Distant Thunder

Opportunity often falls into your lap when you begin looking around your area for a subject matter that you can actually view in close proximity to your work space....even greater when the opportunity affords you the ability to have your pedestal there where you can view and work at the same time.



Distant Thunder

 I am fortunate to have a buffalo farm nearby and Dave the owner let me sit and do a piece a few years ago, well since that time (one of my first posts) I have created a few other pieces based on the buffalo.

This was an exciting piece to develop, and as often the case I thought of the title long before the piece was finished. "Distant Thunder" depicts a herd out on the plains that is hearing the thunder of the coming storm in the distance and reacting to it in the only way an animal has of expressing fear of the unknown.

These buffalo were all created on their own armatures separately and then welded into place upon casting. Note the difference in the female and the males (these are also young males) a lead male bull is not as impressive as the young males as in later years they mass up terribly and are all bulk it seems.

This depicts three males and one female with a calf by her side, calves are born to run almost as readily as young pronghorn. The chavant clay lends itself to the nice texture I was able to do in the hair of the buffalo. A few sparsely placed cactus gave it a base for prairie placement.

WASTED TIME

I have had for a long time a note up in my work space to remind me not to drift...be focused. Thought I would share with each of you.

There is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400.
 It carries over no balance from day to day.
Every evening deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out ALL OF IT,  of course!!!

Each of us has such a bank.  Its name is TIME
Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds.  Every night it writes  off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose.  It carries over no balance.  It allows no overdraft.

Each day it opens a new account for you.
Each night it burns the remains of the day.
If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours.

Using time to our benefit is as huge a benefit as not grazing but actually thinking about what we are eating.We were not given this fantastic life to just exist. You have a plan and are to listen to the little voice inside of you that has the floor plan to all the goodies of life.

None of us know how long our life is going to be, I know it is hard to imagine what you would do with your life if you knew it would end in a month or that we would not be able to function as we do now a month from now but somehow we need to learn to think about just how important each day is....you are giving a day of your life for it. Treasure it!

Input

Most people, especially artist would love to hear from visitors, whether it be good or bad response. Input is input and it is always great to hear what other people think or need to see or hear.  If you have something that you are curious about or just a question about the process, I will try to answer your questions. Life as an artist is not easy, it takes a lot of work and thought before you can even start a piece of work.

Whether you are a patron and your piece has not been shown yet or you keep checking to see what new has come along, let me know. If you have an animal that you are curious about let me know and I will show it. If you are an artist and have a question about something that I have said, ask it, there is not a dumb question only whether or not I will be able to answer it or not. If not I can perhaps point you to the right people that can answer your question. Maybe you can just say hello! Same goes for my physical studio, if ever any of you are in the Colorado area, you are welcome to come by and drop in to see what is on the pedestal.

Fatal Attraction

Fatal Attraction

This piece was a challenge, not only because it needed to flow but also because the two fish were not created on the same armature  (as you can see in this picture they are just sitting on top of each other to give the impression).

Beta's are the tiny fish found in pet stores in cups that you feel so sorry for because of their cramped quarters.  They are beautiful fish and if two males are put together fight often until all fins are missing and death occurs. They come in beautiful colors and if put side by side in different containers will spread their fins and gills and posture themselves in a wonderful sight to watch.

This was a balancing act also in getting the fish to look as though they were interacting when in reality they would never be actually together until welded in metal and patinaed.

This is a wonderful piece for either a foyer or an actual garden or pond area and the bases can be switched out for it to go into a pond of water. 

I used Chavant clay again and built my armature using pipes and flanges screwed into a heavy wood base. These were quite heavy when completed and stand almost 3 feet tall together. One of the challenges we had was holding while welding and ended up chaining the top fish up on an overhang  while holding the bottom fish in position. So needless to say it took two people.  Regardless of how it looks I had a some good solid welding spots but realized that if the bottom fin was not ground flat that the pieces would not balance correctly.