Image of the Day - Tahambrius Frae

I felt myself fraying at the edges tonight. I realized I've completed 15 large sculptures in a little more than five weeks and I was suddenly very tired. It was like my brain just shut down for the evening. I often find relaxation by shifting gears to digital art for a bit. So I spent my evening playing with this little fellow. If you'd believe it, he started out as a jellyfish, slowly transforming into this charming character. I may do a series with him and tell a tale such as I did with Elissa . We shall see. But sometimes its good to shift gears for a bit.

Throughout the weekend I will attempt to finish up the 4 work in progress sculptures almost completed in the studio and begin work on at least 2 more. But for tonight, it felt good to just step back for a bit.

Image of the Day - The Spire

The Spire

Here is The Spire. She is 54 inches high on an 18" tile base. Her base was sealed twice. The first seal was done in natural clay with a foaming glue overlay. This is strong but for a piece so large I needed to make sure it would not eventually come lose from the base tile. So over the glue I used concrete mortar for a second layer which reaches up higher than the glue beneath and seals to the wood. I lost some of the wood doing it this way but it guarantees the piece will not come apart. 

Image of the Day - Sinaguan Refuge

The Sinaguan Refuge was made from a piece Mississippi River driftwood pulled out of the river during the recent flood waters that came down from the central part of the United States. I am unsure even what kind of wood it is, but the unique holes bored into from some long gone parasite reminded me so much of the Indian Cliff Dwellings in the southern deserts of the U.S. that I knew the piece needed to resemble those ancient ruins. I've always had a love affair with the lost Sinaguan Indian tribes so the piece means a lot to me personally.

It will be shown in the upcoming March 2016 reception "Between the Darkness and the Light"

Grey's Rules of Twitter (#Twitter Science 101)

Rule #1

Always have a profile! It gives others a point of reference to start a conversation with you. We don't like talking to a blank wall.

Rule #2

The more information you post, the more others will follow you. In turn the lamer the information you post the less you will be followed.

Rule #3

If your only going to post recycled quotes that have already been posted a thousand times close your computer and go away

Image of the Day - Sunset on the Last Day

"Sunset on the Last Day" is an abstract piece using a beautiful piece of smoothed driftwood. For me it represents a lone rock on the beach, the water lapping gently around it as the sun sets for the last time on the world. 

It is not quite done yet. Full photos of the piece later. 

This will be one of the pieces shown at the March 2016 show. 

Move Your Damned Easel! Artists Seeking Inspiration

About 5 year ago I was faced with a major decision regarding my studio. I'd been renting a large warehouse space for several years that I'd converted literally from the bare bones of an unheated space full of giant cockroaches transforming it into a working studio which I not only created my art out of but lived in as well. 

Boudicca's Last Rest (Sculpture Tutorial)

Explanation

If you've not followed one of my tutorials before, these are done to allow other artists some insight into the experimental techniques I use to create my sculpture work. This tutorial will take you step by step from concept to the final creation. They are usually done in real time, meaning that as I am creating it I am also taking time to photo document the process and post and write about it as each step is completed. Depending on the sculpture, the process may take a week to two weeks to complete. I appreciate feedback and commentary in the space provided below. I will answer any questions to the best of my ability both during the process and after it concludes. 

• SCULPTURE NAME: The Druids Playground (Changed to Boudicca's Last Rest)
• SCULPTURE SERIES: Driftwood Series
• SIZE: 12" x 12" x 32"
• BASE: Fired Tile
• PRICE POINT: Not yet decided

Concept

This is a rather odd sculpture. Much more gothic and mystical than I usually extend my art, but I feel a need to create it, so there must be a reason. I think this one may change quite a bit from the original concept, so I am not going to give you an explanation of the piece, but just give you the step by step development for it. 

The original concept like much of my work came from dream-state. Most of my dreams right now involve driftwood concepts because that's where my subconscious is focused in order to create enough of a body of work for a show in March. So I pay particular attention to dream-state images that involve wood. 

The Rise of the Interactive Artists

This article is not about the art of artists. Instead its about their ability or lack of ability to interact and communicate with their audiences and how that intimately relates to their art.

There is a silent revolution taking place in the art world that doesn't involve technique. Instead it involves something that most artists do not even grasp yet. Interactivity. How do artists interact with their audiences?

Even the best of artists with the largest teams of assistants still face a barrier. That is that they can only produce great art at a certain pace. If an artist relies solely on production to keep their name in the public eye then there are large gaps of time between each creation where the artist remains a relatively unspoken entity.

Grey's Simple Rules of Surrealistic Art

Someone recently asked me to explain how I saw surrealism. Since I rarely consider myself a fantasy artist, but almost always consider myself a surrealist, I try to maintain some basic rules for myself. Many may disagree with these, but these are the basic rules I try to follow when creating a surrealistic piece of art. 

First rule of surrealistic art

You must introduce an equal measure of reality to illusion or else it becomes fantasy

Second rule of surrealistic art

Surrealism is subtle. It is meant to transport you one step out of your own reality not one hundred steps

Third rule of surrealistic art

Color is the gas that fuels the illusion. A color change shifting away from reality changes the world

Fourth rule of surrealistic art

Unique doesn't equal over the top. A unique piece of surreal art is one that explores subtlety

Fifth rule of surrealistic art

The line between surrealism and fantasy is thin

Sixth rule of surrealistic art

Tell a story that the viewer interprets

Seventh rule of surrealistic art

Surrealism should vaguely disturb the viewer but not necessarily frighten

Eighth rule of surrealistic art

It must be plausible even if it stretches reality to the breaking point. Impossibility is fantasy not surrealism

Ninth rule of surrealistic art

Surrealism plays to the viewers emotions. If there is no emotion in the piece then there is no depth

Tenth rule of surrealistic art

If the dog is brown, its realism. If the dog is blue its fantasy. If the dog has four brown paws and one blue paw its surrealism

Eleventh rule of surrealistic art

Distort, don't destroy



The Four Stages

REALITY - SURREALISM - FANTASY - ABSTRACTION

                                 1---------------------3-----------------7---------------------------10

Image of the Day - A Mississippi River Fog

Click to Enlarge

A 3AM fog shrouds the Mississippi River Bridge, casting it into the world of surreal southern demons and lost worlds hidden in the mists of the bayou.

Fog Watch - Photographing Elusive Nature

Fog is one of those elements that can be rare and elusive. Photographing it even more so. Here in New Orleans we get maybe a dozen fog days if we are lucky. Most fall in the middle of the night and early morning. So when we get a weather report that predicts a fog, I watch it closely.

Where my studio and home is, we are about a mile and a half from the Mississippi River. This sounds close but for a river fog we can be perfectly clear here but the downtown and river areas and along Bourbon street can be totally fogged out. Thankfully in today's age we have the wonderful world of webcams to help with this process. On a predicted fog night (such as tonight) the webcams are monitored closely. My equipment is ready and if I see the fog move in I can be on the ready and in the car within 5 minutes.

The Straits of Mephistopheles (Sculpture Tutorial)

This piece is a continuation of a series I began last month. The series is a creation of wrecked ships. The first called Nosferatu the Ghost Ship represented a cargo ship sunk at the bottom of the ocean. 

This new piece will represent a sailing ship foundering on the rocks of a great reef, already half sunk beneath the waves. The rocks will be made with driftwood. A plate of glass will be suspended between the rocks to represent the surface of the water.

This is a great piece to observe development of because it will use several facets unusual to most sculptures. You can follow along on this page step by step as it is built.

STEP #1
Building The Straits

Training Your Mind to see the Art Through the Object

Because of some of the unique aspects of this piece, it serves as a great example for how to see the art through the object. This is so hard for some artists and so easy for others. I can't tell you for sure how to do it. I can only counsel that you never take what you see for granted. You question always what something could be versus what you think you see before you. This is truly the most important talent for any emerging artist to cultivate.

Here is a case where I saw the art before I even had the object in hand. I knew what I needed for it, but had to go hunt down a shape that matched the vision in my head. Here is a stick. Pretty common looking but I wasn't looking for a stick. I was looking for a shape.

Artists Creating Excitement Over Their Work

We don't do enough to make a big deal of new pieces we create. Especially the poorer the artist. We labor hard at a piece of art and we are proud of it. And what occurs when we finish? Deflation. We are playing to an empty room.

In a way its almost like we are too timid to make a big deal out of something we make. We may post a photo of it and we may make some cursory mention of its completion, but do we really go out of our way to celebrate something we've finished?

But how do we even do this? We've not been taught any method for promoting and celebrating a single piece of art.

Image of the Day - Solitude

Click Image to Enlarge

This is a first look at the finished Solitude sculpture. At this angle you can't really see the giant figure in the center holding up part of the structure, but he's there. 

This piece uses 21 pieces of Mississippi River cypress driftwood to form the spires and 132 wooden blocks to form the base. The piece is mounted on a 2 foot by 1 foot tile base. 

This piece derives its name for its resemblance to Fortress of Solitude known well from the movie Superman. 

Elissa's Tale - The Art of a Ghost Story

I often tell stories through my art. I love continuing a series of thoughts through a sequence of pieces. This is part of the Assimilation Art process. Connecting the dots I suppose.

I've not told the story of the Elissa in anything but art, but here I will give a sense of the story that accompanies the three pieces in the Elissa series. 

The Elissa was a slave ship in the early 1800's. She was named for the daughter of a sea captain who built the Elissa before she became a slaver. The prow of the great ship was made in her image, a beautiful woman gracing the waves. 

The Art of Following & Unfollowing (#Twitter Science 101)

Some have commented on my regular habit of taking to task anyone who follows me then unfollows after I follow them back. This angers me more than any other thing on Twitter. Its rude, its disrespectful and its downright stupid. Your cutting your own throats people. Your following is built on shifting sands and disloyalty. And if your profile shows you as a business professional of any kind you've instantly told me that your a fool who does not know what they are talking about. 

It took me years to grasp the intricacies of a good Twitter following. Like most when I first made my account I maxed it out (2,000 followers( following people who would in no way ever follow me back. The Guggenheim Museum with its million plus followers was NEVER going to even notice little old me!