relief

New Artwork!

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I just completed a new piece of artwork - the second companion piece to Pilgrim.  I had intended to do at least two from the start, but it took a while to find the studio time to devote to the second piece.

In this one, I wanted to achieve a real sense of depth in my relief without being cartoonish.  My aim was to maintain the possibility of illusionism from some angles - particularly that of the shallower sections.  With Pilgrim, there is a relatively shallow relief over the entirety of the sloth's body.  In this new piece, the sloth's body contains an area that is solely painted with no relief at all and then extremely shallow through rather bold relief.

I'm considering titling this one Outreach.  It's Quick Cure Clay and acrylic on basswood panel, 12x6x1.75", 2018.  Due to the dimensions of the piece, it shows up quite large below; if you click on it though it will open up in an overlay that depending on your monitor and settings will probably be smaller and more of a gestalt.

Below you can see a couple in-progress photos of the relief work before I applied paint.

A Sneak Peek at My In-Progress Sloth Bas Relief

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As I've mentioned before, I'm teaching an extra course this semester - Honors Seminar: Interdisciplinary Art.  The course is structured into a few different sections, with the first exploring my own interdisciplinary interests (science and art, particularly involving the fields of ecology, biology, anatomy, botany, and my collaborative work in chemistry with Dr. John Pojman developing 3P QuickCure Clay).  

For this segment, the students must use QCC and make at least one piece of artwork that explores the fields listed above that are interdisciplinary interests of mine.  Since it's such a personal-to-me assignment, I decided I'd join in on the project.  I'd considered doing a sloth for a while - I met and got to directly interact with one named Peregrina in Peru during my 2014 residency there - but I didn't want the piece to be too cutesy so I kept dismissing the subject matter until I felt ready to tackle it with a somewhat more complex take on the animal.   I decided the time is now, mostly due to finding this elongated panel (its dimensions are 6x12") which felt like a perfect match to the gangly nature of the sloth.  

I plan to paint it, so the end piece will look considerably different than this, but here's a sneak peek at the relief work before adding any paint.

L'Est Eclair Newspaper Article Reviewing My La Maison Verte Exhibition

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I'm so pleased - L'Est éclair not only chose The Slightest Disturbance as the illustrating artwork in their article about our upcoming exhibition at the Jardin Botanique de Marnay-sur-Seine, but their journalist who attended the show also highlighted my permanent door installation in her follow-up review of the exhibition!

Exhibition Photos from La Maison Verte Residency at the Jardin Botanique de Marnay-sur-Seine

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Here are a few images from the La Mason Verte June 2016 Artists in Residence Exhibition I had in the Jardin Botanique de Marnay-sur-Seine.  My exhibition was entitled Garden Lore.  The door, obviously, is permanently installed, and was about 20 feet away from the display area I used for the rest of my pieces.  Note how the garden staff tidied up the door's surrounding area for the exhibition and added a permanent sign with my details on it!  Two of the photos below (the ones with a bit of an apricot tint) were taken by photographer Abril M. Barruecos.

La Maison Verte - Artwork 7

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My seventh piece at La Maison Verte was my intervention in the garden - my conversion of the water-pump door into a piece of artwork.  The door is 41x31x6" and is a mixed media installation including the original door materials, a poplar plank and back braces to replace the rotting base, 3P Quick Cure Clay, acrylics, screws, epoxy, and satin polyurethane.  It's titled Genius loci.  The piece is meant to be permanent, but of course the eye stalks and tentacles of the snail are relatively fragile so they may break if visitors to the garden are not gentle with it; that's in keeping with my overall message about the environment.  Nature provides us with so many rewards but in turn requires some human consideration and restraint.

Below is documentation of the project from start to finish!

And finally, a panoramic view to finish the post off:

La Maison Verte - Artwork 6

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I was bound and determined to finish a sixth piece in time for the exhibition in the Jardin Botanique de Marnay-sur-Seine, and I did it just in time!  This is 3P Quick Cure Clay and acrylic on an 8x8" birch panel.  I'm calling it Climber. 

La Maison Verte - Artwork 5

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Here's my fifth piece!  It's 3P Quick Cure Clay and acrylic on a 8x6" birch panel.  It features one of two indistinguishable (apart from dissection) species - either Arion ater, the black slug, or Arion rufus, the red slug - enjoying one of the many rainy days we've had here in France.  I'm titling it As Right as Rain.

La Maison Verte - Artwork 4

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Here's my fourth piece!  It's titled Floating and is 3P Quick Cure Clay and acrylic on a 16x12" birch panel.  The whole thing is super shiny because I used a gloss varnish to seal and protect it, but I managed to get some images that aren't quite so glare-filled.  I also ended up gloss varnishing The Slightest Disturbance as well. 

La Maison Verte - Artwork 3

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My third piece is pretty much done!  It's titled Under the Bonnets and it's 3P Quick Cure Clay, balsa wood, and acrylic on a 6x6" birch panel.  

La Maison Verte - Artwork 2 Underlying Frog Relief

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Sometimes I get asked about how I went about making a piece, and I've been trying (and mostly forgetting!) to document my processes a little more.  I did remember to take this photo of the frog prior to painting the piece but after curing the 3P Quick Cure Clay onto the birch panel.  As you can see, I sculpted very light bas relief for the parts of the frog rising up out from the water apart from the eyes, which are in a comparatively higher relief, though both are dwarfed by the grass protrusions.

La Maison Verte - Artwork 2

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And my second piece - again, I may tweak it further, but it's taking longer and longer between tweaks...

The Slightest Disturbance features a Rana ridibunda or the synonymous Pelophylax ridibundus and is a mixed media relief piece made out of 3P Quick Cure Clay and acrylic on a 6x8" birch panel.  

La Maison Verte - Artwork 1

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I'm not certain this is completely finished yet, but it's close.

This piece is tentatively titled Every Side is North.  It is 3P Quick Cure Clay and acrylic on a 6x6" birch panel.