Sausage Factory

I just re-published all of the old posts that I had taken off earlier. I took them down because I was concerned that watching someone make art might be a little watching someone make sausage. It's something I'm still worried about, but, on reflection, I don't think taking down most of the old posts is the answer. After all, what is the point of a process blog if you can't look back and follow the process?

If and when I do decide that this whole project is too inside baseball, too little mystery, I'll take the blog down. Until then I'm planning to commit to the process, and put it all online.

Speaking of putting it all online, the semester is over, so I should be getting back in the studio on a more consistent basis. Fingers crossed and stay tuned.

Studio Stay-cation and The Sculptor's Reward

Working in clay IS SO NICE. It's so soft, until it isn't, which is nice, too. It smells like earth, not a refinery, and the color is warm and inviting. I turns out I really, really, miss clay. So, Friday turned out to be a studio stay-cation, working on this portrait that I started as a quick demo for 3D. Usually, having gotten all of the other distractions out of the way (re-casting the "Self-Portrait...", making crates, packing up, etc.), I would feel duty bound to go back to work on the current project. But on Friday I said fuck it, and spent a blissful morning working on something for the sheer hell of it. God, did it feel good.

In other news, we coined a really nice term in one of my classes the other day, referring to the enormous added expense and labor incurred by attempting to make work that is even slightly more dynamic, ambitious, and interesting. We call it The Sculptor's Reward.