Out of The Wasteland: A New Studio Takes Shape...

 I've been without my own studio space for over a year now.  I had access to a ceramics studio through December of last year.  Starting in January, nothing.  That's now changing.

I've secured a new space for a year and I am pretty darned excited about it.  I have a lot of things to move in, shelves to build, portable walls to construct, and pieces on which to resume working.

Here's a few shots of the process...

This was the space when I first visited it during the summer of 2022.

This is a shot of my first wave of pieces coming into the space.

Slowly, but surely getting things moved in.

I need to build a whole series of shelving units to hold my various pieces + art-making materials.

It's not a Steve Banks studio until I have an ACTUAL pencil sharpener installed and ready to use.

More shelves.

Shelves fill up quickly.

Some of the lumber used to create the shelves is recycled wood from Terry Rathje's and my piece Vestibule that we made for Terry's show Questionable Architecture all the way back in 2013 at the Figge Art Museum.  You can read my blog posts regarding Terry's awesome show by clicking these various links: The Figge Gig Part 1, The Figge Gig Part 2, and The Figge Gig Part 3.

Here's some of the last remnants of Vestibule waiting to be pressed into service one more time...

There they are in shelf form...(this time)...

That post shelf-building glow...

Starting to fill up. gonna need more shelves...

To make things a little spicier while I was moving the first waves of materials into my new studio, mother nature decided to have a bit of a flood outside.  If the HESCO barriers aren't up to the task this time, I'm going to know about it almost instantly (*spoiler* they held up just fine).

Water bubbling up around a manhole cover.

More adventures await!

Some Wood-Fired Goodness and a 100K+ Milestone

A couple months ago I participated in a wood firing we had over at Augustana College - check them out here: https://www.augustana.edu/ ).  I'm just now getting around to posting a few pictures from the experience.

They have two side-by-side kilns.  We usually use the big kiln for wood fires, but this time we decided to see if we could get the small kiln up to temperature.  Sometimes the design of the kiln (size of the fire box, airflow, etc can affect the kilns ability to fire smoothly, or even get all the way up to the higher temperatures).  We were trying to get to over 2400 degrees Fahrenheit, so that's pretty damn toasty.

*Spoiler alert* we got there!

Here I am with a heat visor on. 25% to shield from heat 100% to keep from getting hot embers in my face. 30% so I could take this selfie to prove I was there...

It was a fairly toasty day, so standing around a hot kiln wasn't nearly as enticing as it can be when it's a late Fall firing.  Anyway, this is what I got on the backside of the firing.

I'm really happy with the results, I used a few different glazes this time instead of just relying solely on the atmospheric conditions inside the kiln.  There are still a few patches of bare clay, but some glaze too!

*One final note...  Some how.  Some way. Somewhere along the way Punching Holes In The Rah-Rah crossed over 100,000 visitors.  Ooooda-Lolly!!

Next time we'll take a look at the new stooood.

Back To The Sketchbooks: April 6th Version.

 

I pull inspiration from multiple sources - frequently from people and things I encounter in my day to day wanderings.  These next two sketches include some physical objects I came across -a crushed can of carburetor cleaner and a bag of fries.

Here's the crushed can.

Here's the bag of fries.

These are the sketches derived from said objects.  They will potentially be included in upcoming projects.

More sketches to come!

Back To The Sketchbooks: March 29th Edition.

 I've been working away in my sketchbooks as of late.  Here are a few more images for your consideration:

If you look closely, you can find a combination of pop culture references along with blurbs from my college notebooks, and an occasional note to myself - like don't forget to pay the water bill...

Can't wait for actual Spring to arrive...

Back To The Sketchbooks: March 4th Edition

It's cold and gray outside, so I've been inside working in my sketchbook and waiting for Spring.

My first sketch comes from a Frute Brute cereal box that I was able to snag this past Fall.  Frute Brute is part of the 'Monster Cereals' - which include Frankenberry, Count Chocula, Boo Berry, Yummy Mummy and Frute Brute.  If you feel your pop culture knowledge is a bit rusty in regards to these cereals, please go check them out here at this LINK.  If you're a fan of Quentin Tarantino movies, keep your eyes peeled for a box of Frute Brute that shows up from time to time.

I try to combine my own personal doodles/notes along with images redrawn from pop culture because I feel it is too easy to just create copies/reinterpretations of logos/slogans/mascots.  That was done 50 years ago.  It needs to have/be something more.  Now does that 'something more' need to be my notes, sketches, and old D&D dungeons?  That question remains unanswered... 

More sketches forthcoming.

4 Masks: The Maskening...Yes, I know it's not a word...

 A quickie...

Let's take a look at the first two layers of 4 Masks.  First and foremost, I'm hoping to come up with a better title, but for now, it's a working title - that's barely working...

In the bottom right-hand corner are the four 'mask' shapes.

Add a wash of white and with a little bit of tweaking, you end up with a Kool-Aid Man and a Mr. Postal Office Postman Dude.

If I showed you more images, this post would lose its 'quickie' status.  We don't need to earn that kind of reputation around here...

A Weekend Visit to Kansas City Yields a New Sketch Or Two...

 We just did a quick visit down to Kansas City a few weekends ago to go to an art opening and catch a few museums - BBQ and other stops were a total bonus!

So the GOLD STAR for the weekend goes to Heidi Schultz and her new work at Beco Gallery in the Crossroads District in Kansas City.  The show is titled One With Everything.  Check out Beco's Facebook page by clicking HERE.

You can get the scoop on Heidi's artwork and artist's statement by checking out her WEBSITE.

We also stopped and enjoyed a super-duper-ruper breakfast at Town-Topic Hamburgers!

It was so good, in fact, that it ended up being part of a sketch.

After living with the sketch for about 20 minutes, I decided that it was only right and proper to add drawings of my breakfast as well.

This was the view from out hotel room.  We stayed at the very cool Crossroads Hotel.  I highly recommend it.  Check out their website by clicking here: https://crossroadshotelkc.com/.

This is the view of the Western Auto sign from Belger Arts (just a few blocks from our hotel).  They were actually between shows, so we didn't get to see too much.  However, you should still totally check them out: https://belgerarts.org/

It's hard to not want to sketch that sign at least once (I suspect I will be including it in several pieces going forward).  Here is my first sketch that includes the sign.

Until next time...