I Made A Plaster Mold!

I'd like to dedicate this post to Deb Todd Wheeler. She told me to go home and smash some clay into a shoe box and pour plaster over it. I haven't made plaster molds in the past because they are heavy, mysterious, and I've never slip cast in my life. So when Deb made it sound so simple I thought, "I could do that."

So I shaped my original forms from clay first. Then I took a cat food box and cut it up and glued it back together into the size I wanted my cast to be. I lined the bottom with clay and inserted my handmade forms. I had some ideas I started with, but with sculpting and molding some of them had to morph into something I could manage. I initially thought I would use plastic army men and sculpt onto them, but I soon found that would not end in the way I wanted. I've been studying the history of adornment and most of these small cast pieces are going to be for my necklace phase of my project.

I had to do some research on how to measure my plaster. I hate math so this was the most painful part. I had to do math though or I wouldn't have had the correct amount! I slathered the form and box with Murphy's Oil Soap, made my plaster and poured.

 

It came out near to fabulous! I didn't even have to break my box to get it out. So it was really easy to correct bleed through and carve out my keys, set the plaster back in the box, oil it up again and pour the second half.

I picked it up and dropped it on the table a few times and sprayed the bubbles that surfaced with alcohol. So both sides came out nice and clean. I had a little trouble getting the ribbons out without breaking the side walls a little. Note to sell to space them further apart in the future. The clay in my vagina pendant got stuck too. I don't know if that is indicative of future mold issues so just to be on the safe side I carved it out a little.

Now it's ready to be poured. If only I had the slip here. It's on order and should arrive in a few days. I think I need to let the mold dry a few days anyway. I'm not really sure how these are going to look as finished products but I'm really happy with the way the cast came out. I really enjoy the sculpting aspect of my work. I don't think I would be as happy with just paintings. I actually think my future paintings will be sculptural in some way.

I also painted my prepped flag box. Should be ready for inkjet transfers when I return to my studio next. I've also been giving some thought to how I'm going to install the rebar into the front of the boxes. I may end up making them and my chocks out of ceramic. Metal is so heavy and I have no desire to learn welding at this point in my schooling. Ceramic always adds an interesting aspect of delicateness and hominess to the work...I think at least.

Finishing up my first paper and doing a lot of reading. My next post will be more insightful and less about process.

Weaving Complete!

Toiling away in my studio! I finally finished my weaving! I have one flag box prepped for paint as well. I'm still working on sewing everything together, but I am very happy to be at this stage. Weaving is a therapeutic methodical process. It's very repetitive and it gives you lots of time to think. I thought a lot about where the project was going, where the holes were, how I am going to approach the rest of the project, and how I'm going to make plaster molds. I also thought a great deal about color and my use of color. I kept thinking back to the book Chromophobia I read in my first semester. Why can't I use a very minimal color palate, and what are the sacrifices to my meaning by making the color more "interesting". I haven't decided where this will end up...

I did add some interesting colors to my weaving, and attempted pattern. Turns out you can't do a lot with pattern when you only have a basic two part loom. So I got creative. Here's a picture of the progress so far...

 

The wood box is made of pre-primed pine. I'm going to have to prime it again though since it has a bunch of wood filler and black marks on it. I found last time it was easier to cover the dinks if I primed them first. Otherwise I go through a lot of expensive white spray paint. I put a 24" ruler between everything so you could get a sense of the dimensions. I'm still working on sewing the fabric pieces together. I was trying to finish tonight but it was just too much work for my hands. It seems with making fabric I feel like I am working fast and when I look up at the clock all this time has slipped away. It doesn't help that I had to rip out a bunch of work and restart a few times. 

I feel like I have a huge list of things to do and I don't know if I will have time to get to everything this semester. I guess I can save a lot of it for later. It's always good to have ideas on the back burner. I know I won't be running out of things to do in my studio in the near or far future :)

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Back in my studio finally. It feels good and bad though. It's summer, which means it isn't raining here on Whidbey Island. Salmon fishing, crabbing, clamming, crawdadding, hunting, berry picking, our new boat, the hammock out front, the garden, and the sun shine are all calling me. I feel cooped up a bit, but I'm really inspired by the work I am doing and I want to be in my studio. Finding the balance is a challenge.

Since my visit to the east coast I have been able to get out of bed earlier. Unfortunately, my fibro caught up with me today and I couldn't roll out of bed until 0900. I've made it into the studio but it's going to be a slow work day for me. I've done almost 40 hours this week, and at that grueling pace I will most likely put myself out of commission. I'm working on figuring out how to get everything done with less strain on me physically. I'm sure there will be some changes in my process to accommodate my physical ability. At least when I was laying in bed trying to will myself up I came up with what may be some pretty fantastic ideas in my humble opinion. Fia wants me to do some color studies before really digging into my process. I think this is a good idea, but it had me stumped for a short time. How do you do color studies for a sculpture? So I set up sketch canvas in a grid on my easel and just lived with it for a few days while I worked on weaving. I have a good idea of where to start now, and if they aren't too embarrassing I will post them next week.

This week I wove. I wove until my back was aching, my hands and arms were sore, and my eyes were burning from staring at the weaving. I tore it apart 3 times, broke some warp lines and had to restring, and didn't pull it tight enough to get what I wanted. Yesterday, I managed to produce two usable strips for my woven "flag/ribbon" piece for my flag box. FINALLY!

This is hard to see. The two weaves in the middle have green, orange, burgundy in them.

This picture is a pencil schematic of the flag boxes with all the measurements so I don't waste time making something too big. The weaves on the outer parts were really just practice. They are terrible and need to be redone. Problem with learning a new craft is the time it takes to learn to do it right. Those larger weaves took me about 35 hours of studio time. The smaller, cleaner, more intriguing color and weave-wise took me 30 hours as well. BUT!!!!.....

I think things will move much faster now. I've got a good technique down and I'm getting more comfortable with my loom. I may actually vary the thread I am using to get some different textures as well. Really, right now everything is just an idea. Once the process starts there has to be room for change and variation. I've also been thinking about color use more critically. I'm reading What Color is Sacred by Michael Taussig, as well as, many books from last semester and my Roland Barthe Mythologies. The reading really helps me slow down and think through my working process.

BYC and New York City

The last two weeks I have been on travel in the name of Art and Grad School. My first stop was in Boston to attend the opening of the Boston Young Contemporaries Show. The gallery lighting is bad, the crowd was small, and the press was minimal, but it was my first show in Boston so I wanted to attend.

It was nice to see my work on someone elses wall for a change. I spent four days with friends from AIB and made new friends as well. It was helpful in getting me invigorated for the semester again. I have to admit I was feeling very wilted after Laurel's professional development class. I'm still dealing with accepting that I can only do what I can do. I'm also working on making art that is what I want to make and not directed by outside influences.

From Boston I met up with my mother and a few friends for a week in New York City. I managed to shove a lot of art into a very small span of time. I was mentally and physically exhausted by the end of the trip, but now I have new ideas and a positive direction for my studio and research practice. It was nice seeing the work that I have studied for years in person finally. Some of it did not impress, some were smaller than I imagined, and some were so fascinating I couldn't get close enough to examine to my fill. You can see everything I photographed on my facebook album:

New York Art Facebook Album

I couldn't photograph everything, and why would I want to, but I did get some inspiring ones like this Barbara Kruger piece. She uses text in an interesting way, and she is someone I will probably research further this semester.

I also saw a new talent at a special exhibit at the Whitney Museum. Stewart Uoo.

 

He uses the usual material for sculpture but adds interesting materials like hair, nails, maggot and fly carcasses. He makes an interesting comment about current cultural views damaging nature of self-image. I also found it interesting how the sculptures were displayed. Some jut from the wall hovering just above the floor while others hung from long poles in the floor so they loomed over the viewer. I tried to keep in mind how the position of the art affected the way it read to the viewer. 

I saw this piece in the Flag Art Foundation Gallery. It is by Brooklyn based artist Jennifer Daltan. It addresses a political issue in an interesting way, but at the same time I didn't know if I was allowed to touch it or not. This began the nagging question, "Is participatory art in the gallery and museum space dead?" Is the only real way to make a participatory piece accessible through public art like Orly Genger's Madison Square Park piece.

This piece is amazing. The viewer can touch the work, sit on it, against it or just walk around it, but at the same time it is not fully open to the public. There is a hired guard watching the piece and everyone around it. There are three different colors in three different sections of the park, and only one section is open to the public at a time because there is only one guard. How is that functioning in the way the artist wanted? What sacrifices did she have to make to get the city of New York to allow such a large structural installation? Is there liability if someone climbs it (which you aren't allowed to) and gets hurt? So is the only true form of participatory art public installations of utilitarian objects like my last mentor Susan Robb's octopus bike rack?

I'm a tactile person. I like to touch things and interact with my world. I would like to share that fascination with my viewers, but is there really an avenue to do that anymore? Is this maybe something I want to discuss in my future work? If placement really matters for making a work of art speak to a viewer is there a way to address the issue of non-interaction without putting off the viewer? Lots of questions I hadn't thought of before my trip. It was interesting to see the different people at the various art venues, as well as, the different settings for all works. The galleries were quiet and sparse, the museums loud but very sterile, and the park was pleasant and inviting. Where do I want to fit now????