works in progress

Although this blog has enjoyed a summer vacation, my artwork has not.
I've been working away on a mosaic to accompany another piece I made at the beginning of 2009, which was an embryo made from chopped money.

Both will be going to Wisconsin with me this October for a solo show at the regional arts center in my hometown.

Also, I'm working on a few other things....

...to be continued...

Spiraling into Control/Homage to Gastropods

1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55...

When I decided to start making creatures from chopped coins, I did not take the task lightly. Nature is probably the most impressive thing on the planet, and if an artist is to emulate it adequately it takes a proper approach.

I polished my technique, spending hours and hours on a seemingly small object, and in the end I think I did justice to the subject, however, being fairly biased, who am I to say?

So I took the critique to the source, and tried to determine how my sculpture compared to the real thing.

Looks like a shell, but does it feel like a shell?

One out of two slugs agree, this artwork is worth experiencing.

Hopefully the gesture didn't go to it's head!

The last thing I wanted to do was cause a garden slug shell-shock!

In the end the two returned to their lives, leaving me to deal with the slime, which, incidentally, is not easy to remove.

Thanks to Jason Hamilton for being there to snap the pictures!

Big News for Old Art!

My annual summertime blog vacation ends with two substantial developments for my some of my old artwork. I was recently contacted by a girl from my hometown who told me she'd purchased a sculpture at a garage sale and thought it might be one of mine. I asked for a picture, and here's the one she sent.
Sure enough, on the far left side of her shelf sits a sculpture I had given up on ever seeing again, which I had sold 10 years ago for $300 and only received $100 of that. The buyers disappeared without ever fulfilling their end of the bargain. Hmph. I've gotten over my frustration long ago, and am happy for this appreciative collector to have it instead.
The artwork depicts a fallen angel, and was created during a period in my art explorations when I was taking art history classes in college and began emulating artists of yore by making religious artwork. I figured Jesus was only one half of the story, and Satan deserved a portrait as well.
The artwork was originally displayed at a tavern in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, called Yesterdays, along with a few other sculptures, on the shelf behind the bar. This is where the "purchaser" saw and acquired the lost piece back in the year 2000.
Back when I was living in the area, I made friends with the owner and sold him most of the sculptures for the bar's permanent collection. These are funny and scary at the same time, and are perfect for the tavern's decor. It's very nice knowing where my old art went, and I told the current owner that she's lucky because it's definitely worth millions.
The second development involves a sculpture from around 2005 that I made and showed once in Berlin. A turn of events following a period of storage put the piece on display at the gallery of my old friend Pete Missing in the central arena of an historic art building called Tacheles.
The art was a dollarbill made entirely from army toys, and when I heard from a friend in Berlin that the place was getting shut down by the police and all the artists were being evicted. I immediately contacted Pete asking what had become of my art. I expected the worst and figured I'd never see it again.
Thankfully, he responded by telling me that in a last ditch evacuation effort, my art had been sold to a collector from Spain, for $1500 Euro, and my share of the proceeds came a couple a days later. It's sure nice to know that my efforts from many years ago are paying off right now.

Me gusta mucho!