Tag Archives: the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts

Storm Born Sculpture and Ornaments

Creating Ornaments in the Storm

Some may find being home bound for several days as a slow moving hurricane passes very frustrating. I am fortunate enough to currently have power and materials close at hand. This presents an opportunity to sit down to some extended workbench sessions. This time of year part of my attention turns the coming holiday season. In addition to my art doll sculptures, I create handcrafted original ornaments and some extra jewelry for the gallery.

Iceland Inspired Ornaments

Usually, these ornaments reflect what is currently occurring in my sculpture. One influence on the items populating my sketchbook is a recent trip to Iceland. A charming addition to the amazing and other worldly landscape one encounters is sheep everywhere. In response to this, I have planned both art dolls and this season’s ornaments utilizing the technique of needle felting. I am still very much in the design phase, but thought I’d share a couple of works-in-progress images.

Polar Bear Ornament

Puffin Ornament

I snapped both of these quick shots in my studio with my phone. There is one more arctic inspired creature, a reindeer, that I’m designing. I will refine each a bit for production efficiency, and have a selection in the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts starting in mid November.

Surface Experimentation

I was also finishing up a small completely sculpted little figure piece this week. In stead of wigging and costuming as I do with my art dolls, I sculpted minimal clothing and hair from paperclay. I decided to do a bit of experimentation with the surface treatment of this piece. I created a “faux bronze’ finish with the layering of metallic bronze paint and a moss patina glaze.

Seated figure with faux bronze finish

With any luck Hurricane Florence will allow me to get a bit more accomplished today as well.

Paper, Paper, Paper

Paper.

Here are my paper inspired art doll figure sculptures that will be part of the “Rock, Paper, Scissors” featured artist show going up at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts this coming Monday, March 26th. Opening reception Friday, March 30th from 6-9pm.

Paper Dolls?

You may have seen a few of these figure sculptures here, or even in the gallery already. They all utilize paper in the form of paperclay and/or papier-mâché as the primary media. Many are also connected to paper through inspiration found in the pages of literary works, sheet music, vintage notebooks, newspapers and more.

Hope

Seated figure, Hope, is a playful juxtaposition of color and black and white.

Tinker bell inspired art doll sculpture figure

Tinkerbell Never Lost Her Shadow

Wearing text pulled from the pages of Peter Pan, Tinkerbell Never Lost Her Shadow, is a hanging art doll figure sculpture that is all about light and shadow.

Boleyn’s Ghost

I introduced Boleyn’s Ghost in my last post. This art doll sculpture is based on the sister characters of Anne and Mary from the historical novel The Other Boleyn Girl.

Chef Sings

Chef Sings was inspired by a ceramic figure sculpture I made in Jr. high school art class!

Prudence and Martha

The Prudence and Martha sculpture is born from the Beatles vast music catalog and the figures are clad in sheet music.

Local Star

This sculpture is a rework of an art doll figure damaged by water. She was inspired by a Degas painting, and her costume is made from the pages of the local paper.

Paper Alice II

Another Alice in Wonderland art doll figure. This sculpture features Alice examining the “drink me” bottle, and playing card motifs.

In The Gallery Now

Leonardo’s Child

Already on display at HGA, Leonardo’s Child, is a nod to genius and flight.

Running Free

Running Free was a problem solving stop on the way to the next two minimalist figures I created for HGA’s “C-Note” show.

minimal dancing figure art doll sculpture

Dance

Dance is one of two art dolls that I pared down to their basic figure sculpture form for “C-Note”

Recline

Reclining art doll figure at HGA.

These pieces and more will all be find at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts starting this coming Monday. If you are in the area stop by and take a look! Hope to see you at the opening reception next week!

A Boleyn Art Doll Plays Rock, Paper, Scissors

It is the final countdown to my featured artist show at The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts. My newest art doll and sculpture creations are part of the show that will have its opening reception from 6 to 9pm on March 30th titled, “Rock, Paper, Scissors”.

My pieces are intended to be the “Paper” part of “Rock, Paper, Scissors”, and will be displayed along side the silver and natural stone jewelry of Arianna Bara, and the textile creations of Ali Givens.

Art Doll or Book Sculpture?

This year, I created several sculptures that land somewhere in the intersection of book sculpture and art doll. One such piece is Boleyn’s Ghost. It is literally and literarily ripped from the pages of Philippa Gregory’s novel The Other Boleyn Girl. I must admit to a mild obsession with historical fiction, especially those set in Tudor England. I’ve always felt that Gregory’s title could refer to either of the Boleyn sisters, Anne or Mary. You can look from the perspective of who was established first at court, or who had greater historical impact. I think they both had reasons enough to return as a specter to teach a lesson or two.

In this piece I strive to achieve several things. She is a ghost. I think she should appear light and etherial. I also wanted to utilize the book pages and paper not only to highlight ideas, but mimic the patterns of rich textiles described.

Bolyn’s Ghost

I cannibalized my own well read paperback copy of the novel for fragments of text. The application to layers of tissue paper, though time consuming, helped to achieve the look I was going for with her gown. Likewise, I made the design choice to utilize a glass gem backed with a reflective holographic art paper in place of a face.

This ghostly figure-sculpture-art-doll-book-sculture will haunt the Featured Exhibit gallery of the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts starting March 26th.

New Year, New Work

I’ve been working in the studio on some new art doll figure sculptures for several upcoming shows.

Resolutions 2018 in Last week at HGA

Currently, the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts is featuring it’s yearly North Carolina state-wide juried show Resolutions 2018. This show features non-HGA artists from across the state. It runs through this weekend, so if the snow has melted in your area you have a couple of days left to see it in person.

C-Note

Starting Monday, January 22nd HGA will have C-note. A special themed show of HGA member-artist work all priced at $100. I created two minimalist “figure sketch” sculptures for this show. It was a challenge to create work to a specific price point that still fit within my usual body of work. With “Recline” shown below, and her sister piece “Dance”, I’ve paired down the detailed features and costuming of my usual art doll sculptures to their elemental core.

Recline

It’s All About the Story

Our February opening show will be our yearly “It’s All About the Story” show based on the work of one of Hillsborough’s many noted authors. This year we read “A Broom of One’s Own” by the recently named Piedmont Poet Laureate, Nancy Peacock. I will share a bit more about Nancy, the show, and her author reading in a month or so. For now, I share a peek at “Doris”. The book shares memoir tales of Nancy who supported herself, and her writing as a house cleaner. I decided to bring to life a character that brought together her two disparate occupations. Doris is a member of a hotel housekeeping staff Nancy met in a restroom when attending a writer’s event. For me, Doris just needed to be incarnated as a rag doll with attitude.

Doris

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Lastly, I’ll give a a sneak peek at the pieces that i’m putting together for my upcoming featured artist show in March. Titled, ” Rock, Paper, Scissors”, I will represent the “paper” in the trio of artist. The art doll sculptures I am creating for this show have paper as their primary media and inspiration. The first of these pieces is Prudence.

Prudence

Prudence is based on the Beatles’ “Dear Prudence”, and as you can see, she has “come out to play.” She is accompanied by her sheep dog (Martha, my dear?) and they are running across a musical landscape flying a kite.

Find New Holiday Ornaments at Hillsborough Gallery

New Holiday Ornaments at HGA

Monday I added some new hand crafted holiday ornament designs to the selection at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts. Each November, we install our holiday show titled, “The Art of Giving”, when the preview show for the open studio tour comes down. I always add two or three types of original hand crafted ornaments to what I bring in. For several years now, I have created copper and pierced aluminum stars and hearts, and some small snow fairy figures. Recently, I have found myself drawn to working more and more paper and text into the creation of my art doll figure sculptures, so I decided to create some new papier-mâché holiday ornaments this year.

Paper Penguin Ornament

Paper Penguin Ornament

The first papier-mâché holiday ornament I designed is this penguin who appears to be singing. I start by layering recycled newspaper and office paper over a balloon with a twist in the top. After the base layers dry, I pop the balloon, and add cardboard to form the beak and wings. Patterned scrapbooking and origami papers are applied to create the surface color and patterns.,

Balloon Rider Holiday Ornament

Balloon Rider Ornament papier-mâché and polymer clay original

Ballon Rider Ornament

My balloon rider ornaments are a design I came up with last year. I updated them this year and used polymer clay for the little figure sculpture. Last year I modeled the tiny balloon rider out of paperclay, but that required a wire form inside the clay figure. The polymer clay allows me to be a bit more efficient with my time. The balloon construction is the same as the penguin body.

Ball Dancer Ornament

Ball Dancer

The Ball Dancer is my third ornament design this year. It starts with a ball I create over a balloon like the other two ornaments. I sculpt a small dancing figure out of recycled corrugated cardboard or scraps from my studio foam core stash. Strips of origami and scrapbooking paper complete the surface.

HGA Holiday Show

My ornaments, art doll figure sculptures, jewelry, and the beautiful work by all 22 of the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts owner/artists will be on display and available for one of a kind gift giving now through New Year’s. Join us on Friday, November 24th for the holiday show’s opening reception from 6-9pm for some decidedly non-stressed “Black Friday” holiday shopping.

A Dancer Art Doll and FA Show Closes

Last Week of Featured Artist Show at The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts –

My featured artist show, Up Close, at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts will be coming down next Monday, the 24th of July. I know there is street construction all along the gallery’s storefront, but there is still access all along the sidewalk closest to the buildings. Many of my newest art doll sculptures will still be around HGA after the show closes, as they are incorporated into the gallery collection throughout the rest of the space. So, your favorite may still be here.

Newest Art Doll is a Local Star

I titled my latest sculpture doll “Local Star.” Star is a papier-mâché and paperclay figure over a wire armature. I focus on the elements of movement and surface in this art doll piece. Local Star is modeled after Degas’s 1876 painting “The Star”. My Star is a slightly caricatured ballet dancer figure trying to emulate the Degas painting. Her unique costume and wigging are created from the pages of the local news paper.

Local Star

I play here a bit with the idea of the hometown dance/music/art studio, and the local mistress or master instructing all of their own little “local stars”. They may or may not go on to be true stars, but they certainly are in someone’s eyes. The local paper is just the place that would carry the announcement of her upcoming recital or show.

Star’s eyes are torch fired enamel. The paperclay’s “antiqued” surface tone was created with a tea dye. All the sculpture’s paper and paperclay surfaces are sealed with decoupage medium.

Featured Artist Show

Featured Artist Show at Hillsborough Gallery of Arts

I snapped a few iPhone images of my newest art doll figure sculptures after installing the show Monday at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts. The show’s opening reception is this Friday from 6-9pm during Hillsborough’s Last Friday Art Walk. I, personally will not be in attandance at the opening, but please stop by and visit my newest work if you are in town. If, however, you are also not around Hillsborough… Here’s a peek.

Featured Exhibit

A look through the door to the Featured Artist Gallery shows my work along with painting by Linda Carmel, and textile art by Alice Levinson.

Walden Nap on display at HGA

Walden Nap looks peaceful on a solitary pedestal in the center of the FA gallery.

Sketch and friends at HGA

Middle grouping of pedestals.

Polly at HGA

New sculpture, Polly, inspired by a visit to a small pond with a healthy population of tadpoles.

It’s Wednesday Again at HGA

A new look at an earlier piece “Wednesday’s Child”, based on the well known nursery rhyme.

March-ed at HGA

March is walking with a purpose.

Balloon Too at HGA

Balloon Too wonder and movement in a moment captured from childhood.

Athena Sharpening Spear at HGA

My Athena in full battle gear to fight ignorance.

Giving Wing at HGA

Giving Wing was created for a show earlier this year, and fit in well with my other new pieces.

Hope you get a chance to stop by.

Featured Artist and Art Dolls

Up Close

Up Close, is the title of my featured artist show with painter Linda Carmel and textile artist Alice Levinson. The show will open later this month at The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts. The art doll sculptures that I have been sharing in my most recent posts will be included in this new show. Up Close runs June 26th through July 23rd, with an opening reception on June 30th from 6-9pm during Hillsborough’s “Last Friday” art walk event.

I admit that I tend to horde my newest pieces as I approach each year’s featured show. Several new figures are in the studio awaiting installation the last week of June. I took the opportunity to photograph a few more this week.

Walden Nap

I quite literally (or is that literature-ly?) pulled this art doll from the pages of Thoreau’s writings. My serenely napping figure is sculpted out of paperclay and papier-mâché. I photocopied pages containing favorite passages for the surfaces of the sculpture and the art doll’s hair.

sleeping art doll figure sculpture, paperclay and papier-mâché

Walden Nap

Spinning or Weaving?

This magical art doll figure is creating some type of magic from the fibers in her hands. This figure sculpture is unnamed at the moment. Something along the lines of Dream Weaver seems a bit too easy. Her hands and face are sculpted from paperclay. The body is a padded wire armature with clothing sewn in place. I played a bit with needle felting some wool fiber to create her rising magic over a wire frame. Her “dreadlocks” are made from a thick blanket yarn.

seated art doll figure sculpture, paperclay, fabric, wire, wool

untitled

Sketch

I shared a “selfie” of Sketch in my last post. Here you see the completed art doll. I have several past reading and writing figures in my portfolio, but I think this is the first that is specifically drawing in her sketch book.

seated art doll figure sculpture, paperclay, fabric, and wire

Sketch

These art dolls and a few others will be in the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts starting June 26th.

Pinocchio and Flying Dreams

Giving flight to Imagination

My newest piece, “Giving Wing”, revisits the form of a metal sculpture of mine from a few years ago titled “Change”. This time around, however, the similar looking figure sculpture is rendered in different media, with a different theme.

Giving Wing

Change

“Change” was wrought in mixed metal with a concrete base, and was about metamorphosis and what can happen through transformation. “Giving Wing” depicts a similar lithe winged figure shortly after emerging from its chrysalis, but centers the ideas of imagination and and flight. Literally “Giving Wing” to one’s ideas.

I created “Giving Wing” out of papier-mâché and paperclay. The color incorporated in the piece is obtained by layering the top layers of papier-mâché with tissue papers. I utilized a technique for printing on tissue that I first tried with “Questioning Alice” to again incorporate text into the piece. I guess I might refer to this as a sculptural collage. The trunk and branches of the tree bear quotes about dreams and imagination. The chrysalis pod’s quotes center on flight and wings.

The wings of the butterly figure form a book. I’ve purposely left the pages of the book, and the figure itself blank as a contrast to the patchwork riot of color of the wings “book cover”, and an invitation to the viewer to write one’s own story.

Detail Giving Wing

Another look at Pinocchio

I promised last week a that I would share a full length view of my Pinocchio piece for the “It’s All About The Story” show at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts. For my Pinocchio’s title I’ve turned to another piece of children’s literature, The Velveteen Rabbit. The Skin Horse starts his explanation of becoming real for the Velveteen Rabbit with, “Real isn’t how you are made, it’s a thing that happens to you.”

Real Isn’t How You’re Made

The show will be installed in the gallery on Monday, and the opening reception is next Friday, February 24th, from 6 to 9 pm. There is an author’s reading in the gallery with John Bemis from, Out of Abaton: Book 1- The Wooden Prince, on Sunday, March 5th from 4 to 6pm.

Pinocchio Inspired Art Doll Becomes Real

It’s Story Time

It is once again time at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts when we to turn to things literary. Each February, we team up with one of the many well known authors who call Hillsborough home for a show titled “It’s All About The Story.” This year is “Volume V, John Claude Bemis.”

John is an award winning Young Adult author. This is the first time we are working with a YA author, and the first time that all the HGA artists are using the same story. Our previous four shows have drawn from short story collections by Michael Malone, Jill McCorkle, Lee Smith, and Allan Gurganus.

pinocchio’s heart

Retelling Pinocchio’s Tale

Out of Abaton: The Wooden Prince, is John’s retelling of the Pinocchio tale set in medieval Venice. As you can imagine, a magical story with fantastic beasts, fairies, and the like would be right in a doll artist’s wheel house. After much personal debate, and quite a few unfinished sketches, I settled on the main character.

close up of facial features of Pinocchio art doll

detail Pinocchio’s face

Pinocchio is not a simple puppet this time around. He is a finely crafted automaton servant boy who is automated, like all of of his kind, by magic from the kingdom of Abaton. His automation is slightly special and he is slowly becoming real as a result.

torso detail

I decided to depict my Pinocchio before his transformation starts. I am working with the title , “Servant Before You Are Real”, and decided to create him mostly of wood like his namesake. The photos throughout the blog post are Work-In-Progress pics. I will share a finished image when the show is installed in a couple of weeks.

heart door closed

As usual, this show will open the “Last Friday” of the month on February 23rd from 6-9pm. HGA will also host a reading by the author on Sunday, March 5 from 4-6 pm.

Wartski Art Dolls and Sculpture

Art dolls and mixed media sculpture

Tag Archives: the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts

Storm Born Sculpture and Ornaments

Creating Ornaments in the Storm

Iceland Inspired Ornaments

Surface Experimentation

Paper, Paper, Paper

Paper.

Paper Dolls?

In The Gallery Now

A Boleyn Art Doll Plays Rock, Paper, Scissors

Art Doll or Book Sculpture?

New Year, New Work

Resolutions 2018 in Last week at HGA

C-Note

It’s All About the Story

Rock, Paper, Scissors

Find New Holiday Ornaments at Hillsborough Gallery

New Holiday Ornaments at HGA

Paper Penguin Ornament

Balloon Rider Holiday Ornament

Ball Dancer Ornament

HGA Holiday Show

A Dancer Art Doll and FA Show Closes

Last Week of Featured Artist Show at The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts –

Newest Art Doll is a Local Star

Featured Artist Show

Featured Artist Show at Hillsborough Gallery of Arts

Featured Artist and Art Dolls

Up Close

Walden Nap

Spinning or Weaving?

Sketch

Pinocchio and Flying Dreams

Giving flight to Imagination

Another look at Pinocchio

Pinocchio Inspired Art Doll Becomes Real

It’s Story Time

Retelling Pinocchio’s Tale