We've lived in our new home since October 2012 - that's not to say we're all moved in, even now, but we've lived here that long now. My studio and office still have boxes that need to be unpacked, but things are progressing nicely and the "end of the tunnel" is in sight, yay! We're painting the old house to get it ready to sell and just have a few things to move out of there, then clean it all up and it'll be on the market! Anyone need a 32 acre deluxe horse facility with a regulation small dressage arena, five stalls, a heated tack room, loads of storage, etc. etc.? Not to mention a 3 BR 2 1/2 bath house, two stories with a full basement. It won't be listed for maybe another month, but if you're interested, let me know! It's located in Montgomery County, Ohio. Beautiful place. And it has a nice heated and air conditioned art studio too!
As for "getting on with my artistic life" . . . if I stay away from art or writing for too long, my hands get itchy to get back to work. This *moving stuff* has kept my mind and body too occupied for me to do anything creative for MONTHS! Si U recently started taking a clay class at the Lebanon YMCA. It's been years since I've used water based clay except for a little relief of a lion's head that I did last summer for fun (still haven't glazed it, but it's fired). I thought it would be wise for me to get good at this medium again because I wanted to take a figurative (human) workshop from Phillipe Faraut, who uses water-based clay in his workshops. So here I am, working in that kind of clay and getting FRUSTRATED because I *KNOW* plastilene and Super Sculpey inside out, but water-based clay is fussy and not as easy for me to work in. It has its uses, and I want to improve my skills with it, so I'm soldiering on in this class where the other class members are making adorable little animals that are actually whistles, or tiles with low reliefs of various things (frogs, etc.) carved into them, or throwing pots. I'm making a sculpture of a lady whose dress is blowing in the wind. Here are some pictures of her as she is right now:
As for "getting on with my artistic life" . . . if I stay away from art or writing for too long, my hands get itchy to get back to work. This *moving stuff* has kept my mind and body too occupied for me to do anything creative for MONTHS! Si U recently started taking a clay class at the Lebanon YMCA. It's been years since I've used water based clay except for a little relief of a lion's head that I did last summer for fun (still haven't glazed it, but it's fired). I thought it would be wise for me to get good at this medium again because I wanted to take a figurative (human) workshop from Phillipe Faraut, who uses water-based clay in his workshops. So here I am, working in that kind of clay and getting FRUSTRATED because I *KNOW* plastilene and Super Sculpey inside out, but water-based clay is fussy and not as easy for me to work in. It has its uses, and I want to improve my skills with it, so I'm soldiering on in this class where the other class members are making adorable little animals that are actually whistles, or tiles with low reliefs of various things (frogs, etc.) carved into them, or throwing pots. I'm making a sculpture of a lady whose dress is blowing in the wind. Here are some pictures of her as she is right now:
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Part of my problem is that I can't decide if she's in a heavy Victorian type dress or a filmy modern dress of some kind. I'm leaning toward Victorian, I think. Her hair will be down and flowing in billowing waves. After years of sculpting Friesians, I can do hair! She may be holding a large picture hat against her dress, I'm not sure yet. She's a bit awkward to me in a lot of ways, but she has an innate grace that l like a lot. I don't know if I'll fire her or not. If she isn't up to my standards, I may not.
I've consulted with my figurative sculpting GENIUS friend, Tamara Bonet (www.tamarabonet.com) on this piece and she's given me a lot of helpful pointers. As you'll see if you look at her page, she's WORLDS better than I am at figurative art and working in water-based clay. I really appreciate her help with improving my figurative and water-based clay skills!
I had decided earlier this year that this would be a year of taking workshops for me. I need my creative batteries recharged after all this moving, and I certainly want to improve my skills with various media and with figurative sculpting in particular. So to that end, I've signed up for two American Academy of Equine Art (www.aaea.net) workshops (a perk of membership is lower workshop fees, yay!), the first an equine workshop with Morgen Kilbourne ( http://www.artbymorgen.com/) who works in various media I want to learn more about, as well as making lovely horse sculptures. The second one is a jewelry workshop with Lisa Perry (http://www.lisaperry.com/), who's a wonderful lady I enjoy talking with (we chatted for over two hours in her booth at the Quarter Horse Congress one year and our conversation never slowed down at all!) and who is a truly gifted sculptor and jeweler. The third is with Phillipe Faraut (http://philippefaraut.com/index.html), a brilliant figurative sculptor who has a lot of videos on YouTube, tools of his own design and lots of other helpful stuff available through his website and his classes. I'm excited about these workshops!!
I'll keep working in this clay class at the Y until I get my studio ready to go - hopefully not much longer (I'm enjoying the class, but I do need to get back to my "business" work!) I hope to find some "playful" classes later this year that will just be fun explorations of creativity - or maybe I'll go back to the Y and make some whistles - those look like fun to make!
I've consulted with my figurative sculpting GENIUS friend, Tamara Bonet (www.tamarabonet.com) on this piece and she's given me a lot of helpful pointers. As you'll see if you look at her page, she's WORLDS better than I am at figurative art and working in water-based clay. I really appreciate her help with improving my figurative and water-based clay skills!
I had decided earlier this year that this would be a year of taking workshops for me. I need my creative batteries recharged after all this moving, and I certainly want to improve my skills with various media and with figurative sculpting in particular. So to that end, I've signed up for two American Academy of Equine Art (www.aaea.net) workshops (a perk of membership is lower workshop fees, yay!), the first an equine workshop with Morgen Kilbourne ( http://www.artbymorgen.com/) who works in various media I want to learn more about, as well as making lovely horse sculptures. The second one is a jewelry workshop with Lisa Perry (http://www.lisaperry.com/), who's a wonderful lady I enjoy talking with (we chatted for over two hours in her booth at the Quarter Horse Congress one year and our conversation never slowed down at all!) and who is a truly gifted sculptor and jeweler. The third is with Phillipe Faraut (http://philippefaraut.com/index.html), a brilliant figurative sculptor who has a lot of videos on YouTube, tools of his own design and lots of other helpful stuff available through his website and his classes. I'm excited about these workshops!!
I'll keep working in this clay class at the Y until I get my studio ready to go - hopefully not much longer (I'm enjoying the class, but I do need to get back to my "business" work!) I hope to find some "playful" classes later this year that will just be fun explorations of creativity - or maybe I'll go back to the Y and make some whistles - those look like fun to make!
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