Friday, April 29, 2005

Much ado in the Studio

Greetings all.

I've not posted in a few days because I've been working many hours in the studio.

The Harlan Ellison rat has been somewhat problematic. I wanted to show Harlan's spectacular white hair AND have him dressed as Zorro. What I learned is that Zorro doesn't work without his hat---on his head. Harlan kept coming out looking like Poncho, or a Ninja Turtle. And those are just, well, wrong. For awhile he looked a bit like the late Robert Preston. Sigh. I finally got it all worked out and he is about to be molded. Tonight, in fact, if I can outlast the Orion unit. I'm very pleased and I think Harlan will be too. Will send you a sneak preview soon.

I wanted to thank Steve and "K" for your comments on the angels. K's "not a shred of sentimentality" tells me I'm exactly where I wanted to be on this one. Precisely spoken and quite encouraging.
I've started framing up a new one---very large. Now I'm debating whether to make this one a male figure. I've been wanting to do one. I miss the fine detail of figurative sculpting and would be able to show a lot more of his body. Was thinking of making him bare chested. I don't know if I'm ready yet. Not sure I can afford to put that much time into one sculpture just yet, no matter how much I want to. I'm thinking if I sell another angel or large piece soon, then I can 'go for it'.

The more I think of it the more the idea of an angel book apeals to me. Steve asked 'why angels?" I'd like to tell you more about that one. Maybe the book is the place for those stories.
Some of those might need the blanket of 'once upon a time' around them. Some of them are hard. I've said before that I'm not religious and don't 'believe' in angels in a traditional sense. They have shown up occasionally. (heh--obviously!)

Here's some studio/technical weirdness for you:
I was watching this documentary about Big Foot hoaxes. Really interesting and really funny, er, if you like that kind of thing. One of the weird things was the suggestion that a silicone mold could be soaked in paint thinner and it would increase in size up to 130% of it's original and keep detail. Being me, of course I tried it, with a piece of a mold I was going to discard that had detail. I cut a square and then cut that in two and put half in paint thinner overnight. It worked beautifully. The only drawback is that it doesn't last, so if you want to enlarge something you must make the new casting while the mold is swollen from (i'm guessing) absorbing the paint thinner. I have no idea how it would affect the mold long term. I'm filing this info away, to use for some later application not involving castings of anyone's feet, including a certain well-loved primitive who prowls the woods of the Northwest.

I'm preparing to leave for LepreCon on Friday morning with lots of work in tow, plenty to talk about and no venue. I may have to find an unoccupied street corner in downtown Carefree. They'd be ever so pleased...

I've just begun drawings for the final kinetic sculpture for the Dark Caravan series.
We're working on getting photos on the site now. In the meantime, they can be in the second volume of The Frank Collection----there is a link on the carnival page for that. This one is going to be featuring Jack, who has been the heart (albeit a black, black one) of Dark Caravan since its conception. He will be a working, moving fortune teller.

Okay. Without more coffee, this is all I have for now. I'll get some photos up for you soon.

G'night

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lisa, I love the idea of a bare-chested angel. Having just seen 'Constantine' and also having read Neil Gaiman's closure of Hell, etc., I love the idea of an asexual yet sensual angel--while some 'slept with the daughters of men,' others are purportedly neuter--might you play with androgeneity?

Then there are angels which look nothing like human--many-eyed many-winged, many wheeling, or a conglomeration of anthromorphic and multi-dimensional otherness.

Finally, for a book, would you have text for each pic, and what sort of text? So many directions you could take this (Blake hovers somewhere in the back of this, eager to retell of angels in his apple tree).

jordan's mom said...

A "working, moving" Jack as the Fortune-Teller at the heart of the Dark Carnival......

Son Jack has the "Don't Ask Jack" poster on the wall in his room; we've all been "Jack" fans for years. This news makes us happy, very happy.....

Carl V. Anderson said...

I'm excited to hear that you are still working on Dark Caravan and that pictures will be forthcoming. From what I've seen it is an amazing, eerie, imaginative series of sculptures and I look forward to seeing the whole thing put together.

I really enjoy your current angels and would also be interested in what a male version might look like.

Zeppellina said...

Artists always love the visual image of angels, whether we are individually religious or not.
Got another one on the go myself, but I am definately not religious either.
I think perhaps there are many attractions there for artists, we like to explore the darker recesses of the concept.
Good posting, great work.