Changing the look of eye screws

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I like to take new eye screws and give them a tarnished and old appearance. It is a simple process of holding an eye screw with needle nose pliers and heating the eye end of the screw with my trusty pen torch till it goes dark and even red hot. Then I dip it in cold water to cool it down. I usually rub the cooled down piece with a paper towel to dry it and it give it a slight polish.

Depending on the metal the look is either a dull gray or a blackish color like the one on the right in the picture.

The butane torch by HONEST.

Commissioned?

I finished a new assemblage piece over the week end. I don’t usually do commission work but this one I couldn’t resist doing and the idea for it came to me suddenly while I was trying to go to sleep. It took about three days to start and complete it.

Title: This always happens when that slim orange cat with the green tipped tail taunts us with a bundle of regal wrenches.

Wood, acrylic paint on panel, wire, string, paper transfer
12 x 12 x 2.5 inches (30.5 x 30.5 x 6.3 cm)
March 2023

This cat creatures was created mostly from pieces of dowel. The face was created with Affinity Designer and printed with a laser printer. The tiny face was cut out painted over with with white paint on the printed side then glued to the head. When the face was dry I wet it with water and rubbed the paper off to reveal the face underneath. The tail is a piece of old Christmas tree light wire with tip dipped in green paint. The ears are some old copper wire.

The purple wrenches where laser cut from 1/8 inch MDF and painted with acrylic paint then bundled together with some black nylon string. The vase tipping over comes from Hobby Lobby.

Constructing Another I-beam

Laying in bed the other night trying to go to sleep the idea for a new piece and some titles popped into my head. The idea started out with a chair which ended up gravitating to an I-beam. I’m still hanging on to the idea with the chair.

I-beam made from pieces of a yard stick. This I-beam is 8” long.

The Blank Wall

The main studio wall in the studio has been empty since I took everything off to deliver it all to the gallery. After a bit of rest to recoup from a heart procedure I have started working on some more pieces. I have had these 12” x 12” panels taped for several month and decided I would start with them and prime the surfaces of each one. I’m using several light colors of paint including white to coat them.

What to do

I finished this piece or thought I had finished it back in November of 2021. I’m trying to figure out what to do more with it to make it more interesting. Stay tuned for the result when I come up with it.

Acrylic paint on panel, wood, wire and string. 10 x 10 inches (25 x 25 cm)

Show Opening Friday, February 17, 2023

I will be participating in a show with Josanne Glass and Melinda & Joe Ostraff at the Phillips Gallery in Salt Lake City, Utah. The show opens Friday evening February 17th and goes through March 10th. The opening will be from 6:00 to 9:00. Come by one of the nicest and best galleries in Salt Lake City and meet me, see some of my recent works that I hope will make you smile and chuckle.

32 Years Ago

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Here is probably the most detailed look at an assemblage piece I created thirty two years ago. The owner of this piece asked me to glue the little vase back on that had broken off the top rung of the ladder. I was able to take some pictures of the piece. In addition to the fix I took the opportunity to upgrade the hanging wire on the back.

I used some paper from an old German book to paste on the box frame and the green rungs of the ladder. After gluing the paper on the box frame I rubbed some dark green paint on the paper. You can see where some of the paint didn’t adhere to spots of glue residue. The white squares are pieces of paper glued to the background then painted white and dusted and rubbed with graphite powder. All of the objects on the ladder rungs were hand made. I handwove the tiny rug and made the iron head from a piece of rusty tin can and constructed the tiny book our of tiny pieces of paper. The title at the bottom was made using a portable German typewriter that sadly I no longer possess.

Wood, acrylic paint, paper, wire, metal, handwoven cloth
13.5 x 5.75 x 2.5 inches (34.3 x 14.6 x 8.9 cm)
May 1991 (West Jordan, Utah)

Painted wood vase with three copper wires. 1 1/8 x 7/16 inches (2.8 x 1 cm)

Painted wood and graphite with a copper wire out of the chin. 13/16 x 1 1/2 inches (2 x 3.8 cm)

Wood, paint, and graphite. 11/16 x 5/8 inches (1.7 x 1.6 cm)

Wood, paint, and pasted page numbers from an old book. 5/8 x 1 1/8 inches (1.6 x 2.8 cm)

Iron head made from rusted tin can metal held in place with copper wire. The face was made with white paint. 11/16 x 5/8 inches (1.7 x 1.6 cm)

Book made with scrap print making paper and paint. 11/16 x 1 1/8 inches (1.7 x 2.8 cm)

Wood, paint, and graphite pencil. 1/2 x 1 1/8 inches (1.2 x 2.8 cm)

Wood, paint, pasted paper, and copper wire. 1 3/16 x 1/2 inches (3 x 1.2 cm)

Handwoven cotton yarn. 2 3/4 x 1 1/4 (7 x 32 cm)

Signed with graphite pencil at the left side of the third square from the bottom on the left side of the background.

All four sides of the outside of the frame were rubbed with gray acrylic paint then scrubbed into cracks and indents of the wood with thinned black acrylic paint.

The back of the piece with signature, location where the piece was created, and date of completion. This also gives a look at how the box was constructed back then. I measured the piece again and got more accurate dimensions that differ slightly from those shown on the exhibit label.

Of the four galleries that are shown on the exhibit label only the Phillips Gallery now exists. I was able to show, and if my memory serve me right, sell work in the Courtyard, Pierpont, and Dooly Galleries.

Out of the past 5

Here is a design for a travel poster I did as an assignment for a graphic design class at BYU Provo. Although it was a mock up it could also be used as final art. A date in the handwritten text at the bottom edge of the board indicates this may have been created in 1982.

Cut and pasted paper on illustration board. images were photo copied on color paper with a laser printer. The shapes were cut and pasted using spray mount. The text a the bottom edge of the board was made with graphite pencil.

Out of the past 4

I made this drawing in 1980 from a plaster caste model. The drawing is on gray matt board. I painted the shape with white gouache and drew graphite pencils to created the drawing.

Out of the past 1

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Over the next few days I will post some work that I did when I was attending college and university. So let’s begin with a water color when I was just starting to work with the medium.

An early water color painting on illustration board using only one rounded brush. There is no date on this piece and I think it was done circa 1977 or 1978 when I was attending Ricks College now known as BYU Idaho.

Tools: Small Cutting Mat

Since most of the paper items I cut are small, I decided it was time to get a cutting mat that would fit comfortably on the work table in the studio. Now I only need to drag out the large cutting mat and clear off the dining table when I want to cut oversized things.

11” x 17” cutting mat with a grid on one side and no grid on the other side.

Posters ready to ship

I have posters of some of my digital paintings in tubes with labels ready to ship to California after the Christmas and holiday rush. Printology in American Fork, Utah, USA printed the posters and labels. These are my first posters and I want to see how well they do. I wish I had had them ready for the shopping season but couldn’t get the tubes and other things together in time.

I used Affinity Designer to design the posters and labels.

Tools: Jeweler's Saw, Bench V-Block, Sanding Jig

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I purchased a jeweler's saw with some extra blades, bench v-block, and a sanding jig from Micromark. Since I don’t have the space or the use of my scroll saw the jeweler's saw is welcome tool. The sanding jig will help me to keep cut edges true. The bench v-block will aid in cutting small intricate pieces.

I used the jeweler's saw to cut the circle of MDF at the top of the picture. It was smooth cutting and I was able to follow along the line with not much trouble. I was able to clean up the edges and smooth them with a sanding block.

A rare sculptural piece

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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.