third wheel

Many times after I’m finished with an art piece I wish I had taken photos of the process. So I was determined while making this latest piece to stop more often and get some shots.

A couple of weeks ago when I was antiquing I found these steel sod busters. They were pretty rusty so I wasn’t sure how well they would clean up but I thought they were pretty cool so I decided to take a chance.

You may wonder why I want to remove the rust…I do like the patina but the edges on these are really sharp and rust has a tendency to get on everything and is almost impossible to seal. It will flake and blister through the lacquer. I seldom work with *found* objects because I don’t like a shape or material to determine the design. I prefer to let the design evolve from the composition which gives me more freedom to be creative.

I typically start with a design drawing but there are always adjustments that need to be made during fabrication. Things never go together quite the way you think they will so I’m always designing on the fly.

This piece will have windows with onyx stone. Here's the steel plate (48"x10") with openings cut out.

To hold it all together I welded a frame to the back. Everything needs to be held in place before you weld…you can never have enough clamps.

Here are the sod busters after grinding and smoothing the edges and the boxes I made to hold the stone.

I’m going to secure the horizontal boxes with rivets so I’ve drilled holes in the plate.

Then I placed the box to mark the holes from the plate to the flange on the box.

Here what it looks like from the front with the rivets in place.

But before I permanently attach anything I want to be sure that everything is lining up. Here’s the sod buster covering the square opening. (Sorry about the shadows. It was getting late in the day).

Everything looks okay so I rivet the horizontal boxes. Then I turn the piece over and position the square boxes that have been welded to the backs of the sod busters and weld them to the back of the plate.

Hanging clips are added and the piece is ready to spray with lacquer

And here's the finished piece titled *Third Wheel*. It's nice to be able to look back at how it all went together. There were a lot of steps and decisions to make along the way. The biggest change I made...I had thought that I would attach the sod buster with rivets but the steel turned out to be super hard (probably tempered) and I couldn't even tap a hole to drill into it. And if I did start to drill I was afraid that I would break a drill bit in the hole which would be impossible to remove. So instead I welded them on. Now I'm glad I did because I think there would have been too many rivets and it would have detracted from the composition.

Here are details of the cutouts.

Master Class

My answer to Seth Apter's Pulse survey appears on Sunday January 22. The question asked was 'If you could take a class from one artist from anytime in history, including the present, who would it be and why?' Please visit his site to see my answer and the answers from other artists who took part in the survey.

Thanks Seth!

Larry's

My brother was in town visiting me from Boston this week. So we made a few day trips to my favorite places. One is Jerome, an old mining town up north, which is perched on the side of the mountain overlooking the Verde Valley.

Lots of history, art galleries and great places to eat.

I also had to visit my favorite *antique* shop, Larry's, in nearby Cottonwood.

If you can't find what you're looking for at Larry's you can't find it anywhere. It's a mecca for any mixed media or metal artist.

I'm actually a lot happier than I look in that photo. I just don't like to be bothered when I'm on the hunt.

sometimes even I’m surprised

When I was a child I played with my share of dolls and girl toys so I never imagined I’d be welding and wielding a torch but that’s what I do now and sometimes even I’m surprised.

I don’t consider myself a tool junkie but I do need a fair amount of things (grinders, files, drill press etc.) to make the art I make. Every year I think about what tool would make my life easier and allow me to take my work to another level. And this year what I want is a band saw.

My husband things I’m a riot. What guy doesn’t like tools and what could be more perfect than a wife who would rather shop at Home Depot than the mall.

I never would have imagined….

new years day opinion

I don’t make resolutions any more. First of all they are typically doomed to fail and second if there’s something I really want to do I usually just do it at whatever time of year it happens to be. But I’ve had a lot of time to think this week and decided to get some things off my chest.

First topic: Just the details

Last week at art walk, the gallery owner told me that someone who was looking at my art asked if I was obsessive-compulsive. My reaction, I burst out laughing. If they could only see the mess that is my studio or other parts of my life they would know that *no* I am definitely not either of those things. I am however a bit intense when it comes to my artwork and pay *a lot* of attention to detail.

“I was working on a proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back in.” - Oscar Wilde

I’m no writer but I totally understand what Oscar is talking about. I’m not the kind of artist that throws everything at the wall to see what sticks. However I love abstract art and can see the thoughtfulness that goes into its creation. The same design principles of composition apply to all art whether realistic or abstract. But what I do is all about geometry and being a minimalist those details become even more important. The particular piece that the client was referring to contained bolts and bolts have characters on them that indicate the manufacturer. Well I felt it was important to line up the letters so they would all be in the same orientation. I also thought it was important to align the reveals with the bolts and the center of the mesh.

It’s that attention to detail that I not only strive for but love figuring out. I find it ironic that we praise great writing for its use of grammar and sentence structure or great music for its melody or lyrics but we question the visual arts when it *uses commas correctly* or *doesn’t split an infinitive*.

Okay next topic. Earning a living is not secondary to what I do.

Lately I’ve noticed quite a few on line classes by other artists. Topics range from jewelry making to journaling to collage to quilt making. All look like fun and informative and I think they are great ways to make money. Now I’m all about earning a living by doing something you love. I don’t care what your profession. It’s much easier to get up in the morning if you are looking forward to what you are going to do that day.

Wanting to know more about these instructors I of course visit their blogs and websites to see their work and read what they have to say. What do I find? I find someone who’s saying that being creative and making art should be about *more* than making money. And I would agree except they are charging a fee for what they are about to teach. If they truly feel that way then why not offer the class for free? After all if you are going to tell me that I should be creative for the sake of being creative and just produce art without giving any thought to its sale then how about your teaching just for the sake of teaching? So if you share all you know for free then I can be more creative without having to worry about making a living. Because goodness knows I wouldn't be able to afford to pay you otherwise.

Okay I have to jump in here with this… typically we pick a profession because we feel it will be something we enjoy and to which we have an affinity. Then after we get the proper training, usually some kind of education, we seek employment so that we can be compensated for the job we perform or for what we create. Sometimes we are even willing to work for free such as an internship to gain experience. Regardless of the line of work this is pretty much the path we all take. Please note that I said it started with a desire to do something, then education then experience then compensation. Any endeavor, art especially, that is strictly motivated by money typically does not produce a very good product and it shows, although there are exceptions to every rule.

I view being an artist (unless you do it as a hobby and that’s fabulous) as a profession much like being a chef. I think great chefs are very creative but do we tell them that preparing a delicious meal should be about more than making money? Typically cooking is their passion but they still expect to get paid. They don’t see earning a living as secondary to what they do. Whether it’s by serving great food or writing a cook book filled with wonderful recipes, they earn money for their creativity. So why is making art any different? If making art should be about more than selling then so should playing music or writing or fashion design or any other creative enterprise. If making money selling art is an advantageous byproduct shouldn’t it be considered the same for everything else?

I guess if I did have a New Year’s resolution it would be to ignore these things and typically I do or at least try but today I just had to put it out there. Just my opinion….

night at the gallery

Last night was Art Walk for the downtown Scottsdale galleries. Xanadu which is one of the galleries that represents me did a small feature on my work in Art Collector magazine and invited me to come in and do a meet and greet. It's always a fun time and there was a great turn out of art lovers enjoying the festivities.

That's me and gallery owner Jason Horejs standing in front of some of my new work. In addition to running the gallery Jason is also the author of two great books,

"Starving to Successful, The Fine Artist's Guide to Getting Into Galleries and Selling More Art" and "How to Sell Art". They're very informative and helped me a great deal in presenting my work to galleries.

 

One of my favorite artists and good friend Dave Newman is also in Xanadu. His work is on the left wall. He does amazing mixed media art and his Fender guitars are to die for.

 

Another of my favorite artists is John Horejs standing in front of his wonderful landscapes.

 

I was so pleased (and flattered) that Jeff Reich and his wife Farraday Newsome came out to see my art. Jeff constructs sculptural ceramics (they're very architectural so I especially like them) and directs the ceramic program at Mesa Arts Center. Farraday also makes ceramics and is known for her colorful, luscious forms and surfaces. Together they publish a great newsletter from their Indigo Street Pottery studio. I recently took a clay class with Jeff and am now adding clay to my steel pieces. Stay tuned for pictures in future blogs.

My good friend Janet Quan also came out to see me. She always makes me laugh and really cracks me up.

As you can see it really was a great turn out.

The gallery from the street.

You couldn't ask for a better gallery director than Elaine. So supportive and always smiling. That's another one of my steel pieces behind us. Hopefully last night's energy is an indication of a great gallery season to come.

today is the first day of the rest of your life

I received some sad news last night. A long time friend died in his sleep yesterday at the young age of 61. I say young because I’m 56 and feel and *act* very young. At least I think I do and 61 does not seem that far in the future. There seems to be a lot of death around me lately. More than likely it’s always been there because last time I checked no one gets out of here alive…but I didn’t think much about it when I was say 25 or 35 or even 45 years old. After all death is something that happens to other people and only when you’re *really, really* old but I’m finding that’s not true anymore. I’ve lost three friends in the last couple of years. Two to colon cancer, ages 42 and 50 and one to pancreatic cancer age 60. And I recently heard about a girl I went to high school with that died this year of breast cancer. She was one of those really pretty and popular girls who married her high school sweet heart and was suppose to live happily ever after. And this year when Steve Jobs died it really hit home. When people with the same birth year as you and all the money in the world die you sit up and take notice.

After Job’s death his commencement address to the Stanford University graduating class (if you haven’t read it you should, it’s wonderful) was all over the internet. Here’s part of what he had to say…

“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

So this post isn’t really about dying it’s about living. It’s about not making excuses why you can’t do the things you want to do or live the life you want to live.

I myself am at a cross roads…currently I split my time between a *day* job and making art. What I would like to do is art full time. But hey I’m like everyone else. I have to keep a roof over my head and food on the table. But at the same time I’m not getting any younger so when do I make the break? In some ways I have an ideal situation. I have a job that pays the bills and I am able to make art that pleases me without the constraints of worrying if it will sell. Luckily it does sell and I’m fortunate enough to be represented by three galleries. So should I keep going the way that I’m going? Or will I regret not taking a leap of faith?

So that’s what I’m thinking about today. What decisions would I make if today was the last day of my life? What would I change?

What would you change?

simple saturday

Hey. It's the Saturday after Thanksgiving and it's time to get busy again making art. I took the last two days off to enjoy some time with family and friends although it was all pretty low key. Being originally from the Boston area this is the time of year I miss the New England Autumn. The crisp air and vivid red and orange of the maple trees can make me a touch homesick. But it doesn't last long because I know what's to come...SNOW...and I don't like that severe cold. So I'm happy here in Arizona with it's mild sunny winters.

Even the red yuccas are confused by the weather and have started to bloom again.

Right now I'm trying to select a plate to go with a larger piece of steel. Steel believe it or not has a lot of character. There's different markings and colorations much like wood.

When I'm working on a piece I tend to spread out everywhere...studio, shop, the entire backyard.

It's all part of the process.

Hope you're enjoying your day where ever you are.

quartzsite

A few posts ago I wrote about how I was contemplating / investigating the possibility of doing a fine art / craft show. So on Friday we headed out to Rancho Mirage California with our artist friend Michael to see first hand the process of setting up for a show. Rancho Mirage is about a four hour drive west of Phoenix. The location for the show was wonderful...a very nice park with mountain views. We unloaded all the gear, set up the tent and went out for dinner. Saturday morning we arrived early to welcome the buying public and much to out dismay it began to rain. Not a great day to walk around and look at art but probably good for us to experience. Best to know all sides of the art fair life style. But people still turned out and we met a lot of the other artists. It's was a very wonderful and supportive community. The fair was a two day event but we needed to head back to Phoenix so we left around noon. On the way home we stopped in Quartzsite which is called the gem capital of Arizona and for good reason. There were dozens of rock and jewelry shops. One place was like a candy store for mixed media artists. It was really fun to explore and poke around in and I know I'll be back. Here's a sample of what was available.....

crystals

dried desert wood

geodes

tables full of rocks and gem stones

old bottles

cool glass shades

wood finials

more geodes

hundreds of glass jars filled with old buttons and beads

And this was just in one shop.

It would take a weekend to see it all. Be sure to bring cash, many shops don't take credit cards and plan to bargain.

rock wall

Love the combination of a concrete wall with exposed rocks and blocks. So cool...

variations on a theme

I've been working on several series and have found that each piece seems to spawn the idea for the next...

These are from my "Still Life on Steel" series.

These lead me to smaller, similar, almost a combination of the elements I was using...

I'm really enjoying this creative process of having a common thread weave it's way through the work.

iron oxide

Iron oxide also know as rust is the chemical reaction between steel and the elements of water and oxygen. Simply put it's a form of decay...and I think the stains are wonderful.

"It is a beauty of things modest and humble." *

"It is the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete." *

"It is the beauty of things unconventional." *

"The suggestion of natural process...expressions of time frozen." *

*Quoted from Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets and Philosophers by Leonard Koren.