From The Roof of The World...

Theres nothing, absolutely nothing like a little inspiration to get you going. Today all I did was paint my latest butterfly person, that’s right, no mass production here, I only painted a piece already sculpted! She turned out better than I could have imagined and is like a little jewel when I look at her. I am so moved by her that I have put her as my homepage girl on www.thebutterflypeople.com, I made a triptych with digitally edited images of her.

This is my attempt at not only contemporizing the overtly embellished covers of 13th century Tibetan manuscripts, but also of turning my figures into a sort of three dimensional canvas to exercise my painting muscles for a change.

Check out the process below.
The beginning, a baked, red polymer clay figurine only 2.5" tall seated

I took the image of a Tibetan manuscript cover and sort of just imagined it was shrink wrapped on her so the lines though zig-zaged, are not really concentric, she is completely asymmetrical. After painting on the black lines, gray dots were painted within the lines. In this space inbetween, concentric circles were painted.


GOLD!
Now the fun part, GOLD was painted onto her face, and all areas near the borderlines already divided. A sun-like medallion is painted near her belly but even that is not central, I want her to be asymmetrical, this is important to me because if something is beautiful even though it is not the same on both sides (even) then it is truly beautiful.


Everything is further painted over with bronze paint, and all gold pieces are given false shadows since manuscript covers are traditionally carved and gilded. This is the finished product.



And to show scale, a photo of myself holding the rare jewel.

I N S P I R A T I O N

Hi! Today reminded me of why its such a good thing to live in or around NYC! The museums!
Some of the worlds freaking best art museums and galleries are here just waiting to be gawked at by artists who can draw inspiration and ideas off of the past.
Today I visited one gallery and one museum.
The gallery was Cue at 511 West 25th street, the particular reason I went was to see the work of Shay Church who had installed a wonderful wet clay piece - a large elephant which was very impressive and inspirational for me who obviously has not done any monumental work.
Below is an image of one of his past exhibitions... all of these pieces are large and made on site since they are not fired clay.


The next place I visited was the Brooklyn Museum, and before you get excited I will not be giving a critique of the Murakami exhibit or attempting to emulate any of his pieces.
This was the first time I have been to the museum which is kind of sad considering Ive been here in New York for four years now, but I always chose the Met instead when deciding where to go for ancient arts. However there was one piece I was suggested to see which was to inspire some sort of change in my polymer clay creations, and that was a Chinese Tomb tower with figures inside. It was not too much unlike the one pictured below but I failed to find anything of use for me personally since the figures inside were very simplified and more like chess pieces than figurines, but the architecture of the towers were very impressive for ceramics.

What did end up finally making my eyes widen were the Tibetan Manuscript Covers which were just beautiful hand carved 13th century embellished pieces of wood which held the manuscripts inside. Ive been playing with the idea of using the figure (the butterfly person) and turning her into a 3-dimensional canvas for a while now but what to paint on her? You saw a sneak peek with the Henna lady a few blogs ago, but the next one will definitely be based on a Tibetan manuscript. I have already made a red lady, and will be working on painting her tomorrow so hopefully you will be able to see pictures by the end of the day.

Custom Order

Here is the latest custom order made to look like a little baby. She was fun to make, but the final product looks a bit older than the actual baby and her eyes are too far apart, nonetheless, I don’t think I will re-paint her, I am undecided.

The kid

The clay face made for her

Similar yet?

Needs more cheeks, adding clay...

Fat cheeks





Lets put the eyes on and hope it looks like the kid...

I painted the eyebrows and lips but they were too big

Cleaned up the top lip and brung the cheeks down further for some "jowls"

Cleaned up the bottom lip

Now the fun part, placing the hair on the head.

What do you think? Similar?


Similar-ish but the clay figure is much older than the baby... more practice.



Thats all folks.

Hoy

Dont forget today I will be at the second avenue summerfest on twenty eighth street and second avenue in NYC, im thinking its the 4, 5, 6 train and then walk east. Come by, say hi, and see whats new.

With the world going green, I figured why not go brown?

Hi, this blog features my latest creations. Ive recently decided that since everyone is going “green” I would go “brown” and I don’t mean I shall begin using UPS for shipping, or even converting to recycled materials-only art; I am going to get my shades of brown back into the butterfly people. Upon returning to Union Square Park, Ive realized that people primarily buy my small pieces there, and they love diversity, ethnicity, and culture! So the pinkish-beige clay has transformed into a brownish color that goes from coffee w/milk to coffee bean colored, and out from this material springs beautiful women in all shades with colorful outfits on and brave commentary.
before fashion fair

After Fashion Fare

Some of my new pieces have text in them because I want my ideas read. None of those are here, I will save them for a later blog.
The other day I made the four girls below


The first is a Mexican woman holding her country’s flag. The next one was made from a picture of a Muslim woman, I thought, “hey, ive never seen a Muslim miniature figure before, Ill be the one to make it!” It doesn’t really represent anything controversial at all, just another beautiful women, just a covered up one.
The third is a dready-haired lady, kinda like the gypsies I make with a faded colorful skirt and white shirt and golden eye make up. The next one is a dancer with a big head of super curly hair, I tried to make ruffles on her top without much success!
I also made four pieces today, three “sisters” who are little native people from some make-believe South American Country, collecting corn in baskets which were hand woven.





And YES if you were wondering I really did hand weave these freaking baskets, and it took eternity! But it was well worth it, for they look so cute.
The last girl is a brown-haired beauty holding a cloth to partially cover herself, all of these here are only a couple to a few inches tall since they are the small cube sized pieces.

Fire Courts Water - A Dangerous Combination

You are not alone if you think this latest piece is very odd. The strange figures twisted colors intertwined with one another makes you wonder what the hell I was smoking on. The answer is nothing, I decided to do a water element and a fire element and they fell in love. Strange how we often love those who are most toxic to us, fire embracing water like this could turn her to steam and yet fire risks being drowned in such proximity to water! Atrocious I say! Yet there they are with their tips touching, fire deeply in love while water leans off to the side… a match made in heaven or hell?

Pictures