Hi everyone. This is the top secret project I've been working on. It's a birthday gift for a client from her husband. He'd spoken to me about it months ago, and was going to keep it a secret until Sat, but spilled the beans last night, so it's okay for me to show you guys.

What a sweetie husband huh? Happy Birthday Karen!
(You can click any pic to enlarge)

I like to work big, but I also quite like working "fine", precise cuts and welds, making the steel look delicate. In representational work, I pride myself on making the piece balanced correctly. People and animals are able to stand on their feet in real life. With sculpture the weight is different because of the material, but it should still be balanced. Then I know I've got the biomechanics down. This guy stands fine on his own slender legs/feet.

It was kind of a trick covering all my welds, but I've sort of got birds down now I guess. It's very tedious working with tons of tiny feathers, but I like the result.

Brian (husband) wanted the piece done in unfinished, clean steel for a "silvery" look. I like how the heat marks from the cutting edge the feathers. Fun project for some really nice people.

I've been thinking a lot about what direction my work will go this year. It's tempting to make sweeping statements like, "I really want to concentrate on big pieces," etc, but for now I'm going with, "I want to only work on things that excite me creatively."

It's tricky-- this being an artist gig. Your primary drive is your creativity, but no one is going to pay you for sitting around having cool ideas, and the world certainly doesn't owe you a living. Last year I got a little nervous and did more market chasing that I should have I think-- making some repetitive stuff I wound-up not liking that much.

This year I'm going to try to avoid that, and also explore some new venues for outdoor sculptures. If anyone has any good ideas of places to scope out (that might want to sell what I make) let me know.

Thanks!

Oh-- also, don't forget to comment. That drawing (previous post) is still going on until Feb 8th!

Kicking Off 2010

Hi everyone. New year- new look on the blog. I picked some different colors and enlarged some of the text. Do you like it?

Gearing up for another year of making art. My old gloves have had it.

Time for a spiffy new pair.

I want to begin the year by thanking you guys. Thanks to everyone who purchased art from me last year, and to those of you who didn't, but took the time to stop and say hi and give me feedback.

Thanks to everyone who kept me in mind when they needed a gift for someone, and to those of you I told, "That's okay, just send me a check," and you actually did! (I'm 100% in that department to tell the truth. No one has ever stiffed me. Sue's Art people are generally pretty cool.)

Thanks to those of you who insisted on paying more than the agreed upon or listed price. (Surprisingly, there were about four or five of you-- BIG thanks to you guys.)

Thanks to the client who accidentally received a personal email from me, a mistake on my part, signed something like, "girl posse central command", and chose to see it as funny instead of just annoying.

Thanks to everyone who brought me weird, old, random, metal things. You never know what they'll become. I love that stuff!

To show my appreciation, I'm giving away a little valentine's gift, that may wind-up looking something like this-- (the flames would be gold colored)

If you'd like to have a chance to win, just comment on the blog anytime between now and Feb 8th. Anything will do-- "pick me" -- what you write doesn't matter. Just get yourself in the running.

I can't show you my first project yet because it's top secret. When it's done and safe to reveal, I'll put up pics. I have 3 commissions waiting so far. One I can't start until spring-- a series of paintings I'll have to do outside.

I also have to get back to my pet project. I want to have this installed at the mountain bike trail by spring. As you can see nothing much has been done on her since last summer.

Good to be back!