifying glass series and took on a life of their own. I still have more pieces to make in this series, and I’m enjoying exploring the idea. One of the pieces was accepted to the Flax Open Studios preview show; it will be my first piece in a juried show. I’m also planning on submitting “Kiss Goodbye” to the California Slam sculpture show at the St. Luis Obispo Museum of Art. I also plan on using the image of “Kiss Goodbye” on my new artist cards – from the right angle it makes a heart.
I’ve just posted a whole slew of new images to the 2011 – Art section of the site and moved 2010 pieces to their own section. I’ll be blogging more about these pieces in the days to come. I’d like to get my ideas down before I forget about them.
Today I worked on several different pieces and got a lot done. I spent a long time gilding a new gas mask. It’s the big one in this image:
I’m not happy with how it’s looking. It’s too much like a motorcycle helmet or cheap sci-fi prop. It has two coats of leaf on it as it was not sticking too well. I’m going to cover it again with a different, fancy leaf tomorrow – one that has a variegated color pattern. I liked how it looked in a test area – it looks more weathered like the copper one. Interestingly, I discovered when trying to solder some copper sheet that you heat copper in a flame, it develops all sorts of pretty colors, and I’m thinking maybe that’s the process used in the fancy leaf. A side note – the big mask is Czech made, and though it looks robotic, it’s by far the most comfortable of the group. A veritable Rolls-Royce! I’ve got a fair amount more to do on this one. I’m not happy with the rest of it either. You’ll notice I entitled the three pieces together “Nuclear Family”. To me they look like a man, woman, and child.
In other news, I finished the Rosetta Stone piece “What will archeologists think when they find this?”:
Funny thing – I realized that the entire piece is a mirror image of what it should be. I’m going to claim post hoc ergo propter hoc on this one – archeologists would find it more interesting that this Rosetta Stone is backward! I’m not sure how I like this on a white wall. Maybe need to paint border and/or darken text.
Last up is a better photo of the fly. I straightened out the holder a bit:
I’ve received several of the gas masks that I ordered online. Here is a child-sized one that I leafed with aluminum leaf and gold leafing pen. Eyes are lenses removed from magnifying glasses. Nose is still a bit unresolved. The original mask had a corrugated rubber tube coming out of the nose which connects to a standard filter canister. I didn’t like how it looked, so I removed it and it found another home.
It needs a couple of small touchups. I was contemplating using real silver leaf in some spots to get a patina, but since this is a child’s mask, I don’t think it should look aged.
I will probably pout text behind the eyes here too. Current leading slogan is “This was made/with child labor”. Still ruminating. I have several other masks, including three Belgian ones that are the same as the first gas mask that I made. I am thinking of having them interact with each other – perhaps attach them so that they kiss. I shall, of course, keep you posted.
I’ve been a bit remiss in my blogging, so here’s some catch-up.
I’ve made a couple of frames and cradles. Here’s one for the fly’s eye piece (which will have a small fly in the back:
I mixed some “bronzing powder” into a blue-green mix of acrylic to get an iridescent effect, hopefully reminiscent of a house fly’s body. The frame is almost 3 inches thick, and the top piece floats a quarter inch off the frame.
Next up: 
Again, a deep cradle to make it feel like you are really peering into the keyhole. This is for the “Somebody’s checking out your ass” piece.
I also prototyped using copper pipe as magnifying glass holders:
Of course, if you saw if from an angle it would look more interesting:
I tried etching text into the pipe by masking with paint, scraping off text (“BLAH BLAH BLAH…”), and having it sit in an acid bath for two hours. I’m not thrilled with how the etching came out. Looks a bit sloppy.
Speaking of etching, I also tried etching the dolls at last. Here they are after painting and two passes of the laser to etch off the text “So it goes.”
I then let them sit in an HCl acid bath for 5 hours. Unfortunately, the paint wasn’t an adequate acid resist, and it broke down, so the result is crap. I think I need to use an enamel paint instead of an acrylic one. Grrrr.
On the bright side, I do like the rusted look as it will go better with the bombsight. I’m thinking maybe just rust the letters instead of trying to etch them. Only problem would be sealing the metal so the rusting action is halted. I may just screw it and keep it in the painted state, but use a different color than black.
In other news, I got some roofing copper that I played around with. Here is an embossing experiment:
And while I was on the laser at TechShop, I etched a hand onto some nice thick acrylic that I scored at Building Resources:
On Sunday, I met with Mauri Skinfill of Unspeakable Projects. She gave me some very good feedback on my direction, and confirmed some of the doubts I’ve been having about my recent work. The decorative frames that I’ve been making are cute, but not really all that interesting; they distract from the elegance of the magnifying glasses and text. She encouraged me to also work on the military themed pieces- gas mask, bombsight, and to make multiples of each. I’ve been wanting to make more gas masks, so it was nice to hear. To that end, I’ve ordered a bunch more online. Some are being shipped directly from Russia! I’ve been doing some thinking as to clarify what it is I am trying to achieve in this series. I’ll keep you posted…
Today I spent some time on a laser working on the Mandelbrot piece again. Instead of just using the Mandelbrot set as decoration, I’ve made the piece itself fractal. It resembles itself in that it repeats the Mandelbrot set and magnifying glasses on multiple planes of depth. I’d show a photo, but they didn’t come out at all on my phone’s camera. I’ve used shiny black acrylic this time to get a mirror effect, and to go with a black plastic magnifier. Unfortunately, I think it’s too dark and may need to jazz it up a bit. FYI, in the center, on the backmost plane, I will have circle with the text “It’s turtles all the way down.” Added bonus is that the Mandelbrot looks vaguely turtle-ish. I’m debating on decorating the piece with turtles.
I also decided what do to with the doll chain ring. I will etch on the text “So it goes” over and over. Bravo to those who catch the reference. I was contemplating using a list of bombed cities, but it seemed a bit too obvious – too much like a war memorial. This is more cryptic, and from the bomber’s perspective, more appropriate.
Today, as promised, I finished “ceci n’est pas ceci n’est pas une pipe”:
After trying plumbers’ epoxy and generic sniffing glue without success, I got lucky with good old two part stinky epoxy. On this piece, I purposely didn’t polish or put any wax on the joint pieces. I’d like them to slowly change over time.
I also did some research on pipe bending, and figured out why I had such little success. Turns out there is soft copper like the skinny stuff I used above, and hard copper which is white the pipes are made out of. It has to due with annealing and work hardening, and I’ll let you wikipedia that yourselves. I need to get some half inch soft copper. It’s pricey, unfortunately, but it will look good and is easy to work with.
I have a couple of pieces which are gold colored. For those, I’d like to have brass instead of copper. Brass is an alloy of zinc and copper. I am going to experiment with zinc plating again – I’ve got some stripped pennies sitting in a cup of vinegar right now to get the electroplating solution prepped. I’ll add some salt and sugar for the electroplating itself For the curious, salt because it conducts electricity, and sugar because it prevents crystals of zinc from growing big. It results in a thicker shinier finish. If and when I get the pipe plated, I’ll then heat it up so the surface zinc blends with the copper forming brass. Mind you, this is all great on paper, but always harder in practice. Science!
I also experimented with making my own iridescent pigment by adding aluminum powder to acrylic paint. It works fairly well, though I may try getting some mica powder instead, as that’s more standard, and less hazardous to work with. I plan on using it on the honeycomb/fly piece. I’d like to have the surface resemble the green/blue iridescence of a house fly.
Tomorrow I’ll be buying some wood and have some time on the laser at Techshop. There are a few more frames I need to make (and remake). I may also try laying down an etching mask on the doll chain.
And lastly, I spoke with the gallery owner whom I met at open studios. She would like to show my work in a popup show in the coming months. I’m meeting her at my studio on Sunday. I’ll keep you posted.
Today was a profitable day, as I sold 5 plaster heads and Some Handsome Hands to Geoff, the owner of the Art Explosion. I also sold an El Camino etching to David, the boyfriend of Cricket, one of the artists in the studio. It’s nice to free up some wall space for my current work, and of course, nice to find loving homes for the pieces.
I also finally finished the gas mask! After trying several different ways of suspending the pennies behind the eyes (one was using a spring which didn’t work in this piece but will appear in another one), I came up with the idea of using wire mesh. I wanted something eye catching when distorted by the magnifying glass, and the mesh has a fishnet stocking effect (gee, where have I seen that before?). It also is evocative of prison bars, which adds an extra little Abu Ghraib to the piece. Here are some photos:
This is the “you are on” eye, though it’s hard to read in the photo. See how the mesh distorts? Cool, huh? As you walk around, it appears to undulate.
Here you can see the text of the “the wrong side” eye. This photo is taken from slightly further away, so the penny fills the eye.
This is a piece which started out as an idea – a gas mask with “you are on/the wrong side” behind the eyes, and wound up evolving into a much more complex and visually interesting object. I’m quite pleased with the result, and may revisit the idea once I finish with the current series. I learned some interesting techniques making it and would like to explore the possibilities on more pieces.
I also assembled the Magritte pipes, though am having trouble gluing them all together in a satisfactory manner. It should be done tomorrow.
Today I went down to Menlo Park to use the CNC Plasma cutter at last. I intended to cut a Shanty Town sign for the studio, but was told that the corrugated metal that I bought at Building Resources was galvanized steel which can be very toxic if melted due to chromium gas that is produced. Think Erin Brockovich. No thank you. People were also a bit pessimistic about whether the machine could deal with the corrugation, so brain cancer aside, it probably wouldn’t have worked.
I did, however, cut my doll chain successfully!
This is 18 gauge mild steel. Note the slight imperfections. This is due to the curve actually being non-contiguous in the software, so the cutter starts and stops repeatedly. Dealing with Corel Draw was quite a pain in the neck. Initially I had lots of duplicate lines which were a mystery – turns out each line was actually a very skinny outline with a top and a bottom. I then switched to Adobe Illustrator and had better luck, but still couldn’t get the vectors contiguous (if I spend another hour or two, I could probably figure it out.) Another option would be to hack the G-code, but that would be a royal pain.
I put the metal on the roller to produce the above. Turns out, with the slag (the extra melted goop that is produced), and width of the kerf (cutting beam), it’s slightly too small to fit around the bomb sight, and also slightly too high – I was careless on the height. This is what it looks like:
So I made another, this time with 7 figures instead of six as I found the six dolls a bit fat, and thought an odd number might look more interesting. Here is what I cut:
I sandblasted this one and cleaned up a bit of the slag. I haven’t bent it yet since I am thinking about etching it first, and to do so I need it to be flat. I also want to figure out the rest of the mount before I commit to shaping it.
As it turns out, the machine was quite easy to use. It was the crappy software that held me up. All told, I spent around 5 hours to produce the above. The machine itself is pretty quick, even with the superfluous stops and starts. Take a look at a video of the Plasma cutter cutting the above.
While I was at TechShop, I also cut some vinyl to be used for the holder for the tank periscope. Here it is, complete with transfer paper applied:
I got it to print properly the first time. Yay! Spent about a half hour weeding it out, and for the most part had no issues. Now I’m debating on whether to use it as a positive or a negative, and whether I want to etch or not with it. I could either use the vinyl itself as an acid resist, or I can use it as a stencil for some spray paint which would them become the positive. I could also use that paint as an acid resist if I etch.
If I use thin copper, I can use the etchant as a cutting solution – if you leave it on a long time, it will essentially dissolve anything not masked, thus cutting out the letters. This is a nice option for thin metal where the plasma cutter is overkill and sloppy.
I also have some questions in my head about how to best make the support itself. I don’t want to cover too much of the periscope as its metal is quite attractive. Also, if I cut instead of etching, I’ll have to deal with stenciling issues.
Science!
