New Project(s)

The diorama is finished and now I'm on to new projects.  I haven't had time to write out part two of my thoughts on the diorama because I've been away on holiday, but I'll get to it soon.  In the mean time, I'm already on to new projects.  So many ideas, so little time.

One of my new projects I've actually had planned for some time.  I am decorating another walking stick.  It's name will be Wild Roses.  I drew a pattern of rose leaves and wild roses which will spiral up the stick.  I think I have enough room to have a double spiral of roses up the stick.  The design will be transferred onto the walking stick.  Then I will burn the design into the wood with a  wood burning tool.  After that, I will paint the leaves and roses.  When all of the wood burning and painting is complete, I will stain the wood with antiquing medium and varnish the stick. 

I've started an embroidery project as well.  I embroider when I am watching television in the evening.  This project started because I purchased a shirt through mail order.  It looked nice in the catalog, but when I received the shirt, it looked rather plain.  It was one of those items of clothing that was destined to sit in the closet and never be worn.  I could have sent it back, but by the time I paid postage and the restocking fee it almost equaled the cost of the shirt.  So I decided that embroidery was the answer.  For whatever possessed me at that moment, I decided to do embroidery of Pennsylvania Dutch folk art designs on it. 

I had drawn and painted a number of the designs on wood in the 1980s.  I kept the patterns all of these years.   The geometric shapes, primary colors, and repeating patterns have always appealed to me.  When I thought of what I might want to embroider on the shirt, the patterns came to mind.  I traced a pattern onto the shirt, purchased some embroidery thread, and started to embroider. 

In hindsight, picking this pattern was probably a mistake.  I lost track on how much time I have spent on it after forty hours.  As a guess, I'd say I'm closing in on eighty hours and the primary design is only half way finished.  I still have more designs planned that aren't even drawn on the shirt yet.   The colors which looked okay when looking at embroidery floss are incredibly bright when so much of it is in one place.  The shirt has gone from being totally drab to ridiculously colorful.  It is way too late to turn back at this point, so I plan to embroider until the end of the project just for the heck of it.  At least embroidery thread is relatively inexpensive compared to other art materials.

Pictures will follow of the projects in my next post.  I'll post some pictures of completed projects while I'm working on these to keep my readers from being bored.

My Thoughts regarding the Diorama Part One-Photo

This piece started out as a Halloween concept for a skeleton.  See my blog post,” The Creative Process” posted March 7^th, 2012 to read more about the decisions that were the origins of the piece. 

 

Once the skeleton, car, and devil had been created, I had not planned to do any more to the piece.  However, the sculpture did not seem to have any context.  I played around with several concepts before finally settling on one.  These concepts ranged from light hearted Halloween themes to funereal themes, to religious concepts of the devil.  For a while I was stuck.

I practiced my technique of asking a question and then quickly writing down the first five answers that came to my head.   Since I had started with the skeleton, I returned there for some answers.  When I asked myself what thoughts came up when I thought about skeletons in general, many of the usual symbolic answers came up:  death, corruption/decay of the body, passage of time, etc.  These themes had also come up in the creation of the automobile in the piece.  The bodies of living things are not the only things that decay.  Automobiles breakdown and can be damaged beyond repair ending their useful “life”.

   

Buildings age and need repair.  Towns and cities age and change over time.  The buildings reflect the passage of time by the having different shapes, different window styles, and choices of building materials.  Some towns and cities grow and remain vital.  Other towns and cities reach a zenith and then growth slows or stops.  These towns or small cities become time capsules of a particular era.  No new building takes place.  It is during such a time of economic downturn that my small town’s story takes place.

I have always been sensitive to emotional energy.  When I try to create a sculpture, I try to capture the emotional energy as well as the form.  When the economy fails, it starts a cascade of events both physical and emotional.   And that is the basis of the story behind my diorama “Devil Looking for Trouble in a Small Town.”

  

Everything that happens in a big city also happens in a small town.  It is just a matter of scale.  An economic downturn affects small places with only a few industries much harder than big cities.  When factories close and businesses fail, there is little left to sustain the communities.  The financial meltdown on Wall Street caused problems for practically everyone.  For some, that problem was a number on paper.  For millions of others, it damaged their way of life to the point that their lives may not ever be fully repaired.  The financial damage causes a cascade of other social problems such as increases in unemployment, bankruptcy, home foreclosures, family break ups, suicide, alcoholism, and violence.  Feelings run towards stress, worry, despair, and fear of future troubles.  This is the devil that is cruising through a small town in my diorama.

The “devil” of this economic disaster may have been conceived on Wall Street, but his hunting ground is in the small towns.  You can tell there is financial damage in the cities.  That devastation is magnified in smaller economies.  Devils thrive in an area of stress, turmoil, and despair.  That is why the devil is looking for trouble in a small town. 

Folk Art Diorama Complete- New Photos

My folk art diorama Devil Looking for Trouble in a Small Town is finally complete.  The glue is still drying on the final addition to the diorama.  I'll be adding photos for the next couple of posts.

I've had a number of people offer interesting projections as to what they think the piece might mean.  I invite my readers to ponder on what they take from the piece and offer their thoughts on it in the comments section.  I'll blog on my thoughts about it in my next post. 

It is hard to find the comments section on this blog.  Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and find the tiny blue word, comments.  Click on comments, when it comes up, click on add a comment.  A box will open that allows you to input a comment.  When you complete the comment, scroll down to the bottom of the screen and input your email address and hit send.

The overall dimensions of the diorama: 24" w x 12" h  x 12" d.  I'll post a metric conversion later.  I need to figure it out on a calculator.

The bottom photo is the back of the diorama.

The background and foreground are painted.  This picture does not pick it up as well as I would have liked.

The sidewalk is still in the process of being painted.   I will add the last coat today, then seal it.  Once that is dry, I will be gluing that into place also.  After that it is a matter of adding my devil to the foreground.

Diorama Update

No new pictures yet, but I will have some up tomorrow.  I have painted the background and foreground of the diorama.  Also, I have done some work on the sidewalk. 

I expect to complete the diorama this week.  I am really excited to see it coming together at last.

Diorama Update-New Photos

My diorama is nearing completion.  The painting on the last building is finished.  All the buildings need to be sealed with an acrylic sealer, and that is my goal for today.  The background and foreground will be painted next. I also need to paint the sidewalk that will go in front of the buildings.

Although it is hard to see in the upper photo, I made an effort to add detail to the windows.  Windows are not just blank spaces.  They are covered with dust and pollen.  Windows reflect the sun and sky as well as buildings and pedestrians.  I tried to capture that feature in the windows of the buildings in this diorama.

Celtic Knot work

 I wanted to make a walking stick with Celtic Knot work on it.  I made a  couple of test pieces to try out different finishes before I committed to a walking stick.  These pictures are of the test sticks.  The walking stick has been sold.  I did not take a picture of it before it was sold.  I've learned my lesson on taking pictures right away.   

The design was wood burned into the wood, then painted with 14 kt. gold paint.  After painting I used light and dark antiquing mediums to finish the wood.  I decided to use the lighter stain on the walking stick.