For tomorrow’s “Explorations of San Francisco Realism” show at the Art Explosion I made this installation (click on it for a larger version and zoom to read tags)

Here are some other images

Tonight’s opening was a fun affair. “I’m not telling” found a happy home. It was my first gallery sale, so it felt extra good. I realize I need to schmooze with potential buyers a bit more. I’ve always been a bit shy about that, but the one time tonight that  I walked over and talked to to people looking at my work,  they wound up buying.

This was one of my favorites and perhaps the most elaborate construction in the series.

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:

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:

Nuclear Family

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.