Strongarm: Artist Statement

Cast silicon bronze, Cubic Zicronias.

"I lost you
Like I lost my arm
but in my loss
I've found a home
I reclaim these things
that caused me harm
on this plastic arm
I call my own."

In the face of loss and suffering, there are some that, instead of breaking down and giving in to violence, instead pick up the pieces and keep on walking. I have tried to capture their strength in this modern talisman of the Strongarm. It depicts an artificial arm, refrencing the horrific injuries of those who suffered for conflict diamonds, bearing a "diamond" bracelet. It bears a verse, stating the spirit of acceptance and strength.

Paper Casting

having worked with paper before, i was interested in this process. the real challenge is making the cast object not look like a child's paper mache project.

Process:
I've found a few sites, and on all of them the process is the same: create paper pulp and put it in a mold. It's pretty intuitive, and most of the creative part is with the materials you use.

Examples:

source: http://www.castpaper.com/
one of the most eye-catching and creative parts of cast paper appears to be the coloring of the paper itself. Working with paper before, i can attest to the amount of different colors and finishes you can get with this medium. The craftsperson that made this particular piece used acrylics to paint the piece, which give a good opaque finish and have strong pigments.
here is Kevin Dyer's process: http://www.castpaper.com/castpaper.html
He carves a model out of wax, then makes a mold of that, much like with metal casting processes. However, most of his work is shallow relief work. This is common in cast paper.
source: http://artveinvessel.blogspot.com/

Deep releif is also possible. Kate Strickland cast deep recesses in paper and then fills them with natural objects, creating "Reliquaries". Her work is more honest about it's materials-she doesn't paint over the paper.
Kate's blog: http://artveinvessel.blogspot.com/search/label/cast%20paper

source: http://bloggy.com/2008/04/libby_hartle_at.html

Libby Hartle, on the other hand, works in full 3-d. She also used relclaimed materials for this peice. She was sweet enough to document her whole process, from smashing up the paper to casting the twigs (made from molds of real twigs, which is something i want to look into) , right here: http://bloggy.com/2008/04/libby_hartle_at.html

Reserch-alternate casting materials: Resin

Resin-Process

Slush Casting

found this step by step site for a process called "slush casting": http://www.alumilite.com/HowTos/SlushCasting.cfm NOTE: this site has a TON of great tutorials, using the products they sell of course. But they are still straight-forward and nicely done.

picture from the site:
i anticipate making molds of all my little plastic animals out of all sorts of shiny plastics. just for fun, of course.

helpful things learned:
-silicone will only bond to silicone, so if you use a silicon mold you might not have to use a release.
-Slush casting involves putting a thin coat of resin on the surface of the mold, so there is an outer shell of resin that picks up the details but the shape is hollow (in the example, the rest is filled with foam to re-enforce the fragile shell. This saves money and weight.
-though the mold has to cure overnight, casting the peice only takes about 10 minutes, including resin and foam. Yay!

Epoxy Resin
this site may be for model makers rather than artists, but the advise is sound: http://www.torreypinesgulls.org/epoxy.htm

important points:
-mesure both parts on a scale so that you mix it just right.
-paper cups, popsicle sticks, and crappy brushes are all you need, besides the molds.
-you can strengthen the epoxy by adding in fibers (like fiberglass)
-if you type in a conversational tone, your readers will imagine you as a cute old man puttering about in a hobby shop.
-epoxy can also be used as a glue, and it's not always clear weather or not your talking about using it as a glue or a mold material, so after you type an entire list thingy and you realize that the person was talking about using it as a glue you feel like a total moron.

epoxy seems to be used as a surface treatment rather than a model-making material, so i'll move on. For now.

Final note: DO NOT EAT CASTING RESIN.

"Embodied Sympathy": i like the idea, bet there's something tripping me up...

and that is, the author seems to be stating that art is incapable of displaying sympathy (or, as the author puts it, to exhibit a feeling while anticipating the feeling of the viewer or purchaser.) As someone who has lived in the "Art World" for many years, i have to differ with this opinion. Art that is made to be SOLD is flat and feelingless. GOOD ART has a feeling, it is not simply an intellectual exercise made for those that are "in the know". Art is a part of the artist, as the author himself quotes, "When he speaks of embodied meaning, Danto suggests an idea made vividly present, practically given flesh and blood. Alternatively, he connects embodiment to a manifestation of the artist's mind: "It is as if a work of art were like an externalization of the artist's consciousness, as if we could see his way of seeing and not merely what he saw". I found this article very nice, touching on things I've found in other sources- like the Japanese ascetic "Wabi Sabi", characterized by modest objects that get more beautiful as they age. I think that it is important for artists too to think of how the veiwer will recieve it- something comforting to you might be kind of freaky to the veiwer, and vice versa, so it's good to take this into account so you can communicate your message more effectiveley.
However, the ugly "art vs. craft war" completely ruined it for me. Good art doesn't need to prove itself. Craft and Art are one, there is no one or the other, they merely are. The author's idea that Art is distant from the veiwer is fundamentally wrong, and it is cultivated by ignorance. Artists (at least the ones i admire and claim as peers) are trying to tell the audience something. Unfortunateley, it seems that we are like Mimes in front of people on cell phones, it's not that we are aloof and far away from the populus, but that people don't take the time to look at art with anything other than "Modernist"-colored glasses. So much GOOD ART is out there, and it doesn't matter weather it could be called craft or art or entertainment or music, it all shares the same thing: Embodied Sympathy.

special art picks that show emotion and embodied sympathy:

http://www.alexgrey.com/
Alex Grey's Phsycadelic paintings show that the human body is just another manifestation of the divine, and draws the user into the artist's wonder and enlightened feeling through their complexity and glowing colors.

Laurie Anderson (Smoke Rings on YouTube)
Anderson is a performance artist and musician. She likes to talk about how lost and confused people can become in modern society (specifically American society), though her pieces vary, and often speaking about longing, confusion, and displacement. This particular piece haunted me for years, (not the first 60 seconds, i'm not sure what that's about.) People naturally connect with music, and Anderson's work is both enjoyable and approachable (if a little kooky.)

err...that's all i can think of right now. There are a lot of good ones out there, you just have to look, and they are hidden pretty well, because most artists that make art this good aren't looking to be famous. They just want to make art.

Symbols for the Cycle Pendant: Mistletoe

source: http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/winter_solstice.shtml

most people only think of mistletoe at Christmas, but in anchient times it was considered a plant that was very sacred. It bears fruit on the winter solstice, and it grows without touching the ground-between earth and sky. The most famous legend of mistletoe is the tale of the death of Baldur, the god of light and truth:

"Balder was a popular and righteous God, but in a dream he foresaw his own death. After discussing this with the other Gods in Valhalla, the Goddess Frigga offered to make all things living on the earth, or growing in the earth, promise not to harm him.

This was done, and resulted in a new sport for the Gods - 'slaying' Balder with whatever weapons they could find. They knew he would always survive.

During one of these sessions the evil God Loki offered to help Hodur, a blind God, who was Balder's brother, join in.

Knowing that mistletoe, which did not grow 'in' the earth, was not covered by the promise Loki gave Hodur an arrow of mistletoe wood and directed his throw.

Balder was killed by the blow, thus fulfilling his dream. A period of significant mourning followed, during which Hel was visited in an effort to resurrect Balder, and mistletoe was designated a plant of peace."

source: http://www.mistletoe.org.uk/home/mtoetraditions4.htm

as an epilouge, it was Frigga who designated the mistletoe as a plant of peace, to remind people of Baldur's goodness. Baldur will only return at Ragnarok, the end of the world, and he will be the only god to survive, leading the people of earth into a new age.

Mistletoe's role as a plant of hope is a good match for the "Winter" panel for my cycle pendant because that part is about rebirth. It is also about the state between life and death, and because it grows between the earth (land of mortals) and "heaven".

Propaganda Assignment for Computer class(aka giant can of crazy aka proposal of idea)

WARNING: this is a free-flowing prose peice. It may not conform to a main idea, conventional veiws of grammar, or common decency. Anyone reading this should be informed that they are about to be exposed to the contents of on GIANT CAN OF CRAZY. Management of this blog is responsible for the content, but not for any emotional damage caused by it.







signed your waiver? Good. Nothing pisses me off more than the way people treat animals. My pets have always been like family to me, my cats in particular have always been very close to me, and i try to treat them as best as i possibly can. But many people either are ignorant of their pets needs, both emotional and physical. This results in terrible crimes against animals. The thing that makes me the most angry is the pet overpopulation problem.
People don't neuter their pets. It's cheap, it's fast, it has very few side effects.

They think, "Oh! But little Butch or Tiger need to be a man! They can't be manly without their man-bits!" Wrong! Cats and dogs have no sense of manliness. They just do what their instincts tell them.

They think, "Well, I enjoy sex, shouldn't my cat? Or dog?" Wrong again! Mating is actually painfull for domestic animals like dogs and cats. Don't need to go into that.

"My children should witness the miracle of birth!" Okay. Mommy kitty has her babies, which is already dangerous. Then, when they are all grown up, you can't find a house for them. What to do? You can't take them to a shelter, they might put them to sleep! And you can't keep them all, it would be too expensive. So what do you do? Drop them in the countryside! What have your children learned? That adults- specifically adult humans- have control over the life and death of other animals, and that the aforementioned animals are disposable.

And finally, the greatest bane of them all: "Won't the Kittens be so cute? And Princess is so pretty-Maybe we can sell them!" This is wrong in all the most shallow ways. It'll just turn into the scenario mentioned above.

As you can see, this makes me very angry. People's ignorance has always pissed me off, mostly because I've been the brunt of it many times. So when i see innocent animals, who rely on us for care and life, being needlessly killed, it makes me see red. I want them to pay. I want them to feel like dirt. Because that's what they are.


WARNING! GRAPHIC IMAGE BELOW! TURN AWAY IF YOU ARE A WUSS!












that's the cremation area of an animal shelter. Almost all of these animals were perfectly healthy. The could love. They could make you smile, they could catch mice, they could fetch a ball. But now they can't. There are too many of them. So now they are dead. All because some dipshit was too cheap to get their parents fixed or too lazy to even look at the prices. This blood is spilled for no reason. These animals, who are our brothers and sisters in spirit and only a few chromosones away from us, give us nothing but love. And this is what we do to them. 70,000 cats and dogs are destroyed every year. This image haunts my sleep. Now i hope it will haunt yours.

Mask Project: Polynesia

source: http://www.besttattoogallery.com/samoan-tattoos-the-mystery-ancient-tattooing-art
the design of the Polynesian islands, which encompass a large area in the pacific ocean but nonetheless share a culture. This is because the peoples of the islands were travellers that settled on the various islands. It's impossible to talk about Polynesian culture without going into their rich tattooing tradition.


source: http://www.honolulumagazine.com/Honolulu-Magazine/April-2007/Hawai-8216i-by-Design/

Polynesian tattoos did differ between islands and cultures, there are many similarities between the traditions, mostly focusing on repeated geometric design elements.