More Metalsmithing Pics!

Rutilated quartz cabs set in hand-stamped copper with glass beads.

Hand-stamped copper and agate beads.

"The Boy He Was" (2017)

Tintype set in copper, with Victorian-era photo, rutilated quartz and glass beads.

"Haunted" (2017)

Tintype set in copper with glass beads and early 20th-century post correspondence

Learning to Metalsmith

Fresh from the studio, two kinetic necklaces:

(top) moonstone and citrines set in copper;
(bottom) rutilated quartz and citrine set in copper.

On me: Moonstone set in copper
                 & glass bead kinetic necklace.

Getting Ready for Idea Furnace! Molds 1 & 2 of 4

Getting ready for December's Idea Furnace at Pittsburgh Glass Center! Glass Artist Jason Forck will be creating a Radium Girl, which will glow by way of a bulb inside the Radium Girl's skull, which will be green. Below is an image of the original project concept. We've moved the opening for the light into the neck area, as we'll pass a bulb up into the center of the skull.

In anticipation of Idea Furnace, we're in heavy mold-making mode here. This morning, we poured the plaster for the skull. Next, I will be sculpting the face and hair, as the Radium Girl--let's call her Doreen--will be three dimensional. Here's what our basement looked like this morning:



Michael made adjustable mold boxes that we secure with clamps

Savannah fixed the clay neck to the front of the skull. This wide neck
will create a channel through which a light bulb will be able to pass.

The back of the skull is in a separate mold box. Saran wrap still covers
the clay, since we don't want it to dry out. I'll need to dig the clay out
of the plaster mold once it dries completely.  

Fussing with the front of the skull. Fuss, fuss, fuss....

Creating a crisper neck line...it's super long on purpose.

...and we had a whoopsie here. Savannah is fixing it.

Michael adjusts the molds after we measure so that we get each head half
exactly centered.

We 'bunged up' the inside corners with clay so they won't leak plaster once
it's poured.



Savannah wrestling with the plaster bag to open it.



And the poured molds....we'll take them apart tonight and
Savannah will start digging the clay out.

 

We'll be pouring the molds for the Radium Girl face and back of her head soon. Stay tuned!

 

The Dream Chair.....completed.

Oh, I know the video is sideways....I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to alter it and still have it be a Windows Media Player file. But here is the Dream Chair, which I first started creating in 2012.

Stacks, Paintings, Ink!

 

 

 

The cover of my 8-page 'zine for the Stacks exhibition at
Light Grey Art Lab in Minneapolis, Minnesota



Page 2 & 3 from "The Year was 1988" 'zine



Page 5 from "The Year was 1988" 'zine.

Page 2 from "The Year was 1988" 'zine.



"The Pirate's Lover" is finally done and ready for the
October exhibition at York Arts' City Art Gallery. The
exhibition, Women in Water, will benefit Animal Rescue
in New Freedom, PA

"The Pirate" will also be part of the Women in Water
benefit exhibition.

"Autumn" and "Loretta" in the Pittsburgh Print Group's Ink exhibition
at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh until October 31, 2014

Michael snapped a pic of me at the opening on August 21.

And fun things abound....

The all-consuming beard....underway!

Stay tuned for an update on what I'm working on!

Exhibitions and doin's...

Three pages from my Blair Mountain comic now appears at HIVE artspace on King Street
in York, PA as part of the "Illustrated" show. So excited to be part of this!

A pile of soft sculptures and clay masks that will appear in my solo
October show at City Gallery @York Arts

I've been making new works for a show with the
Pittsburgh Print Group this August....more on this
soon!

And....I've been making more collages. This one is called "Look Here, Young Man!"
 

Paintings, both almost complete and underway....

"Pirate Lover" (almost finished)

Something new....a mermaid box! The underpainting has begun.

Another angle of the new mermaid box....

The pre-tattooed and in-progress "Pirate," complete with Blackbeard's candles.

Upcoming Exhibitions and new collages....

My postcard for the October exhibition in York is being printed now!

A glimpse of one of the pages from my 'zine, which will be on
exhibition and for sale at Light Grey Art Lab in Minneapolis in August!

 

"The Well Dressed Pickle," now for sale at Saatchi online!

"Apokalypse. Himmel.," now for sale at Saatchi online!

New Paintings & Collages....

So, I think I have fallen for collage-making....I was never excited about it in the past, but lately, so many possibilities have opened themselves up, and I can create moods and combinations that I can't achieve with painting or drawing. Here are a few of what I've produced so far....

"She Dreamed of Willow Ware" (2014)
vintage paper and cyanotypes on paperboard

"Que La" (2014) vintage paper, original drawing, and sheet music
cover on paper.

"Weimar" (2014) vintage paper, sheet music,
and cyanotypes on paper. (an homage to
my graduate study specialization...1920s
German art).

In other news, I continue to work on paintings for the Animal Rescue benefit exhibition that I'll have in York (details to follow very soon because I will need to produce post cards and press releases). Here's a glimpse of one of the paintings as it is in progress (it should look familiar, as I posted the underpainting steps before .... and even before-before, as it progressed).

"The Pirate's Lover" (in progress) and on the easel.

The pirate....more on him soon. I just have the
most basic underpainting started here.