be proud

This particular little guy has become the locum for my younger self, so that I might endow upon him the encouragement that I needed but was unable to attain. And so I told him,

“Be proud of your art no matter what anyone says. You are the mastermind of your own creation, nothing that suits you is unsuitable, especially if it comes from your originality. To follow trends or to alter yourself when your heart cries out and tells you to be true to yourself is not the way to go. So be proud of what you do, go forth with confidence and security for personal satisfaction is better than public acceptance.”

Art critics are everywhere, they are your teachers, friends, co-workers, and strangers. When I was a fledgling with the polymer clay and was told I needed to focus on serious art, I listened. When I was told that making figures with wings was making fairies and that I shouldn’t, I listened. When I was told that I should visit galleries and imitate some of the more established artists, I listened. When I was told that I would never be taken seriously in the “art world”, I listened. I listened, but I ultimately decided to simply create, which is what I am doing now.


I made a doodle while grabbing some comida at the diner last night, and that is the painting he is holding. I took a small section of the entire thing, the section that represented ascent and freedom, and shrunk it digitally, printed it out, and framed it with a miniature frame I made (and painted to look like wood). So that is the work of art I am telling him to be proud of, all symbolic of course to the entire body of work (mostly three dimensional, mostly ceramic) that I have ever made.

Butterfly Woman

Simple lines can be so beautiful

Well, this one can definitely be called a butterfly woman.  I have painted shapes of butterflies flowing up from her right ankle up to her chest, her eyes are painted over with mask-like, wing-shapes, they perfectly fit the area where her eyes sink in, cheekbones protrude, and nose curves under.  The figure itself is a throwback to a couple of other figures I have painted in the past who were supposed to be painting themselves.  The figures of this type usually carry with them a painters palette and brush with actual colors of the paint they are painted with which is in this case black. 
I want to do so much with this piece but know I must stop here, I will soon make a series because I have to experiment with color and line to see what I like best, I want to do some with colored butterflies like the flower girl I made before. 

The butterflies are relatively representational, but these black and white pieces with lines like this are really the most important to me as they are directly taken from my childhood doodles.  Just ask Sherree, I never really did school work from grades k-12, I drew on sheets of paper, simply connecting lines together (usually a single line) and forming designs, after I got older, some of my doodles were so spectacular that I had them framed and kept as works of art, this work and others like it are an assimilation of sculpture and the art of doodling.

I love you, you dynamic creative little creatures you!

Remake of that crying fairy

I recreated my old sculpture of the crying fairy, not just myself but many people expressed love and admiration for the previous one.  This time, many small things have been changed and others retained.  I love both but am partial to the current version especially since I don't use those god awful hand molds anymore. 

Throwback

Im gonna (re)make this today

Headdress

Remember the flower heads from 2007? No? Then you didnt know me back then, well here is a link to the past Myspace! blog.  Back then small figures crowned with colorful floral headdresses dominated the polymer clay.  They are being brought back, though of course an updated version since I am not the artist I used to be. Below are some of the new headdresses.  Are they symbols of power and status? Are they fashion? Are they just acorns, orchid petals, and butterfly wings?  You decide.   

Twentyten is done

Today I finished the figure that I have been working on and thinking about. I call her twentyten because she is a symbol of the new year. The year of creative expression. This means that everything I create will be from the depths of my being, straight from the source of inspiration into physical reality.

When I came up with the concept of the figure, I knew the figure had to be 100% handmade without the use of molds not because anything is wrong with that, but simply because its more original and totally one of a kind this way. I knew I wanted her surface treatment to be abstract, nothing literally, yet I still wanted it to read: unlimited potential, prosperity, love, life, energy, color! And it does!

I wanted the figure to look like the paint does when you first put it on the palette and start to mix it, it is so beautiful the colors swirling together, and so I took some colors and began to mix. I wanted ALL colors, but red and purple would overpower the figure so I stuck with medium blues and greens with highlights of yellow and white. I put some dark grey on her side to break up the gold base color. The brushstrokes were long and mostly uninterrupted so that there would be a sense of flow that matched that of the figures body.

Her hand is outstretched in what I often use as a symbol for the law of mutual exhange. You get as much as you give, the world is energy, this energy is always exchanging hands and that things, all things even money, are just energy and move from person to person in flux.
One issue with her surface treatment was that when it dried, the paint was matte and the gold was shiny. It is important for the paint to always look wet because that is how it appears when fresly mixed. I was able to seal the figure in an acrylic coating which now keeps her eternally glossy.

Click the pics to see them BIG!

blessed be

Howdy, 2010 is in full swing and I have began working on a piece that will set the ball rolling as you will.  The piece is a figure which will be painted and made to sit on the edge of a flat surface.  As I made shaped her, I thought about aesthetics: long limbs, wide hips, thick trunk with a curved belly and small head and breasts.  Its ironic since the figures of the past often had extremely large heads, breasts, and shortened limbs (to fit into their boxes). She shall represent all the great things to come this year.  She is 100% handmade without the use of molds for the symbolism of literally coming out of my hands, I know her face looks like a mold I used to use often, but I swear I made her face (i will do a how to blog for faces soon)... she is/represents creative expression which is what 2010 is all about (didnt you get the memo?).
I made her on my way to, inside, and from NYC yesterday.

Two years - my thoughts

This is the two year anniversary of my blog, the first entry can be read HERE!
I must say that first entry fascinates me, did I really write it?  The art work, did I really make it?  It is me, but it is not me for I am a different person than the one about to embark on the journey of the independent artist.  I never did a followup blog because I forgot about that one, but I will say that exactly two years to the day, the journey was difficult.  I did not know anything about "the economy" and how it would affect me.  Being unemployed put me into a lot of credit card debt until I found the job at trader joes which wasnt until Febuary of last year.  It is currently undercontrol and almost all paid off, but became a real monster, note to self: never pay your rent with a credit card, cash advance interest is sky high.  I am content now, I do not look down on my hourly wage job; I may even have to get a second job soon for it has liberated my work to an extent which you will begin seeing in 2010.  Liberation?  I have experienced real censorship with my forays into street vending and selling art online.  I made fairies and a lot of figures that I look back on with grimace because I knew they would sell, they sold consistenly and quickly.  Even the faces of my work has changed, the ugly became the beautiful and the large and oversized became the idealized.  I was manufacturing hand made art and completely lost myself.  I had no style, I had no direction, I hated my own craft.  Now however since I dont feel that I must sell work to anyone, I can concentrate on things that really matter.  Surprisingly they are not just about the art object visually, but they are about ideas about life and the good laws that govern the universe that I am intersted in.  Hope, Love, Compassion, Growth, Spirituality.
2010 will be the best year yet for my artwork.

Science of Pete

I am collecting beautiful objects...
Their delicate and finished appearance is friendly...
They are quiet...
I made them and I will expose them in an exhibition...