Still hanging around. Part 3

This work was created nearly six years ago which isn’t a long time. How ever no one seems to be interested in wanting to own it.

The donut image attached to the bread slice made of wood is a paint transfer of an image I took of a glazed donut when I worked in the bakery department of a local grocery store. The bird is part of a discarded craft thing. The bread slice shape in the bird’s beak is made of laminated heavy paper. The yellow wheels were purchased from a craft store. The black base is made of wood covered with some very coarse sand paper then painted black to resemble an asphalt road. The telegraph poles are made from .5 inch thick dowels. The bread slice hangs on the wire with two eye screws. The green and blue paint wrap around the sides of the box.

This image doesn’t show the title which was added at the bottom of the frame.

The only two formal methods of communication left to contemplate.
15.25 x 22 x 3.5 inches (39 x 56 x 9 cm)
September 2018

Still hanging around. Part 2

This is one of the largest pieces I have made and it is still hanging in my home. I made it eight years ago when I had more space to work in. The panel is made of 1.5 x .5 inch wood and MDF. When the crank on the left is rotated the walking fingers hand attached to it moves back and forth. The other hands on the right side are painted on pieces of muslin fabric backed with some heavy paper. They are attached to the panel with small brads at the top so they swing freely. The small hand shadow shapes on the yellow bar were made by cutting the shapes out of newspaper. Each shape was then painted with yellow paint and adhered paint side down to the yellow bar. After the paint was dry and set I wet the surface of the shapes with water and rubbed the paper off to reveal the black type underneath.

The idea for this one and several others came while waiting at a light rail station for a train to arrive and noticing the yellow strip near the edge of the platform. A voice on the intercom would caution folks now and then to stand behind the yellow line away from the edge of the platform.

Please stand behind the yellow line. II
Acrylic paint on panel, cloth, wire, paper
24 x 33 x 1.75 inches (61 x 84 x 4.5 cm)
October 2016

Still hanging around. Part 1

I created this tryptic piece twelve years ago when we were living in West Jordan, Utah and it still hasn’t found a good home. It is one of my favorite works. The boxes (rooms) and roof top are made from some old fence slats. The baseboards of the rooms are made from popsicle sticks purchased from a craft store. The body of the snake coming out of the hole in the room at the left is made with a piece of old Christmas tree light wire I acquired some years ago. After all these years I’m still using piece of that wire. I made everything in this piece from scratch.

Guards of the panini maker levitate.
Recycled fence slats, found objects, wire, popsicle sticks, acrylic paint, staples.
13 x 15.625 x 3.375 inches (33 x 40 x 9 cm). 2012.

Playing around with relief printing

These three relief prints were nothing more than experiments. The plates were created with a material called Sintra that was white and 3mm thick and quite smooth. It could be scored and broken into sections. I used linoleum cutting tools to produced the lines. It was not as easy to work with compared to traditional linoleum or other relief printing materials. The runs on the prints were very small and I never did much with them.

With most of these I used an 1/8 inch thick felt blanket and rolling pin to press the damp paper against the inked plates

I still have a few prints lingering around in a storage box.

A not very successful clean print but a nice solid black.

Yellow, black, and white inks.

Black and yellow inks.

Thanks for the nice write-up

My thanks to Shawn Rossiter for a very nice and welcome write-up on the 15 Bytes online Utah Arts magazine.

http://artistsofutah.org/15Bytes/index.php/whats-steve-dayton-building-in-there/

Changing the look of eye screws

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

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 3

Another water color painting from a reference photo I took. I don’t recall the location or the circumstances behind the subject.

This water color on heavy water color paper was painted to the best of my recollection one summer sometime during the late 70s..

Out of the past 2

This is one I did over a summer break from a photo I took on a Youth Conference trip to Colonies in Mexico during the mid 70s.

This water color on heavy water color paper was painted to the best of my recollection one summer sometime during the late 70s..

Out of the past 1

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

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.