Diary of a Mad Art Teacher... and photographer...: Concrete mosaic sculpture

Showing posts with label Concrete mosaic sculpture. Show all posts

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Quoth the Raven

Once upon a midnight dreary,

while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door— "'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door— Only this and nothing more."

excerpt from "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15638#sthash.9nCFzZ2f.dpuf

I have had a request for a Raven update, so here it is!!

I am POSITIVE I have more pix of this raven, like during the building stages, but seriously I am too lazy to hunt through my pix to find them. I until recently was allowing my photos to be in untitled folders, and that makes things difficult to say the least..... so I have mended my ways and now do a date and at least a hint of what is contained in the folder. So once in a while I get a wild hair and do some sorting and labeling, but that is not my favorite way to spend my time. So someday, I may do an update of this when I find the rest of the raven pix, and until that time, this will have to do. Face it, no one really cares how I got there, the finished project is probably enough!

I wish that these pictures could do justice to this sculpture, but something about the way the camera catches it does not begin to show the really awesome form and feather like shapes of the glass. I managed to make this a dangerous bird, with glass that sticks out like feathers do at the neck of the raven, which is an interesting dichotomy when you think of the softness and lack of menace in a real birds feathers. However, the black raven, ever since the days of Edgar Allen Poe, has had the aura of mystery and vague disturbance, so this altered feather state is apropo.

Whew, now wasn't that a nice bit of abstractness and analysis?? Let it roll around for a while, it is fun to think about.

Black opalescent glass of gorgeousness

I have a few pix that show the progress of the bird from concrete to grouted- including a shot of some of the beautiful opalescent black glass that I found in Minneapolis at JRing Glass. THAT was a shop full of awesomeness

Concreted form

Needs legs and feet! Oh GREGORY!!

Tentative beginning

My "Helper"

Beginning the head

All done with attaching the glass- onto the grout

mostly finished

There it's done!

Here are some detail views of the guy! I may name him "Lenore"

And I learned so much making this little thing! I will be absolutely making another one or two of them. The glass is so beautiful it makes me swoon!! sigh.

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore;
Not the least obeisance made he;
not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door— Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door— Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore, "Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,"
I said, "art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore— Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!" Quoth the Raven "Nevermore."

Find your joy!

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

I think I have worked something out....

I have been pretty much agonizing over what my goals are for the new year. For the last couple of years these goals have been fairly big- even monumental- and to come up with something this year is proving tough. I have very wise friends who have all told me something along the lines of relax about it, it will come to you. And follow your heart, do something that will make you happy.

1/1/2013- photo of the day

I reread comments that I got on a previous blog post to that effect and last night it became clear in my mind that I don't, for now, have any big, all encompassing goals for this coming year and it is quite ok. This year I need to continue doing what I have started. I need to follow my heart. So now you might ask the Mad-Art Teacher what in the world could all that be? WELL, since you asked....

This is sort of a combination of goals and resolutions, even though I don't really think resolutions are a good idea. They are sort of set up to be broken if you are vague about things, like I am going to lose weight! or I am going to exercise more! or what have you- though you may see as I just did I actually achieved those resolutions last year. But the key is that I did not make them a resolution per se, I made them part of my lifestyle change, something that I just had to do. That is pretty subtle, I realize, but when you are dealing with my particular brain- well let's just say this sort of thing matters!

So, first, as you can probably imagine is I need to work hard on maintaining what I have. My weight and fitness level are of utmost importance to me! I began my New Year by walking 6 miles yesterday and maintaining my goal weight, so it was a good January 1. On those two fronts, I have to keep struggling every day to do the best that I can. Eating is always going to be an effort to not revert to old habits, I have a tendency to start eating when I am tired, bored or stressed and I need to be vigilant about it. I have refined my diet a little lately, totally eliminating one of my trigger foods and I am hoping that it will help me out in the long run. I also think I have to make the commitment to NOT eat anything after 7 pm, unless I have not gotten home until that time, which does happen, as I know that I "think" I am hungry most evenings. Along these lines, the weight thing....... I am thinking I would like to lose about 5 - 10 more pounds yet, but not in an official way. I think if I get into the 130's I will be satisfied- it seems like I need to drop down a little bit- we shall see how that goes. I think I am going to let my exercise take care of that. Exercise- I will be doing that. I feel like I am at a good place with that. I get cardio 6 days per week, usually, a minimum of 5, plus the weight-lifting at least 4 days and throw in dance class and ballet and it is a pretty balanced program. I don't have a lot of extra time in my day to put more in, and I don't see where I could take any of those things out! So between that and my new weight lifting program, I am set. I would LIKE to run, but am not sure that my knees can take it. I REALLY plan to canoe again this summer, and perhaps pick up a kayak, too. These are sports that push my comfort level (I don't feel like a super strong swimmer) but I love to do them. A perfect combination!

So those two things are "easy" in the sense that I know how to get them done- the rest of these I am dabbling around with yet.
I would like to resolve that I do more of my own personal art work! I am running into a time and mind issue with this. I don't have a lot of extra time, mostly because of the things listed above, but I feel that I am neglecting my own need to be creative. My primary outlet lately has been photography- and that is something that I will not quit doing. IN FACT I might try to do some sort of a daily picture post, which is going to start here right now. I am not going to be so silly as to think that I will remember or be able to post a pic every single day, but I am thinking I might at least do catch up posts as I go!

So with that in mind, I also need to do more, and I see myself doing art 2 things. (Besides the photography, which I have a couple of projects in mind, but like I said there is the time factor.... I probably should be setting up some sort of rough schedule for myself, but I HATE being confined to things like that. I am such a mood oriented person, I need to feel it to do it!!) BUT, anyway, I need to work on my concrete sculpture and my drawing. Being an art teacher is really NOT conducive to doing your own personal art work, which is a sad irony. I get a taste of it at school, I get to throw on the potter's wheel, I get to paint murals (scenery for the play), I do paintings and drawings that are fast and usually incomplete, but this is just not super satisfying. Along those lines I also want to make a few items of clothing for myself..... WHAT am I going to be giving up to make time for these things?? Idk. But it is something I need to consider. AND there is the gardening thing, which fits into the concrete sculpture. I did not do much gardening last summer and I missed it. How did this 2 thing list turn into 4??? Oy

Something that dovetails into all of these ideas is cooking and specifically vegetarian cooking. I really enjoy this past-time, I like the creativity of it, the possibilities and I really want to have food in the house for the week that is NOT commercially made and frozen or packaged. I do use some of that in the form of frozen veggie burgers/chick'n strips etc, and that is fine, but I don't want to rely on it. As noted in my previous post, I got that new cookbook and I would like to make something out of it weekly for a while. I know that I can't do it everyday, I just don't have it left in me after a day at work, but I can do weekly! And when I photo and blog it, it really does work into the things I like to do! :)

You will be noticing things that are NOT on here, all those mundane things that of course it would be nice to do but really are not important in the grander scheme of things, but I am going to put in follow my heart. My heart is very difficult to deal with, as it is very demanding. I can not control very often how I feel about things, I rarely can be logical about what is going on there. It really doesn't matter if it makes sense and I tend to agonize over the least little thing.... so I am going to do the best I can. Sometimes following you heart is really hard, it makes you uncomfortable, it isn't always a logical thing. But you do what you have to do!

My final two resolutions are a bit subtle, but they really define me as a person. I want to continue being a good friend and a joy giver. These are things I don't have to explain, other than they are part of who I am, what I try to do, what I try to return for all the good that is given to me. Even though in the end you have to do what is right for you, you are a more complete and happy person if you can share your joys with the people you love.

These will be the hardest and the easiest things for me to do.

I truly do wish all of you a happy HAPPY New Year of 2013! And away we go, kids!!!

Be a joy giver!! Always! Even though it can be a struggle- everyday...

Friday, September 30, 2011

Abstraction: Updated!

I really enjoy closeup and abstract views of ordinary things. Fall seems to lend itself to this fascination I have, mostly because of the colors. I like to try simplifying the intense color contrasts by using compositions that focus on form and repetition. I am starting with these, and I will be updating and adding to this post as I go through this fall.

Burning hot colors

Detail of sculpture from The Concrete Park in Phillips, WI

Bottle bed for Angora Cat sculpture at The Concrete Park in Phillips

Leaf Arrangement- collaboration

Leaf mosaic

Headdress

Detail from Concrete Park

Leaf Arrangement

Leaf Mosaic 2

Sepia bee

Symphony in red

Droplets

Fuzzy

high wire

Web

Look closely for your joy!!

MORE PIX:

Melting frost

sparkling weeds

Moss

over a creek

Roadside frosted weeds

ART FIELD TRIP!!!!!!!!

So, what have I been up to on the school front these days?? Well, I have a lot to do every day.... a lot!! I have a minimum of 5 different classes, in 2 different schools- a couple days per week I have 6. That is a lot of prep work!! But because I am an absolute maniac about my students, I took them on a field trip. You know, because I like to live on the edge. HAHA!!

Love this place!!

Actually, I feel an obligation to take my students to the Concrete Park in the nearby town of Phillips, WI. The Concrete Park was built by a local man who had retired from logging, owned a bar, grew ginseng and was an artist! He made over 230 sculptures in a 10 year period, as a man of 65 years old. The importance of this Park is recognized all over the United States as a prime example of outsider art- art that is created by non-trained artists- and has been been studied by many.

I did my thesis on the art of Fred Smith and so I feel very connected to it and feel the need to have art students visit. Many of them have lived in the area all their lives and have never been to the Park. Such a shame, it is an incredible environment!