Tag Archives: interesting things

Works in Progress

Little Unnamed Birds

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I’ve been working on this series of little birds made out of parts of toys, broken jewelry, an old fur coat, and a few other scraps of things.

I’m working on a display for them next, and a name will come later as well, but they are fun little guys, so I tool photos of them individually before combining them into something bigger. They’re a work in progress.

Click on any of the images below to get a closer look.

Here’s the line up:

All 5 little birds

 

Bird A:

Unnamed Bird. 4″ x 4″ 2016.x 4″.

Bird B:

Unnamed Bird. 3″ x 3″ x 5″. 2016.

Bird C:

Unnamed Bird. 4″ x 4″ x 4″. 2016.

Bird D:

Unnamed Bird. 4″ x 5″ x 5″. 2016

Bird E:

Unnamed Bird. 4″ x 2″ x 6″. 2016.

Shots in the snow at a less-complete stage:

And at the beginning stages when you could see what they’re made of:

P1350234b

They move in a sweet and wonderful way that, unfortunately, can’t really be part of the final display. While I was photographing them, I noticed the way the wind would catch them and make them bob. Here’s a sample with chirping birds in the background:

Finished pieces

Earthen Vessels

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Guilt and Love

Loss and Healing

I just finished a week sharing my art and my process with the children at Patchwork Central, where most of the time the children see me as the Co-Director and camera lady.

It was fun to share my sculpture with them, and it was very fun to see the art that they created. It was also great to work again with my friend and fellow artist Jane Case Vickers. I started my career in community art almost 18 years ago by teaching art as Jane’s assistant in Patchwork’s Arts & Smarts Children’s Program.

I was very glad to get to teach with Jane again–I think she’s a great artist and a great teacher. We’ve always been attracted to similar materials and have similar artistic inspirations. We’ve done several projects and exhibits together.

One of these collaborative projects was called “Earthen Vessels”. We each created a series of female figures that explored the human form as a container for emotions and experiences. Each figure expressed an individual emotion or memory using  found fabrics and found objects that we felt were symbolic of the theme.

The images above show my work paired with Jane’s. The first shows Jane’s depiction of Guilt (titled “Guilt: She’s Got a Belly Full of Walnuts”) and my depiction of Love. The second shows my depiction of Loss and Jane’s depiction of Healing. They range from 64″ tall to 40″ tall.

When we took these photos, we intentionally paired a more positive emotion with a more negative one to highlight the interaction between the two.

 

Finished pieces

In the Middle of the Air

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In the Middle of the Air

In the Middle of the Air detail

I’ve reworked this piece. I shared a photo of it last year when I’d prepared it for a show and then realized that there was a problem.

In the end it was a good thing. Having time to rework it meant that I added quite a few more layers of glitter, thread, and paint. It’s better for them.

I still envision it as a kind of mystical creature surrounding the little boy and girl and suspending them in the air–a mystical creature made of discarded materials, comical googly eyes, and a mass of glue.

It continues to be an exploration of the things that we collect, the way that we relate to them, and the way that we project ourselves onto them.

I kept the original title of the piece. Someone remarked that the glittery circle is reminiscent of Ezekiel’s vision of a wheel covered in eyes, which I liked. The inspiration for the piece hadn’t been the Bible verse, but I decided to make a reference to the folk song “Ezekiel Saw the Wheel” by titling the piece “Way Up in the Middle of the Air”.

The piece measures 9″ square and is about 3″ deep.

Finished pieces

A Somewhat Larger Critter

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Somewhat Larger Critter in Motion

Detail of Somewhat Larger Critter

Continuing on the theme of small creatures created from scraps and detritus, here’s a slightly larger creature. It’s currently on display at One Life Church in Evansville as part of an exhibit of artwork inspired by Places.

This piece is 2″ wide and deep but about 6″ tall. Like the previous piece, it has a little propeller that spins. I’ve had fun exhibiting these creatures within glass display cases that add to the appearance that they are collected specimens.

Finished pieces

The Cicadas’ Dance is Music to My Eyes

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Cicadas' Dance

A couple weeks ago, the sound of the cicadas was deafening. For a piece earlier this summer, I’d felt lucky to have found a single cicada shell, but I decided to look again after having my ears assaulted. This time, I came up with quite a collection.

I’d wanted to make a piece for a local recycled art show, so I used the cicadas as an inspiration, building a kind of mandala from them and some crazy lenticular eyes I’d picked up at the Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. Throw in some old buttons, wedding confetti I picked off the ground in Germany, old doilies, beads, pins, sequins, and thread, and it’s a writhing dance of empty shells and eyeballs.