Off With Her Head! -Sarah Deppe Style.

So a few days ago I had the chance to help Sarah Deppe remove her head.

This was by no means a standard beheading.  This operation required a crane and a staggering amount of plastic wrap.

Sarah Deppe is an artist/sculptor/maker-of-cool things from Iowa.  Below is a picture of her 'head' that had been installed in Bettendorf for the last year as part of a sculpture program through Quad City Arts (http://www.quadcityarts.com/).  A year later and the lease was up....

A wider panoramic view

So by the time I got there to help remove the head, Sarah had already been there for quite some time wrapping the head with plastic wrap (so that when the head is transported, all the little bits stay in place and don't fly off due to the wind, and the bumps, and the weather, and the...... you get the idea).

This image helps to give you an idea of what an undertaking it was to wrap her sculpture.

Yeah.

I did sneak a couple of shots of the interior of 'the head' to show how well it is constructed -nice cross-bracing and reinforcements throughout. The yellow strap you see is what will attach to the crane and hoist the work off the slab and onto a flatbed trailer.

Sarah taking a quick moment to talk to a reporter from the Quad City Times.  Never ever miss a chance at some publicity.

How often do you see something like this?  Really?

I spoke briefly with Sarah about her art.  She told me that she made the head during a semester in college (roughly 3-4 months).  She spent about a month gathering the wood/bark to form the outer shell.  Work. Vision. Work. Focus. Work. Persistence. Work.

So the head (which is actually titled 'Exhaling Dissolution') is off to Chattanooga for the next two years.  I can't even begin to imagine what kinds of adventures await in transporting it from Iowa to Tennessee.

Sarah Deppe makes some really compelling work that challenges the space that it is in, and pushes the artist who makes it.  You can check out her work here and you can read a quick blurb about the sculptures involved in this year's project with this link to the Quad City Times.

Thanks to Sarah Deppe for her time, effort, and inspiration.

3-4 months, makes ya think......get back to work!

Back On The Case Part V: High Noon On The Streets Of Reason

Basically, by not having developed an acceptable 'Mr. Doodsworth' drawing/character, I was not willing to forge ahead with High Noon On The Streets Of Reason back in 2012.

Sometimes the right image/idea just doesn't manifest in my mind and I have learned (the hard way) to accept that I need to do a little more living/growing before I am ready to tackle that image/idea.  I have tried in the past to force ideas and images into works with nearly uniformly disastrous results.  Better to stop now before someone gets hurt.....

The underlying image for High Noon On The Streets Of Reason is an old piece that I have had around since 2005 (originally entitled, Elemental: Green and Orange with Purple Stitch).  In fact, the image you see below is old enough to have come from a slide......Ooooda-Lolly!

Anyway, I performed a canvas-endectomy and remove the 'Purple Stitch' portion (which has been attached to a totally separate canvas which is currently languishing in an 'in-progress' pile in my studio) and added a different passage of imagery.

I even have the outline for for the Doodsworth figure, just not a satisfactory image of Mr. Doodsworth himself.  So without an image I could get behind, the piece stayed in Limbo.

Another sticking point preventing progress was coming up with the concept of the frame.  I wanted a blend of the Wild West (which was fairly straightforward) and something more modern.  Tic-Toc. Tic-Toc. Tic-Toc. -nothing was forthcoming......

However, one of Heidi Hernandez's EX-CH-AN-GE pieces for Merican-Tastic!, Invaded Spaces, opened the conceptual door to complete the frame.

I had basically covered the piece with a series of people/bodies and some of the 'characters'/aliens from the classic late 1970s arcade game, Space Invaders.  *Side note: A sizable portion of my quarter-based childhood income as an 8 and 9-year old kid went towards protecting the planet from invading aliens.  I have since moved on to protecting us from an cheeseburger-based apocalypse (no need to thank me).

As sample of the bodies/space invaders/targets motif developed for Invaded Spaces being re-used for High Noon on The Streets Of Reason.  This is the bottom frame before anything has been carved or the outer edge has even been cut/shaped.

During the new flutter of activity on drawing out the frame, I was able to develop/render an acceptable Mr. Doodsworth.

Underwhelming, eh?  I said acceptable, not Earth-shattering.

Actually, that simple 'Doodsworth figure' illustrates a reoccurring frustration in art-making.  I would say that it is something akin to 'writer's block'.  Sometimes the lack of the right turn-of-phrase, or in the case of visual art, the proper image/color/texture/whatever can stop all forward progress.  Typically, I circumvent this mental morass by working on several pieces/ideas concurrently.  One of the benefits to this approach is if one piece/idea becomes troublesome, I hop over to another piece.

Time to start carving.

Letters/text.  Not my favorite to carve....

The left side of the frame has been carved.

Laying down a base color for the figures.

Some more carving on the frames.

It occurs to me that I still need to develop a 'Mr. 6-Gun Baddie' character......hmmmm.  Less than 2 months until 'Merican-Tastic! II: The Son of Tastic!' opens.

Back On The Case Part IV: Squishy Rumba

For Merican-Tastic! I had started working on over 20 pieces. Paint a little here. Carve a little there.  Basically pushing their progress forward in erratic increments as time, materials, and inspiration dictated.  As the opening date for the show drew near, it became time to determine which ones were 'finishable', most compelling, and worked best with what I saw coming out of Heidi Hernandez's studio.

Squishy Rumba was one of those pieces that I cut from the roster back in early May of 2012 so I could focus more on other works.

Here are a few shots of the early stages.

After several months of sitting idle, it is time to re-engage Squishy Rumba!

Slappin' down some line work.

I decided to add primarily muted colors/earth tones so the more colorful background would still push forward and because I want to paint those pesky negative shapes brighter colors as well.  If all of the colors are bright and garish, the effect is more like a thumb in the eye than something pleasing to look at.

Now for the brighter colors.

Even though the piece may or may not be complete, I am satisfied with the 'anthropomorphic bag of fries guy', therefore I have taken a detail shot of him and have begun using it for early publicity opportunities for Merican-Tastic! II: The Son of Tastic!.

I'm hesitant to push the canvas any further until I have the frame drawn, carved and at least partially painted. Time to work on the frame.

Here are a few images of laying down the line work for the carved frame.

I started carving parts of the frame before I had the whole thing laid out.  I left areas I was sure about un-carved until I had the imagery/ideas a little more solidified in my head.  Bottom line: It's hard to un-carve something you just carved.

Several hours of sketching/brain-storming later, and I have 90% of the frame ready to be carved.  All I have to do is finish laying out the line work.

I decided that the right-hand frame is going to need an extra 'bit of frame', so I pinned a chunk of wood on with a couple of dowel rods and some wood glue.

Let the carving begin.....

Squishy Rumba not, lest ye be Squishy Rumba-ed.