Divided By and some frame carving

Although you can see some hints of Divided By in the shots from the set-up of the 'Teaser Show' (a quick refresher can be seen here: http://stevebankspunchingholesintherah-rah.blogspot.com/2012/07/merican-tastic-teaser-show.html), I just recently took some intentional images of the piece.  So here is a quick whiff of the piece along with some in-progress shots from the studio and then some detail shots of Divided By.

This is how the piece is looks in the case at Bucktown.

These are what the two masks looked like a few weeks prior when I had just applied the Iron Metallic Surfacer.

Followed shortly by the rusting/antiquing solution on both of them (3 coats of Surfacer and three coats of the rusting solution).  This first image was shot while the rusting compound was still wet.

This image shows the results of the rusting compound after one day. (you apply a coat and then let it sit for 24 hours.  Rust will start to develop throughout the day).

Here are a few detail shots from the completed piece.  (Note the difference between one day's worth of rust and three days)  (Here is a quick link to an earlier post regarding both the rust and the bronze antiquing solutionshttp://stevebankspunchingholesintherah-rah.blogspot.com/2012/02/studio-workantiquing.html)

I also shot some in-the-studio carving shots for the frame on Halcyon Days of Yore.  This is what the piece looks like in Merican-Tastic!

and here are a few images of the frame as I was carving it.

You can see on the image above, the marker 'inking' of lines, my notation of X's (which is what I use to remind me that I want to carve out that entire area), and the cross-cutting/hatching technique (on the left hand side of the frame) which allows to 'scrape' out the wood bits with the side of the Dremel blade.  You can see the finished result below.

Some of the faces come from a My Little Margie comic book from the 1950's

Which also found their way into the 'Merican-Tastic! SWAG' collection.....http://stevebankspunchingholesintherah-rah.blogspot.com/2012/05/detour-merican-tastic-swag.html

Here are also a couple of shots of Delivery Especial along with few repeats from an earlier post

May I present to you, the one, the only, Dr. William Campbell (music guru at St. Ambrose University) showing his love for the carved frame by pointing at some random bit of it.

A quick note on the way out, Back in 2008 Bill Campbell, Kris Eiterheim, and I had our students participate in a multi-disciplinary collaborative (music composition, theater lighting, and 3-D Design) project called 'The Cube'.  Here is a link to the faculty night performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EK5KLQ_A8o

Here is a sweet shot of the insides of 'The Cube' before our performance. Helping 'operate' 'The Cube' were Heidi Hernandez, Matt Sanchez, and Jeff Tady (although for some reason, Jeff is not in the picture, trust me, we had 5 people shoe-horned into that intellectual cage-match of visual goodness!)

The photograph was taken by Terry Rathje (you may remember him from some earlier posts....).

And remember, 'We are here to entertain you wholesomely and thoroughly.....'.

Detour! Merican-Tastic! SWAG!!

A sad fact of life is that people come and go in our lives.  We celebrate the time with good ones -regardless of how brief our time was.  So is the case with my studio neighbor, Brooke.  Her path now leads to new adventures in Michigan.  Brooke is a printmaker and illustrator  Here is a link to her website 2fortheshowdesign:  http://www.twofortheshowdesign.com/ so you can check out some of her work.

A shot of Brooke peeking out of one of Monica Correia's sculpture/installations from the PLAY show back in 2010 (at Quad City Arts Gallery in Rock Island http://www.quadcityarts.com/ ).  I believe the photo credit belongs to Susan Czechowski (printmaking Guru who teaches at Western Illinois University).

If you snoop through her site, you'll also find that Brooke has a couple of button-makers for different projects/ideas.  My four-foot assistant and I were lucky enough to borrow Brooke's button-makers for a few days while she packed up her studio.

So here are a few shots of the button components prior to assembly...

The front section is three pieces: the metal piece which provides the shape, the 'artwork', and a thin sheet of Mylar.

The back section is either just a ring (for the smaller ones), or: a ring, mirror and a bent spacer disc.

The completed piece!

Here are a couple of shots of some of the buttons I banged out during our two sessions.

The buttons I made will be some type of Swag for Merican-Tastic! later this coming summer.

Some of the 'artwork' for the buttons came from old advertisements, old comic books, and some photograms and cyanotypes I made back in 2006 while filling in for my photography/printmaking-mentor, Phil Laber while he was on sabbatical in Italy (Phil Laber's website: http://www.philiplaber.com/ ).

Here are a few examples of both types of photo-based works.  They are all rooted in the same 'family' of sketches I use to create the layers in my painted constructions.  I showed them once at the now defunct Leger Gallery (downtown Davenport) along with works from Karen Blomme and Terry Rathje in a show called Impromptu.  I never really developed these into any kind of cohesive body of work, so for the most part, they only exist in a pile in my studio and on my hard drive.  Below, is our 'promotional image' for the show. It is the brainchild of Terry Rathje.

Here are some of the images...

Time to land this plane.  Brooke, I wish you the best in your new life.  Thank you for you wit, wisdom, playful smile and sincerity.  You will be missed.....next time you're in town, reserve time for some WooDogs magic!