Last piece of 2010

When I was a little whipper snapper, In school I did not really pay much attention to the teacher, I often did one of two things while hoping for the school day to end.  I either stared out the window at the trees or sky as the wind blew outside, or when windows were not available, I would doodle in my notebooks or in the margins of the lined white paper, even on standardized tests!  Those days are now gone, and I went on to college to earn my degree, those doodles had seemed to be lost, giving way to stylized forms and images or what I thought would be profitable or acceptable by my audience.  Not anymore, now I lead, guiding my clients, and fans of my work through this blog, explaining what and why.  So comes this last piece of the amazingly productive 2010... I have never made more figures in a year, primarily due to my having a business, the 7-day a week venture of making multiple figures a day was amazing, I was like a machine, but the quality... yeah.  So anyway, I have realized that my doodles were journeys into my head, they were a concrete and accurate representation of me, no need to develop a certain style, no need to listen to those who say make art a certain way with a certain material... no, painted polymer clay is where we are at at the current moment, female figures with designs painted on them... no need for inspiration, the doodles/designs come from within, I totally let go and let the process take over for this girl and she is a jewel, very unique and even her pose is interesting, I did not have a idea on how much of her would be covered with what in what color, I just painted and you can see the result below.  Happy 2011 everyone. 

Floral Wall Hanging

This is a TRUE affirmation figure.  Although she doesn't have any actual affirmations written on her, her story is one of such good and wonderfulness that I HAVE to share it. 

First off all I will say that I began making affirmation figures during my street vending days because I had a theory.  I thought that if I made figures that reminded people of WHY they were created or for what purpose then people would think of that thing and of course the more positive things we think about the better.  So maybe you have a crummy day and then you look over to the little figure next to your desk and think, "oh yea, that guy made that to represent peace in my heart," then maybe on some level peace would have a chance to enter the heart of this person.  Its like putting out positive thoughts and affirmations but literally.  Also I believe in the law of the universe that what we give out comes to us multiplied so I stopped making the figures that represented depression and sadness and loss.  I now am making figures of loss and depression but am relating to them in a positive way, affirming that the situation that caused them to be that way will be alleviated or that good will come into their life, for it is how we react to negative things that really matters.

Back to the figure.  So this figure is one that instead of having affirmations written on her, I have it all symbolized all the while being an interesting thing to look at aesthetically.
Her position was important to me because I listened to a lecture by Louise Hay about how the posture of audience members was an indication of how much GOOD they would allow into their lives.  I knew she had to be upright, but how to do it without a armature?  Have her be a wall hanging!   So here she is a figure reaching up to the sky arms outstretched and open and receptive to all good.
She smiles.  I do not often (at least right now) make figures smiling but something is so nice about looking at her smiling face, she is happy and I mean really happy.  The flowers grow out of her, they sprout from her arms and legs and are in such lush abundance on her body that she seems without form.  Although I love nature and animals, these particular flowers sprang from seeds.  Seed thoughts. 
The idea goes that the positive thought seeds that we plant today become the experiences of tomorrow, so the seeds she sew became the blossoms of perfection in her present, and the seeds she sews today will become the blooming, flourishing, abundant, prosperous experiences of her tomorrow... and it feels great, you can see it on her face.

So I made a listing on Etsy for her and also a very brief (shorter than this) video for youtube, she was inspired by the wall panels that I saw in guatemala, they used material that looked VERY much like cornstarch-based clays and had little squares become a big panel... often with figures with what? Flowers for the body... most of these were devotionals and of religious symbolism, mine are just as religious I say, for God wants us all to achieve prosperity... or rather what we can with our own potential which begins with our thoughts.
thanks for reading!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/64546821/smiling-sculptural-wall-hanging

Youtube video of figure from last blog completed

This is a Youtube video of the smaller figure from last blog I spoke about completed.

miniatures with brass findlings and charms

They're back!
Yup, the little ones that conquered Union Square park in NYC and also served as simple yet potent expressions for many spiritual ideas I had are BACK!  There will definitely be some representing truth and understanding, but the next few are actually being made for the purpose of adding brass pieces to them.  Yep, Im going to get some small leaves and wings for them so they will not end up nude in the long run.  Very crafty.

Enigma

Her name is NOT Spring, its Enigma!
WOW, this figure is just amazingness, please if you will click the iamges to see them big and see the texture and color, the tiny pigments mixing and rejecting each other is so beautiful.  Also at the end, see her as the super sculpey plain Jane that she was and a video I uploaded to YouTube to promote her stardom.
The next multi-colored figure will be outlined in black lines and you can tell me which method you prefer.

The way in which I am offering her for sale on Etsy at http://www.etsy.com/listing/63835938/enigma-polymer-clay-statuette will include a display case which the person can or cannot use, as I will send the sculpture separately it will help keep dust and hair from sticking to her.

Here is an interesting picture of her before she was so well decorated with these stunning and Enigmatic colors.

YEW-TEWB

photo shoot tomorrow on SPRING Enigma

Tomorrow (later today), I am going to do a photo shoot in natural lighting for my latest greatest wonderful sculpture who is divinely beautiful and will be sealed in an acrylic sealant to keep the colors of her paints brilliant.
Here is a preview of she who represents spring:
Something pretty revealing is natures guardianENIGMA!!!!!

She swam out of my imagination

This little one literally swam out of my imagination, through my fingertips, and into the clay as this wonderful little thing.  I suppose it is some kind of sea creature, or perhaps amphibious dragon that lives on tropical isles where humankind has never stepped foot.  She is able to extend her fins but for now has them retracted, large eyes will be painted black, and the body a slew of many greens, blues, yellows, golds and silvers, I cant wait until tomorrow when I finish her.  

P.S. I made a new figure, simple in form, busy in surface addition.

Moon Goddess sure is a popular girl!

My girl is featured in a treasury on etsy for the third time, other two were a halloween one and a white as snow one.  This one is Dreaming of a white christmas... click HERE to see.

Bonsai

Whats next?
Im going to try and make some miniature bonsai, this way they will not die!
There are some AMAZING ones online (google  images) but I actually want to do some with real branches that I coat with acrylic?  Maybe it will work.

Wearable Art

Wearable art!
I turned one of those photos from a few blogs past into a black t-shirt that I can wear with pride!  The figure came out surprisingly well.... designing for black is difficult and thank God for photoshop and its ability to create transparent images or else she would have had a strange background on her... but here she is!  Im very happy with it and will wear it until the threads come apart :)

Ode to prayer

Ode to, “Crist sake, thank you for letting mommy come home and staying forever and getting out the army, amen”

Remember, butterfly people represents altercation/change.  This work of art was created originally as a portrait of two real-life children, the work of art has since been altered by me (the artist) to represent the maturation of the children and the prayers that they used to say so often as a child, “Now I lay me, down to sleep, I pray the lord my soul to keep, if I should die before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take, god bless mommy and papi, Sherree and Pedro, grandma and grandpa, and everybody in this whole wide world, Christ sake, thank you for letting mommy come home and staying forever and getting out the army, amen.”

Gio's

Thursday, April 22, 2010

The Butterfly People

I am really quite unsure as to where the work is going, or rather how the work is changing.  If asked I would not be able to answer whether the butterflies would remain a literal part of the works of art, I am positive however, that the name will remain The Butterfly People.  Why? In this case the butterfly has gone from the literal attachment of the physical dead insect to a deeper meaning.  The word butterfly suddenly stands for transformation which as most everyone knows refers to the stages of metamorphosis that the insect takes during its ascent into adulthood.  The Butterfly People, the changing people, the people who transform, who change, who undergo metamorphoses.   Change is an important part of life, we can always be sure that we are going to change, but will we change for the better or for worst?  When we love and approve of ourselves we only change for the better, believe that!  That said, These changelings are currently appealing to me as literal expressions of who they were and who they are going to be, that said, the next few pieces will either be old re-vamped works, or new works but who begin one way and end up a totally different way (with the assistance of paint no doubt!). 

Gratitude

Lots of seriously beautiful gratitude bouquets and forgiveness flowers are coming very soon, my little pots have been fired and are beautiful, the stark white is a nice change from the usual terra cotta pottery and adds a different appeal to them while keeping them plain adds artistic flair as well as a opposition to the extreme colorful tops they are going to have.  Take a look at the fired pots, going to be full of flowers, and perhaps some fairies in some and blue jays in others.




Each ceramic (mini) vessel is signed in the clay and dated by me so you know its an original work of artistry.

The obsession continues...

I am having a ton of ideas lately, tomorrow I will get the little pots from Keith back and begin working on some of the forgiveness flowers (polymer clay bouquets).  But in the mean time I TRIED to design a shirt on cafepress.... it looks REALLY dark like scarily, but I hope the actual design will print lighter because the image I used was dark, but not that dark.  I used a edited picture sort of like the ones in the last two blogs.  I love you is what she says.  I am obsessed with love because it is a new and exciting concept for me.  Love is not a new concept, but the use of love is amazing.  Did you know that you can use love to heal illness?  Yes, just surround and engorge the area with love that needs healing.  So often is a part of our bodies is not working properly or creates something we deem "ugly" or "dysfunctional" we literally hate it, we want it gone, we curse it... why not saturate it with love, love will dissolve any negative situation or thing.  So I am loving myself completely from now on, because a whole and complete person comes from a body which is loved entirely. 

Im gonna wear this shirt and take some photos when it comes early next month, stay tuned, if it is not as I imagined, I will design a new one... on a lighter color :-p

Love groove

LOVE

Wow, everything that I have heard about love is true.
Well, not everything, most certainly not that love hurts or love stinks, but the other side of the coin... its all true!
Love really does make the world go round, not money.  God is Love, love and God almost mean the same thing, sort of like the universal mind means God, energy is God and so energy is love as well.  Love is the most basic thing yet perhaps the one thing we cannot really explain in words. 
Love is the power that heals us.  Louise L. Hay once said, "no negative condition can exist in our lives when we truly love ourselves."  I have found this to be totally 100% correct and must sing it from the mountain tops so that everyone can hear me and my gratitude can be expressed. She also says that the more love we give, the more we have to give and that the supply is endless and makes us feel good.
 
As far as the figures go, they are affirmation figures right? So what better affirmation than I LOVE YOU, say it to yourself everyday.

Forgiveness Flowers

Forgiveness Flowers.  Flowers of forgiveness. 
I have decided to create my own miniature ceramic pottery to house my handmade polymer clay flower bouquets and it hit me... the flowers could all have little signs in them (perhaps perched on toothpicks) that read, "Forgive" or maybe "Forgiveness".  I think that would be a very very awesome thing to put out into the universe, I could tell the story about forgiveness and also let the people who purchase them know they can take the sign out if they have other purposes for the bouquets. 
Making the pottery myself makes the pieces TOTALLY handmade, and also even more original and interesting because of the variety of shapes that can be achieved now without having to purchase them.  They will probably not be glazed, but rather painted with regular paints... we shall see.
Anyway, forgiveness is such a huge part of positive living and (more importantly) of self healing and self love, that I just feel the need to have all my future floral items be forgiveness flowers.  So stay tuned, I will be making some bouquets soon!

forgiveness flowers

マスク

黒いマスク

ceramic world

I would like to welcome Pedro Ramirez back to the ceramic world.
I recently purchased a potters wheel and I LOVE it, I never worked on a wheel so quiet since its brand new, and its like a new toy, I want to play with it every day.
I also have found a local artist to fire my work so I may be participating in shows again in the very near future, I have so many ideas to bring into being, its a LOT of fun.
Here is a preview of one of the pieces in the new series of which I would love to have a show about.

It is still green, will later fire chalk white and be glazed so the little jay really pops.  Several of the new works have blue jays on them... explanation soon.