New Work

Let me preface this by saying I have a wonderful job, and am incredibly lucky to get to get to do what I do. Being incredibly lucky however, does not inoculate me from having immensely frustrating days in the studio. Today was one of those days. Couldn't make any progress, and hated my process to boot.

How did I ever get involved in such a fiddly, puzzle-making business? I'm not a fiddly guy, and I hate puzzles. I remember seeing the Art21 with Vija Celmins where she talks about despising her process, and it was a totally foreign idea to me. Why would you make art if you didn't like the process? I couldn't understand it then, but I understand it now.

Anyway. In the end, after dinner, pizza and a movie with the wife and kids, I went back out to the studio and got this done, and now I feel better.

Hold This Thought (2)

This is a photo of the drummer Zach Hill, which I first saw in an article in the NY Times. Nothing about it looks like sculpture to me, but there's something about the intensity, the wasted physicality of it that appeals to me. There's something disjointed between the tension in the veins and tendons in the neck, the slack mouth, and the eyes.

In my daily blog trolling, I must see at least 150 art images a day. I find a lot of stuff that amuses me, or intrigues me, but I rarely find one that grabs me like this one, or like the earlier post with the fencer. Interesting to think what that is. Definitely something you want to be alert to, and grab when it comes by. I saw this image a couple of months ago, but it wasn't until I listened to Hella (one of Mr. Hill's many bands) in the car on the way home tonight that I remembered to go back and find the image. Now that I've got it, I don't know what to do with it, but you don't want to let the good ones get away.

Living with adult ADD

Slow to update these days, so this all of this is a couple weeks old.

Here's what I up to recently on a single day in the studio.



Painting and waxing the big guy.



Trimming up newly cast figures.



Composing the first of the 3 x 3's



Casting a new set of plates



And experimenting with new plate options.

The AADD studio at work.

Boo YAH!

Finally!



"Self Portrait, With Ambition"

Only thing lacking is a coat of paint.

Things I wish I'd Made For 1000

From a great site called Old Chum. There was a few really nice totems to choose from, but the crutches on this one sold me.

The Endless 10%

Gotten a bit behind in my posting, but suffice it to say, I'm still working on the damn figure.

Going for my third attempt at the arrow today.Two weeks ago I finally managed see the sculpture with the arrow installed.It looked like this.



The good news was that the arrow attached to the body pretty much like I'd hoped. The bad news was two-fold. First, while the arrow was the same size as all the others, it looked much, much too long. In the end we decided it looked about 10.5 inches too long. That's a lot to trim off a man's arrow, but you gotta do what you gotta do. The second problem was that it sagged, and a sagging arrow is a metaphor I don't need.

Round two. I decided that the best solution would be to use square steel rod stock. Good in theory, but at the last minute, it turned out that it sticks up too far at the rounded edges, and would be too visible. Round two point five. Back to the hardware store for some brass tubing. Not as strong or rigid as square steel, but lighter. Hopefully that will make the difference.



At the same time, I've been working on paint finishes. Having a failed casting has been unexpected helpful in this regard. Hydrostone is not the same as Forton MG, but I'm guessing it's close enough. They don't really show up well in pictures, but here's a nice image of the two of them stacked together. Makes me think, as always, that it would be even cooler to have millions of them.



Finally, in the face of all this endless work on the last 10%, I've been thinking about why this is taking so long, and I think I have at least half an answer. I'm hoping that this process represents a shift from making things that look good to making things that are good. It's easy to make work that looks good in slides, or looks good on the internet. In the end, that's a lot more about the quality of the photo than it is about the quality of the work. Making something that is good - that can hold it's own in person, from all angles - is a much trickier proposition. And if you're a sculptor, that's what it's got to be about.