cutting clay

two bits of good news today… 1) the nw art alliance notified me that i’ve been named their 2015 emerging artist–which means i’ll be awarded entry and free booth space in their “best of the northwest” spring art show in seattle at the end of march. i don’t know much about these folks but i’m looking forward to meeting artists from their collective and participating in the show; and 2) fellow artist sean gallagher of nativekut (https://www.facebook.com/Nativekut) and i have been invited by the regional arts and culture council to collaborate on a temporary window art installation at the mead building downtown portland this april. i’ll share the concept and other details in a future post.

this was my first day in the studio since i unloaded my figure sculpture, “transforming into polar bear”, onto steve parks of parks bronze foundry last week. i’ve got an idea to do a series of glass-casted masks encircled with bent wood concentric hoops so decided to work on a couple of water-based preliminary models today.

i started each of the two masks by cutting clay with wire, dropping the block from a distance onto the ground to flatten it, bolstering the form with paper, and beginning to work the shapes with my hands.