Wandering Spirits invade the Tryon Fine Arts Ctr!

The Spirits made their way to the TFA on Sunday......and I went over, today, to cement them to their pedestal.  After all, I have already had one disaster with them when I was preparing for the show!
But all is well, and the opening reception is Friday night. Pretty funny though.....my entry is the smallest out of 44....and I am greatful to the TFAC for letting me in this juried show!
The smallest (10" high):

And the largest (being installed, today)

Will take more pics on Friday and let you know how it goes.

Art Trek 2013

So I made it into the annual Art Trek at the 12th hour.   Last night was the preview party at the Upstairs Gallery....heavily attended, and an excellent presentation. I have 5 pieces on view, and they look great! Here are 3 of them....

Today was Day#1 of the 2 day trek......not a great turnout, but unfortunately, a rainy, dreary day.
My studio was thrown together, this past week, so I am ready if it improves tomorrow!

So I am not disappointed.  In addition, two of the elephants sold at the Tryon Arts & Crafts School spring show, so at least the Amboseli Trust will benefit.

In the next post I will fill everybody in on the up & coming sculpture show at the Fine Arts Center.

Bad Day/Good Day

So all was good until about 3 pm.....I went to move a box, and knocked over 4 of the 5 pieces that I had submitted to a 5 state sculpture show.   Needless to say, depression quickly set in.  So I had to cancel. At least I have the before & after pics......
Before:

After the fall:

Next:  the opening of the 'New Beginnings' show at the Tryon Arts & Crafts school...6-8 pm.
I have a trio of elephants in the show...with the proceeds going to the Amboseli Trust for Elephants. They look great!  Now, just need to sell 1,2 or3 to help the eles!

Another form

Working with clay is a never ending adventure.  Just when you think that you have exhausted the possibilities, a new form, combo, direction, or face appears.
Having taken a class in sculpture, I plan on creating some much larger pieces in the future. For now, I still have a lot to work with on the smaller scale.
Last week I made a very simple skinny bottle that has a lot of potential.  Not only in composition ( I have combined several different clays, or left them alone), but color....do I want any glaze at all?  So far I prefer to use only the ray clay color or various washes and stains.  Am thinking of submitting one set of  3 or 4 as one entry in the up and coming sculpture competition.

pre-fired:

and the finished thing....'Wandering Spirits'

And the combinations are many!

What is it??

Thought it would be fun to show a few stages of the evolution of a clay head.....
Take a guess.....what will this become?

Ok....not so easy to figure out.

In fact, I often have no idea what will appear!  (But in this case, it is a planned work in progress)

It probably takes 100 small sculpting motions just to reach this 1st stage.

Ah ha! It has eyes.....

Yup.  Hopefully, it will be an elephant.

The (almost) finished sculpture drying in the sun.

Tuns out I realized that the trunk was too long, and we went back inside for a little more surgery.

Here we go!

So, a lot of progress in the last  5 days......1st, an entry in Art Trek...a tour of studios on the 28th & 29th of April. (This should give me some serious feedback)
Then a decision to enter the Tryon Arts Sculpture Competition...which has an entry deadline of 04/15
Finally the first gallery to see/ take my sculptures. Thompsons Gallery in Tryon,,NC.  Here, too, I hope to get some good feedback!

So I need to double the output, and build some inventory!
For the sculpture competition I need to submit 3  pieces....one will be accepted.  I have 2 completed....one to go!

A new direction

I had the idea, last October, to put some of the spirit heads on steel pedestals.  But I had to wait 3 months for a blacksmith workshop.  I now spend 4 hours/ week at the forge knocking out small steel stands.

The forge at Tryon Arts & Crafts School

It isn't as easy as I thought.....but it is enjoyable in a farmer John sort of way....

I like the outcome, and it offers another way to present the heads. 

Progress!

The Journey continues.....

So I am continuing to turn out the heads and bottles.....and have turned the corner on a finished piece.  Up until now, I liked everything in the un-fired state, but couldn't get a good end result. At the school, the process of bisque firing/glazing/final firing is tedious. It can take several weeks to see the end result, and if you don't like the result, you start over.  I have overcome that problem by investing in an electric kiln.

3 level load ready to fire...

So, creatively, I am expanding.  I have learned how to fire the kiln at different temperatures to achieve different results with different glazes.  And since my preference is for very organic, natural, and primitive results, I have come up with a number of different stains and washes to age the clay.
And here are a few of the 'spirits'  ( I call them spirits in a bottle)

So that does it for this update.  Next time I will show what the blacksmithing workshop produced. :=)

A New Beginning....

 03.15.2013

How it all began:   Well, seems like things happen when you least expect them.

Two years ago I left Miami, after 25 years of renovating and selling real estate.  Mostly, it had been a good career, until 2008 when the bottom fell out.  A couple of years before I had decided to diversify, and I purchased a small commercial property on the North/South Carolina border (Landrum, SC).  Initially, it was to be a 6 mo. renovation followed by a tenant or two, or possibly a resale.  As fate would have it, the reno took 2 1/2 years....leaving it empty in the middle of the great real estate debacle.  My initial assessment of the area being immune to recessions proved to be 180* wrong.....

 

Fast forward to 2012:  I managed to have a 2-yr tenant who ultimately went out of business....I had decided that real estate in Miami held little promise for me, and had re-located to Savannah, Ga.  When my building became empty I decided to move to Landrum until I could sell or rent the property.  Not excited about the prospect but realizing that it was the 'right thing' to do.  I soon found myself stranded (sort of), with only a couple of possible tenants falling through.

Suffering from boredom, and a certain feeling of being in exile, I hit upon the idea of taking a pottery class at the Tryon Arts & Crafts School.  (Now, I had never had any artistic ability, but many years before, had developed an interest in collecting pottery.)  So I decided to see if I could 'throw' a pot.  Starting in July I took a series of courses, ending in January of this year.....and followed that with a course in Sculpture at the Tryon Painters & Sculptors School.

Going back to July.....in about the 3d class we had a session on hand-building which was pretty much at an elementary school level...but, nevertheless, an intro.  Several weeks later, I picked up a small ball of clay at home, and decided to see if I could do anything with it.  And out came this funny little head. 

 

 I was amazed!  All of a sudden I began to think in a whole new direction, and soon found that I had a serious 'like' for sculpting small heads.

So that is the beginning.  The most amazing part of this is that I have, for the first time in my life, started thinking creatively!  (well there were a few creative real estate deals along the way, but I never even remotely believed that I could do anything artistically)  But, as a result, I have re-invented my life going forward.

And I have a new tenant in the building....The Little Hat Tavern will open in April '13.

My intention with this blog, is to keep friends updated on my progress, and rather than deal with a website, keep a current running inventory.  I enjoy taking photos, so expect a lot of visuals......

So thanks for checking in...pls. let me know what you think.  (constructive criticism is also appreciated. ;-)