Dr Grimm's Freak Circus & Petting Zoo - Understanding the Concept Behind the Art

Dr Grimm's is part of my Evolutionary art series. The piece is a combination of graffiti and street art which is themed towards a particular subject. The Dr. Grimm's piece was developed for a show where the theme was clowns. The piece is 7 feet high by 5 feet across but only 4 inches deep. 

It is the second piece created for the Evo Art series. The first "The Door to Nowhere" was themed around climate change and was shown at a December show in New Orleans. 

There are a few unique aspects to the art form. 

The Idea Makers

The eternal search for new ideas becomes harder every moment that civilization exists. This is literally true. Our ability to create completely spontaneous and new ideas is gradually getting harder and harder. 

As technology increases we are able to explore new avenues of ideas and creativity, but we will eventually reach a point somewhere in the future where everything that can be thought up, very well might be. 

Depression and the Artist

Severe depression can be a fierce battle between sanity and insanity. Its an experience that I would wish on no one.

I watched my mother struggle with it her whole life. It was so bad that not once but on several different occasions I was forced (after I was an adult of course) to have her temporarily committed so we could keep her from killing herself. It was a constant battle and one that for much of her life was controlled by badly prescribed drugs that made her situation worse. But even in more recent years when the drug quality was much better, getting her to stay on them was a battle.

From Artist to Entrepreneur: How to Start a Home-Based Business - By Brittany Fisher (Guest Writer)

Photo by Pixabay

We all have something we are particularly good at or passionate about, and for you, it’s art. No matter what medium you use, you have a knack for it. With this particular artistic skill also comes the opportunity to start your own home-based business.

As an artist, you’ve already got the skills necessary to run your own business – tenacity, adaptability, problem-solver, self-critique. You have the framework, so here’s how to launch it.

Start with a Business Plan 

Let the Gallery Handle It

We take a lot of things for granted when a gallery handles a showing of our art. I discuss the negative aspects of the gallery system and how it is failing emerging and unknown artists. But lets talk about some of the positive things a gallery does.

We count on the gallery having an A List of potential buyers of our work. But there is a lot more that goes into doing a showing.

The Many Faces We Show the World - Understanding Identities in Art

We all show a lot of different faces to the world. We shift from persona to persona so quickly sometimes that we are not even aware we are doing it.

As an artist and photographer I've had the opportunity to see a great many faces, but most are caught in a moments time and for me. That's the face that person will always wear because that is the image I captured. But occasionally the rare opportunity comes along to see past that one face and into a persons soul and identity.

I got thinking about this recently and wanted to understand it better. 

One of my models I've worked with for over 15 years. During that time I've gotten the opportunity to capture many sides to who they were. As a performer, an artist, a human, they have worn many faces and I have had the chance to observe them. Over successive years and many thousands of images, I've been graced with this persons friendship and an intimate look at who they are, who they were and who they might become.

The following series of images, some edited, some not, are a compilation of these faces. They are not by far all the images I have, but represent the diversity that one human being can be.

In looking at the images in this way its given me a chance to examine the human identity better and try to grasp what it is to be human and what it is to be an artist and a photographer who tries to capture a taste of that humanity. There is one last idea that is examined in their compilation. Do these images make us immortal in a way? There is an essential part of us that we leave behind in these faces we show the world? Or is it merely illusion? Of this I cannot answer.

Creative Mirror Show - A Celebration of all Things Creative

There are all sorts of creative venues trying out new ideas to attract art lovers and help artists get notice. Artists cannot rely on Galleries anymore to get seen. This is no offense against the gallery system. It has its place in the future of the art world. But artists are now taking their careers into their own hands and trying out new and innovative ideas to get their work seen.

Troublesome Wood

Working with dead wood which has been laying around for 30 or 40 years, is that you occasionally encounter some problems. As a sculpting base its fantastic but sometimes there are some rather unusual problems. With the piece above, I was working on the restoration and cleaning of the piece when I found it had a decidedly large termite family living within it. In most cases once I've cleaned the wood, the local denizens all die. Not in this case. Its now been treated several times with an insecticide that permeates the cracks, but they still continue to wriggle out. I am hoping a third treatment will do the trick. But in the offhand chance it doesn't, the rest will be caught in their own tomb when I use an epoxy sealant on the wood as the final step of the restoration process. 

Do other sculptors have these odd problems???? 

Yeah it will look great when its finished! 

Death and the Artist

The Scottish author George MacDonald once wrote "How strange this fear of death is! We are never frightened at a sunset". 

How we look at death is as important as how we look at life. Death teaches us strength and compassion and lets us know that inevitably all things change over time even if we cannot always sense its passage. 

When I walk in the Cities of the Dead it is a reminder to me not of death, but of time. I look upon these solid stone tombs and I see the tiny cracks in the marble and then I look upon my artists hands and see the tiny wrinkles on my flesh and I understand that flesh or stone, nothing is ever permanent. 

So why be afraid? Like George said, its only the sunset. What happens when the sun rises again? 

~Grey~

To view the complete City of the Dead collection, click here: Walking in the City of the Dead

NEVER call me an "art enthusiast". Never call yourself an "art enthusiast". 
We are "Art Professionals". Anything less is demeaning and casts our art down to the level of a hobby. 

Are You Sure Of What You See?

Click to enlarge

Identify all the hidden features of this image and win a free signed print. 

The Logistics of Good Art

I was working on a very large sculpture (12 feet high by 5 feet wide). But the width was only a few inches deep. Before the piece was even finished it was requested to be in an upcoming show. To that point I had spent all of my time working on the aesthetics and messaging of the piece. For artists this is the most important part of any piece of art. Its why the art is made in the first place.

But once it was decided that it would be in a show, a whole new set of problems arose. Thus far the pieces to the sculpture (4 in total) had merely been leaning up against one wall of the studio. There had not been a reason to consider logistics. Up until that point I figured it would just screw into a wall that it rested on. Now this simple plan was trashed. How could I be so stupid as to not consider this vital aspect of the art? 

Before & After - Miss Rosa Marie is Laid to Rest

It is fun sometimes to peek behind the curtain of an artist. As a photographer and a digital artist, I often work on pieces where the transition from the first original photo up to the final rendering makes for a dramatic change. Photography sets the stage for a great piece of art. If the photo isn't interesting to start with, then the final digital art wont be either. Photography is the beginning, digital art is the end. What takes place in between are a thousand small moves. In those small moves a story emerges. Digital art is not just about sitting in front of a computer and creating fractals or anime girls with huge eyes. Its about composing a story that the audience can see in the art and add their own details to. This is why a great photo must begin the process. If I as the artist, can grasp the beginnings of a story within the photo and then let it emerge naturally into the final art, then I've done what I set out to do. But there is one more element that must be created to make it a great piece of art. That is emotion. 

Think of it this way. The story "Jack and Jill went up the hill" is just a story. Its easy to tell and probably wouldn't create a very good piece of art. There is no emotion. But if the story was "Jack and Jill started up the hill until Jack said its to high, I'm going home and went back down the hill without Jill." creates a simple emotional component to the story. The story is now more interesting because there is emotion within it. Jill is now alone on the hill. Jack is a bit of a pussy because he can't handle the walk. Emotion. Tell the story with you art, but tell the emotions also. In the piece below, the emotion is all in the title. Miss Rosa Marie the boat now takes on the human emotions of death and a final resting place. The piece is no longer just about a boat, but about a majestic old lady. Emotion. 

But as I said, its fun to show the beginning and the end so that the viewer can get an idea of what goes into the process. Here is Miss Rosa Marie.

Profitable Side Gigs for Budding Creatives - By Brittany Fisher (Guest Writer)

People getting started in the arts face a conundrum: You need a portfolio to get work and money to create a portfolio. But if you get a job to fund your portfolio development, you may not have the time to create. Whether you’re a visual artist, a landscape designer, or working in another creative field, what you need is paying work that offers a high level of flexibility so you can earn income while still leaving time for artistic endeavors.

If you’re thinking that’s impossible, think again. Gigs can provide the stable income that artists and creators need to pay their bills while pursuing opportunities in the arts. While these four gigs may not be solutions for long-term employment, they’re ideal for making it work when you’re just starting out and don’t yet have a consistent stream of paying projects.

The Keys to Choosing Good Art Models

Good models, whether you are photographing them, sketching them or posing them for a sculpture are an invaluable resource.

Occasionally I am asked why I have such good luck with finding and working with models. Over the years I've been fortunate to have had many fantastic models grace my art. They were not always easy to find. I am very demanding of my models. They must be ready to listen, contort, focus, block out distractions and expose themselves.

A new model not only has to sit through an orientation, but they receive a printed list of instructions a mile long. They must be ready to have lights glaring in their eyes, costumes placed on their bodies and probably ripped off later and paint slathered upon their skin. 

Above all they must be patient.

Likes and Favorites on Social Media DO NOT equal great art. Just because you have 500 likes does not mean your art isn't crap. In contrast, just because you only got 1 like and it was from your mom, does not mean your art IS crap. 

Even Strange For Me

I admit my work (especially sculpture) is unusual. A lot of what I do is surrealist in nature. So when I create something that seems bizarre even to my standards, then its saying a lot. 

The original intent of this piece was to use the film projector to create something akin to an archaeological dig. Building up the clay work around the projector to give the impression it had been dug out of the ground. 

But as I proceeded with the piece something just wasn't sitting right. Other artists will understand this nagging feeling that persists when a piece of art is not going the direction its meant to go. 

I let the project lag for a few weeks, just hoping I'd come to some kind of resolution on it. In fact I was so discouraged over it that I took down a tutorial I'd been posting as the piece was developed. None of it felt right. 

Then one night just before sleep, I thought I might have a clue as to what was bothering me about it. It was the concept itself. The idea of taking modern electronics and recasting them to look like ancient archaeological objects was the problem. The concept had already been explored. While I could not pinpoint the artist or artists who had explored a similar idea, I suddenly knew with a certainty that it had been done before. 

Don't get me wrong. I have no problem with re-exploring art ideas. But in this case I was not contributing anything new to the concept. I was just rehashing ideas already explored. As an experimental artist, this is anathema to me. I contribute to an idea if I can through exploration add something new to the idea. 

In subsequent days I found numerous examples of the base concept to confirm my suspicions. 

Then a small kitten stepped into the equation. 

A Prayer For the Earth

I had a dream. Looking back from old age, I saw that Hurricane Katrina was not the storm of the century. She was not the worst we would face. She is not even as devastating as those of us who lived through her would see in future maelstroms. She was simply the first of the great storms that were to come and wreak havoc around the world. She was the earths way of saying "You didn't listen". 

Since her time, we've faced Sandy, Harvey, Maria and Florence and a whole host of others. There are worse to come. We sit idly by and watch it happen and shrug. We say "its nature". We say "Its god". We say "Its not my fault". 

As an artist, I try not to preach. I try to allow my art to speak for itself. But in this case I offer up a simple prayer of grief also. Because its going to get worse. Much worse. And we are too stupid to see it. 

Alas for these once dry lands

Tears for those who lived upon it

Curses upon those who did nothing

Hopes with those who might survive

Wishes for them who come after

Salt for the broth that our oceans become

Peace for the ones who face the truth

Woe to the deniers who turn away from it

The Wall - An Exploration of Graffiti

"The Wall" is not one piece of art, but many. The intent is to create art that examine different themes and issues but ultimately form one solid graffiti wall. The pieces will be able to be displayed separately or as a whole. When a piece wears out it can be replaced with another. When a concept wears out, it can also be replaced. With that said, I won't be trying to explain each piece. I want the viewer to interpret them. These are complicated. Like any wall of graffiti there can often be art filled with contradicting messages. The only guide will be the name of the piece. So here are the photos for Piece #1.

American Hero

One of the biggest obstacles we face as creatives in this social media saturated environment is the almost overwhelming need to cater to the audience when we create something. I need more "likes". I need more "favorites". I need the instant gratification. We are suckers for an audience. Now we have one built into every studio that has access to the internet. 

Beware! Do not create for the audience. Create from within. This is the essence of great art.

Old Projectors, New Art & Space to Spread Out

One of the great things about being in the new studio is it gives me so much more room to work on things. In the old studio I was limited to a few projects at a time. In this new space I can have separate work stations for dozens of different projects. This old projector is about to become a work of art. It has its own work station now and allows me the leisure to consider the project before launching into it. I've always been a multi-tasker. But I find that art that sits a bit is better thought out. In the case of the projector, the original concept for turning it into a sculpture came to me a year ago, but I'd not acted on it knowing it would take up work space for awhile. Now I can put it out, observe it, look at it from every angle and in different light and begin to put the piece together. Surprisingly this old projector still works. Even though it was built in the 30's, the motor still runs, the light still goes on. Unfortunately the feed for the reels is shot. Its actually been used for art before. A few years back I did a fashion shoot where the model, dressed as a flapper, was photographed with the projection light on her. There was an authenticity to the shoot that would otherwise not have been there. Now its time to do something different with it. Here are a few of the photos from that shoot.

Burning Man 2018 - Low Res Art Project

The Low Res Art Project was created in order to develop techniques with low resolution video screen captures turning them into high quality art pieces.

This project began in 2016 with the Burning Man festival where we participated in doing screen captures of the festival from their remote cameras. This continued in 2017 and again continues in 2018. You can view the 2016/2017 album at:

Burning Man The Complete Album

New work will be posted here before being added to the Low Res main page. 

Watchers - Luminescent Painting Technique

"Watchers was created on an old window frame using a heavy vellum as the canvas. Vellum allows light shining through from behind to come through and change the painting. In the photo above, the image on the left was taken with front light only. The image on the right was taken with the light from behind. The faeries were created on the backside of the painting, while all other colors were on the front. The result is that the evil faerie faces only show up when there is light from behind. Luminescence is all about creating art which changes depending on which direction the light falls on it. 

This piece also contains an experiment on poetic verse which was placed directly on the art and tells the story of the painting. The lines of the poem read from top left to bottom right and read as follows:

They watched with avid eyes agleam

Mischief plans and evil schemes

Whispered threats to those within

Yet not a move they made to sin

Imps from hell with hearts of black

Sure to find that one small crack

Or slip between the weathered walls

To slash and rip and tear and maul

My blood runs cold beneath their stare

My lips they mouth a mortal prayer

But simple watch is all they do

Till dawns dear light should paint the hues

O morning come, the suns light burns

Watchers flee till night returns

If you would like to learn more about luminescent art, please feel free to contact me below.

Lost in the Space of my Mind - An Artists Brainstorming Exercise

THE CUBE

The Cube is a brainstorming mind game that I've used throughout my life. It was initially created as a problem solving method that I developed for myself, but over the years its become a primary source for brainstorming and creativity. Its assisted me in developing new and unusual ideas for my art.

I begin by imagining a simple three dimensional cube in my mind. On the surface of the cube I place information about the problem I am currently trying to solve. Each side is devoted to a different aspect of the problem. Once I've filled the cube with what I know, I set it to spinning slowly in my minds eye.

Conservation - The Tale of a Broken Sculpture

Its inevitable that art will get damaged, especially when working in confined spaces. This piece was created a few years ago during my deadwood art phase. It was stored on a high shelf in the old studio and one day decided it was going to go for a walk, plummeting to the floor. Several pieces broke off and the 1 foot tile base snapped off on one end. There was little I could do for it at the time and I re-shelved it to decide later whether it was a total loss or salvageable. Now that we are in the new studio I can take some time to look over some of the damaged pieces. With this one, I examined the break points first. The breaks were clean, so I could put it back together again. But the base was a lost cause. 

The First not the Last

Our recent move to a new studio has unearthed some interesting things. The piece pictured above was the very first piece of art I created when I made the decision years ago to become an artist. My skills were all in photography. I had no formal training in art except for body painting. So it wasn't a far stretch of my imagination to take one of my abstract photos, print it and attempt to overpaint and enhance it (pictured). When I look at this piece I realize how far I've come in both my skill level and my mindset as an artist. Dedicating my life to the arts was the best decision I could ever make. This simple piece is a testament to that decision and a reminder of how all artists, whether taught in school or self taught, grow and evolve over time and what it was like to have that childlike wonder and more than a little fear in creating my first piece of art. 

Where the Artists Mind Takes Us

Our minds can take us to very strange places. This happens to us all. But artists have the ability to share what we see. 

When I let my mind truly wander, I am always amazed at where it takes me. Sometimes its so complex that I can become lost in the vision. What feels like only a few moments, ends up being hours. I am not really here at all, but very far away, where time flows differently.

Where is this place I see tonight? I wish I knew. But as I slip back to this mortal plain of existence once more, I can still hear the whispers of the sand in my ears and smell the electric charge of the dunes beneath my feet. 

I return regretfully, but before me is the vision brought to life in the art my hands created while my mind wandered on this desert night. 

There is one sure way to know that you are truly an artist, heart and soul, mind and body. Its when you see art in everything. No matter what it might be or how inconsequential it may seem, you can find a path to turn it into art

Getting From Here to There

Before

I thought all of you might like to see a before and after shot for one of the pieces being created in the new studio. The setup for this piece was pretty simple. There was more work put into the lighting for the final photo than the setup itself. There are lights within the chest as well. This is an experimental piece. The skeleton is actually standing in for a model who will be posed with the chest later in the month. The substitution allows me to consider the lighting and positioning carefully, long before the model is actually here. To come up with this one final image (below) I took about 30 different photos, choosing the best of the set. Over the coming week a number of different poses will be considered and noted. 

This is what I mean when I say that digital art is not always just done with a computer program. There are a lot of other aspects that the viewer never see's in the finished work, but which make the image come alive. 

After

A Need to Just Create

Some days are so hectic that if you don't take time to just stop and create you burn yourself out. 

During a recent move to a new studio and home, I was surprised to find that instead of resting when I could, I needed to find a safe space which I could create in, even though most of my supplies were still boxed up. 

Just the act of refocusing my mind and my body on my art instead of on the move was more revitalizing than any nap could give me. 

Don't Beat a Dead Horse - Art That Frustrates

ART RULE: Steer clear of learning new art just because you feel you must learn it. 

I learned long ago to stay far afield of trying to create art that is just going to frustrate the hell out of me. Part of this is my anal mind. I can't stand to create something that in my minds eye is not as perfect as I can get it.

At one point early in my art career I had made a determination to conquer as many kinds of art as I could. As an experimental artist it only seemed natural to say I could create art that ranged from abstract to architectural and everything in between.

It took me maybe six months of constant frustration to realize that just wasn't going to work. Don't get me wrong, I am not proposing eliminating any kind of growth as an artist by no longer challenging yourself. But face it, we can't be everything that we imagine we would like to be in our minds.

Signs & Meanings

Here is the finished gate sign for the new studio. I wanted something really different for signage and decided to create a graffiti wall for it. 

Creative Superpowers - Chris Pemberton TEDx

Check out this great TEDx lecture from the creative mind of Chris Pemberton

Unlock your creative superpowers | Chris Pemberton | TEDxAuckland

Transformation - Creating an Outdoor Studio Space

I've spoken a lot about the building of the new art/photography studio. But I've not mentioned the outside studio yet. One of the things about this new space is that its very deep. For those not familiar with New Orleans homes, they are often built one room after the other and stretch back, rather than out. This one has six large rooms and two bathrooms stretching back room after room. While this place does not have one, often these homes have what's called Camel-back on the far end where a second floor is often built. 

One of the other peculiarities of New Orleans homes is they often have a lot of private space outside that encompasses courtyards and private spaces. With this home, there is a double-wide (pictures above) alleyway that stretches along one side. At the front is a raised porch and the front door. In the alley (behind me in the photo) is a raised side door which will become the private entrance for the studio. Further back the alleyway narrows and then opens up yet again eventually connecting with a private backyard. 

So what you see above is a double alleyway which is about 10 feet wide and approximately 150 deep. This area will be transformed into an outdoor studio space. On the right will be shelves and working surfaces. Once we get the junk out of it, the left side will be for large projects that require space to build. If you can envision it with crisscrossing lights to give it atmosphere and light it up, you can kind of get an idea what I want to do with it. 

While New Orleans is hot right now, come October, the temps will change radically and we will have beautiful temps straight through till the following May. It will make a fantastic working area. I'd like to eventually install an outside sink for cleanings brushes and materials and perhaps an awning for when the weather gets hot again.

The indoor studio is already three times the size of my last studio. But when you add the square footage of this outdoor area, it becomes huge, multipurpose space where not just myself but interns who will be working on projects here. 

More photos when we begin to really put it together and light it up! 

This is the first shot showing the outside studio lit up and better organized. 

Fear

"Fear" is an experimental graffiti piece created for the Dystopia Project. It was created using a piece of styrofoam mounted on a 4' x 2' canvas. The foam was heated to created a mottled surface similar to bricks and cut using a heated styrofoam pen. The fixtures were old metal parts sealed to the foam. The chain is plastic, mafe from a broken strand of Mardi Gras beads.  The spider is a simple Halloween spider, painted black and red to mimic a black widow spider. The surrounding canvas has two layers. The first is a sand layer, the second a cracked glass layer. Both were added using a spray adhesive to create a real looking building surface. 

Dystopian Body Model - Test Shoot

As the Dystopian Project proceeds, I decided I wanted to bring some body models in who could pose with some of the sculptures. My concept was for models who were willing to work over the next year or so with the project as it proceeds. I was fortunate to get a fantastic model with experience right away. He came in this week for his test shoot and I was very pleased with both the images and the professionalism of the model. I think it will be a good pairing of talents and I look forward to having back in the new studio next month to begin posing with the actual sculptures. What you see here are not related to Dystopia, but are finished images from his test photos. 

What is Dystopia? The New Orleans Art Activism Sculpture Project

Imagine a city left to ruin. Its walls a hollow testament to the life that once lived and thrived upon its streets. Its buildings are covered in the last frantic words and images of the street artists and graffiti makers who stood as the final recorders of its fate. You are its final tourist. You alone walk its streets and see its messages. You are the final witness to the troubles the people of this city faced. Only you can set aside the war, the hate, the savagery and see the deeper meanings left here. Do you do so? Or do you turn your back and walk away to find your way back to the sunshine streets of your dreams, far from reality?

This is Dystopia.

Sacred Spaces - The Artists Workplace

I had an interesting discussion with an artist a while back about the aesthetics of the artists studio. On one visit he noted that I had a bunch of candles burning throughout the room and wondered why I would light so many and was it religious in nature?

In a way it is religious, but not in the way he was thinking. The sanctity of the studio makes the artists workplace as holy as any church or cathedral. Creativity is the closest that, I believe, we can come to the true nature of our spiritual being. 

I explained this to him, but I also took time to explain the importance of the aesthetics of an artists workplace for conducting business. For me the candles create a very special feel that guests instantly sense when they enter. There is an other worldliness to this space that it is important to me to impart to those who visit.

From Junk to Art

In order to go from recycled junk to true art there must be a fundamental transition. Simply finding an old car fender and standing it on end and calling it art does not make it so. If the fender is painted gold  the transition process has begun. Is it good art? Probably not, but it can now be classified as art. How far you take it is how far into the art world it transitions.

There is an exception. If the concept is truly unusual and never before attempted. Marcel Duchamps "Fountain" urinal was art because it had never been done before. But it only works once. To do so now after so many others have done the same just makes it another urinal.

On the other hand, if you take the transition too far it may also revert back to junk. For example, if you take your car fender, add glitter, stick it in a pot with some dirt and call it a Fender Plant, it is still art. But if you then add all sorts of other car parts and stick them in the dirt with it to the point where it becomes clumsy then its just a bunch of car parts. It can lose its effect as art and revert back to junk. 

Finality

fi·nal·i·ty The fact or impression of being an irreversible ending.

I am slowly rapping up a sculpture that has taken over 250 hours to complete. While there are still a few lose ends to tie up on it and some tweaking to do, I am starting that final process that includes things such as cleaning up the studio and placing supplies in their homes rather than scattered around the project. Assessing things like descriptions, photo work and material lists for the finished work and most important, starting to consider ideas and parameters for the next piece I want to create.

All this reminds me of the "process" of finality in art. In some ways I suppose its like watching a child grow and helping with the details of their life like college, housing and income that bring them from childhood to adulthood. My work is very much like child rearing, especially because I spend so much time with a piece and let it consume my world while it grows.

I learned long ago that I would have a short period of sadness that bordered on depression after I finished a piece of art, unless I had another ready on the launchpad right behind it to begin. I always say to myself, "well I'll take a few days off between pieces and relax a bit" but it never happens. I suppose that's because for me, art isn't work. Its play, its joy, its expression, its who I am, and face it, its hard to take a vacation from who we are.

What your eye Sees is NOT what someone else will see. 

Don't be deluded into thinking what you see before you is the only thing that is there. 

Our personal realities color our art, and we do not all use the same colors. 

Art is perception. The more possible facets we place in our art, the more things for people to perceive.

Refugee Faces - The Dystopia Project

There are currently 5 urban ruin sculptures being developed for the Dystopia Project. The building above is devoted to the subject of Refugees. Attached to the front of the building are 7 black masks representing the 7 continents of the world. On the side is iconography representing the different refugee groups struggling around the globe. These are tough subjects. They are meant to be stark reminders of the world we currently live in. This tower stands 8 feet high and 2 feet deep. When completed it will contain at least a half dozen different pieces of street art and countless graffiti which has yet to be added.

Originally this sculpture was planned to also represent Immigrants, but due to the horrid situation of Immigration in the United States I decided to create another sculpture representing that subject. There will also be another representing climate refugees.

The Place of Lost Ideas

Here is today's collection of odds and ends from Saturday morning flee markets, estate sales and second hand stores. Lots of artists upcycle as a form of creating art. But I also take it one step further. I use the various junk stores as a source for ideas and inspiration. I may walk in with an idea, but more often I walk out with totally new ideas for my art.. Being surrounded by so many lost, half broken objects stimulates my creativity in a major way. I see unlimited possibilities. From the group above, several of the pieces were bought specifically because they fit a particular project, but nearly half came from on the spot ideas while wandering the aisles.

I highly suggest that when you are in a creative rut, even if you have no money to spend, go wander a second hand store. View each object as if it were in front of you in your studio, ready to be transformed into something new. See what you come up with. It may surprise you how well it works as a brainstorming tool.

Some items I buy on spec. There is no immediate need or idea for it, but I can tell at some point it may become a very useful item to have around.

Ray Bradbury was a major collector of the odd and unusual .He said it stimulated his creativity to be surrounded by these items. He's right. A sanitized studio is a studio without any inspiration.  Clutter it up and become inspired!

"Never associate your artistic name with one of the great masters. "I'm the next Picasso" should be stricken from your vocabulary"

Quick and Easy Sculptural Plinths

I found some beautiful vintage ceramic blocks lying in a nearby woodlot. I brought one back to the studio, scrubbed it with a wire brush and then spray painted it a gloss black. It makes a great plinth for sculpture work. Last year I found a bunch of cut wooden pieces that had once been square pillars for a building being renovated. The only problem with using them as plinths was that they had to be resurfaced because they were a bit beat up. This actually worked out well because it gave them an interesting pattern. But with these blocks, there is a natural patterning in them that makes them easier to use without resurfacing and the chipping in places gives them a truly great look. 

On The Move

In about 6-8 weeks we will be moving our art studio and home to a new location. We've been in the current space about 6 years now. As I begin to slowly sort through the studio storage room and pack a few things away, I thought it might be fun to share some of it. Its no small thing to move this much junk. I and my partner are art pack rats. If we see it and think it can become something it ends up in one of our two storage rooms. I would not say we are hoarders because we are select about what we bring back. But it does accumulate after time.

The fellow above has been seen in many pieces of my work and even though its broken in the middle and has a hole in its head (who doesn't) he/she/they are still a valuable part of my prop inventory and I refuse to get rid of him. 

The Psychology of the Body Painter

At one point in my career I was a body painter. I still am actually, but not to the extent that I once was. Much of my work was live shows done on stage and those were very tiring events. Studio body paintings were much more in keeping with my style of work. I much preferred the opportunity to work slowly with the model(s) and work my way methodically through my designs.

The Artist and the Magician

Artists are truly magicians. We conceive our ideas in the privacy of our own heads and through our magic wand we bring that idea to life. Brushes become mystical tools and color becomes its own mysterious language that only we can understand. 

To some who enter our domain, it must seem like entering the cave of an ancient druid. Our shelves are lined with ephemera that tantalizes. Visitors are both intrigued and apprehensive. The tools of the alchemist are all around them. They do not belong here.

If we'd been born in a different century we might be burned at the stake or revered as gods. 

Are we vain? Of course we are. We know we carry within us the secrets of the universe. We know that we can only touch those secrets when we are creating. But we are humble also because we are sure that others will only see scribbles. But we keep at it because its what we must do. 

Even if we can't really change iron to gold, the mere idea that we can create anything that our imaginations can see keeps us magical and mysterious. We are who we are.


~Grey~