Tag Archives: art

Works in Progress

Travels during July kept studio time down a bit, so I thought I’d share shots of art dolls in progress this week.  I’m busy working on a couple of outdoor “garden dolls” for a fall show, and building gallery inventory back up from recent sales.

Each face starts as a disk of copper that I cut from 16 oz stock, flame anneal, and hammer into shape. Cutting, sanding and polishing bring each face to completion.

annealed copper disk with face outline

Annealed copper disk with face outline

Hammering face into shape

Hammering a face into shape

Copper face after shaping and polishing

Copper face after shaping and polishing

Eyes are fashioned from copper or brass headed fasteners onto which I torch fire powdered glass enamels.  By mixing opaque and transparent colors I can achieve an infinite variety of colors.

Hands I shape from copper tubing hammered and cut to form the sculpture’s wrist, palm, and four of the fingers.  Wire brazed into a notch cut on the side of the palm forms each thumb.

Close up of the hands of "Whee!"

Close up of the hands of “Whee!”

Next week I’ll share a few more bits and pieces.

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Show Tonight

Just enough time this afternoon to send out one additional “hope to see you” for this evening, Friday from 6-9. All of the gallery rooms at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts have been rehung so there is new work to be seen everywhere, not just my new art dolls and the wonderful new paintings by Linda Carmel, and Marcy Lansman. The show, Attention to Detail is bright and bold.

Attention to detail

A few sneak peek shots of Attention to detail

All of Hillsborough will be out and about during Last Friday. music on the courthouse steps starts at 6. And there will be lots to do and see as usual.

Got to go and get the second batch of cheese straws out of the oven for he reception tonight.

New Work, Shows, and the Concrete

This week I am turning my attention and energy into high gear getting ready for a couple of shows.  The first will take place in a couple of weeks in Durham NC.  It will be the first time I have attended an art doll show.  Even though most of the dolls  that will be in that show are not the type of figure sculpture art dolls that I create, it will still be interesting to see how they are received by a non-gallery audience.  It is also a very different display format than I am used to, so my mind is full of table display ideas and projects too,

That doesn’t mean that I haven’t been busy in the studio as well.  I have two dolls that I have just completed this week.  The first is simply named Lily.  She is seated and appears to be thinking about something. She has an expression as if she is just about to tell you something very interesting.

art doll Lily

Lily

The second doll is Garden 1.  She is the first of a series of indoor or outdoor art doll sculptures.  I cast her torso in concrete using a discarded beverage bottle for a form. I think she would look as great sitting within a flower bed, as on some indoor display space.

art doll Garden 1

Garden 1

Both will make their debut in Durham at the Down East Doll Show June 18-22.

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Another Mask and a Bit of Concrete

I had started working on a second doll with an enameled mask even before the recent sale of her predecessor “Carnivale”.  Taking my hand hammered copper faces to a new place with the addition of torch fired enamel provides a multitude of new design and color options.

Mirro Mask art doll

Mirror Mask art doll

This doll, Mirror Mask, has an additional bit of intrigue for the viewer.  Where Carnivale was wearing her mask and only allowed a glimpse of her enameled eyes, Mirror Mask has pulled her mask slightly away from her face.  What the viewer glimpses behind is their own image in a mirror. With her hair piled high and bejeweled, and her peacock hued gown and walking stick, she’s obviously off to a very interesting ball.

The other piece I’ve been working on this week goes in a different direction.  While still technically an art doll, she will be one that can reside inside or out.  I have several shows coming up in the next few months, and at least one takes place in a garden setting.  I’ve decided to create some “garden dolls” for that show. the torso of the first is cast concrete utilizing a recycled plastic bottle for my form.  She is still curing in my outside workspace, so ill wait to share an image of her in my next post.

 

 

Posting and Sharing

art doll - Reading

Reading

I just finished setting up a Flickr feed as another place to share images of my art dolls.  Why? Like many artists I try to increase the exposure of my work to a wider audience.  Exactly the best way to do this online is a question I see raised often.  If I’m to believe the greatest portion of my blog comments and replies (spam) some people have Search Engine Optimization and web promotion all figured out, and they are only too happy to help you increase yours… for a fee, of course.

The fact that the landscape keeps changing, and what worked last year no longer does, makes it even more challenging.  Anyone with a separate Facebook fan page for their work knows that now even those who had taken the time to “like” your page probably don’t see your posts on their news feed.  You have to pay to “boost” your posts, or run ads for that to happen.  I got another such surprise when I went to add a new image to my Fine Art America page last week.  As a 3D artists I never had any reason to use their paid service to sell prints or canvases of my work.  Recently, they limited the number of images that free users could have to 25.  I have about four times that already.  I’d have to sit and delete 75+ one at a time to add just one new piece of work.  You can upgrade to a premium account to address the issue. Needless to say, don’t check there for my new work.

Hopefully, some of the new things I’ve added like Pinterest boards and a Flickr stream, or that I’ve done like changing the way I name and tag images will help.  There are some things I’m still researching like coordinated Instagram and Twitter usage. Others, like opening an Etsy shop, I just don’t think are for me.

Right here where you are on my blog will remain the best way to keep up with what I’m working on, like “Reading” that I photographed earlier today.  If you’re an artist friend, share what you do or are trying to get your work out. I’d love to hear.

Thinking Inside The Box

In my last post I mentioned that creating a piece for a theme can sometimes prove more of a challenge than expected. Each year we host two themed shows to start off the calendar at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts. This year’s January show is titled 22 Squared. We installed this show yesterday morning, and there are as many interpretations of that title as there are artists in the gallery.

Now, you’d think that such a non-specific open-to-interpretation title would be easy to create for. But I was stumped. Most of my current work consists of art doll figure sculptures. I didn’t want to just create a doll, and put her into some contortionist pose, place her in or on a frame, or balancing on a box. Nothing stuck me.

Instead, I decided to take a step back, and think on the square. For a 3D artist this would mean a box. So I started by creating a wooden shadow box. Next, came a glass front for the box. Instead of a simple sheet of glass, I pulled out my stained glass stash and made a somewhat steampunk looking front.

For the interior, I thought on boxes themselves. What do we use them for? We use them to carry, to hold, to protect, to hide, or to contain. The box that I had made looked like it would protect something valuable, but also obscure and hide a bit of the contents. The steampunk flavor of the glass front lead me to a clockwork heart. We certainly try to protect and shield our hearts. This mechanical pacemaker needed someone to tend and maintain it. I recycled a simple figure from a previous piece to wind this delicate time piece and become The Clock Keeper. The interior was made complete with the addition of an antique looking paper with a pattern of watch faces that I applied to the back before installing the contents.

The Clock Keeper

The Clock Keeper

22 squared will be on display at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts from January 27th to February 23rd. The opening reception is this Friday the 31st from 6-9 pm.

Themes and Challenges

I would guess that most often artists find themselves creating from their own ideas, or perhaps those of a patron for a commission.  Occasionally we do create for an upcoming show’s predetermined theme.  For these shows serendipity can sometimes play a role, and when a “call-to-artists” is read there is already something completed and on hand that is just right. Other times you have to sit down with the sketchbook and think of something that perhaps you wouldn’t have.

In general, I like creating for these shows, and the way they force you to stretch creatively.  That is not to say that some do not drive me to distraction.  About a month ago I worked on one such piece.  I’ll share that one in a couple of weeks when the show goes up in the gallery.

Below is my newest art doll “Wednesday’s Child.”  She was created in answer to a monthly challenge that is posted by an art doll group that I belong to.  I hadn’t created any dolls to date that were based on nursery rhymes, though it does seem a natural area for fodder given the medium.  Gesture in these small figures is always a focus for me.  I think her body language says woe, but hopefully she’s thinking of ways to make things better.

Wednesday's Child

Wednesday’s Child

 

The Art of Selling With Out Selling

I added several new things to the site today.  The first is my latest art doll creation, Carnival.  As you can see she is masked and ready to attend a ball in Venice. She stands on her own with the help of her very fancy walking stick, and an interesting pair of metal shoes.  Her face is torch-fired white enamel and metallic paint on hand-hammered copper.

Carnival - $275

Carnival

If you look at her addition to my Art Dolls page you will also notice that she and all my other available dolls now have a price listed beside their title.

I have been researching different on-line sales options lately.  To tell the truth, it made my head spin.  If you do a search on selling art there are literally hundreds of options from the sprawling Etsy stores to small juried media specific options.  Some are free, some charge percentages, others a membership fee and all claim to be able to put your work before millions and millions of collectors.

I decided that I’d first try to see what would happen if I added the option to my own site.  So, you may also notice a new page listed in the menu titled Art Doll Purchase.  I figured that since my dolls really are one of a kind figure sculptures, that I would handle any inquiries with collectors one-on-one as well.

I will be trying to add and keep the doll gallery as up to date as possible, and will be phasing out listing new work on my Fine Art America page, as they are more suited to 2D work, and  don’t seem to show up as high on searches anymore.  Besides, all the double listing and updating, is getting a bit too time consuming.

If you were wondering about my other sculptures, for the time being I’m only going to do this with my art dolls as they are much more shipping friendly.

Happy New Year!

(apologies to the Dragon for the title paraphrase)

Steam

My most recent art doll, Steam, is dressed in her steampunk finest complete with “leather” top hat, goggles, metal boustier, and knee high boots.  She looks all ready for a trip in a time machine.  I  was challenged by scale of fabric patterns with this piece.  Little beings can easily be swallowed up in a pattern made for the clothing or furniture of us giants. I found a black and white plaid to work into her skirt.

 

Steam

Steam

Sometimes this question of scale requires taking matters into your own hands. This “tie-dye” on my piece Janice, I did with Sharpie markers and alcohol added with a dropper.

Janice's tie-dye shirt

Janice’s tie-dye shirt

Whee!

Coasting down a hill, pigtails blown back, feet off the pedals.  That feeling of childhood freedom is what I was trying to capture with “Whee!” There is something charming and sculptural about the form of a bicycle itself that adds something to a piece like this.  I have a feeling that a few more such figures are in my future.

Whee!

Whee!

 

I knew that I wanted to create something different with my second bicycle piece, a challenge of Whee was to try to catch a moment of a figure in motion.  My first doll with a bike, simply titled “Bicycle” was a larger turn-of-the-century attired rider atop a vintage styled bike.  I’m not too sure, but I think that Whee is having just a bit more fun.

Bicycle

Bicycle