Jedediah Morfit Sculpture

Hard Looking

2012-01-21T07:12:00.000-08:00

I had been looking forward to yesterday for a long time. Everything that I'd been working on for all the various shows done and out the door, the semester launched, but not crazy, and a chance to get into the studio and get back to work on the big lady. Of course, with my calendar blindness, I'd forgotten that I was supposed to be at an Instant Decision Day in the morning (waiting for one prospective student who never showed up!), so I didn't get started until after lunch.

Incredibly frustrating, but it turned out to be fine. Two things; first, the little propane heater I bought makes working in the studio in the winter a pleasure. It's like having a roaring fireplace at your backside. Second, working on the tangled vines of the skirt is hard on the eyes. I don't know how to describe it, except to say it's like staying in the batting cages too long, or driving in in a blizzard - it requires a particular kind of visual concentration that's hard to sustain. I don't know that I could have done it for any longer than the 4 hours I found myself left with. Slow going, and no pictures, but nice to be back at work just the same.

Three Shows Down and Out

2012-01-19T18:47:00.000-08:00

They are all gone. Gone to Stockton. Gone to Philadelphia. Gone to New London. God, it feels great. I had hoped to have some kind of statement at this point, something that would tie all these pieces together. Particularly now that I have enough work to see the forest somewhat more clearly. The statement I'm working on now has, as usual, gotten too long and convoluted, and become a comment on art, and the art world, and on the viability of artist's statement's in general. Hopefully I'll straighten it out in the near future and get it out there. Finding a way (and finding the time) to be more articulate and honest about the content of this work is one of my goals for 2012. I'm also trying to drink less beer and be a better person. It's been a touch year for resolutions.

On The Road Again

2012-01-11T07:23:00.001-08:00

Being an sculptor on the east coast means learning to love the 95 corridor. On my way to deliver work to Connecticut College. They were prepared to pay for shipping, but in the end the I would rather have the piece of mind that comes with driving it myself.

Frames Within Frames

2012-01-10T07:36:00.000-08:00

Building crates out back.

Things I Wish I'd Made For 1000

2012-01-08T11:07:00.001-08:00

I love all this post-apocalyptic, Tank Girl/Mad Max-type stuff. Love it. This one is by the Korean artist Bhead. There's more good stuff to be found on his blog, but it's all in Korean, so it's not that easy to navigate. The textures and surfaces he's is getting are particularly fine. I love the lace shirtfront, the fishnet tights, and the evidence of hard use on the binoculars.

From Kottke.org

2012-01-07T09:35:00.000-08:00

Another Quora gem: an answer to the question "what is it like to have an understanding of very advanced mathematics?"

You are comfortable with feeling like you have no deep understanding of the problem you are studying. Indeed, when you do have a deep understanding, you have solved the problem and it is time to do something else. This makes the total time you spend in life reveling in your mastery of something quite brief. One of the main skills of research scientists of any type is knowing how to work comfortably and productively in a state of confusion.

From the excellent kottke.org.

The exact same thing could be said about art.

Crazy Vs. Lazy

2012-01-06T21:08:00.000-08:00

I'm not a perfectionist.

I'm not a perfectionist, and these pieces really aren't meant to be perfect. The individual elements that make up the whole are not precious. They are plastic casts. Each one is one of many. They get cut and ground down, chopped, spliced and split. It is, in theory, fine with me if there is flashing visible along the edges, or air bubbles in the surface. To my mind, there's an element of theater to this work that I want to see reflected in the finish - luminous and awe-inspiring at distance, mundane material up close.

That said, as I get close to finishing these pieces, it's hard to know when I'm allowing for an appropriate degree of mundane materiality and when I'm just being lazy. The line between finishing a piece and overworking one is always clear. Particularly if you're not a perfectionist, or even particularly detail oriented. As readers of this blog will know, I find the last 10% HARD. And I am ready, ready, for these pieces to be done. But then I see some errant hole, or some thin shaving of plastic clinging to one of the elements, and I will wonder - should I leave it and let the physical reality of the thing speak for itself, or is that just me justifying my basic desire to get this done?

Strange Monolith

2012-01-06T11:15:00.000-08:00

Repainting on a 54 degree day.

Undergirding

2012-01-06T06:55:00.000-08:00

Last year I got smart and started getting my frames made by a professional. Much respect to David Goldmann at SDJ Woodworking, who never fails to do beautiful work.

Problems In Pink

2012-01-05T11:09:00.000-08:00

Let this picture stand for two things. First, this new piece is going to be Pepto Bismal pink, which I'm really excited about. Second, no matter how much your new, fancy propane heater warms the space, it is unwise to try to spraypaint urethane plastic in a cold studio.

I always tell my students that sculpture is the medium least able to be left to the last minute, and here I am gallantly proving the truth of it. There are just too many variables, and inevitably one of them is going to find a way to bite you in the ass.

West Collects (Help Me Out)

2011-12-29T13:42:00.000-08:00

Hey all,

I'm sending this out to people I'm pretty sure have an iphone, or at least app capabilities. I just applied for the West Prize, which is a cool, and definitely lucrative, art prize with a social component. The person who gets the most votes via their app wins 25,000. There's some people out there with a pretty serious head start, but the more votes you get, the more you show up on the site, so if you guys would help me lay a foundation, I'd definitely appreciate it.

the app can be found on the app store (search west collects), or at the website, westcollects.com.

I didn't find the app to be super intuitive. Once you're on the app, search for Morfit. That will take you to my bio. From there, you browse to the right, as though you were looking at pictures, and that will take you to my images. Hit the big pink I Like button, and that's all there is to it. You can "like" each individual piece as you scroll through.

Thanks for your help,

Jed

Toil

2011-12-21T12:59:00.000-08:00

The Christmas season is upon us, and I have a million things to do other than ruminate over the studio process. Still, I thought I'd post a few of these images from the new one "Toil", which is coming together like a dream within a dream. There has been a little trickiness in terms of getting the pattern to read, but mostly it's been a pleasure. More pattern pieces in the future. Happy holidays to both of my loyal readers, and to the rest of you.

Not FINISHED Finished, But Close

2011-12-20T09:48:00.001-08:00

But close. I told my wife I might finish this piece today and she looked shocked. She should know by now that finished doesn't mean complete. Never complete.

I Think I'm In Love

2011-12-19T09:30:00.000-08:00

Now THIS is fun. Doesn't take much to change the game and uncover all sorts of interesting new possibilities.

Always Wear Protection

2011-12-19T07:46:00.000-08:00

Tuesday. Toile piece proceeding nicely. Very cold in here.

I may have to incorporate this self-portrait into the next round of sculpey figures.

One Down...

2011-12-16T19:10:00.000-08:00

Today was frenzied but good. In the not-usual manner of Friday's in the studio day, my wife had to run out in the morning, so I was left with the youngest, ostensibly during "nap" time, so she could do her thing, and I could work. But of course the boy never naps when you need him to, so the morning was more or less shot (thank god for James, diligently toiling away).

Still, we managed to get the piece for Connecticut College done. Of course it's not really DONE done. It's done enough to go down to the basement to mature like a fine wine until it is time to ship, at which time it will be pulled out, re-examined, had any newly discovered flaws corrected, and packed away. This sounds like a joke, but the truth is, layaway time is a real thing. By the time I'm this far along in the making of a piece, I can't see it any more. I'm tired, and I'm out of patience, and I want to be done. Coming back to it ensures that I go over it with a fine toothed comb, and that it leaves the studio looking right.

Close observers may notice a few stray bits of tape on there - those are to remind me of the little areas that need to be tweaked before it goes out. All in all I'm really happy with this one. I really like the way the drop-out silhouette makes you aware of the strange depth that these pieces operate in.

Of course, there's another piece waiting in line. This one's going to be interesting It's based on Toile patterns, but I can't say more now, because it's late, and I need to go to bed. Plus, there's nothing to see here but some meticulously gridded paper that turned out to be all wrong. Good night.

Two Views From From The Finish Line

2011-12-15T12:54:00.002-08:00

Part 2

Two Views From From The Finish Line

2011-12-15T12:54:00.001-08:00

Part 1

Dilated, People

2011-12-15T07:59:00.001-08:00

Putting one of these framed pieces together is absolutely not the kind of work you should do with your eyes dilated. Jeez.

Sent from my iPhone

Kara Walker

2011-12-10T14:10:00.001-08:00

People often reference Kara Walker when they look at my work. Personally, I don't see the resemblance.

Next!

2011-12-09T09:44:00.001-08:00

While James drills out the holes in the wooden backing, I'm putting together the figures for the next piece. Henry Ford eat your heart out.

Mobile Posting Mini-Fail

2011-12-02T19:14:00.001-08:00

I can see that today's experiment in posting live via iphone was not an unqualified success. Apparently, adding the text after the image is the same as not adding text. No great loss. Suffice it to say it was a successful day, with good progress being made on the current piece, as well as on the-piece-to-come.

In other news, the lovely Kristen Zohn over at the Columbus Museum emailed me a copy of the lobby poster for the show in May, which looks great. Check it out.

Prepping For The Next Round

2011-12-02T14:11:00.000-08:00

2nd Coat

2011-12-02T11:44:00.000-08:00

Borders Cut, Ready To Paint

2011-12-02T08:24:00.000-08:00

Fucking Process

2011-11-29T19:23:00.001-08:00

Feeling VERY annoyed with this piece right now, but after a couple of hundred microscopic, infinitesimal changes, I think it's finally starting to resolve itself. Fucking thing.

Hating The Process...

2011-11-28T19:31:00.000-08:00

...but excited about the project. I'm particularly fired up about the NEXT piece I have in mind for the Fiberarts exhibition. The one pictured below continues to make me nervous. The composition isn't quite working at this moment, although it's close, and it's designed around an element that I won't see until it's almost all done. On some level I must like working Like this, but the rational Part of my brains knows that having the whole thing come together at the last minute is just asking for trouble.

Long Overdue

2011-11-21T10:55:00.001-08:00

It's been a slow week in Lake Woebegone. Slow couple of weeks, really. Progress has been made, but it's been interrupted and incremental. As usual, I suppose.

Last Monday I had the lovely people from PCKMedia (no website yet) over to do an interview and studio visit. I think it went well, but it's hard to know how it will edit down. In any case, I was glad for the opportunity. The show will air on WHYY sometime this winter. I'll keep you posted.

Friday, I went to NY. Ever since I became a member of the Met in order to circumvent the line at the Alexander McQueen show, I'd been planning to head to up there to visit the Cloisters, which is part of the same organization. And, since I was going to be in town, I made a plan with a friend to take a walk around Chelsea.

Getting up to New York is something I don't do often enough. Getting up there is a pain in the ass, and it's almost absurdly expensive, but there's just no substitute. Nothing recharges the creative batteries like New York.

I don't know what inspired me more - the great sculpture at the Cloisters, the fantastic work by Jim Hodges at both Gladstone Galleries (who I'd somehow never heard of), the heavyweight Serra show, or the few moments I had to spend walking the High Line.

Every day I'm away from the studio is painful, particularly these days, when there's so much going to be done, and there's so little time to get it done. Still, sometimes the most useful thing you can do is to head back to the source, and remember what it's all for. Thank you New York.

Feeling Good Doing Nothing

2011-10-28T06:36:00.000-07:00

Friday is studio day, but not today.

Today is my son's 7th birthday, plus parent-teacher conferences, and then the afternoon, and then dinner, and then it's pretty much all over, and no studio. So be it. I'm actually feeling glad to have the day off. The only thing I've getting out of the studio lately is anxiety and frustration, and I'm hoping a week off will reset that. Also, I'm thinking that I've allowed myself to get distracted by too many little side projects. Next week I'm planning on going back to work on the big framed piece and the big lady, and putting everything else on the back burner, where it belongs.

See you then.

Cleaning Out Old Files....

2011-10-26T06:17:00.000-07:00

...I came across this little gem from Jed Perl.

"I believe that a work of art must have a free-standing value. Formal values are one element of that equation; I take it for granted that a work we experience visually must be visually resolved. But the artist who gives this work its value is pulling together all kinds of experiences. Narrative may be as important as color; the startling character of the imagery may be what fuels the vigor of the line. What counts is that whatever the artist is thinking or feeling is absorbed into the look, the character, the intricacies of the work. The painting, the sculpture, the collage, the assemblage makes its own terms, and we judge what we see.

Jed Perl
“Eyewitness”
Basic Books; NY, NY, 2000
pp. 5-6

Everybody Is a Brand (And That Ain't Good)

2011-10-22T06:57:00.001-07:00

It is a cruel facet of my personality that having a great day in the studio, as I did last week, doesn't carry nearly the emotional weight as a useless one. I had plenty of time to think about this phenomenon yesterday, as I frittered the day away on frustrating dead end after another. The unfortunate conclusion I came to is that I expect a great day in the studio, I expect productivity, and anything less feels like failure. Ridiculous, but there it is.

Even more frustrating was that I went into yesterday knowing I wasn't going to be working in the studio. I am in the middle (hopefully a little closer to the end) of getting a Kickstarter campaign launched. Since I am launching a new campaign, I thought it made sense to also use this time to launch the piece I've been wanting to try on Etsy and, since I'm doing all that, I thought I should probably refresh my website. And, since I don't count any of those activities as actual productivity, I thought I might be able to resolve them all on Friday. Turns out no.

I should say that I didn't just start working on them on Friday. I've been working on them, intermittently, since last week, when I bought a little, useless HD video camera (since returned), and throughout the week, a little at a time. The problem is, you can't really rush any of this stuff. Maybe I'm still not in tune with the new digital reality, but I still believe that everything you put out there is important. Not because anybody cares on a piece-by-piece basis, but because of the aggregate impression it creates. The terrible, relentless, truth is that everything you put on the internet becomes part of your brand.

The problem with thinking of everything you do as reflecting on your brand is that, as an artist, there is so little distance between the two. On the internet, you become the face of your own little microbrand, which is poison. What makes it poisonous is not the fact that you become identified with your work, which is unavoidable, but that existence of Facebook, and Twitter, and Kickstarter and all the rest mean that your work becomes identified with your whole life. You are not just the face of your own little microbrand, you are the face of microlifestylebrand. Social media turns us all into little Martha Stewart's.

It's a nasty catch-22, because while it's hard to imagine anything that has had a more positive impact on artist's ability to bring their work to market than social media, it is equally hard to think of a group of people who need to increase that self-conscious meta-thinking less than artists. Poets, maybe. Or Narcissists. I bet social media has been a disaster for narcissists. The very wise Ellen Driscoll, once told me that being an artist meant being learning to live with risk, and I believe she's right. You've got to be willing to bet big, every time. But betting big means being willing to see some of those bets, maybe a lot of those bets go terribly, embarrassingly wrong. And that's a lot harder to do when you're also trying to look cool.

To me this begs the question, if you think social media is such a problem, and that digital self-consciousness is such a problem, what are you doing with this blog? The truth is, I'm not sure. Certainly this is not the unvarnished truth about what happens in the studio. There are time when I find myself cleaning the studio so I can take a decent photo, or not talking about projects that unsure of, or don't like. It is, in a very real sense, a marketing tool. But that's the thing - when you are the brand (and you unavoidably are), then everything is a marketing tool. Facebook, Etsy, Twitter, Flikr, Kickstarter. All of it. Every picture you post of you and your crazy/bucolic/extravagant lifestyle becomes part of your little advertising campaign. And that can't be good.

The Joy Of A Productive Day

2011-10-14T19:58:00.000-07:00

Lovely. Full day in the studio, working around the rotation in true ADHD style.

First, managed to get some good work in on The Lady.

Even by my standards, this is a crazy process. Using 5/8ths inch rope from Home Depot to serve as the basis for some of the vines, and as a way to get a preview of the composition.

I've got a terrifying amount of work to do on this, and I'm hating the plasticene I'm using, but I'm happy with the way it's looking. You can get a glimpse of the drawing I'm working from on the right. I drew only a small section before I decided that making it was going to make more sense than designing it, but that little part has turned out to be a big help.

With James busily casting figures in the new molds, during those moments when the (goddamn) plastince was warming up I could turn around and work on composing the new framed relief.

This is a great way for me to compose these pieces. Dropping in, almost unconsciously, without trying to "solve" the whole thing in a sitting feels much more productive, and the results feel much less labored.

Finally, after lunch, I made myself knuckle down and finish the smaller framed piece, "You And Your Romantic Notions". No pictures of that this round, because I'm shooting the final slides in a bit, but soon.

Lovely.

Summer Harvest

2011-10-13T18:42:00.000-07:00

All summer, my excellent assistant, James, has been helping me rebuild the mold library for the relief project. Now they're all cast in silicone, on uniformly sized sheets, and molded in such a way as to limit cleanup. Beautiful. Plus, it looks like he's figured out a hot new way to get the nails embedded in the backs. We'll do a more extensive field test tomorrow, and I'll post the pics. That and the images of the new frame relief piece in progress. Stay tuned.

Early Look At The Start Of Stage 2

2011-10-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

This has actually come a fair ways since this photo but, as usual, I'm behind. I'll try to get some new pics on Friday, when I'm back in the studio. I've started on the dress. As I mentioned earlier, I thought I'd be able to build the dress from the form of the hips, like this, but quickly figured out that, without the whole figure in place, there would be a good chance that I'd eventually put the pieces together only to discover that I got the center of gravity wrong. No thank you. So I made a quick cast of the entire figure, and mounted up high enough to give me plenty of room to work, and to have the completed figure's final height work out to about 7 ft. Then I laid up some pink foam (they've changed the color of pink foam to this liver colored mess that I can't stand), and carved it back. The straps you see are providing some rough clamping for the Great Stuff glue job that's holding the laminated pieces together.
The process get's a lost stranger from here, so bear with me.

More Installation Shots

2011-10-12T11:25:00.000-07:00

Another (relatively) recent installation photo from my exhibition at the Abington Arts Center.

Plus a detail of the combined plates...

Recent Lo-Res Install photos

2011-10-05T06:38:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you forget to bring a camera, and sometimes you aren't the one taking the picture. Nevertheless, a few images from recent installs. The plates are from the home of some great friends up in Maine, and the Self-Portrait was finally installed in the offices of the finance firm who purchased it back in March and generously let me hold onto it until the end of August.

Sitting in that chair has got to be a little intimidating...

Kill Da Wabbit..

2011-09-23T18:01:00.000-07:00

One thing that's frustrating about sculpture is how long you have to wait for gratification. Finally put this together today...

...only to decide that the frame color is too light, and the box is about a half an inch too shallow. Still, I'm quite happy with it. With the color and the depth right, I think it will work really well.

Painful to think I started this in MAY. I mean, there were lots of long breaks to work on other things, and then the semester started, and then I somehow angered the sculpture gods and had to sacrifice a mold, but still, MAY. Jeez.

Crosstown Traffic

2011-09-10T06:47:00.000-07:00

And it started out so well. Wasn't even really supposed to get in the studio yesterday, but my wife's work was cancelled, and she very generously offered to take the kids and let me get into the studio. Lovely. She was gone in the morning, but I managed to get the second part of a mold poured while the baby took his morning nap. Always dicey pouring a mold with a baby asleep in the house, because once you start mixing, you're committed. If we wakes up wailing, well, he's just got to wait. And of course he did wake up the instant the catalyst hit the mix, but just gurgled and cooed until it was all done. Perfect boy.

Since finishing the mold for the upper half of the fencing lady, I've been scrupulously not thinking too much about the bottom. I brought a pad on vacation, and I started to design it, but that kind of decorative work is not really my style, and it was hard to get too enthusiastic about it, because I know how much plans tend to change upon contact with reality, so I put it on the back burner, and let it percolate. A couple of days ago, the mysterious background mental processes were apparently complete, because I suddenly understood how to get started. All I would need is a couple of sheets of pink foam (the sculptor's friend) and some thick rope. All of which I was able to get this morning at Home Depot.

With my new purchases in hand, I rushed home, and made a quick fiberglass and FGR casting of fencer's pelvis, where she'll connect to the skirt. Even built in some hanging hardware so I could attach her to the wall. So far so good. Waiting for the casting to dry, I cleaned out the studio a bit, and made the first casts of the rabbit and the arrows for the small piece. They look good, and with the mold setting up for the briar patch, I'm feeling very close to seeing the whole vision come together.

With all that accomplished, I turn my attention back to the fiberglass casting, which has set up, and pulls beautifully. Again, everything going according to plan. Then I screw the pelvis casting to the workspace, and sketch out the dimensions of skirt. And then I have to stop.

Because the more I look at it, the more clear it is that I can't just work from the pelvis. I mean, I could, but it feels like a ridiculous risk. What if I've got the pelvis tilted slightly, and it ends up making the center of gravity look weird. Or, more likely, what if I end up working out the skirt, and it looks good with the pelvis, but wrong with the whole body. Very quickly it becomes clear to me that the smart thing do is to wait until I have a full cast, and work from there. Two problems with that. First, by this point it's 3:15, and there's no way I can make a whole cast before the end of the day. Second, if I'm going to go to the trouble of making a whole cast, I might as well go all the way, and make a final. Of course that will take more time, and may involve more material, but it's probably the smart move in the long run. Which is fine, except that it means there's nothing I can practically do about it today, which means my momentum grinds to a halt and I spend the next hour frustratedly cleaning out the studio.

Then, last night, after the kids are in bed, I head out to check the silicone mold of briar patch and the two sides have completely bonded together! What the hell? I was so sure silicone didn't stick to silicone that it didn't even occur to me to use a mold release. The original positive still looks pretty good, and thank god it does, because that's where I'm headed - two steps back and starting over.

I have pictures of all of this, and I'll post them if I can, but the camera suddenly decided to stop downloading, so you'll have to use your imagination. That's OK, you know what it looks like. It looks like traffic when you're in a hurry.

Probably not very illuminating, but there you go.