Tag Archives: elephant

The Price of Elephant Dance

The title is me playing around with things that help a piece of digital content be found by search engines. I do not think my tinkering in this post will really bring any more traffic to my little art blog. It is a price I’m paying for my own education and entertainment.

Annual Feature Show

Right now, I am beginning to decide what sculptures to hold for my feature show, or make available immediately. I also need to decide which images to use to highlight that show. I reassess these decisions as work sells, and my gallery inventory dwindles. This year my feature show is in September, so I will hopefully be making many such decisions between now and then. Perhaps you all can help me decide with the sculptures below? I will update you if the availability status any work changes for any reason.

The title of the feature show I am in is RECIPROCUS. As you might guess, that is the latin root for the word reciprocal. We artists in a show come up with our titles together. I suggested “Interactions”, as several pieces I had been working on recently had two or more figures in them. A previous FA show already used that title, so Reciprocus was suggested as an alternative.

Elephant Elevation

Anthropomorphic elephant pair helping each other climb. needle felted wool art doll figure sculpture — Ele-vate

Ele-vate is a pair of elephant babies helping each other climb. They are needle felted wool over wire and batting, and are integrated with the wooden blocks they are climbing. Yes, the title is a terrible bit of punning, but you just have to go with it sometimes.

Everything has a Price

Anthropomorphic zebra with stripes that run into a barcode. needle felted wool art doll figure sculpture — Everything Has a Price

This sculpture features a lone zebra who’s stripes become a barcode. This piece is sort of a nod to the other big project I worked on for the past year or so, leading a team to set up HGA’s point of sale system. At times it felt like that was my job. This sculpture captures that. He is needle felted wool over wire and batting. Though this scupture is a lone figure, I created him with the intention that he is looking directly at the viewer and interacting with them.

Crane Dance

Anthropomorphic pair of dancing Japanese cranes. needle felted wool art doll figure sculpture — Dance

My cranes are captured in a moment within their courtship dance. They evoke human behavior with out the need to be contrived. The cranes are a combination of needle felting and nano felting (wings) over wire and batting. Their legs combine black yarn and needle felted wool roving. The delicate pair is joined together, and they support and balance each other to stand on ther own.

Reminder:

The new show, It’s All About The Story, Volume IX – Jaki Shelton Green, opens at HGA next week. The opening reception will be during the Last Friday Art Walk on the 24th. The piece I shared last week, Rabbit Games and Midnight Rainbows will be part of that show.

On a Roll?

Where are the posts?

Hi reader. I was working on a commission piece. I can’t write about that yet, because it’s a surprise. As a result, you haven’t heard from me in a while. After I put that work to rest, I was able to get into the studio and start working from my sketchbook again. This is now a bit of a crunch. I need to get together the body of work for my featured artist show. I’ve shared a few pieces already that will be in that show, and will continue to do that until the show opens. I’ll save you the full litany of the things aside from creating the art that needs to happen between now and then (photography, editing, inventory, writing statements, social media…) I will just say it is a lot, and get to work.

Roll on

My newest piece is titled, Roll. She is a young elephant who appears to be having a great time on her trike. She is the latest in a line of art doll figures on bikes that I’ve created.

"Roll" anthropomorphic elephant art doll sculpture on handcrafted steampunk push tricycle. Needle felted wool figure. — Roll (left side view)

Roll brought me back into my garage work space for a while. I fabricated her handlebars, and bike frame from heavy gauge copper wire and brass tubing. The bike seat is hand sewn purple faux leather. The wheels are caster parts. The trike’s back deck is a piece of painted wood trim. Once the trike was finished, I knew how big to make the wire armature for the figure.

Roll herself herself is needle felted wool over a quilt batting wrapped wire frame. She has iridescent black glass beads for eyes. I finished this figure off with a small pink bow on her head, and light turquoise colored skirt.

The intention for this piece was to both capture motion, and to be able to provide motion. Yes, the sculpture does actually live up to her name and rolls.

I also wanted to make sure that Roll conveys the joy of her movement. Her bright expression as the wind blows back her trunk and ears says it all.

Rolling into HGA in September

Roll and all her friends will be at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts the last week of September.

What Now For Newest Work?

I’m asking “what now?” because I find myself with a very different schedule this year. Normally, I would have finished helping with our annual juried show and made pieces for our group shows. Then it’s Valentine’s jewelry items, and start pieces for my featured show. For the past two years I had a feature show in April, and had two months to get all my new work complete. This year my show is in September. You would think this space would provide freedom, and it does creatively speaking. The trick is deciding just what to do with the work as each piece is completed. Do I make the new piece I’m excited about available on Etsy, in the gallery, or the gallery online shop? Or, do I hold it back as part of a new body of work I’ll present in my feature show?

I’ve completed two new pieces since my last posting and have no Idea what I’m doing with either Just yet. I’ll just share them both with you and figure it out later.

A Baby

A baby elephant to be exact. I think we all could use a bit of optimism right about now. This piece is titled Looking Up, and and seems happy with what she sees. “Looking” appears quite pleased with the bright red ballon she’s holding in her trunk.

Looking Up, anthropomorphic elephant sculpture art doll, needle felted wool — Looking Up

I sculpted the elephant figure’s body from quilt batting without an internal wire skeleton. There is a wire hidden within her balloon’s string that allows it to hover above her trunk. The elephant sits abut 7 inches high, and the top of the balloon measures just below 13 inches.

A Puffin Is What Now?

I become somewhat done with puffins following the holidays. I crank out quite a few of my puffin ornaments, and am not ready to even think of them again until maybe August. But this puffin figure was just asking to be made. He’s based on a photo I shot when we visited Iceland. One puffin landed quite near, and stood for what seemed an eternity showing off his catch. I created a relief sculpture panel of his photo, but felt he needed to become a fully fleshed figure.

Proud Fisherman, anthropomorphic puffin sculpture art doll, needle felted wool — Proud Fisherman

Titled, Proud Fisherman, this anthropomorphic piece captures what we felt the tiny bird was trying to communicate to us. He was so happy with his catch. Proud Fisherman is needle felted wool over a quilt batting and wire frame. His bucket style fishing hat has beaded lures. His glass bead eyes are sewn in place. The hat, large beak, and fish make the proud fisherman a little top heavy, so this piece has a needle felted “rock” sandbag that serves as ballast. This art doll figure stands about 9 inches tall, and has the same comical charm of his real life inspiration.

“What now?” for these two anthropomorphic art doll sculptures? Don’t know, What do you think?

Wartski Art Dolls and Sculpture

Art dolls and mixed media sculpture