a few pics

Dreamer

This is a ceramic piece that i made a few years ago.   Looking back, it was a lot of work but it was worth it.   Each wishbone was hand carved from a solid block of clay that I had pounded into a mold.   I remember enjoying the process of packing the clay into the molds, letting them dry a few days and then using a steak knife and a potato peeler to shave away slivers of moist clay until all that was left was a wishbone.   Carving and handling the moist clay really allowed me to feel connected to the material, it was a very rewarding experience.   I felt the same way when I was carving stone and wood.    

I included this sculpture in my BFA show but because of space limitations it was hung against a wall which was not the ideal place for this piece.   Because of it's height and location, it wasn't possible to get a good picture of it during the show.   Outdoors was where I originally envisioned this piece.    I wanted it to look as though it were an endless ladder reaching up into the sky... an invitation to explore, to search, to look for answers; I wanted the unbelievable, if only for a second, to be believable.   Once again, like my cannon piece, this sculpture became a "prop" to tell a story.   It became an installation rather then an "object".   The picture and the location tells more then the ladder could ever do by itself hanging in a gallery.   I think in a way I'm drawn to the childlike "realness" of this... if that makes sense.   As a kid, like most kids, I dreamed of "digging a hole to China" or "if i ran fast enough I could fly" and "if I built a ladder tall enough I could reach the stars".   It's that childlike "faith" that I'm interested in.   When we are kids we believe with all our hearts that the world is full of magic, that anything is possible if we simply believe it is.   We believe this until we learn or we're told otherwise.   As we get older and supposedly "wiser" we discover the "man behind the curtain", "the real truth", clouds are just clouds, stars are just stars and places we were told existed really don't exist.  But one can still dream... right?!

Awesome little cast resin random metal doo-dad thingies!

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you have to make a choice "should I buy this giant pile of widgets even though I have no idea what i'm going to do with them but they're so damn cool that it would be a crime not to buy them!?" of course you have!  Good I feel better now.   I found these little fellas hiding in a grungy green milk crate beneath an old work bench at the junk store the other day.   I was awestruck as soon as I saw them... my mind suddenly racing with ideas for future usage! (cabinet door knobs, table tops, lamp pulls, paper weights and so on).    The tag on the crate didn't help much, all it said was "sales samples".    When I got them home and started looking at them closer,  there's probably 300 of them (blue, brownish maroon, black and clear), I realized what they were...I think.    This is just a theory, based on the available evidence; it looks like they came from a material research lab of some sort.   All the little pieces incased in the resin are defects from industrial metal parts.   I think what happens is a manufacturer sends defect parts, etc, to this research lab and then they grind the piece smooth on one side and then pour resin over it incasing it in a resin block.  Then they probably place it under a microscope of some sort so they can study the metal to see what went wrong.   I'm thinking it's some sort of industrial material Forensic lab for small manufactured metal parts.   I suppose they find out what made it fail, what "killed" it!   On the back of each resin "core" there are "LAB ID" numbers and "notes" etched into them.    Some of them say "FAIL" or "GOOD" and a few even say "SPECIAL INVESTIGATION" which of course leads me to believe the FBI must have been involved.    I imagine they were TOP SECRET evidence from a ghastly industrial factory incident.    A small part in a big noisy machine decides one day he can't take the pressure any longer and snaps, sending an explosion of machine guts piercing through the air, maiming and killing anyone in the vicinity... these things happen!  I guess now it's my responsibility to give these little trouble makers a brighter future.  I'm sure it will take a lot of late night brain storming, decision making and lots of coffee but I'm up for the challenge!

new work

Ingredients: TP and Nylon ratchet strap

"Old Woman WIth Pink Hat"

This is a piece that I've been thinking about for awhile now.  I found the walking cane at... you guessed it! The Maumee Antique Store.  It was $6 so I figured I wasn't out much if it didn't work.   This is just a preliminary photo shoot but I'm happy with the way it turned out.   I'm not sure about the brick wall,  I'll have to think about that some more.   I'm digging the milk jug!   In the right light I can see it having an almost marble like quality too it.   This piece is quite a departure from my work at BGSU.  My work there was very traditional; I worked mostly with wood, bronze, clay, glass and cast iron.   In the two years I've been out of school,  I've found myself more and more attracted to, and heading towards, a more conceptual/ installation type of work.   I still see myself working with traditional materials but maybe not quite as much. 

ABUSED but REUSED: the story of three industrial seed pods rescued from a life of abuse and neglect

As far as I'm concerned,  there's not a better time to be had than spending a couple of hours at a junk yard with friends.   If you're lucky you may even walk away with some treasures tucked under your arm!   Awhile back, my friends, Sayaka and Momoko, asked me if I would like to join them on a trip to a little junk yard a few miles south of Bowling Green.  Of course I said YES, how could I pass up an offer to visit a new junk yard!  At first it wasn't much different than most of the junk yards I had been too, the old saying "if you've seen one you've seen them all" came to mind.   That is until I came across these neglected little gems strewn across the cold wet ground.   It was love at first sight, who knew junk could be so beautiful!  In this case, one man's trash was my treasure. 
The man at the junk yard informed us that they were grinders used for grinding rock and dirt.   When the little "finger nubs" wore down, or fell out, the heads were replaced with new ones.  He said we could have them for free if we wanted them, who was I to argue!  I quickly gathered them up in my arms and off we went.   It's amazing, and ironic actually, how organic and seed poddish they look seeing as how they were used to grind and crush rocks and plants and dare I say maybe even a stray seed pod unfortunate enough to have landed in their path.  Anyway, on the way home I mentioned how cool they would look if I placed marbles in the empty holes where the "nubs" had fallen out.   When I got home that's exactly what i did and sure enough they did look cool!                        

My pennies have a new home!

Yet another reason the Maumee Antique Store ROCKS!   How could anyone pass up this AWESOME "Henny Penny Bank"?!  I don't collect banks or even own one actually,  well not until now anyway;  but I just couldn't pass this one up!  It has a great folk art feel to it; I love the simplicity of it.   It's basically an upside down bowl form with a "pinched" piece of clay for the comb and a little beak and two little holes drilled in it for eyes.   I bet my friend Jess Benjamin will be jealous; she's a great ceramic artist out in Omaha, Nebraska.   Eat your heart out Jess!!  Now I don't have a choice, I'll have to save my pennies, see I knew there was a reason I bought this!

foundry molds

This past Sunday I decided to go hunting at one of my favorite places,  the Maumee Antique Store.  I was in search of  Unique Objects of Interest (UOI's for short) It turned out to be a very good hunting day indeed!  Check out these COOL antique wooden foundry molds!!  They're like little modernist works of art.   Best of all they were dirt cheap, I don't think the owner realized how much they were worth.  I did some checking around; I got a very good deal! The biggest one was only $10 and the others ranged between $4 and $6!  The big one is a hat mold used to form and shape hats.  The red and black engine block looking one was probably used as a mold for sand casting.   I'm not sure about the smaller red and black one.   The two narrow ones are a pair, male and female, they nest up against each other;  they look like molds of some sort for an old desk drawer handle.  I love all the markings on them,  it shows they were used.   My favorite, out of all of them, is the small rectangular box mold.  It has such a rich brown patina and an ancient hand carved feel to it.   I threw in some wishbones I had lying around (believe it or not I do have wishbones lying around...hmmm imagine that)  the contrast of the white bones against the rich brown luster of the wood told me they were meant for each other.     It was a very successful hunt, I bagged some great trophies and I even found some cool art books to boot,  what more could I have asked for?!!

Art at the bottom of my bowl

YOU CAN DO IT TOO! all you need is a cereal bowl, any color will do,  preferably a darker color so you can see it; some yogurt, and a spoon.  First you add the yogurt to the bowl,  I like to add grapes to mine but plain yogurt will do just fine; than you proceed to eat the yogurt until there's nothing left except swirled spoon trails of yogurt residue.  There you have it, your very own yogurt painting!!   Good Luck!

Me, Myself and I

Have you ever stood in front of a mirror and had a stare down with yourself?  I mean some serious staring, you have to really look into your eyes.  After a while of doing this you begin to feel yourself pulling away from the person in the mirror,  you even begin to question who that person is staring back at you, it can be sort of disconcerting.   If you haven't tried it you really must!  I decided to take it a step further and add another mirror.    Now when I look at this picture I feel like a voyeur watching me locked in a three way stare down with myself.  

agrarian cathedral

Old barns are great story tellers, they have the power to transport you to another time and place if you take the time to listen.   The stories this barn could tell would surely win the pulitzer prize for literature!   As soon as I squeezed through the giant doors and stepped inside I knew I was in the presence of greatness.   It was the same powerful feeling I felt the first time I entered the Duomo in Florence, Italy.   This Cathedral is a little closer to home, near Bloomsburg, PA at the home of my friends Greg and Meg Mueller.