Time Bomb

I have two bindweed vines in my back yard. I did not plant them they volunteered. I have just welcomed them. A couple of years ago the older one began producing seed pods. These are large and I think they are kinda creepy looking. The first year I just cut them off because I don't want bindweed all over my back yard. Last year I decided to save some to see what happened. Well the pods opened and A LOT of seeds came out but they were in a very ordered pattern so this year I decided to see what would happen if I put them in sealed frames with glass in front. So I am calling them time-bombs because this is the before state and I am pretty sure there will be an after state. Right now they are just creepy pod things that look kinda cool.

Bravely Done

So "Bravely Done" is a weird piece for a bunch of reasons. First I started it years ago, that is mostly weird for other people it is surprisingly common for me. I start project when I am inspired and then if I like the start I will hang onto the beginning until I pick it to be finished. Anyway, this particular piece I started with my students when I was trying to teach them how to work with cardboard but I did not get super far on it.

I think that I also began to make horns for it but then stopped. But then it got targeted to finish and I wanted to have an attached beard but I needed to build a head so that I could make the beard and sort of know where it would fall on my face. So I made this guy.

Unfortunately many people feel this is the best part of the piece. All of this happened before I started experimenting with color but when I began to build the beard I worked on the color and then shortly after I began work on it Redux Gallery in Alameda was having a show on text so I also began paying attention to the text that happened to be included in the cardboard I was using.

Ultimately I was happy with the way it came out. I showed in the Text Show at Redux Gallery in Alameda.

Oh yeah and you can totally wear it!

When Time is Up

The next large sculpture I made after finishing Global Warming Sun was "When Time's Up". I began by making a fish out of beer boxes. At first I meant it to move. It has movable joints.

But then I decided to create an environment for it. I made a large diorama for it. It had whiskers like a catfish although I have never seen a catfish that shade of green but the catfishiness  made me want to put him in a bayou swamp. I thought about doing it underwater or half and half but ultimately decided to have him jumping out of the water.

This particular iteration did not have the action that I wanted so I kept trying and eventually built a splash I was happy with from a corn-dog box. I think this id the first sculpture that I really worked on combining collage and found color. In fact the fish was the original experiment with using found color.

I also added the "dragonfly" If you look closely the dragonfly is actually a human form. This piece really helped clarify the Power of Nature, Folly of Man theme. This was also the first frame project. It took a while to work out proportions.

But eventually I got it all worked out. This piece has shown at K Gallery at Rythmix Cultural Center and at East Bay MUD in Oakland.

Finished the Sun so long ago

I've been gone for a long long time. I'm back. I finished Global Warming Sun a couple years ago. Here is how it came out.

  I can't remember how much I have already gone into the power of nature, folly of man series but I have continued down that road both artistically and philosophically. I have though a lot about all the mistakes we are making as a species. We have lost our fear/respect for nature and ultimately that will be our undoing. Here is an analogy:

Imagine if you will, A kid goes to kindergarden and everything they are teaching, testing and talking about makes absolutely no sense to him whatsoever. He is not a stupid kid, in fact by the time kindergarden has rolled around he has accomplished far more than any other entity on the planet, however, the things valued in kindergarden are just not important.

So the kid fails kindergarden and has to repeat, and then he fails another twenty times so now he is a twenty five year old kindergardener running around with the regular kindergardeners. Now another thing about this kid, he is hugely athletic strong as any twenty five year old man not evil but somewhat ambivalent to our accepted morals. He has killed kids before. Oh another thing is that nobody really watches what happens out at recess at all, I mean at all. So this behemoth represents nature.

Now imagine a second kid come into the class that really gets everything being taught at school. He loves to read and do math. He can spell and is awesome at science and he gets all A's and is killing it in kindergarden and the kid begins to get a big head. He gets pretty cocky. He walks around the playground looking to prove how intelligent and better than everyone else he is. This kid represents the human race.

In the second kid's need to prove he is the best kid in the school he begins to harass the first kid. He disregards him, he insults him, he slaps, kicks, laughs at, pees on, and rapes the first kid. Now the first kid has been very patient with the second kid. He has put up with him for the most part aside from the odd tsunami, fire, hurricane and such he has allowed the second kid a LOT of leeway. But the second kid takes this as a sign of weakness and proof that he does not need to respect the first kid at all and actually starts to believe that the first kid was put in the school to serve him. Of course this is not the case and the second kid is only alive because of the grace of the first.

That is where we are and we need to wake up and smell the stupidity that we hold up as intelligence.

Finished the base.


Ready for paint



Primer

Top coat.

Not sure this has been worth the sacrifice.

Two weeks ago

Here are some pics of Global Warming Sun two weeks ago.









And here is where the base was.






Here we are now:






I hope to finish this piece by the end of summer. I think it is within the realm of reason. I plan to show it in the San Leandro AEC gallery in September (SLHS faculty show). Then I hope to donate it for a auction of faculty work that could support art at San Leandro High School that I hope we can set up for early next school year.

So if you have gotten this far I am talking to you you ARE qualified to answer and I would appreciate the response. Do you think the base overwhelms the piece? Do you think this piece is good enough to sell in a gallery and if not what would you change? Keep in mind it is not finished I plan to refine the shapes of both the base and the woodcarving. Also the base might be painted yellow and orange.

Here are some smaller projects that might get done this summer.