Tag Archives: figure

Past, Present, and Future

Past and Present

I will get to the future soon enough. I missed sharing with you a couple of ornaments that went to the gallery during the the last few days before Christmas. Below are Puffin Present and Sloth Lights.

As you can see, I didn’t take images of them before I dropped them off. One of the other HGA artists helped me out, and took a couple of shots with her phone before they found new homes.

I’d also like you to meet Turk. He is an African Penguin. I made this little sculpture for the desk of a very special museum professional who works with African Pengins on a regular basis. I didn’t share him, as he was a surprise for Christmas morning. He was a present himself.

Looking to the Future

Lastly two pieces for the near, and somewhat more distant future. The first, is one of two works I have planned for our gallery’s yearly “It’s All About The Story” show. That show features artwork that responds to written work by one of the area’s many authors. This year we are working with the poet Jeffery Beam. The “Story” show will run from February 11th through March 23rd. There will be a reading hosted by the gallery on February 23rd, and a reception during the February Last Friday Art Walk on February 28th.

The first work I’ve created for the February show I’m titling “Dryad Slumber.” I will share the poem she is in response to later. For now, I thought that I’d just share her as her own visual art self. She is the first “human” figure that I’ve created in a while.

I will tell more about this piece as we get closer to that show’s installation.

In the very near future, The Hillsborough Gallery will be hosting “Moving Heaven and Earth”. This is an invitational show of non-HGA artists who’s work we enjoy. I was in the gallery today and saw some of the work that is included. It is a fabulous show, and well worth checking out. It will be installed tomorrow, January 6th, and will run through February 9th. Here is a list of the guest artist included:
Jane FilerSarah GrahamKatie HayesIan HerdellAlexis JoynerLey KilleyaOami PowersSuzan Scribner-ReedDarcy SzeremiNadine Zenobi

For a bit farther into the future

I ended up creating the first ornament for the 2025 holiday season, though not on purpose. The initial snail that I made for “Dryad Slumber” was entirely too big. So I plucked him off, and made the smaller version you see in the Dryad Slumber images. The larger snail received a Santa’s hat and a hanging loop. He will deliver presents next winter at a slightly slower pace. I’m not sure that I will share all of the ornaments next year, it got a bit exhausting this time around.

That’s all for now.

Winter Light

Holly and Mistletoe

needle felted anthropomorphic racoon art doll figure sculpture with felted and beaded holly, mistletoe, and working lantern
Holly and Mistletoe

My latest anthropomorphic figure is a needle felted racoon gathering holly and mistletoe by lantern light. As you may have already guessed, he will come into the gallery when we install the holiday show in mid-November. It takes a fair amount of time to create my holiday inventory, so most of what you see from this point on this year will be either winter themed, ornaments, or what might be considered more giftable items.

Holly and Mistletoe is needle felted wool over a wire and batting armature. This free standing sculpture balances on its feet, tail and lantern staff. His felted basket is full of holly with hand sewn glass bead berries. His head and lantern staff are festooned with felted mistletoe with white glass bead berries. The lantern is felted wool over metalic tulle and fusable interfacing. The lantern hardware is made of jewelry findings and decorative notions. Inside the lantern is a “balloon light”. These tiny LED lights are made for use in decorative items. The type of balloon light I chose has a tiny switch and can be opened to replace the batteries. As you can see, I created closure clasp with a loop and decorative brad on the lantern. This allows access to the balloon light.

Work-In-Progress?

Since I do have a little time before I bring this piece in to the gallery, I think I am still considering these images as work-in-progress shots. Should I tie the legs, tail, and staff together with some sort of base? I am also wondering if I should add some more width to his tail to make it fluffier? Now, that I’ve asked that second question out loud, I realize that answering yes to that, may negate the first question. Making the tail thicker may make his stance even more stable.

I’ve also been busy recently creating some special pieces that are intended as gifts, so I can’t share them quite yet as I don’t want to spoil the surprise! When they’ve landed in their future homes, I’ll share them here.

Cliche?

This little pig is a little cliche, and a little different

“When pigs fly” is a somewhat over used animal idiom. So much so, that when I thought of creating a pig with wings, I almost stopped myself from being cliche. Just today, scrolling through social media I saw another needle felted pig with wings. I had just finished taking photos of my own sculpture, and was glad that there was not much resembelence.

A Little Cliche is a needle felted anthropomorphic pig with wings sculpture
A Little Cliche

My pig is sitting sraight up looking at its viewer. I created a pair of brightly colored butterfly wings instead of birds wings. I think that the fragility of the butterfly wings increases the unlikely nature of flight. It also provides the figure with a more magical fairytale quality.

“A Little Cliche” is needle felted wool over a wire and quilt batting armature with glass bead eyes. The wings of this piece required some experimentation. I started out wet nuno felting the fibers on cheesecloth. I was not as happy with the amount of fiber on the backside of the wings, so I started to work them with needles. This unfortunately broke some of the netting, so I had thread ends sticking out. My solution was to felt that nuno felt to a thin layer of prefelt. This encapsulated the netting (and broken threads) and provided a nice amount of soft coloring on the inside of the wings. I spray starched and pressed the wings to provide a little more stability, and then added them to the pig figure.

An Original

The other small sculpture I completed this week is Singing Shroom. There isn’t much that is cliche about this figure. He is a continuation of my mini pieces, though he is a bit larger than the others. This anthropomorphic fungus is singing a tune. He is needle felted wool over a quilt batting wrapped chopstick segment, and secured to a natural wood base.

Anthropomorphic needle felted singing mushroom sculpture
Singing Shroom

As Promised

Last week I promised to share some ornaments that began life as wool dryer balls. Here are two that I’ve created so far for this year. These ornaments are more like “painting” with the wool fiber on the curved surface of the dryer balls. Each is finished off by stitching and felting a yarn loop on the top.

A Little Bird

A Little Bird Told Me.

My brain usually needs some downtime after putting together a new show. This break does not need to be unproductive. I provided myself with this cognative break by working on a few of my one-of-a-kind holiday ornaments. Yes, that’s right, I said holiday ornaments. They take time to produce, and it’s less of a mountain climb if you do a few at a time. Following a few of these celebral “palate cleansers”, I started to ponder idiomatic expressions that contain animals. I’ve have at least one past work “Out of Water“, a koi with a parasol that falls in this category. The idiom I chose this time around is “a little bird told me.”

needle felted anthropomorphic indigo bunting bird sculpture with hat and messanger bag on natural stick base
A Little Bird Told Me

The result is an indigo bunting perched on a branch with a cap and a messenger bag. This cheery little fellow has a message for the viewer. He is one of those pieces that seems to bring a smile, so I can only assume he has good news to share.

Little Bird is needle felted wool over a wire and quilt batting armature. His large black glass bead eyes are sewn in place. The messenger bag is stitched and felted together from felt fabric, with an embroidered metallic thread “clasp”. His legs combine wire and pipe cleaners that are wrapped with black yarn that is felted in place and wrapped with thread. The stick base was stripped of its bark, sanded, and sealed. I attached the bird to the base by drilling small holes, and stitching the clasping feet in place at those points.

needle felted anthropomorphic indigo bunting bird sculpture with hat and messanger bag on natural stick base
A Little Bird Told Me (back view)

It’s beginning to look a lot like…

No, it’s not. It’s 90+ degrees out, and thunderstorms are probably on the way. Even so, I have been working on holiday ornaments when the opportunity presents itself. I I’m not going to say a lot about them right now. None of them are available for purchase at this time, but I will let you know when they are.

This is just the beginning of these special little mini-sculptures. I’ve also started several ball type ornaments that begin with a commercial wool dryer ball as their core. I’ll share some of those images next time around.

Some More Process

I received positive feedback last week when I shared a bit of work-in-process video for my Chimera. This week, I used the time-lapse setting on my phone camera to capture me creating a botanical mono-print. These one-of-a-kind works on paper are an enjoyable addition to my gallery offerings. The result is a piece of original art that is very affordable. You may recall, that I also use this process to create original images of my sculptures using a photo transfer method.

Making a botanical mono-print

Show Still Up!

Don’t forget, my featured artist show along with Ellie Snow, Natural Patterns: Flora and Fauna is still up through August 25th at The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts. Hope you get the chance to see the show before it ends. The work displayed together is kind of magical.

Octopus Escape

Does That Octopus look Familiar?

This little octopus may look familiar, as she is a rework of an earlier piece. You may recall that I created a “teapot” purse sculpture for the Cedar Creek Gallery bi-annual National Teapot Show last year? That functional (purse) – non-functional (teapot) sculpture occupied our HGA window for a month or so. It seems direct late spring North Carolina sun was a bit too much, and the red of the octopus sun bleached a bit. The subtle color difference was undetectable to most, but I knew it was there. The sculpture came back to the studio for some rehab.

Needle felted anthropomorphic octopus sculpture holding a shell on head
Fashion Or Camouflage?

I loved the original sculpture and its nod to the popular documentary My Octopus Teacher, but I didn’t want to just refresh it. I removed the little figure from her perch on top of the teapot/purse, and repositioned her. She needed some (actually a lot) additional suckers for the bottom of several legs. She also needed a color refresh in her faded areas. I accomplished this by overfelting more fiber in those areas. Luckily, I had some of that wool left! Her scallop shell accessory, is an addition inspired by the original MOT doc, and a newer docuseries on National Geographic. In both, you see these intelligent creatures utilize a variety of objects. This octopus now asks the question “Fashion Or Camouflage?”

This new-ish version of this octopus is needle felted wool over quilt batting. She does not have an internal wire armature. Her pose is accomplished by stategic sewing and felting. The eyes are iridecent black glass beads. The scallop shell is needle felted wool over quilt batting.

Needle felted anthropomorphic octopus sculpture holding a shell on head
Fashion Or Camouflage 2

Fashion Or Camouflage is headed to HGA next month for my feature show.

Finished up several more “Flutterbys” last week. Five Flutterbys (these three and the two I shared last week) will have to be the limit. It was starting to feel a bit like production, and that’s where I tend to bow out. I like to keep such items special. They will become available when the show installs on July 22nd.

Brood XIX – Sound of Summer ’24

The sound of summer, almost?

Click… click.. click. click, click click-click-click whirrr. That’s my memory of the sound of summer cicadas. A strange almost mechanical sound that makes you think of the heat of summer. Well, it’s not quite summer (though it is hot enough here in NC.) And, the sound this time is quite different. It is a lound constant sound, somewhat like a car alarm going off near by. And, this sound doesnt build up, and then trail off in typical cicada fashion. Instead it is constant, from just as the day starts to warm, until the afternoon shadows start to lengthen. We were warned that Brood XIX, the emergence of both a 17 year and a 13 year brood cycle would be special. It hasn’t disappointed.

Brood XIX - the sound of summer, is a needle felted anthropomorhic cicada sculpture with vintage megaphone
Brood XIX – Sound of Summer

Left out?

I recall, just a few weeks ago feeling a little left out. Local friends were posting photos of cicadas everywhere, and remarking that the sound they made was deafening. We did not see or hear anything. But, we just needed to be patient. The bugs emerge as the ground reaches the appropriate temperature. We were just a bit further north and a little more shaded in the woods. Soon, I was sending video clips of the alien sound up to relatives in New England.

As a sculptor who focuses on cretures of various sorts, I could not pass up the chance to pay homage to the event. So, meet my cicada, Brood XIX – The Sound of Summer. He is needle felted wool, over a wire and batting form. I constructed his wings by stitching pip cleaners to tulle, and then needle felting wool over those wires, and on to the tulle to form veins. Two large orange-red glass beads are stitched in place for his eyes. I used some commercial deep red wool felt to form the cone of his megaphone. This was needle felted together, and then gold wool fiber was needle felted in place to form the rim, mouth piece, handle, and Roman numerals.

Brood XIX - the sound of summer, is a needle felted anthropomorhic cicada sculpture with vintage megaphone
Brood XIX – Sound of Summer – view 2

No Pattern Play?

The cicada is a little departure from the exploration of the animal print patterns I have been playing with in my sculpture lately. The cyclical nature of the brood’s emergence seems to be enough of a natural pattern to warrant his inclusion in this summer’s feature show. He’ll be at HGA beginning July 23rd.

Sacred Cow?

A cow patterned coat we all might recognize.

I continued my exploration of altering and reenvisioning animal prints and patterns this past week by considering the cow. The cow print is a friendlier, less threatening, less exotic animal pattern. Cows simultaneously hold wholesome (family farm), villainous (deforestation, climate, health), and even sacred reputations. This variability in how bovines are viewed is intriguing. The term “sacred cow” is equally intriguing. Rising from the Hindu veneration of the animal, it’s usage refers to something unreasonably immune to criticism or opposition. Finding that cows are also held as a symbol of Mother Earth inspired this piece as a “sacred cow” I could agree with.

Gaia - Sacred Cow sculpture, needle felted wool over wire and batting armature with globe patterning
Gaia – Sacred Cow

She is inspired by the ancient Greek godess, Gaia, who is the personification of Earth. I replaced the classic black and white patterning of her hide with the blue and green of the globe. Gaia is my first cow figure sculpture, but she may inspire more.

Gaia is needle felted wool, over a wire and quilt batting armature form, with iridecent glass bead eyes. Her horns are felted wool over a pipe cleaner support. The sculpture’s coat was created “coloring book” style. I marked her globe pattern by hand using outlines printed and cut from a simple world map. I then needle felted the green and blue areas with my colored wool. You supplied positive feedback from previous posts where I included process information and images like those below. I will try to remind myself to keep sharing photos and descriptions like these. It also aids viewers in understanding the creation time involved in each piece.

Though she was quite time consuming, I am happy with the results.

Gaia will most likely make her gallery debut this summer for my feature show at HGA. Stay tuned for further information.

Venus Dances For Herself - anthropomorphic dancing rabbit sculpyure with celestial designs. needle felted wool

More Dancing Rabbits?

Yes, more dancing rabbits.

Happy New Year! Now that the holiday season has past, it is time to turn attention to shows for the new year. Currently, at The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts there is a show featuring the work of past member artists titled, Past To Present. It is definitely worth a visit to check out, and will be up through February 18th.

What about the Dancing Rabbits?

Opening in February, we again will be presenting our “It’s All About The Story” show. This year, we are partnering with a local songwriter and musician, Mary Rocap. We have created work in response to her music, and yes, I have again turned to dancing rabbits. Actually, just one rabbit this time. You may recall the pair of dancing rabbits I created in response to Jaki Shelton Green’s poetry last year. This year’s representative of the family Leporidae is titled Venus Dances For Herself, and she was inspired by Mary’s song Jupiter and Venus.

The song is a reimagining of the myth based on the December sky conjunction of the two planets. My sculpture is a reimagining of Mary’s song. She tells the tale of Venus’s yearly plea to Jupiter to accept her and Mars’ love child. My Venus is dancing to please herself, and doen’t care if she has Juputer’s approval. She is dancing with her own joy.

Venus Dances For Herself is needle felted wool over a wire and quilt batting armature. Her black coat is patterned with swirls, stars, and a sylized Venus “tattoo.”

Venus Dances For Herself - anthropomorphic dancing rabbit sculpyure with celestial designs. needle felted wool
Venus Dances For Herself – “tattoo” detail

Venus is further embellished with hand sewn crystal and glass beads. Her eyes are irridecent glass gems that are glued and felted in position, and her whiskers are fashioned from fishing line.

I will remind you about Venus, and the story show again as the date approaches.

Preview!

Take a look at new work.

Now that my featured artist show is all installed at The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts, here is a preview for you. I know that I’ve already shared and wrote about all the pieces you’ll encounter, but here is a look at them in the gallery.

Something almost magical happens when three artist start to install a show in our HGA Feature Gallery. Somehow, no matter how different the work, it just seems to make sense together. My little howling wolf Loup Nouveau appears to have a moon painted just for him in Ellie Reinhold’s Reciprocus.

Preview of works in Featured Artist show 2023
Loup Nouveau and moon in Reciprocus

A trio of my patterned pieces greets you at the Featured Exhibit room main entrance. They are all examples of my treating the figures’ surface as a canvas for pattern.

Preview of works in Featured Artist show 2023
Florian, Hesperia, and Finding True North

Tea With My Octopus Teacher, came home last week after being part of the National Teapot show at Cedar Creek Gallery. This piece is doubly fun, as it is also a functional work as well. It is a sculptural handbag. The octopus’ clasped arms form a handle, and a small button clasp secures the teapot lid. Inside, is a fully lined compartment. It is displayed in a grouping with My Balloon, and Prince Frog.

Preview of works in Featured Artist show 2023
Tea With My Octopus Teacher, My Balloon and Prince Frog

Change Up, the giraffe with ox pecker attendants applying her colored spots is displayed alongside Kanga And Roo.

Preview of works in Featured Artist show 2023
Change Up, and Kanga & Roo

Dance is a pair of cranes captured mid step in a courtship dance. You see them here in front of my pair of elephants working together to climb wooden blocks titled Ele-vate.

Preview of works in Featured Artist show 2023
Dance, and back of Eye-vate

Hope you enjoyed the preview, and hope to see you tomorrow! The Show opening recepition is 6-9pm during the Hillsborough Last Friday Art Walk event.

Paisley, Prince, and Prints…

That’s a Prince Frog, not a Frog Prince

Every once and a while, a single piece sparks several more pieces in a slightly new direction. That happend recently with Finding True North. I like the surface treatment of the nautical “tatoos’ so much, that I found muself sketching other sculptures that incorporated interesting patterning or symbolism on their surfaces. The first of these new sketches to be realized is Prince Frog.

Prince Frog - needle felted anthropomorphic purple frog sculpture with paisley pattern and raspberry beret
Prince Frog

He is a little purple three toed tree frog. I captured this anthropomprphic amphibian waving hello, or perhaps giving a piece sign? It’s hard to tell the difference with only three fingers. He wears a distinctive little raspberry beret set to one side, and has distinctive paisley pattern on his back.

Prince Frog - needle felted anthropomorphic purple frog sculpture with paisley pattern and raspberry beret
Prince Frog – back view

Prince Frog is needle felted wool over a wire and batting armature. He has iridescent black glass bead eyes. This art doll sculpture looks up and waves from a squating position on his hind legs. I will let you know when he becomes available for purchase.

Prints, Prints, and Cards

I received a request to wholesale some of my monoprint cards. Many artists bristle at anything that feels like production work, and I am definitely in that category. I don’t even like making batches of my own holiday ornaments (puffins, polar bears, and baby seals, oh, my!) but, they are so darn cute and popular. I was torn by the request, especially since my prints aren’t even my main artwork. They weren’t looking for hundreds, (though they may in the future) so I figured I give it a try. I made more than the order, so they can choose, and any left over will be available to take to HGA. I will let you know where they are headed after I deliver them next month. The price will be slightly higher than the $10 I sell them for at HGA. I have no control over retail markup.

Each of these cards is hand-pulled on a gell press using acrylic paint and plant materials. Almost all are comprised of two layers of paint, one with the forground image and the other background color. Some feature additional overprinting, and watercolor enhancements. Each card is a unique and one-of-a-kind original art work on paper and is suitable for framing.