A rare sculptural piece

I had the base for this one sitting on a shelf for a few years and finally figured out what to do with it. Here is the result.

I installed the branch over a month ago and wasn’t pleased with the idea on what to do with it. Then early one morning solution hit me and I cut the top part of the branch shorter and put the plate with cakes on top.

A short stack of delectables reaches new heights with a pat of broken butter.

Wood, acrylic paint, tree branch
19 x 6.5 x 9.75 inches (48.2 x 16.5 x 24.7 cm)
December 2022

Detail of the broken butter pat made from a section of yard stick. I used my new jeweler's saw to cut the angles.

Another detail of the broken butter pat. I wanted to make it appear to be melting. I’m still in my drip stage.

New posters

I had some posters printed at Printology in American Fork and plan on shipping them to the gallery in Morro Bay to see how well they sell. They are 22 x 28 inch and 28 x 22 inch posters.

Trimming one of the posters. This is when the dining room table comes in handy. The cutting mat is a small portion of a larger mat that covered a work table where I was once employed. When the work room was remodeled the cutting mat was cut into smaller sections and I was able to take one home. It is 3/16 inches thick and very durable. The metal ruler from the Home Depot and is 72 inches long and made of aluminum.

22 x 28 inches

28 x 22 inches

28 x 22 inches

22 x 28 inches

Making a strong hanging post

When I needed to make a short post for something to hang from the only dowel of the right diameter turned out to be made of very soft wood. I was afraid if the work it was to be incorporated in would be jostled the piece could possibly break. I wanted to make it stronger so I used a piece of nail inserted into the length of the dowel with some epoxy.

The post has been fashioned so one of the ends will fit in the hole at the top of a panel. The wood of this dowel is very soft and I wanted to make it stronger so I chose to use a nail. I cut the head off the nail and drilled a hole in the end of the dowel a bit wider than the diameter of the nail so it would fit easily in the hole.

I inserted the nail into the hole with some epoxy.

Here is the post glued in place and painted and an eye screw placed in the end to which a section of cuckoo clock chain will be attached.

Mistakes will happen. This is the first post I made. I wasn't paying attention and drilled the hole for the nail in the wrong end.

Another tall building

This is the latest of my tall building wall sculptures. It is the tallest of the three at almost 2.5 feet.

I had the façade built for over a year and stashed in a corner of the studio before finally figuring out what to do with it. Instead of putting something in each of the seven window holes I decided to use some of the colorful paint stir sticks I have been saving by cutting them into small size pieces to board up the openings. After gluing the ends of each tiny board that overlapped the window holes I used some tiny nails to aid in keeping the boards secure.

I used a laser print of a picture of a model house door for the paint transfer.

The other two building sculptures where painted white so I decided to use a different color for the final coat. The first coat was a light wash of transparent black. The second coat was white and the third coat ended up being a yellow cream color.

It was only a minor breakthrough that almost happened at the highest level.

Wood, acrylic paint, paper, string, tiny nails
28.5 x 5 x 3.5 inches (72.3 x 12.7 x 8.9 cm)
November 2022

Detail showing where the ball would have hit had it actually done so. To make the boards looked smashed I used another ball placing it over the tiny boards and used a hammer to tap it so the boards would break.

Detail with the smiling sucker face in a little orange flower pot showing through a crack in the boards above the door. The board swinging out to the side is the only one that has one nail at the top.

I normally place the title on the front at the bottom of each piece, however this time it fit best on one of the sides of the structure. The title block is made from two pieces of heavy card paper sandwiched together with glue then painted and tacked to the side with tiny nails.

In order to keep these small thin pieces of wood from splitting on the ends I drilled a hole just through the thin wood with a bit that was slightly larger than the nail shank diameter so it would go through without splitting. I also sanded the opposite side of each stick so the wood would be exposed and smooth to assure the glue would contact with the surface of the building.

Reusing used paint stirring sticks

Over the last several I have collected quite a number of paint covered sticks I use to stir paint. I decided to use some of them to make some tiny multi-colored boards to board up some window openings in a tall building wall sculpture.

First I cut the rounded ends of the sticks off. After cutting each stick into 2 inch segments I cut each segment length wise into two narrower pieces.

I sanded the paint off the backside of the narrow boards for gluing purposes.

A chair

The chair ready for some paint.

A dark blue undercoat being applied.

After a lighter grayed down blue was painted over the dark blue.

A closeup of gray blue with some of the undercoat showing through.

The front part of the chair has been painted with an off white color.

The finished chair with the front feet having been painted with a almost black green paint.

How about a little misinformation?

An artist friend told me recently that I am featured in the book Dictionary of Utah Fine Artists. It’s a mystery to me where the authors and publisher got their information about me. They certainly didn’t get what is published from me. What ever happened to making sure information is accurate? The entry has me with degrees in art when in fact the degrees are in graphic design. The text also says I was heavily influenced by an artist I don’t even know and whose work I’m not familiar with nor do I follow. I wonder what other inaccurate information may be contained in the book.

I redacted the text that is not accurate. I don’t want to help perpetuate this inaccurate information even though there is nothing I can do about the book being spread around.

The great and spacious shed of Damocles

I can’t remember when I started this one but may sometime early in 2021. The structure and the hanging building have been hanging on a wall for quite awhile unresolved. I finally came upon the idea how to finish it. I came up with 18 title variations before settling on this long one for this piece.

The great and spacious shed of Damocles hangs over nine moist triple decker slices of cake in assorted flavors.
Wood, acrylic paint, wire, paper
12 x 9.75 x 4.5 inches (30.5 x 24.8 x 11.4 cm)
November 2022

Phillips Gallery: Winter Group Show

The Winter Group Show opens this evening at the Phillips Gallery 444 E 200 South, Salt Lake City, Utah. I have five small paintings from the Cayucos series in this show. Stop in and see them up close along with some great art by other artists represented by the Phillips Gallery.

Cayucos No. 23
Acrylic paint on cradled wood panel
10 x 10 inches (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
2021

Cayucos No. 30
Acrylic paint on cradled wood panel
10 x 10 inches (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
2022

Cayucos No. 32
Acrylic paint on cradled wood panel
10 x 10 inches (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
2022

Cayucos No. 33
Acrylic paint on cradled wood panel
10 x 10 inches (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
2022

Cayucos No. 35
Acrylic paint on cradled wood panel
10 x 10 inches (25.4 x 25.4 cm)
2022

This is not fine woodworking

It’s true. I’m not a fine woodworker. I don’t’ have the tools, the shop, or the inclination. I use whatever wood I can get preferably soft and easy to work with. Some of it is purchased and occasionally I use junk wood when I come across any. I like the imperfect quality of the wood I use and construction which is a bit of the haphazard, rough measuring, sloppy gluing, and intentional rough construction to match the rough painting.

This chair will be painted and you can see where I added nails to help strengthen the glued joints. I usually inset the nails and fill the recesses with plastic wood but this time I’m going to leave them be. The chair is made completely with 1/2 inch square dowel.

It's finished

Here is the completed piece from yesterday's post.

It all came out in the end when the committee attempted to sit for one of their short bucket list sessions.
Wood, acrylic paint, paper, recycled copper wire, string
15 x 19 x 3.5 inches (38 x 48.2 x 8.9 cm)

More drips and messes

This piece has more drips than any other piece I have created. I drilled holes in the bottom of each bucket and covered each hole with a piece of tape before filling them with paint. I watered the paint down so it would run out of the buckets and drip easily. The tape was quickly removed allowing the paint to run out of the bottom of the bucket onto the pencil and chair.

Freshly dripped very wet paint. This will take awhile to dry so I won’t be getting much done using the table. I covered the bottom front and underside of the frame with tape to protect it from messy paint spills. That way it will leave the bottom frame clean to put a very long title.

Cavorting Purple Dogs and Broken Buildings

Another long title. The dogs were originally going to be green but then I realized there would be too much green so I changed them to purple to add more color variation.

It was on a sunny day and the purple dogs were at it again cavorting among broken buildings.
Wood, acrylic paint, paper, wire
7 x 15.5 x 2.5 inches (17.8 x 39.4 x 6.3 cm)
November 2022

The bathroom?

Yes I will even use the bathroom as studio space. The lighting in my studio is lousy so I had to work in the bathroom where the lighting is better to see what I was doing which in this case was marking some places on the inside of a box to drill some tiny holes.

A new Central Coastal digital painting

I have blocked in color and am beginning to add some detail and change some of the colors. This is a scene along the Point Buchon Trail going south which is part of PG&E land.

Tools: Modified paint spreader card

I modified this old card so I could spread paint on the inside of my boxes. I trimmed two of sides at angles so I can spread paint on surfaces that meet at 90° angles without scraping wet paint off the sides.

Plastic card with the sides trimmed at angles.

When I’m swiping down to spread paint the card won’t scrape the adjacent vertical surface (now and then that happens by mistake). The points of the card are sharp so they fit in corners.

You can see that this unmodified card would scrap the newly painted sides of this box and the points of the card are rounded so they don’t reach into corners. I mostly use these cards for spreading on open surfaces such as cradled wood panels.

Brand name or no brand name?

I have this cheap no brand name miter box that I have been using this past year and it has worked great for me. Easy to set up and put away. I wanted something that had a few more options for cutting angles so I picked up this cheap Stanley miter box and saw set.

Brand name products and tools are not necessarily the best and in this case the Stanley box is somewhat inferior to the no name box. The 22.5° cuts I made with the Stanley are not as accurate as they should have been. It’s still a useful miter box. I will say the saw that came with the this box is very nice.

The slots for cutting 90° cuts are in the middle which makes it easier to hold onto the wood with my left hand while cutting with my right hand. The 90° slots in the Stanley are at the left edge of the box which probably works great for left hand folk. There is a dropped edge on the front of each box which allows the box to stop at the edge of the table. So the boxes can’t be flipped.

The saw slots in the no name box are narrower than those in the Stanley so the saw blade fits better making for more accurate buts. There is too much room in the Stanley box for the saw to move and tilt.

Somehow or other it just had to...

Here is the finished work with the pink I-beam I posted about in a few previous posts with some detail shots. I used metal letter stamps for my signature at the front lower left corner and on the pink I-beam. I always sign my art on the back with date and location.

Title: Somehow or other it just had to come out on the end, didn't it?

Wood, acrylic paint, string | 12 x 20 x 1.75 inches (30.5 x 50.8 x 4.4 cm) | November 2022

Another Pink I-Beam

Work in progress images.

Letting dripping paint dry. I held the pink I-beam vertical and poured some gray/green liquid paint in the pot then quickly tipped the I-beam in the position you see in the image and let the paint flow out and drip down. I put tape on the bottom edge of the panel and elevated it so the paint would run off the edge and not under onto the bottom edge of the panel.

I used a section of ruler I got from the DIY Store to hold the I-beam away from the wall so it won’t stick to it while the paint dries.

I used my trusty iron bar to keep panel from falling over while the paint dries.

Repurposing

I had this panel hanging on the wall for months and couldn’t get myself to finish what I had originally had in mind for for it. It suddenly hit me the other night when I couldn’t get to sleep what I need to do with it. It will be another pink I-beam piece. I believe this is the third rework of this panel.

Here is the panel after sanding it roughly. It had a black band at the top and four dark blue panels of paint below. The top band now reveals paint underneath.

Detail of the top part of the panel. You can see a little purple paint showing through.

The top band has been left as is and the rest of the panel has been painted with a cream color using a brush and paint spreader card. Look closely at the top and you will see two eye screws have been installed. From those will hang the I-beam that you can see at the top of the image.

How the final panel turned out waiting for a pink I-beam to be added. The nylon strings are what the pink I-beam will hang from when it’s finished.