Miniature Frida Kahlo in polymer clay

Its Frida Kahlo!
Hey, cut me some slack... not all artists get the face right on the first try.

I scratched that face off, and proceeded to try again, ending up with the face below. I also made a shawl as to help distinguish her as Frida.

Much better! I also needed to put the braided hair atop the head so she would be easily recognizable as Frida, so I actually braieded pieces of clay together, very crafty.

I got the braids going and also made some tiny flowers


I repositioned the head to face the "side I liked better" (the one without the feet showing), and cured/baked the clay, she is now complete!

Frida has a painted on face because I feel that with all of her self portraits, the 2-dimensional face makes sense and helps distinguish her as Frida. I have done Frida caricatures with sculpted faces and I prefer this method, especially with something this tiny. The figure definitely is a hybrid between craft and sculpture, as most of my art is. Here she is with the two figures from my last few blogs, each is a different kind of figure, each has its own appeal in different ways but I made Frida in the old way of making figures and wouldn't count her in the highly detailed new figure category because her hair was simplified, not put on strand by strand, her hands were made in the old style "mitten", and she has no toes or sculpted ears, everything is simplified, which I do like though, and she is a work of art in her own right.

Tiny henna girl from previous blog

I had to update with a better photo of the piece from the last blog, and also to show her post curing when the shininess of the clay goes away.

Mehndi is done!

My visions have become REALITY!
Today I made my henna girl, I love her, I love, love, love her!
I put a really fast video up on youtube showing the progression of the figure, below are a few pics.


She is detailed, and gorgeous, her size alone makes her appealing (she is only one and three quarters of an inch tall) and all that hand painted goodness begs to be shown off, I cant wait to go street vending with her!
She is like some of my past henna girls, only less than half their size! She fits into the smallest cubes.
Up next on my "to make list" is an affirmation figure followed by some of the "flower girls" which will remain the same old price, but have new faces... faceless so to speak... well, painted on. You will see.

Cris' butterfly person is more than it seems

Today I was able to gift blogger Nando's friend Cris with a Butterfly Person.
The sculpture seems normal when you look at it... golden girl holds broken wrist... my work often appears arbitrary like this, and though the broken wrist does indicate fragility, if one were to do their research they would see just what this piece symbolizes... WAY more than a golden fairy-girl with wings.

The piece was designed to be a three dimensional canvas for an important black and white ink drawing that I have done which the hard copy is on paper.  See below.

The most important elements of the drawing were taken such as the symbol of peace, the dove, and several images of lovers together, the candle to light the path of your destiny, and love was written on her arm as a manifestation of these things.  The figure is supposed to send out these energies, love, togetherness, and lighting of the life path.  I thought that the imagery was interesting but I had to mask slightly the obviousness of the figure so I sprayed her in Gold. The gold partially, not completely obscured the images beneath the paint and that is how the figure was gifted.  Her wings are blue and Gold, symbolizing riches and prosperity, but the underside of the wings (the side you see when looking at the figure head on) were left in their natural state, “shine, but never loose sight of who you really are.”  Below are some images of the figure before she was covered in Gold.  Hope Cris likes her and is not freaked out that the mundane is not so mundane… that’s how we artists are, always including some importance in our work even if its beneath the surface.

Cris & Nando @ Union Square

Street Vending Date

FINALLY such a relief to be out and about in NYC again! 
Im going to be street vending Sunday, October 25th at the Metropolitan Museum of Art... this is on 5th ave and 82nd on the East side of Central Park.    There is a spot on the South side of the entrance on 5th were artists set up, find me & say hello.

Im back!

Im back, like forreal now.  The creativity is finally flowing and I am going to be creating some tiny wonders.  Small is the way to go for me right now and I will be creating some very detailed and yet minute things.  I was thinking about my first order of business besides buying smaller brushes would be to make a henna girl in miniature, it would be so very beautiful, though I feel sorry for those with bad eye sight who cannot see what I make.  More time spent on each piece means more detail… no more “mitten” hands, each figure will have five fingers and toes.  They will also be masterpieces in their own right, larger does not mean more prestigious, I have found this out the hard way though sometimes in the art world it may seem that way.   No matter the size of a work of art, its what you put into it.  That said, there will be an understandable increase in price with the increase in quality and effort ;-)

confirmed, she will be!

I can almost certainly confirm that the next bronze piece will be the one from the last blog after all, I changed her up a little bit though, her breasts and stomach were changed, one was enlarged, the others reduced.  I am sticking to the theme I had with the last figure, masks.  Masks as a way of "putting on face".  This figure will hopefully be depicted in motion, walking, almost reminding me of a person who has to go to work and put on a smiley face, so thats what she is literally doing, she has a smiley face on a stick to hold up in front of her, but its not who she really is.  The other two masks in her left arm are for later when she has to again change based on the circumstances of her existence.

Male form

Finally, after a million women, a tribute to the male form. What am I so afraid of when dealing with the male form? Judgment perhaps, ridicule, being found out that I really don't know the male body that well? Perhaps all or none of these, but this figure is beautiful.

covering himself well

Acornia

The acorn man is DONE, and to deal with the touchy subject of nudity, I will from this time on put photos showing (this is silly to me since its just polymer clay, but whatever) nudity will be within the post and you will have to click on read more to see it/read the rest of the post.  Anyway, the pieces of the puzzle were put together and the muse who brought along the acorns was revamped. I had to build up his legs, arms, and the center of his body a bit.  He was painted with the inspired design from blogs before, and also sits on it, as well as the multitude of colorful acorn cupiles which were inspired by the real thing.  Oh Norfolk, Virginia, little yellow house on Tidewater drive and your white oaks with intensely bright green acorns...

after the jump, see the dude man uncensored as he is nude.

Everyone wants to know why.
Why is he nude, because this is freedom you guys, I shall be able to make nude men as well as nude females, one cannot be accepted over the other, the acorns have become modules representing art and design, nature is always primary in creating inspiration for many mass-produced things.

Acornia

The acorn muse is done and all these last few blogs will finally come together with the next one.  I will post asap

The acorn transformed into a pattern, ready for fashion

I wanted to make a pattern to paint onto some clay fabric which will be on the figure (yet to be made) so I took four of my polymer clay acorns (two with seeds, the other two without) and arranged them together.  Using a computer editing program I just tinkered with it, and got the images in the order below... when I got the one with the strands, I isolated a single image that I liked, lightened it, repeated it in a tile arrangement, and then have the final product which looks nothing like the original photo.  Its amazing and really cool, I see albino mice and orchids in the last picture, not acorns.  I will paint images inspired by this print on the clay covering of the next figure... cant wait to make it!

Cupules become "modernized" for artistic purposes and acorns inspire new fashion line

Clay cupules painted and ready to be arranged, the acorn will be used as inspiration on the clay clothes that the figure wears, using a computer program to alter and warp the acorn which will be repeated as a pattern.

Nature for modularization

"The strongest oak of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It's the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun." - Napoleon Hill


"Is the acorn better than the oak which is its fullness and completion?"

 “The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Oak Nutized