A Good Show

Went to Baltimore City over the weekend to have a one day show (Bazaart) at the Visionary Art Museum there. After this weekend, I want to say that it feels like the economy may be coming back-or, at least, folks are less scared (for better or worse) of spending money. Sold a few pieces that were "hot off the press". I'm not going to say that I'm getting sentimental and that it pains me to see work go, but at least two of the pieces will be missed-"The Passenger" and "Pensive"-I'd just finished them and probably needed to stare at them just a while longer...oh, well.

Besides having a good long interrupted talk (darn those pesty folks who don't know that I'm at this venue to yak and instead want to buy my art!) with my friend Bob and his wife Nancy, I ran into two friends who I haven't seen in forever-I lived up the street from the in NYC on Broadway-Carl and Mary were below Canal street-I was above Canal street-talk about bringing back some good old memories AND seeing some really wonderful, creative, good-hearted and smart people...you take for granted some of the folks you meet, thinking that you'll probably have the chance to encounter people like this again. This is simply not true, unless you are very lucky or one of those who lives forever. Carl and Mary are unique-two people who I've crossed paths with and know myself to be the better and richer for it.

Here are the two pieces (boo-hoo) that I sold that were just out of the studio.

On the left is "The Passenger" and the one on the right is "Pensive". Isn't my photography getting a little better? I'll be doing a new website when I figure out lighting-and hopefully, this will be very soon.

Thanksgiving Story

So the lost dog (turns out his name is "little") was reunited with his owner thanks to an ad he placed on Craig's List along with some photos of the dog.
The dog was initially attracted to my friend when he heard the sound of a woodsplitter that a hired man was running out in the yard. The sound was familiar to the dog-as it happened, the dog's owner is a tree guy, who splits wood for extra moolah. Since the dog was almost 20 miles from home, the poor thing truly was lost!
Anyhow, both dog and owner are together again (Jamie said that when Little saw his owner-this big guy-she couldn't hold the dog back and the meeting was especially tearful. I know this situation from "losing" Delilah when she would go on one of her "walkabouts"...talk about emotional...just wathc them waterworks when it comes to anything dog.
In January, so Cara sez, we might get another dog-and probably a cat as well.

This one is called "Almost"-as you can see, an old, cut-up hand lettered sign spells out the title of this sculpture.

A New Dog in Town

Out to try something new-I'm about to purchase some modelling material (not clay, to which I seem to have a real aversion -I may have to take a clay workshop just to see if have good reason...) called Winterstone. What I'm thinking is that I'd like to make this material into the consistency of putty and roll some stuff-meaning bits of lint, dog hair, string, dust-and create some figures-or at least heads with shoulders out of it.

The whole idea is to spend less time with the head/figure and more on my background and the overall piece-so much of my work is supported by the heads/figures and I'd like to take the emphasis and spread it around a little. Barring this, a new approach is needed here as I'm feeling stale. This has been a strong feeling with the coming of the fall and the DST time-change. Along with it came a sort of depression, a feeling that I can get "through" my work much like I could get "through" my house with the lights off (or my eyes closed)-I know things a little TOO well.

We'll have to see how/if this works. It will help that my last show of the season is exactly a week from today...

We had a little stray mutt-dog in the warehouse/office for the past two days. He must be all of a year old and weighs 27 pounds (we had him on the UPS scale)-we've been trying every possible name for him (he belonged to someone, for sure, as he is pretty well fully trained) to see if he responds-no dice. The group opinion has it that he was dumped and, even though Jamie and Michelle have posted "lost dog" notices up all over, he won't be claimed. I hope that this is so because, despite the fact that they both like big dogs, this little guy is seducing all of us. He can jump straight up in the air pretty far, never mind right into your lap. He seems to love riding in the truck and, no surprise here, loves to play. It's fun to be around a dog that is so different from what I'm used to ...if this dog isn't a Sparky, I dunno what the best name would be for him. But I'll leave that up to Jamie, as I think she has already fallen hard for him.

This one has no name yet, but is part of the big heads, as you can see. I included Raising Doubt here as well, which is uppermost and preceeded the new head by several months.

Sex, Ghosts

I've wanted to write lately, but have felt somewhat stalled out. The past month or so has felt to me akin to running on fumes. S'pose there have been distractions -even my sculptural work has felt shallower than usual. Concentration has been a hard partner to satisfyand even though everything seems the same, it just ain't. There's a great degree of static, both good and bad, running through this here radio program o' my life.

Two forces or ideas seem to pull at me and they both seem to lead to a Marquez-like style when I "pull" back. The ghost and all that is ghostly...and sex, which has always led me around by the proverbial nose. But nothing has so far jelled into product: I guess that this is not so surprising, given the nature of both of these topics and the idea that each can maintain its own degree of cloudiness.

Here is something that is physically real, called "The Courier". My friend, Erica, gave me the beautiful blue chair seat (it's the body/chest of the "human" form). I hope that I've done it some justice-I sure wish I had another chair seat like it to play around with.

Cold

Well, it's happened.

I don't like the cold anymore.

I used to love this season, but things change.

Maybe it's the fact that I hold out on the heat in the studio and turn it on only when I can't take it anymore. At this point, I don't look forward to going down there-the building, which is wonderfully cool in the summer with its concrete floor, is now an icebox-easily 10-15 degrees cooler than the outside air.

I seem to focus more on the fuel bill than anything, which is, considering my vast income, a very real concern.

Yesterday, I spent my time there (about 8 hours) in gloves. I've always hated gloves.

I'll hold out for a bit longer and turn on my heat in December.

My physical discomfort is manageable. But having an aversion to spending time at my work and therefore wanting to put off visits to the studio (consciously and subconsciously) is not a good thing -it confuses this simple mind and throws me into a bit of depression. It also clouds many minute-to-minute decisions as extra static when it comes to making things.

Do they provide grants for fuel bills? Guess I should read more Kafka and stop complaining.

This one is called "The Passenger" and was shot with my new Canon. I will be working more on the lighting (and the "rotation" option as well) and soon, you won't be able to tell my shots from a professional's (yeah, right!).