Studio Door Affirmations

Affirmations are positive statements that describe a desired situation, and which are repeated many times, in order to impress the subconscious mind and trigger it into positive action. In order to ensure the effectiveness of the affirmations, they have to be repeated with attention, conviction, interest and desire.

What will your affirmation be?

YMB18OO - promised update

So, it's almost 2 in the morning...I'm going to keep this brief. Just some info: this phase of the process isn't fired yet, There are some ridges and lumps I still need to address (i'm waiting for daylight) and the branches are not actually 'in' yet, either. I'm also hoping to put a darker wash of color on the branches, trim things up a bit and gloss the base of the branches where they are emerging to mimic - well, you know. Things are going a bit slower than I would have liked but at least they're going. I also added some surface texture which is really hard to see in these images but basically 'stretch marks and pores.' The idea is that a wash of watercolor will add some dimension to the texture. Sorry for the wonky pictures and the lack of color balancing...WOW, I'm tired. Have at it, please!

You must be 18 cont...this is part two of prior post in last month's tab...so you might wanna read that first?

I've added some slabs of clay here... It was very relaxing putting the clay puzzle together.

Starting to smooth the seams up.

I remembered this piece I did in personal vision class. I guess there's a recurring theme for me. For the life of me...I can't remember how I got the inside to glow. I guess I really was a repressed sculptor. I may go back to photography - one day.

You must be 18 years or older to view this post.

I've always wanted to say that :)

I've been working on a piece - some of you may have received phone images of the original sketch. I'll spare you the gruesome details of all the sanding and scraping and replastering and repainting and then yet again resanding and then...okay, maybe I didn't spare you.

This is untitled at this point. my original impulse was based on a sketch i made in my journal of a seed pod like structure with a vagina birthing dark branches. I've been making slow progress on it - a lot of learning about materials with this one.

The pod shape is plaster fleshed out over some crushed local newspapers and paper towels. Once I got the base of the piece in place, I made the vagina and labia part (yes, I realize it's NOT exactly accurate - yet...I have to drill a hole for the emerging branch ;) among other things.

At first, i was going to just paint the plaster but then I started to get frustrated and realized that I didn't like the look of painted plaster. It was too much like a crotch stuck on a plaster thing. That brings us to the image below (sorry, it's a bit blurry but you get the sense).

I also have some shots of a 'mock up' that Phil helped me with. It's the images with the branches. The piece hadn't been fired yet - thus the sorta 'loose lips' (wait, did I say that for real??) but you get the gist of what I'm going for. The branches will have to be painted a little darker before I insert them.

So my most recent addition to the piece is that I've put a layer of polymer clay over it - a base coat so to speak. Which is in the oven as I type. Once the base coat cools - and with a lot of luck, the surface wont crack - I'll add some fleshy texture to the piece and refire it. There are a few elements missing which I'll add to the piece during the texturizing part.

more images....in the next post ( in the new month folder - that's sorta annoying)

Girl

These two images are the first sketches I made after obsessing for a while over teratomas. For those of you who don't know what they are, they are basically tumors that contain differentiated tissue such as teeth and hair. I believe they arise from a fertilized egg that goes haywire and is absorbed by a twin in-utero. These cells then continue to grow in the body of the host twin - they are self contained usually in a womb-like bubble of thickened skin but can be found in various parts of the body. People have had surgery to remove their malformed body buddy - and when the teratoma is removed from it's 'womb' it is often surrounded by a bed of long hair that had continued to grow since it's conception...

The thing that fascinates me most about this is a kind of spiritual exploration of what separates who we are from a bunch of differentiated cell systems. What makes us human and what makes us meat. Yes, deep and profound things ;)

So, here it is. It's not near done at all. I'm still trying to finalize the form - trying to find the balance between looking like lumps of flesh and looking like...maybe it could have been a person. It needs to be painted among other things...

Originally, I wanted to create a teratoma to suspend within the framework of another body - thus the ribs surrounding it and such in the original drawings. I have plans to incorporate the long hair but at this point I'm not so sure the 'meat cage' is really necessary. But now that my original design is feeling shakey - I'm trying to figure out another way to display it.

Hmmmmm....see, this side below is SO simple - do you think it's okay or do you think it needs more weirdness? The otherside is much more complex...but i'm trying to avoid getting too pretentious with it...and make it all 'balanced and pretty.' But maybe it still needs to be balanced. thoughts?

Gonna refine the teeth and gums before I fire it.

WOW, it's incredibly hard to talk about your art (I obviously need practice doing it) - if I left you in the dark about something - I apologize - but just ask me questions :)