I'm Still Staring Down The Sun.

So today..... WE GOT TO TURN MY SCULPTURE OVER!!!! After 3 and a half weeks of staring up its rear-end, I finally got to see what it looked like right-side up. Did I mention it took 3 people to turn it over? 150 lbs. Hatch says it weighs. Well, go big or go home I suppose. Haha.

Look at that beautiful mold-ness. Today I shopvac-ed the plaster drops off, styrofoam, and other miscellaneous shit and found a huge mass of fuzz my mold is growing on one side! Everyone seems to miss out on the beauty of the mold except for me. I love it. It adds to the "organic" feel I want the piece to have. Who wouldn't want a naturally occurring pattern? Exactly. In the next week I am going to clean up, carve, and stain the sculpture (to my heart's content) then I'll show you more pictures of it.

In other sculpturenews, here are my two works from last week:

I think I am going to start trying to use cardboard to emphasize the figure (like in the blue dress [half-head and a shoulder]) and symbolize body/movement/emotion. We'll see how it goes. Yesterday when I was in the studio, the sunlight caught the pink dress sculpture in such a beautiful way. I think I took like 10 pictures of it. When I put it up in a gallery (I think I'm going to put it in my show next year), I want dramatic lighting like that. The shadows on the wall are pretty, but almost look like teeth - making the piece feel more violent/violated, just how I envisioned it. I consider the pink dress sculpture to be my first real feminist artwork. It's held open by zip ties. Zip ties imply force. Force implies lack of permission. So you could say this piece is about a number of things: domestic violence, rape, controlling partner, etc. I want to make more.


And lastly, this last week - I got this book in the mail [look at my kitten in the background. She loves books too.]. The Every Boy by Dana Adam Shapiro. It was one of my favorites from high school, but I had it on joint-custody with a friend who isn't my friend anymore (I didn't get it in the friend divorce). So, when I saw it on amazon for $0.01, I jumped on it. The shipping made it a total of 4 dollars even. Better than a garage sale buy. It still remains one of my very favorite books.

[postcard from the lovely Miss Sharon Harper - sculptures by the beautiful Niki de Saint Phalle]

"...she wasn't a hypochondriac - it was more of a quest for proof that things could get better."
- The Every Boy

XO.

Needle In The Camel's Eye.

Here is my plastercanvas sculpture's progress through photos:

[that looks like crystals, but really it's just excess water beading through the surface. It's nerdy, but I love to just sit there and watch it. Click to Enlarge.]











Hatch says one more pour and we can turn it upright again! Then the real work begins. Not to mention that he said after this is all said and done the finished work will be about 150 lbs. WOW. And drool.

Oh, and PS those spots are mold and I'm thinking about sealing them on the piece. I like the patterns that have been created at random. And pink mold!? Who knew.

Beyond plaster, here are some other sculptures in my world recently - I've come to adopt t-shirts to my newest work. And screens:
<

[the one laying on the backpack is still in progress, but it's a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt I got in Washington D.C.]

For my next sewing with clothes endeavor, I was thinking of working on this bright pink prom dress I found in my closet. I thrifted it a few years back for some lame banquet that I don't even remember. But it's so bright pink and happy, I think I could really tear the shit out of it, add wire frames, and make it super creepy. Until then, here's some jam for your brains [this week is a-mite glam rock-y. What can I say? I've been addicted since I was 14 and used to wear glitter under my eyes like Bowie & Bolan]:

...I'd just like to say that I love this Lou Reed song so much that I almost missed the bus to campus the other day because I was singing it in my car. Very Loudly, in fact....didn't even see the bus coming.....

XO.

I Want To Live Where Soul Meets Body.

Hey Beautyful Dreamin' Children!
So, this weekend my hetero-lifemate Tiffany and I went roadtrippin' to Kansas City to see our dear pretty friend Kaycee tie the knot with her fella Aaron. We had some photo booth fun while we were there!! [Tiffany is with me on the strip on the right. She was my date. We got some funny looks, but whatevs man - we were smokin' foxy! Kaycee, the blushing bride, is in the middle strip on the right. Along with the pretty Maid of Honor, Leslie on the left (I'm in the back with Claire). Then me and my favorite person ever Claire on the right strip. I'm surrounded by the best human beings I swear!]

While in Kansas City, Tiffany and I walked (because it was brilliant outside all weekend) to the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art - which were right behind our hotel. I mean of course we walked to the museums! Poor Tiffany, though, she was stuck there with me the "OH! Look at That!!!then disappears in a poof of cloud"Girl. Not to mention my art history nerdness coming out on her.....

Me: Look Tiffany, that piece is trying to emulate Rauschenberg's White Paintings. See how the images projected on the wall are more important to the viewer than the piece itself?

Tiffany: ...err....what? That's cool. Oh, Look in the other gallery...Peacocks.......

Haha. Poor gal. My friend Carl is the same way in the gallery. We once sat in front of Monet's Waterlilies (at the Nelson) for about 45 minutes. Without. Saying. A. Word. High Five for ArtNerds!

Anyways, tangent, here are some more pictures from our trip. Kaycee's wedding was so pretty and I was honored to be asked to read a poem during the ceremony (Khalil Gibran's On Marriage), not to mention that we were served Thanksgiving dinner food while listening to symphonic covers of 90's classics. It was great! Along with the wedding and going to the museums, we also got lost on the way back home, we missed a turn somewhereorother, and in order to get to the Osceola Cheese Factory (being a tradition and everything for my Kansas City Trips) we had to drive on MO HWY B for like an hour and a half. No Big Deal, Right? Did I mention that MO HWY B is gravely and windy and way out in the BFE middle of nowhere? Yep. I got to see the sights of the cities of Rockville and Roscoe - and if we would've backtracked any further I could've seen Appleton City, Missouri. Never heard of any of those places til Saturday. LOL. It was beautiful though. Love Missouri land. Oh, and did I mention that we made it back to HWY 13 and the Cheese Factory - I call it the "Cheese Festival" - with 5 minutes to spare before they closed? Yep. That's how we do it.

This is Roxy Paine's beautiful, steel tree sculpture. It measures 58 ft tall. Holy Shit! Beautiful. It's the newest piece in the Nelson-Atkins Sculpture park. Love it.

Some of Yinka Shonibare's work. He's wonderful.

Petah Coyne's beautiful installation at the Kemper. It took up a whole gallery space by itself. We looked at it for like half an hour if not longer. Lovvveeee. The walls were even painted peacock blue. I want to do installation work so much!!!!

And of course, one of Claes Oldenburg's famous Shuttlecock sculptures at the Nelson (I lovve Oldenburg) and the wonderfully weird spider-looking (with me!) sculpture in front of the Kemper. All in all, it was a beautiful weekend. Except for when we first got lost. We were almost out of gas and I swear I heard the Deliverance banjos. But when that got sorted out, it got better. Not to mention the fact that I bought a huge book on Kiki Smith at the gift shop at the Nelson. See post below for info on her. She's amazing. If I get brave enough, I'm going to email her and pick her brain a bit. Maybe she'll answer? Ralph Steadman answered my email, so you never know. Happy Rest of The Week, Everyone!

P.S. Started plastering my sculpture. It looks amazing! More to come on that soon. Stay tuned.XO.