Layered Stories at Spun Smoke

I've been recently finishing up the last sculpture that will be headed to Patricia Sweetow's for my show called "Layered Stories", Her new space, located in Oakland, at the corner of Telegraph and 25th street in the uptown area, is called Spun Smoke.
This last sculpture was inspired by my trip to the Glacier Divide near Humphreys Basin. The piece is configured similar to a cirque along the crest. The sectional parts, which fit together, depict the ridge line with lake, sky and tree envelope the spatial environment within its cabinet made of Ash burl.

Also in her space, she has asked to have one of my split cane fly fishing rods for sale with one of her scarfs that she's crafted in the window space. It will be fun to see how we mesh our work together.

Paris 2014

Once upon a time I wanted to go to Paris. Selfishly, I wanted to go by myself. Really, so i wouldn't need to negotiate with another the plans of each day. To just go, be there and see. To see great art that I had studied and to know what my art historically was adding to. That was 25 years ago and now with Mary, on our 20th wedding anniversary, I couldn't dream of going by myself without her, let alone with anyone else. I was so glad to have her be the one to go with, everyday we had the same desires and wanted to see all the of the best that art history could show us. Each day there was no negotiating, eat croissant and have coffee, hit the street, see art and architecture, drink wine, eat, sleep. Well we found it all and a few surprise things and never had one low point.

Denver, Drawn and Quarto

Denver, Drawn & Quarto, On the plane at 6 am, Mary and I are off to Denver for the show at Alicia's gallery, Abecedarian Gallery, located on Santa Fe Street in the new art district. We're excited to have an opportunity to share our work in the area and to see the art scene, visit with other artists, and also to get to know Alicia more as well.

Arriving at the gallery, it was great to see Alicia, the last time we met was at the Codex Art fair in Berkeley a year ago when we, Mary and I, had our collaborative work taken on by Vamp and Tramp artist book sellers. Alicia had the space next to Bill and Vicki and she was able to see our work when we had our visit. After a few hours at her space, finalizing details Alicia needed for the opening, we took off to visit Denver's Museum of Modern Art. Crazily, while looking at a small sand sculpture display in the gift shop, a young kid that looked like my old studio mates son was standing next to me. I thought yow that looks like Olen. Then while I turned around it was! Suddenly I heard someone call Mary! And it was Jeff! What a coincidence. After a quick visit with his family we were off again back to Santa Fe Street for Denver's first friday art openings. During the openings, we got to meet some engaged Art viewers who's demographic was very familiar to the Oakland Art-murmur. Also it was quite impressive the number of spaces that were open with fine art. The sidewalks were packed with artists and art lovers, and all the galleries, over 30 that we visited, majority being artist run, were all full of people. Not all of the art was great, not unlike Oakland's scene, however it was very exciting to be part of, and people viewing art as well as the artist seemed quite engaged and serious about the scene. What was also interesting was, mind you this friday evening the weather consisted of a mixture of light rain and snow flurries and the temperature was about 35 degrees outside. Out of all the spaces we visited excluding our show at Abecedarian Gallery, I thought the best artwork to be seen was at Space Gallery with their show White Black Grey. During our 3 day business visit to Colorado we also visited the town of Boulder since we heard that it had a few good galleries including spaces at the University. However we were a tad disappointed except for the FYIPA beer we had at the Mountain Sun Brewery for a late lunch. On sunday we walked around the LoDo area of Denver and visited the Museum of Contemporary Art that Alicia and Rupert Jenkins who we got to see Saturday evening, recommended. To say the least we were both very impressed with not only the two shows that were on view, but also the architecture of the museum itself. Built on a contemporary modernist model thats popular now, it had very well designed details, Epe wood, steel and glass that didn't interfere with viewing the Art, but still rhythmically complimented the structure throughout the space. All in all, it was a great business adventure, we said "más tarde cocodrilo" to Alicia and her doggy Tyler, and headed for the airport to catch or flight back to Oaktown.

Multiple Construct 1-5

After returning from my two and half week adventure into the high country, in the studio i feel very inspired to be immersed in all the projects. Without a stutter, like i hadn't been away, I went straight to work mounting the gun blued hinges. after a quick finish sanding and layout of the parts in there right sequence i began epoxying them onto each leaf of each book sculpture. Using 5 minute epoxy helps with to keep the process going at a reasonable pace. after each of the 5 pieces were assembled i could allow them to cure and then edge sand each to an edge square. next, tomorrow i'll head to the plastic shop to buy the .030 sheet styrene and start annoying Bill to gain access to the vacuform machine and produce the 10 reliefs for the outside pages of the 5 unit multiple.

Poly-Hedron Cabinets

I put a final coat of spar on both of the PolyHedron cabinet a few days ago and decided it would be a good idea to take some pictures of them before starting to make the leather closer straps for the doors. I took some close up images of the interior tree elements with the appendages of paper hedrons and legoscapes.

Mappa burl cabinet with trout images for interior Tree Trout.

Sapele veneer cabinet with Lego condo scape for the interior.

Hedron-scape drawings

With scraps from the photos.
Shapes used for Polyhedrons.
Shape forms which are elements of the cabinet sculptures.
Saved or added, left over arbitrary parts.
These recent drawings, formations between the drawn drawn and photo.
Fragments of images from treks in the wilderness.
The incorporation of watercolor to define the landscape.
The high sierra rock and its own geometry in striation and fracturing line.
Contours in a map defined by the rock.
Waterways defined by the topography.
Flora and fauna defined by the landscape.
The Landscape as elements.
Each linked and defined by one another.

White-out project.

Organs of a body.
Snow fields existed.
Feeders of a landscape.

Rich bio mass, cascading.
An eco system chain linked.
Dependent on a source.

Dihydrogen monoxide,
Frozen at elevation.
Fluid flowing below.

Solid white opaque.
Fluid clear copious.
Shapes like organs, feed the landscape.
















"white-out" correction fluid on maps and photographs.

New Tonka toy to draw

Soon it’s going to be the annual SF Open Studio tour this coming October 25th and 26th . I have been drawing recently, aside from the engine parts and fly fishing lures, some new Tonka truck toys I purchased on eBay.
They’re quite fun to draw and challenging to get their form, perspective and shading convincing enough that the trucks transcend being just toys to maybe the real thing. I guess that is why I am attracted to them as a subject. I remember having many of these very trucks when I was a child and would play with them constantly. I would project my self as a worker or a driver into the inside of the trucks cab and drive them around a dirt pile in the backyard. I would build buildings and pits to a fantasy excavation for a city complex. At the time, it was a way to escape and become someone and do something with out the true responsibility of being it for real. I think that is why I am interested in drawing these toys now, they allow an escape to that place I once could go to all the time and can forget other things around me.