Red Mask

Sketches for new piece

I'm working on a new piece, the beginning of what will become a multitude of works which deal with identity, primarily through the use of symbolism involving masks.

 

TearPetal exists!

 Tearpetal is the latest and greatest work of art I have made. She is a figure solely made for me to paint a design that I have held in my head for sometime. The inspiration came out of nowhere (not from stained glass!), but I envisioned three tear-shaped objects on a figure, the three objects being repeated and outlined. What occurred was a design reminiscent of scales, teardrops, or flower petals. She is Tear Petal because the shapes are blue and yellow, the blue being the teardrops and the yellow petals. Kind of like blissful sorrow, Tear Petal is the new oxymoron!
I wanted to finish the piece after she is colored in with the three separated bunches like in the picture when I'm holding her, but I felt she looked a bit unfinished since these are small, there is a need for me to cover them almost completely. So I didn't continue the design because that was done for sure, I simply created some black lines and filled them in in spots and left them empty in others. Can you tell I am happy with this piece? I am! If I wasn't, there would be no blog :-D

Miniature Frida Kahlo in polymer clay

Its Frida Kahlo!
Hey, cut me some slack... not all artists get the face right on the first try.

I scratched that face off, and proceeded to try again, ending up with the face below. I also made a shawl as to help distinguish her as Frida.

Much better! I also needed to put the braided hair atop the head so she would be easily recognizable as Frida, so I actually braieded pieces of clay together, very crafty.

I got the braids going and also made some tiny flowers


I repositioned the head to face the "side I liked better" (the one without the feet showing), and cured/baked the clay, she is now complete!

Frida has a painted on face because I feel that with all of her self portraits, the 2-dimensional face makes sense and helps distinguish her as Frida. I have done Frida caricatures with sculpted faces and I prefer this method, especially with something this tiny. The figure definitely is a hybrid between craft and sculpture, as most of my art is. Here she is with the two figures from my last few blogs, each is a different kind of figure, each has its own appeal in different ways but I made Frida in the old way of making figures and wouldn't count her in the highly detailed new figure category because her hair was simplified, not put on strand by strand, her hands were made in the old style "mitten", and she has no toes or sculpted ears, everything is simplified, which I do like though, and she is a work of art in her own right.

Tiny henna girl from previous blog

I had to update with a better photo of the piece from the last blog, and also to show her post curing when the shininess of the clay goes away.

Mehndi is done!

My visions have become REALITY!
Today I made my henna girl, I love her, I love, love, love her!
I put a really fast video up on youtube showing the progression of the figure, below are a few pics.


She is detailed, and gorgeous, her size alone makes her appealing (she is only one and three quarters of an inch tall) and all that hand painted goodness begs to be shown off, I cant wait to go street vending with her!
She is like some of my past henna girls, only less than half their size! She fits into the smallest cubes.
Up next on my "to make list" is an affirmation figure followed by some of the "flower girls" which will remain the same old price, but have new faces... faceless so to speak... well, painted on. You will see.

Cris' butterfly person is more than it seems

Today I was able to gift blogger Nando's friend Cris with a Butterfly Person.
The sculpture seems normal when you look at it... golden girl holds broken wrist... my work often appears arbitrary like this, and though the broken wrist does indicate fragility, if one were to do their research they would see just what this piece symbolizes... WAY more than a golden fairy-girl with wings.

The piece was designed to be a three dimensional canvas for an important black and white ink drawing that I have done which the hard copy is on paper.  See below.

The most important elements of the drawing were taken such as the symbol of peace, the dove, and several images of lovers together, the candle to light the path of your destiny, and love was written on her arm as a manifestation of these things.  The figure is supposed to send out these energies, love, togetherness, and lighting of the life path.  I thought that the imagery was interesting but I had to mask slightly the obviousness of the figure so I sprayed her in Gold. The gold partially, not completely obscured the images beneath the paint and that is how the figure was gifted.  Her wings are blue and Gold, symbolizing riches and prosperity, but the underside of the wings (the side you see when looking at the figure head on) were left in their natural state, “shine, but never loose sight of who you really are.”  Below are some images of the figure before she was covered in Gold.  Hope Cris likes her and is not freaked out that the mundane is not so mundane… that’s how we artists are, always including some importance in our work even if its beneath the surface.

Cris & Nando @ Union Square