Available pieces

These are some of the pieces I have available currently.

Sneak Preview: the first stage of making glass art

I use kilns at the Washington Glass School to fire Float Glass to create my sculptures



I'm partial to Float Glass because of the industrial nature of the material and the process of turning it into sculpture. It creates a rugged, yet always elegant material when fired. Glass also is a wonderful ethereal-feeling counterpart to the concrete that i use in my sculptures.

I start with a collection of objects, ( and my kiln firing schedule!). I always bring more things that i'll use when i'm working at the glass school, just in case. there's an element to the process i use that is somewhat spontaneous and improvisational. Sometimes i change my mind at the last minute.

my box of stuff, some of which i made, some of which i found:


Usually i sketch out my compositions and prep my objects ahead of time. i think about the series that i'm creating and the end result i want. sometimes i want larger sculptures, smaller more easily shipped pieces to sell online, or pieces for commissioned jobs.
Then the hard part starts.

I create plaster molds inside the kiln:

You have to be very meticulous during this stage. i often breathe out very loudly after each detail is complete. an exhale of relief. You create the mold in steps with the shallowest detail first, to the deepest part of the relief last. but any shimmying can ruin all your detail. heaven forbid you knock one of your objects into the plaster.. not that i've ever done that..... nope. not me.

working with all that plaster gets messy.

once the imagery and texture are finished and the molds are all set,
i cut all my glass, and place it over the forms.

Because the plaster acts as insulation and the castings are made of a solid 1/2 thick piece of glass, it takes a really long time for the complete firing. In addition to the insulation and thickness factor, glass must change temperature slowly in order to retain its integrity. As we heat up the kiln , we must do so gradually. once the final temperature, around 1600 degrees ( note: i may bit a bit off on that) is reached and held for a ( secret amount of) time, the glass must be annealed, or cooled off VERY slowly. I wont be able to open the lid of the kiln for almost two days.

I cant really foresee exactly how it will turn out. will the glass devitrify? will the glass fill all the detail of the molds? will there be air bubbles? will it crack in half? so many unanswered questions!


Once i pull the pieces out i will clean them off and clean out the kiln for another artist to use.
I will bring the pieces back to my studio and add concrete elements to each. i will also get them ready for hanging.

check back for photos of these steps soon.

and come see the finished pieces in person at Artomatic 2008

ACC Baltimore 2008

ACC Baltimore 2008
Originally uploaded by goshdarnknit

I went to the American Craft Council Show in Baltimore this past weekend. Goshdarnknit has the full report.

in progress cork finish

in progress cork finish
Originally uploaded by Scenic Artisan

this is an in progress shot of a wall in a condo/row house development sales office in NE DC.








it will be this finish:

making bricks

IMG_8249
Originally uploaded by Scenic Artisan

i'm creating a faux brick wall for a client. this is the brick after the first layer of texture and mortar lines.

ultimately the brick will be much more sienna that the sample board leaning against the fireplace.

color and more texture get added tomorrow. yep, working the weekends for this project.

wanderings.

i've had a pretty heavy mind lately so i wandered around quite a bit yesterday and saw a number of shows. museums always seem to help me focus.

I stopped by the folklife festival, but it was a staff picnic thing and nothing was going on except the food.

so i went to the hirshhorn.
Again, i was utterly disappointed in the hirshhorns selection of shows. there was a while that i was liking every single show i saw their. not so much lately. The show by Wolfgang Tillmans wasnt the worst, but left me feeling very empty. here is a link to a slide show of his work. There were two more abstracted ( perhaps even non objective) pieces that were nice and somewhat engaging, still i get such a strong feeling of disassociation with these images, and that art of the last few shows i've seen at the hirshhorn. and its a huge show. I looked around a bit more because i always see something that draws me in their collections. I gave up and just as i was heading back to the escalators i saw a piece by Jae Ko whom i had just met last week at her and her husbands studio.

Wolfgang Tillmans
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
May 10—August 12, 2007

Sometimes looking at recent art makes me feel that the world and human emotion ended after world war II. surely someone has written eloquently about this irony and emotional disassociation that most artists ( and people ) seem to feel the need to play into. hell perhaps i do so myself. not the eloquent writing, but the irony.......

The national gallery has been my indoor respite since i moved to dc. two things i always go look at at are the Madonna and Child with Saint Martina and Saint Agnes by El Greco and The Shaw Memorial. Sometimes the frescoes, but not always.

The El Greco painting is infinitely fascinating to me. I'm not Catholic, but i really feel a religiosity in this piece. Plus i'm insanely intrigued by and in love with the little demon angel on Mary's lef( house left, stage right). Such and odd creature really. she seems more of a misplaced nymph or woodland creature, than an angel of god. maybe thats the same thing...... i feel that shes a bit sinister.
Also, the paint work of el greco was vastly ahead of his time. he has a brilliant combination of passion and a prophetically modern way of using paint. his figures are almost electric in their ethereallity. i certainly like electric...





the Shaw Memorial by Augustus Saint-Gaudens is such a beautiful sculpture... though its not currently on display, but i go by to check each time.



So i wandered around a bit more, actually taking in the entire modern painting section, which i rarely do. i had a different agenda yesterday that i usually do. i was looking for artists interpretations of their personal interactions with their subjects. i only found a few things i was looking for really. some manet pieces stuck me especially. but note all that noteworthy. perhaps i'll pursue this a bit more some other time.


I went into the Desiderio da Settignano exhibit Its a pretty good show and i would recommend going to check this out.


Also on display are the works by Claude Lorrain. lots of drawings, prints and a few paintings. except for some great etchings of shipwrecks, i was pretty nonplussed.

I did go and pay closer attention to the muses in the east hallway of the west building. i havent done really any figurative artwork in about 5 years, but have been feeling very drawn to it again.

Since i felt myself thinking that way, and suddenly having the urge to work more with the figure, actually having things to say with the figure... i thought i'd had over to the portrait gallery.

I checked out nearly every room. including every isle of the luce center. i skipped the "champions " show however.

I mostly checked out the figurative work, but i always admire the 3rd floor of the portrait gallery. and the fact that they have a balcony cafe.


i think its safe to say that i probably be doing a series of figurative works in the near future.....

as dull and old fashioned as that may be.

what do you think he's reading to them?

IMG_0982.JPG
Originally uploaded by meanlouise

a poem about love?
the to-do list the two women have given him?



anyway, i really like architectural arts. especially in the wrong context.

intelligent design

Check out this terrific blog about Design.
decor8, damn its good.