If you missed the opening of Take Aways, here’s a teaser walk through of the exhibit. You’ll feel like your almost really there! Lots of artwork in this video has already been sold, so get down to the gallery and pick out some for yourself before their all gone!
I’ve been working on an installation of my Rock Candy Series for my upcoming solo show at the Grants Pass Museum of Art and thought I’d share a little video of the process. I made 100+ of these rocks, glazed them in a variety of bright colors and they will be installed in a ribbon of them wrapping around a wall in a section of the gallery interspersed with photos of them as they were installed ‘in the field’ at Joshua Tree National Park. I love how they start out as these lumpy potato shapes and end up angular and sharp – they’re just begging to be touched!
This series is so new, it still doesn’t have a name yet but I’m pretty excited to share the process of what’s been happening with these pieces. It all started with this video of stretching out the clay pieces and forming the rings. Once they were bisque fired, I started playing with them all on my studio floor to create intriguing compositions. I finally decided that these guys are going to have to go up on the wall so I busted out the diamond bits for my dremel tool and started drilling. I burned through quite a few bits in the process and pretty much immediately regretted not planning ahead and putting the holes in while they were leather hard but now the holes are in and I’m going to glaze these up and get them in the kiln.
More to come…
I went through nearly 100lbs of clay making ring forms that will eventually be assembled into a sculpture. By throwing the clay on the floor, it stretches it and gives it amazing texture. I’m using a paper clay for this because it has enough strength to stretch to 4′ lengths without tearing. I used to make sculptures about 20 years ago using this stretching technique, kind of fun to return to it again and looking forward to seeing where it goes…
Thanks so much to Jalkut Productions for filming me in the studio and putting together this video of my work and my inspiration.
October 7, 8, 21 & 22 | 11 – 5 (or by appointment)
2523 C Mission St | Santa Cruz
Artist #17 in the catalog
BIG BIG Thanks to curator Susana Arias and drone photographer Jim Clark for making this video happen!!
About the Umbel Series Installation:
The Umbel Series Installation is a temporary installation included in the Environmental Installations exhibit at the UCSC Arboretum in Santa Cruz CA. The saffron colored trail is inspired by the folklore of mustard seeds being planted along the historic Camino Real in Mexico and California which would bloom into a bright yellow path of mustard flowers helping pilgrims find their way from mission to mission. The abstract flower forms are inspired by umbel shaped flower structures, a flower whose shape resembles an umbrella. I love the idea of being able to track your path through the wilds of the world by following a color. While wild mustard flowers in reality are not the umbel shaped forms I’ve been researching, I loved this story so much I thought I could combine these concepts together to create an impactful installation.
The installation is about 100′ x 2′ x 3′ and is made up of 230 individual abstract umbel flowers, each flower is hand-built and unique. The flowers are available for pre-sale in the online shop with a picking day towards the end of the exhibition, shipping is also available for out of area buyers. SHOP NOW
A little taste of what it’s like to walk the trail of Umbels..
About the Umbel Series Installation:
The saffron colored trail of abstract ceramic flowers is inspired by the folklore of bright yellow mustard flowers leading the way from mission to mission along the Camino Real. The installation is named the Umbel Series due to the umbrella shaped flower structures that inspired the forms.