My First Sculpture...

This weekend, Janet and I took on a task that has been hanging over us for a long time. We cleaned out our shed. Besides the usual gardening and yard tools, there is also a lot of boxes filled with who knew what. We had a vague idea of what was in there, but were surprised when we actually started pulling everything out. Among the various treasures, I came across this artifact from my childhood. The first sculpture that I ever did. I believe it's from the third grade, maybe it was the fourth grade, I'm not sure.

So what did I choose for the subject of my first sculpture? Why a giant sea monster attacking a seaside city of course! And I think the creature bares more then a passing resemblance to Jack Black! Click on the photos for a larger view and you be the judge!

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From the Kan-Ken Archive - U-HAUL!

Here's another promo post card from the Kan-Ken Studios archive circa 1993. The featured piece is called "U-Haul" and was based on a doodle I did one day at lunch. I was feeling particularly German Expressionist that day.

The card was an invite for a one-man show I had at the "On the Hill" Arts Center in Yorktown, Va. That was a good time indeed.

Here's a color of shot of the original work that resides in my friend FOUST's collection up in Richmond, Va. One of things I liked about this piece was the idea came to me in a subconscious way, so I wasn't attaching any overt meaning to it as I created it. Only later, after I had lived with the piece for a while did the message surface. It speaks to a deep sense of insecurity and anxiety about having a home, hence the lightening striking the house. The numbers along the left were part of the original scrap of paper I was doodling on; a count of boxes of books as I fulfilled my duty as a shipping clerk at Waldenbooks. I guess being surrounded by all those boxes brought back that feeling of moving, which we did a lot when I was growing up, something I never enjoyed.

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Images for August 15, 2011 - Bring Out the Gimp

Here's another sculpture I did many years ago. He was one of a series of little busts that I sketched up in Sculpey, a polymer clay. I usually painted them with acrylic paints, but this one was never painted. I recently was surfing up what other artist are doing with Sculpey and found a whole group doing some fantastic sci-fi and fantasy genre stuff. One of my favorites are The Shiflett Brothers. Their work continues the same epic sense of adventure and power that painters like Frank Frazetta and Boris Vallejo are so well-known for. Looking at their work and going back and reexamining my own from back-in-the-day, is making me a little itchy to push some clay around again...

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Image for 6-4-11 - Carving Finished!

I have finished carving my first wood sculpture! Hooray! I still need to stain him, so he's not quite one hundred percent done. For a first effort I'm pleased with how it came out. Just a little fish, no big whoop, but I enjoyed the process. It was good to get the hands moving again. Certainly is my most natural state to be creating something. I'm not going to speculate on what's next or make any big plans, just want to keep making things and having fun for now.

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Image for 5-23-11 - Work in Progress

My first wood carving. I've had the tools for awhile, past time I used'em. This guy is almost done.

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Inspiring Kinetic Sculpture

My friend Laura shared this video with me and I had to repost it. Fantastic to see these animal-like sculptures moving in the wind. Enjoy. OK HW

Image for 5-17-11 - The Perfect Stranger

This is one of my old sculptures called "The Perfect Stranger". It's a direct fabrication done with ultracal-30, a super hard industrial-grade plaster. I worked the material wet, then did some sanding and shaping with rasps and files after it hardened. The final touch was some acrylic paint. Now you might understand why I love textures and peeling paint.

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Image for 4-13-11 - Tiki in Progress

Back on track.

This Tiki is in the front yard of a house I walk by on one of my regular hiking routes. It stands about four feet high and has been slowly evolving over the last couple of months. Once I ran across the artist at work. He had a variety of chisels and chainsaws and was sporting a finger splint earned from his efforts. I stopped and chatted with him a while about sculpting and tiki's. I haven't done any wood carving, but I have thought about it, even bought some tools. Sometimes I think that when I return to sculpting, that it will be wood. I love the smell wood, the texture, the grain. The connection with cultures through the whole of history. It's good to see the spark of creativity moving on to the next generation. Half drunk bohemians taking steel to wood to keep the old ones alive on a suburban street. My time is coming.

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Image for 4-4-2011 - Alien Among Us

I've been looking at some of my old sculptures lately. I did a bunch of weird, tiny heads in sculpey many years ago, I've shown a few of them on this blog. Here's another one, a classic bug-eyed alien straight out of the Cantina scene from "Star Wars" (at least that's what I was hoping for at the time). I think he needs some new friends.

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