Cody Goodin - Artist Creater of Fantastical Creatures and Worlds

Sneak Peek Into the All Seeing Eye

2012-01-30T09:11:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday to you all out there. I am excited for several reasons. One, I now have 183 followers. The most ever for me since I started this blog thing. Secondly, I was able to work on one of the characters for my story I am working on called Adventures In Codyland. This particular character is called the All Seeing Eye. He/She isn't finished yet. I just thought I'd post a progress of sorts. It is another assemblage or mixed media piece for me. I still need to gussy up the head adornment a bit. Then I need to find a throne or chair for him/her to sit upon.

I have some changes planned for the blog coming up in a few weeks. Also, I am going to try and impose a daily exercise to keep me motivated in this year of enlightenment. So I hope you will stay tuned. Oh, and I haven't forgotten about the giveaway. I am still thinking about the object of desire for the giveaway. Have a beautifully creative week my friends.

Cio!

Tada He's Finished

2012-01-24T07:45:00.000-05:00

As promised I am taking a quick minute to post Lohre from the Black Lagoon. He is finally finished.

Here he is after his four step painting process. I just need to put a varnish coat on to protect the paint and he is ready to roll.

This was a fun learning process which I plan on using again for other pieces I have plans to do. So stay tuned. Off to work now. Have a great week everyone. Thank you as always for stopping by.

Sneak Peek Into Codyland

2012-01-21T11:28:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd give you a sneak peek into the world of Codyland today. I have recently been obsessed with remaking toys into something very different than they once were intended . Here you can see a small little baby doll that I had purchased in a set several years ago. Believe it or not, these vinyl toys make great armatures for other creations. As you can see I have covered the torso and legs with masking tape so the layer of Super Sculpey will stick to it. These parts are also a different form of plastic so I wasn't sure how it would work. I know the head and arms would be fine.

Meet the next incarnation of the little doll. He will eventually become a baby creature from the black lagoon.

The outer skin is a layer of Super Sculpey. His eyes are made from a blue and green speckled glass bead. His fin like structures are made from translucent Sculpey.

So the next step is the painting process which is always such fun. I am playing around with adding a bit of texture to the skin to make it more amphibian like. He will be in colors of blues, greens and yellows. Of course he will also have hints of iridescence.

I will post the final version of Lohre when he is finished. I am also in the process of freshening up my blog. So, don't be surprised by the changes. I have decided to revert back to the original title as it is also the name of my artistic creative business now. Stay tuned my friends and thank you as always for your visits. I am honored.

Cio.

Artist Horoscope for 2012

2012-01-17T07:17:00.002-05:00

Just popping to share my art horoscope as provided by CCA or California College of the Arts' Heather Lohmann.

Pisces
February 19-March 20
Look out, Pisces, because great things are on the way. The upcoming weeks and months will bring a sense of serenity and peace, and this easygoing mentality might pull you out of touch with reality a bit. But it’s all for the best -- this new perspective will be very helpful in your creative visions and endeavors, and inspire you to take chances you might not have before. This state of mind may make you easily distracted, but force your focus and be sure to finish what you start. However, this dreamy mindset also means that you might want to put any big, life-changing decisions on the back burner for a while. Just replace those notions of home or career changes with new art or writing projects, for the time being. Inheritance plays a part in your near future, too, so get ready to acquire some new possessions that may just push your ongoing creative evolution up a notch or two.

You can get your here http://www.cca.edu/news/2011/12/15/your-art-horoscope-what-does-2012-hold-store have fun y'all and may this year be all you hope for.

Cio

Another Work Challenge

2012-01-09T10:04:00.002-05:00

You are probably wondering why there is a picture of this mini Munny doll on here. Well, Plaza Art where I work decided to make this our December challenge. Our store was selling these little guys during the holidays. So, the staff decided it would be fun to get one and alter it. The one pictured above is what I decided upon. As the cute name implies,, he is a baby giraffe. So, not wanting to stick within the norm, I decided that mine would transform into something a bit more mythical.

As you can see, he has become a baby dragon. At least that is what my intentions were at the time. Even though I still contend he is indeed a baby dragon. He kind of looks like a Pokemon.

This was actually a bit of a challenge at first. Because one of my coworkers said to me, you know he needs to have scales. Sure he does, he's a dragon. I told everyone at work what I was hoping to create out of my blank doll. The question for me was how would I pull this feat off. I have never attempted to transform or alter one of these vinyl dolls before. So, the big question was what materials would I incorporate into the design that would allow me to make the scale like texture.

I pondered the use of Apoxy Sculpt but, I really hate the working time issue and also, it is too fussy for me. I like that stuff for joining or making an inner skin structure but, I like polymer clay better for sculpting. So, I decided that Super Sculpey would be the best choice for my sculpting process. But, and it was a big BUT. Can the vinyl toy be baked in the oven at the temperature that the Sculpey needs to cure? On to the internet to do some research. Lo and behold, I found many references to people saying that they had heard of artists doing that baking thing with Sculpey but, were too afraid to try it themselves. Most of the people who had used Sculpey boiled their pieces. Boiled? Not me, I thought, well the whole thing will be covered with the clay. If it does get soft, it should still hold together. As you can see, it did indeed hold together.

I guess you can say I am a bit fearless when it comes to trying out something new. Yes, I was a wee bit worried about ruining my little doll. As there would be no easy replacement for him. But, nothing ventured nothing gained as they say. So, he was entirely covered with Super Sculpey then painted with a number of layers of acrylic paints and stain glazes. The final coat being a satin varnish to seal the deal. It was a fun and worthwhile experiment. One which I am eager to try again so the search is on for interesting blank vinyl toys to play around with.

I do hope the new year is treating you well so far. It is so great to see you all visit from time to time. I know I haven't been posting much work of late. Lots of things in various stages at this point. But, I am feeling more energized so, there should be some new things up soon. Thank you for staying with me over the years. Oh, keep an eye out here. I am planning a little blog giveaway just for you all.

Cio!

Happiest of New Years to One and All

2011-12-31T10:39:00.000-05:00

My goblin of good cheer and the sneaky wine thief would like to wish you all out there the happiest of New Year from all of us here in Codyland. May 2012 be the best year yet despite all the doom and gloom predictions out there. I personally believe it will be the year of enlightenment. I am planning on bigger and better things in my life and creative endeavors. I wish the same for all of you including good health prosperity and abundance. May the world see more peace than war. Dance, sing make art and prosper and live long as the Vulcans say. My love to you all and a BIG sincere thank you for following along on my adventure. Until next year, Cio.

Happy Holidays to One and All

2011-12-24T17:59:00.001-05:00

I wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Festive Kwanzaa and light filled Yule. May your new year to come be the best ever. Thank you to all my followers for keeping me inspired and informed. I love you all.

A Little Something Different

2011-12-17T14:26:00.001-05:00

I wanted to share something a bit different than my usual art fare. Here is a shot of the finished commission piece I have been working on for a friend. He wanted me to paint something to represent the sign of Pisces. The main element is the ruling planet Neptune. I was asked to create a somewhat accurate portrayal of the planet. Also the symbols where included as was the constellation of pieces. I was painted in acrylics and a little mixed media too. I really like how it turned out. The big test is whether he will like it.

Another piece is for a company gift exchange tomorrow. My secret person I am giving to doesn't really appreciate the creatures I create. So, I decided to do something a little more artsy. I love doing these little sculpted pieces. I made this one into a magnet. It measures about 3x3 inches. I used my sculpting technique using acrylic mediums. I am planning on creating a class for this technique. So, if you are interested stay tuned.

Hope you are all enjoying the holiday season. I have been keeping myself busy making gifts, working at the art store and planning lots of fun new things for the new year. I have a nine day vacation starting Christmas eve. So looking forward to that one. Will check back in to see what's up with you all. Thank you for taking time out to visit my humble art spot. I love you all.

The Ornament Exchange

2011-12-10T09:23:00.001-05:00

Well, with much pulling of hair and gnashing of teeth, I finally completed my ornament for this years exchange. It was for the RiveCity Figurative Artists Guild that I am a member of and our Christmas Brunch tradition This years theme was to be based on some art form or ism. Our luncheon is being held in the Cincinnati Art Museums cafe this year. So, I thought this theme was appropriate. At the last minute I finally decided to honor our ancient traditions and do a piece loosely based on a variety of petroglyphs. It is kind of simple but, I really like the way it turned out. It is very totem like in the way it looks.

It's been a busy fall season and I have been one of the lucky artists who have sold a nice amount of work. At both of the Essex Studios art walks I received a lot of great feedback. Nothing inspires an artist more than that. So, I am really inspired to get going on some new things and yes, even a new class is on the horizon. Have a great weekend everyone. Until next time in Codyland.

Oak Man finished

2011-11-14T11:02:00.001-05:00

First let me apologize for such a poor photo. It is slightly out of focus. Not too bad, but I am doing this quickly before it gets too dark. I just finished Oak Man and had to share the outcome. A bit late but, that seems the way life is of late. Anyway, here he is and you can get am idea of how it looks. I will be taking better pictures of him later in the month when I can get to the studio.

I used some of the same techniques that were used in the tree spirit piece in the last post. Many layers of paint and glaze. I love this process and will probably keep exploring this technique a bit further now that I have several under my belt so to speak. Truthfully this is the one thing that has sustained me the last few weeks. I go to such a happy place when I am working on my art. There are so many ideas I can't seem to get them all going. Thank goodness for sketch books and journals.

Oh, I am thinking of offering an expanded version of my acrylic mediums class this winter after the holidays. What do you all think? Would any of you be interested in that? It would be in January after all the holiday madness is over. I would love to hear your thoughts on the idea.

I hope you all have a great weekend out there. I hope to post a few more in progress pics of some small pieces I am trying to finish before I start new stuff. Best laid plans as they say. Love you all and see ya on the flip side.

Monthly Mediums Challenge

2011-11-03T13:35:00.000-04:00

The Plaza Artists Materials Cincinnati Clifton branch is the host of our employee mediums challenge. It is the art retail supply store where I work. We employees have taken it upon ourselves to work with a variety of mediums each month. The medium is chosen for each month and this latest installment is all about acrylic paint mediums. In my last post I showed you some in progress pictures of the pieces I was working. Well I finished the wood nymph and she is now residing at the store for a month before she travels to the Essex Studios for Decembers art walk. Unless of course a customer at work falls in love with her and wants to buy her. Her companion Oak Man is not finished but, I will be working on him this weekend. So without further ado here is Wood Nymph an experiment in acrylic mediums and mixed media.

Wood Nymph is 12x16 inches mounted on a stretched canvas for structural support. I used a variety of mediums and paint techniques on her. There is a textured handmade paper that was applied to the surface of the panel before the figure was sculpted on it. Then I used Super Heavy matte gel medium to create additional texture. Next a layer of crackle paste was applied in a few areas. Once that was all dry she was coated with several coats of Gesso. Then the long paint process of glazing layers and a dusting of metallics for a bit of shimmer. It took me approximately 14 hours to complete her.

That's it for today. I hope to post Oak Man sometime this weekend when he is finished. Thank you as always for stopping by.

New Directions

2011-10-31T10:14:00.000-04:00

Happiest of Halloween to you all out there in cyberspace. I hope your week will be off to a spook-tac-u-lar start. As you may have noticed, I have started to try a few things in the studio. This process isn't exactly new to me. But, I haven't sculpted a relief style figure this big as of yet. So, I have decided to try this format out for a bit. Unfortunately I have hit the imaginary brick wall in regards to my big project on my mythic journey. I am struggling with the format and time issues. You know I am not the most patient of people. So, this process of planning and trying to create the characters with so many other ideas flying at me and having to work a real job. Take their toll on my ability to devote tons of time on anything really. Instead I break it up into little fragments and nothing really gets accomplished it seems. This seems to be the story of my life of late. At least the big anxiety wave has passed for now.

What you might want to know is what are these two pictures of?

At my art store retail job, we the employees are undertaking an exploration of different media each month. This month it has been about using acrylic mediums in whatever fashion we choose. The finished results will be displayed in our store along with the products we used. So these two panel sculpts are being done for that purpose. I couldn't decide on a subject so being the over achiever I am, I decided to sculpt two and pick the one I liked the most. Here they are in the I just sculpted them phase. Once they are dry and ready to paint, I will embark on that process. Cramming a twenty hour painting process into just a few in order to meet the deadline..

These are constructed on stretched canvas that I applied several layers of chip board. Then they were covered with coats of gesso and decorative papers. Once that was dry, I sculpted the figures onto it using Das Pronto air dry clay. Once this is dry I will coat with several coats of sealer then the long paint and glaze process. I used super heavy matte gel medium for most of it and then on the second image there is some Golden Paints crackle medium smeared on with a palette knife in a few spots.

The first image is Oak Man and the second piece is Wood Nymph One. I will keep you all posted with the progress. So have a great week and thanks as always for stopping by.

The Chorus

2011-10-22T14:05:00.000-04:00

It's been a bit since I have posted a completed art piece. I have been working behind the scenes on a number of things. My mythic journey is coming along. Here is a glimpse of the first completed character, one of the chorus figures. He is the prototype for the rest of the characters' costumes and hair treatments.

This is the full view from the front of the character. His costume is made of handmade papers. The hair is from a sheep pelt of a New Zealand sheep.

Here is a closer view of his head. Each of these characters seven in all are different sizes and are in different poses.

This is a side view of the character. I have enjoyed using the paper for constructing the costumes so far. Ask me when I reach the seventh character. The paper is a bit easier to manipulate. There is virtually no sewing required.

Now I just have to finish the six remaining and move on to the other characters for the first scene. It's just plain busy this time of year.

Have a great weekend everyone and thank you for stopping by.

Essex Studios Open House

2011-10-10T09:28:00.000-04:00

Hi out there in blog land. I have been busy the last few weeks with work and getting ready for the Essex Studios October art walk that took place this past weekend. I have to say it was one of the best shows ever for me and my studio. Jared Christopher Queen is the marketing and PR person for the studios and he has done a superb job generating excitement and buzz about the studios.

OK so you probably want to see some pics of the studio. These were taken on Friday just before we opened up for the evening.

This is outside the entrance to our studio. My partner Buck shares it with me. Our studio is located in the middle of the main second floor hallway. It's considered prime realistate int he building.

This is a shot of the magnet display. Most of these were gone by the end of Saturday evening.

Here is part of one of the display walls.

Further down the same wall you can see more of my wall pieces.

Hanging out are some of the new Ghostie ornies I made.

A shot of our modest snack table. I took this before I put out the other bottle of wine.

The main display table and wall ready for the crowds of viewers to come. As you can see it is pretty crammed full of stuff.

These last three pictures are of my partner Bucks stained glass art.

Hope you enjoyed taking a tour of the show. We had such a great time talking to all the people that visited us and bought our art. I actually had one young man who was moved to tears by a tree painting. Never had that happen before but, it was a humbling experience. This weekend has really renewed my creative spirit like no other in the past. This is for many reasons. I think what surprised me most was how much my art really did have an impact on people. That is the highest complement I could ever hope for in creating art. Buck and I received many many comments on how our studio was the crowd favorite. Not just because of the art but, also the atmosphere of real appreciation for the public's interest.

Hope you all have a grand week ahead. I will try and post some updates of my new work this coming weekend. Cio!

Oh, what a week.

2011-09-25T11:17:00.000-04:00

Hi there out in blog land. I hope all of you who are visiting me are doing well. It is Autumn here in the Rivercity and one of my favorite times of the year. It also signals the back to school season at the University near where I work at Plaza Artist Materials. So, this past week has bee full of chaos, new faces and some non work related disappointments. But, in the midst of all that I did manage a wee bit of work in the studio.

This is a character I am working on for my visual theater series. He is tentatively called Old Goat. But, that might change. I will wait until he is completed to give you the whole idea of who is and how he relates to the story. His head and hands are sculpted from super sculpey. His body is an aluminum alloy wire armature and then wrapped with many layers of cotton batting to fill out his form. I created shoe forms for his feet as they will be covered anyway. It makes the shoe creation much easier down the road.

Here is another view of him from a different angle. I still have to finish the painting and detailing of his head and hands before I begin the costuming process. But, that can be the fun part. I want him to look old and worn just a little. But, he may decide to be a bit more dapper. We shall see.

Lastly, a pearly coat of white on the robes of the chorus. You can't see in this picture but, I have painted the whites of the eyes and am ready to detail the faces. Once I have that stage complete I can move on to the costumes.

Hope you all have a wonderful week. I an hoping to get more done in the studio. My studio at the Esses Studios is going to be open for their next show on October the 7th and 8th. You can read more about that here. So I need to get some things done.

Another Layer

2011-09-16T11:43:00.000-04:00

Greetings my blog friends. I hope this Friday finds you doing well. I have managed to get the Gesso coating on the chorus characters of my little mythic journey theater project. Finally, I feel like my old creative self again. I suppose it eas that process of refilling the well. The fog has lifted, there's an anticipation in the air around me. So, needless to say I am taking full advantage of this energy.

Here is a group photo of the chorus. They have their first coat of Gesso painted on them. The next step is painting the heads and hands and getting that detailed. Once I can get past that stage, I plan on painting a light layer of pearl white onto the Gesso-ed surface. This will serve as the under garment.

Once the under garment layer is dry, I will be applying the handmade paper to create the final costume. This is a new process for me and I absolutely love it. Building up the armatures are much more interesting and forgiving than other processes allow. This process suits my working techniques really well.

Once I get these guys finished, I will be working on my little me self portrait. I anticipate that being the hardest thing for me to accomplish. I am not one for self portraits in general. But, you know, I am undergoing some internal changes in attitude that are causing me to rethink this aversion to seeing my own image. I have began wearing cologne which I haven't done for years. I have actually made my own very subtle scents to wear. But, there is something rather bold about wearing store bout colognes. It is kind of like dressing up for me. I have also started to wear an ear ring again. Haven't done that in over a decade.

There is obviously something in the air. But, in all honesty I think it is the tremendous amount of spiritual journeying I have made in the past few years. It has been a personal form of therapy to delve into discovering who I really am as a person, a member of the Universe and what kind of creator being I am. This mythic journey process has been one of the most important things I have ever done for myself. All thanks, in part to the class I taught last winter. It planted a seed that really bore some interesting fruit for me personally. Thanks for sharing my rocky road with me. I feel I am just getting started. I hope you will stay tuned to see what else I get myself into.

Cio.

New characters...

2011-09-12T10:51:00.000-04:00

Good Monday morning to all of my followers and visitors out there in cyberspace. I hope you are enjoying the beginning of this bright new week. I managed to get some physical work done on my big project this past weekend. I think my little down funk is waning. So, I managed to get the first set of characters for the first scene in my visual theater project well underway and are about halfway completed. They are going to be a chorus, aka Greek version. I applied the brown paper covering over the base armature to create the foundation for the garment.

There are seven characters so far. I think I may keep it at this number as it is a significant number symbolically for me too. The next steps are painting the head and hands the final skin color and detailing these, base coat of gesso on the garment before applying the final layer of handmade paper to create the gown or robe effect.

Here is another fun shot of the characters. Once I have these finished, I am planning to make the child figure. He will be based upon me as a little boy. This will be a fun and challenging project for me to occupy my creative time with. Hope you all stay tuned.

Yes, it's been ages.

2011-09-04T12:03:00.003-04:00

Well, I have not fallen off the end of the earth. Even though it must seem like it. This has been a rather odd summer for me. But, rest assured I have been keeping busy, just not with the actual making of art yet. I have been plotting and planning a big project that I am finally starting to work on. But, in the meantime, I have done some baking.

As my Clementine Cheesecake is a testament to that. I made this for a party I am attending today.

Secondly is a coiled vessel I made as a result of a class given by Robbie Porter, a member of the RiverCity Figurative Artists Guild here in Cincinnati. It was a class to learn the technique of coiled baskets in hopes of incorporating the technique into a more figurative shape.

This was the result. I call it an coral vessel. So, kiddies that's what I have been up to so far. Thank you for keeping up with my adventure so far. Have a great week ahead.

August Update

2011-08-06T16:16:00.000-04:00

Hi out there in blog land. I know it has been a bit since I last posted. Please know I am not ignoring you all out there. But, as I may have hinted at in earlier posts. My work is undergoing a big change in direction right now. I am still sculpting, but I am venturing into a different mode of presenting my creations. I will give you a hint. What do sculpted characters, lights, settings, backdrops and special effects have in common? Yes, I am trying something totally different for me. It is time that I merged a number of creative interests to present my story. Last winter I taught an online class called Artspell, The Alchemy of M.E. The ME stood for my experience. It was a class meant to teach us how to discover our own mythic journey. How can we tell the story of who we are to the world. Little did I know this would open a rather big door. So, my friends I have decided to step through this door of uncertainty. I must admit that I have a great deal of fear in that I am not sure how this will all turn out in the end or if anyone will even be interested. But, I know I must follow my heart. My hope dear friends and creative peeps is that you will have the patience to follow along with me. I intend to post updates to my progress. The above picture is some of the heads I have been working on as I have painted them and they are awaiting some finishing touches before they are given bodies. They will all be characters in my mythic journey with more to come. Many more as this is going to be a big project. Most of what I have now are notes and little sketches of settings and lighting notes. So nothing concrete to share yet. But, soon so hopefully you will stay tuned. My goal is to have the first scene done by this October.

Thanks again for visiting me and supporting my artistic adventure. It has only begun, in earnest.

Cio!

What to do?

2011-07-06T09:09:00.000-04:00

Hello my wonderful blog friends out there. Sorry for the long silence. I have been really struggling to get work done this summer. There is always an excuse of one sort or another. But, in the interim. I have decided to show some pics of my playing around with images of my little characters. These are some of my early art dolls that I took digital pictures of and then imported them into Photoshop and had fun just playing around with them. My original intent was to make ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) with the images.

When I get some of my current works in progress complete I am planning on using them in some digital picture storytelling experiments. Yes, I need a new distraction.

All three of these figures were made using the stump doll style of body. The heads and hands are mixed media. Back in the day I used molds and then would alter them to create more unique features. It's a lot of fun actually. The advantage to using a molded head as the starting point is it saves loads of time.

The last one here is one that I made as a joke. The actual art doll is called Devil in a Red Dress and it looked like a cross dressing devil. He was really fun to make. I am actually revisiting this character a bit in a new piece in the works. A bit updated however.

As I may have mentioned. This summer I am taking time out to create art I want to create without any pressure to sell it or make something I think people will want to buy. I guess in all honesty, I love making my goblins and such, but when I made them to please the buying public, I began to not enjoy them so much. So, I am playing and experimenting, taking my time to do what I feel like doing. I will keep sharing with you all as I get things finished or even in the middle. Thank you as always for visiting me and giving me words of encouragement once in a while. I love you all for that. You don't know how much that simple act means to me or anyone else for that matter. Have a great rest of the week out there.

Heads heads everywhere.

2011-06-26T14:42:00.000-04:00

So, what's on my work table. Well, layers of projects in various stages of completion or not. My last post was talking about the Thinking Cap series. That is still moving forward all be it slowly. I am taking my time with that one. It is slowly evolving into a very personal exploration into the power of words and how they shape our lives in subtle ways. Kind of like labels or powerful spells that hit our psyches. So, I am taking my time in exploring that idea. At first I thought I would do pieces playing with the idea of four letter words. But,, quickly found myself looking at my choices of the words I had intended on using. Starting thinking about why I chose particular words. That morphed into words that I realized had some impact on my life whether it was positive or negative. Anyway that is where that series is at this point in my art drama. But, above is a shot of some heads I am working on for a variety of ideas and uses. This whole summer and maybe beyond is about personal exploration and experimenting. I figure I need to recharge my batteries and not worry about selling. That is what my day job is for anyway, to make ends meet. The art sales have always been a bonus. Yes, my dream is to become a self supporting artist some day. But, I also want to be authentic in my work. So, I figure this time of self exploration and experimentation will benefit me in the long run. I hope to discover some cool things along the way I can pass on in a class or two. So, who knows.what may come out of all this personal indulgence. I hope you will walk along with me as I share some of my personal creative journey. Until next time my awesome friends out there. Keep smiling it makes life a little better. It really does.

Thinking Caps Series Stage Two

2011-06-10T12:09:00.000-04:00

Hi my wonderful peeps out there in blog land. I thought I'd do a quick post to let you see I am still working. I have really started to think about my work in a different way. So, I am embarking on a rather large series of pieces that all relate to one another. I guess that is why it is a series. Duh! Anyway, In my previous post I showed you the beginnings of a new series. At that point it was supposed to be just six pieces in a three part grouping. But, for some reason the muses have decided otherwise. In response to my plea to the universe to improve my process and get back into the fun of artistic exploration, this new series was presented to me in a flash of inspiration. Don't you just sit back at times and think to yourself. Where in the heck did that come from? Well, that's kind of what happened here.

Which leads me to the above picture. Here are the first six figures in stage two of their construction. I have added the skin for the body by applying a layer of Das Pronto air dry clay. The hands were made from paper clay and added. The feet are some toy shoes a friend of mine gave me. A whole bag full. I haven't actually counted them so, I am sure I don't have enough to use them on all twenty six characters. Yes, that's right there will be twenty six of these little fellows and ladies. The shoes are attached with a bit of apoxy sculpt clay. I love that stuff for connecting things together.

My concept for this series is as follows. I love playing around with words and text so, it hit me why not do pieces based on words in some way. Originally the pieces were going to be a commentary on love. Love was the first word. Then another thought. Why not create a series of figures that represent a four letter word. One for each letter of the alphabet. It is something I can have a little bit of fun. There are some possibilities here and it will give me something to exercise some of my techniques on as well. Now, the joy of finding some interesting four letter words is my next task.. No, I am not going to use the obvious explicative here. Even though, that could be fun too.

Until next time. I hope to get the figures ready for their words this weekend. Until then my friends, thank you for stopping by.

Memorial Day WIPs

2011-05-29T14:06:00.000-04:00

Hello out there my friends in blog land. I hope you are out enjoying the weekend holiday. I also wanted to take this time to remember those who have suffered loss of any sort. My thoughts are with you.

Now for some works in progress. You ever have one of those experiences where you see something that sort of inspires you? Then without you really knowing it, it grabs you by the collar and shake the living art stuff out of ya? Well, I think that has happened to me of late. Recently I viewed a little documentary about an artist named John Frame. He has a show in California. Anyway, as I was watching his little bio it struck me that this artist is living my dream life. Wow! What an awe inspiring thing for me. It is hard to put into words. But, it seemed to validate my dream in a way that was hard for me to convince myself of before. Again, it is hard to put into words. Needless to say I am really jazzed. So, I have had this whole series of works in my head for months. I actually have several series in my head which is what is wrong with me I guess. It is getting very crowded up there. So, I decided to really jump in in earnest to try and get these crazy pieces out into the world.

So, I am beginning with a small series of pieces tentatively titled the "Thinking Cap Series". It is going to be fun working on these guys. Here is a photo with the beginnings of their construction. I had the heads left over from a class I taught back in April of this year and decided to recycle them. It is a part of the story. Yes, there will be a story of sorts to go with them. They will be created in a group of three, two and one lone guy.

Here is a close up of one of the figures that has the arms and body armature completed. I like to do these in stages so that I have everyone kind of getting to the same place together more or less. The heads are primarily polymer clay with some additions of apoxy sculpt clay where I needed to alter it a bit. I wanted some of the features to be a bit exaggerated on some of the figures. The bodies are wood armature with wire for the arms. I will sculpt hands for them out of either apoxy sculpt or paper clay. I haven't quite decided yet. The bodies will be covered with some sort of decorative papers. That's about as far as I can actually tell you at the moment. I have other things planned for them. But, it all depends on how I can figure out all the details. I am getting to put my art materials knowledge to the test which excites me to no end.

So, get out there and get inspired to do more of what you do. You will thank yourself for that. Oh, and tell those you care about you love them. They will appreciate that too. That in and of itself can be a big inspiration. I send you all out there love and great big truckloads of inspiring thoughts.

Cio!

Merrily Merrily in the Month of May

2011-05-21T16:29:00.000-04:00

Wow! I can not believe how much time flies by each month. It seems like yesterday I had gone to Artistic Figures In Cloth in Columbus and now it is racing to the end of the month. I wanted to post a project I did for the joint meeting of the Circle City Dollmakers of Indianapolis Indiana and the Rivercity Figurative Artists Guild. We usually meet halfway between the two cities. This year we met at the Sherman House in Batesville Indiana. It is a fun little German themed restaurant and Inn.

Each year one of the clubs hosts a challenge for us all to make a figure based upon. This years challenge was to create a doll based on the western zodiac signs. My figure is based upon my rising sign of Aries.

His head is polymer clay with antique glass cab eyes. He sports a red fur mohawk. His hands are poly clay as well. His body is a cloth and wire armature construction. His legs are made of willow branches and mounted into a wooden base. The body is covered with African mud cloth applied with super heavy matte medium and the arms ar a handmade paper applied the same way as the body fabric. The head and hands are also hand painted.

This is a close up front view of the head. His necklace is a turquoise donut on leather string.

A close up side view of the head.

This figures technique and construction were a direct result of taking the class at AFIC from Susie McMahon. She is an excellent teacher and really helped me push myself creatively in new directions. Thanks Susie I needed that. So, there you have it for this week. I have a few smaller projects in the works as always but, never enough time to work on them all. Maybe someday I can live the life of a working artist. Have a great weekend and week ahead my friends out there.

Back From Artistic Figures In Cloth

2011-05-02T17:22:00.000-04:00

Howdy to everyone out there in blog land. I am back from my trip to Columbus to attend the Artistic Figures In Cloth art doll conference. It was a blast and I really did learn some great new techniques from Susie McMahon who was my teacher. She hails fro Tasmania Australia. The class was a three day sculpting workshop and I learned how to use paper clay in a more efficient way. Needless to say it was well worth it to me. I am tired, but energized too. Here is the figure I created.

She is tentatively called "Petitioning Nature for Mercy" and is a paper clay head over stuffed armatured body built on top of a brick. She has real twigs and decorative papers applied to create her skin and hair. Then painted with acrylic paints and mediums. I am trying to decide if I am going to offer this for the upcoming bricks along the journey auction or make another. It may be hard to give this one up.

Well, I am really pooped. So, I am off to get some rest before work starts tomorrow.

At Last!

2011-04-28T09:56:00.000-04:00

Hello all of my friends out there in blog land. I have finally broken through the creative dessert and found a small oasis of art doings. Before I head off to AFIC (Artistic Figures In Cloth) later today, I wanted to post the finished figure. This was made for a special exhibit challenging the participants to create a doll without a traditional means of support i.e. doll stand. So, I created "It Came From Planet Claire".

If you remember in my last post I gave you a sneak peek. This piece was a true mixed media fantasy for me. I started off with a polymer clay head I had made last fall. I was in this mood to make a block head for some reason. Well, now that I am interested in including a mid century sci fi theme in my work at this point I thought it made a great start. I have a small collection of old vacuum tubes, so one of these was used for the top. The body is a wrapped wire armature mounted so that I could create a canvas skirt over a wooden base. This was then stuffed just enough to give it some form. I mounted the base on to a heart shaped box which seemed to create a good ankle shape. Apoxie sculpt feet were then sculpted and attached to the heart shape box. Everything was painted in black and silver acrylic paint. The costume is a layering of a variety of black fabrics. He is holding a glass crystal cube. The necklace pendant is a piece of dichroic glass fusion that a friend gave me There is also a small dichroic cab in the head piece as well.

It didn't turn out exactly how I envisioned it, but all in all I am happy with him. This is my first piece in a hopefully large series of works. You know how that goes. Best laid plans and all.

I hope to post pictures of my experience at AFIC, my class and the awesome exhibits that will be there. This will be a welcomed break form my chaotic life. There are some not fun things on the horizon, I am hoping to ward off with a dose of extreme positive energy. That usually does the trick for me. Until next time my awesome friends out there. Cio!

What's On My Work Table?

2011-04-25T08:30:00.000-04:00

Top of the morning to you all out there in blog land. Sorry for the longish absence from posting. It's been a busy April and no sign of slowing down until the middle of May. So, to peak your curiosity hopefully, I am showing you a few snippets of what is on my work table right now.

This first snap is of a few fun little projects for the upcoming studio art walk at the Essex Studios, where my home away from home is located. The open house tour is May 6th and 7th from 6-11pm for those of you in the Cincinnati Ohio area.

Here you can kind of see two figures from a series I call Personal Mojo's. They are almost finished. Just needs the final layers and embellishments. Also, you can see a few little panels sculpts I am working on. Those are still not done. The last bits on this table are some little art doll pins I am making just for those little quickie sales. They are based on a pin project my local doll did a year or so back.

This last picture is just a sneak peek of a figure I am trying to finish for the Artistic Figures In Cloth conference that is being held in Columbus Ohio this week. I am fortunate to be taking classes this time instead of teaching. It will be a welcome change of pace. In addition to an awesome class, I will get to reconnect with some many of my friends.

So, the premise for this figure is one that is not requiring a traditional stand for allowing the figure to stand up. It is supposed to be self supporting in some way. The other criteria is it has to be comprised of at least 50% cloth or fiber. But, I still decided to sculpt the head, hands and feet for it. The body and most of the costuming will be cloth. That will provide more than 50% fiber. This figure is my first step in the mid century sci-fi themed work I am currently pursuing. Like my style title? Well, he doesn't qualify as steampunk, and I honesty like the idea of using old parts to radios, televisions and such. Once he is finished I will unveil him.

Well, that's it for today. I am really trying to get everything packed, finished so I can head off into doll lart fantasy land Thursday. Have a great Monday everyone..

Still Moving Along

2011-04-07T11:22:00.000-04:00

A slow uphill course but, I am still moving forward. Yes, I am trying to get my creative mojo back. Yet, I am making little discoveries along the way. One is that I have a deep seated desire to work with fiber and textiles again. So, I asked a dear friend of mine who is an outstanding art quilter and teacher, David Walker if he would tutor me on his method of making art quilts. I am not interested in the traditional. I never really do anything traditional. But, I need a foundation on which to launch myself into the stratosphere of art again.

I believe a lot of my ideas, imagery and stories will translate well into the art quilt medium. Hopefully you all can follow me along on my journey. So, many ideas, so little time to get them down. But, I will pick one and start there. Stay tuned for that.

On another note, I have here a picture of some of the small works I have in progress.

These are fun little things I like to play around with. Many of them are air dry clay heads or faces mounted on panels. Ready for the fun with mediums and mixed media stuff. Here is a picture of an earlier piece I did a few years back that inspires these newer incarnations.

I think some of these images can translate well to the art quilt medium. We shall see how it goes. Hey, it's another excuse to play with fabric and other stuff.

I will be off teaching in Columbus next week. So, I have to get busy preparing for that. So, you all have a great weekend and I'll see you around the bend.

New Work of SOrts

2011-04-02T11:43:00.000-04:00

Wow! I can't believe it's been so long since I have posted new work. But, honestly I haven't really created anything new up until this last week. As I have told many of my artist friends. I am going through what I call my mid life crisis in creativity. As an artist, I have undergone many changes in direction and mediums throughout my artist career. Once I even went a whole year without making art. Cycles are a fickle thing sometimes. Part of this is probably due to the fact that I produce lots of work when I am in the zone. Suffice it to say, I am going through a creative and emotional house cleaning of sorts. This can all be traced back, at least in my mind, to the battle with cancer last year. One tends to go through a period where you question everything and realize you want to make everything count in some way.

What I have been doing is teaching a little. Last weekend I taught a class for the Gilded Lilies of Columbus Ohio. The class is called Mediums Make Your Art Go Round, and is all about using acrylic mediums in your art. The class learns what the various mediums are and what they do. Then we embark on making some fun stuff using the mediums. So, the piece posted below was started in that class. It is a clay head glued to a heavy illustration board. Then mounted on a 5x7 inch Masonite panel. The background is a recycled map from a National Geographic magazine. Then I applied crackle paste to the area around the head. Next I applied layers of paper saturated with super heavy matte gel so that I could sculpt with it. I used this to create the robs and shroud like elements. It was all painted and then antiqued.

I call this piece "The Last Prophet" and is mounted in a frame made of old wood. The piece is 5x7 inches.

On another completely different note here. If you are interested in taking a class with me or any of the other instructors at the following event, please check it out.

I will be teaching a class on Friday April 15th called Personal Mojo. You can find the information for Artiscape here. This is a great event for mixed media arts. The classes are ala carte so you can take what you want without feeling like your paying for stuff you don't want. Anyway, if you are interested please give it a look see.

Well, my friends that's it for now. I have a bunch of little things in the works and I hope to get back to figures soon. We shall see how the ole' muse plays out.

A New Year Ahead and a Look Back

2011-03-11T09:14:00.000-05:00

Howdy out there in blog land. I have to apologize for the lack of posts of late. But, as some of you may be able to relate. I have been going through a period of low motivation. Not much work to show for it as a result. But, I am gearing back up and preparing for a few classes I am teaching in Columbus Ohio in the next few weeks ahead. This has been a tough winter creatively but, I am ready to tackle the thousands of ideas flying around in my head. The Essex Studios open house was a great success and it really got the energy moving.

So, for this weeks post I thought I'd post a bit of my roots in the doll making realm. Today is my 52nd year of life and I wanted to pay homage to the creative journey I began some twenty one years ago. I started off making cloth dolls created for healing purposes. What a great way to begin any creative journey, helping others find their hearts and health. So, this first doll was a healing/spirit doll in the form of a cat. He is called "Pizet of the Violet Flame". My own design and hand painted features. Created in 1996.

I know this isn't the earliest example of my doll making, but unfortunately I didn't take pictures of those as they were for healing and I didn't think about chronicling them. I got a bit wiser in the next few years. I actually started making dolls in 1990.

This next doll was created about 1998-99 and was inspired by the art of Paul Klee. Who is one of my favorite twentieth century artists. This doll is also of my won design for the pattern and replicates the painting Homage To Man by Paul Klee.

So, there you have a peek into my humble beginnings as a doll maker and sculptor. Thank you all for following my creative journey. It is always fun and rewarding to me. I appreciate your friendship and your comments.

Have a grand weekend one and all.

Wow! Finally a new post

2011-02-26T13:54:00.000-05:00

Well, it seems like it's been forever since I posted. I have been seriously unmotivated to make art this past month. It could be the winter blues, SAD or just plain bummed. A cycle I am extremely familiar with as I tend to do this every couple of years. It is a signal that I am wanting to try something different. But, before I embark on unexplored territory I have a little sculpt I made to try and get me out of the slumpville I am in. It is something I dub the house goblin. We all probably have one of these little rascals running around playing tricks on us. I know I do, in my studio and at home.

He is polymer clay on canvas and has blue glass eyes. He holds the key to your house. This little guy measures 5x5 inches. I am showing him off at the studio open house next weekend at the Essex Studios here in Cincinnati. You can click on the name and go to the web page that has just been newly updated. It should be a fun time and there will be plenty of art. If you are in the area you can stop by and say hi I'm in studio #251.

I want to thank you all for sticking around. I am hoping to get some new things going soon. I have to actually get my booty out and buy some supplies. Also, if any of you are attending AFIC (Artistic Figures In Cloth) in Columbus Ohio in April, look me up. I will be taking a three day sculpting class there. It's loads of fun. Have a great week y'all.

Challenge Piece

2011-02-08T15:00:00.000-05:00

Howdy out there in blog land. I have been busy at work on a challenge piece for the RiverCity Figurative Artists Guild here in Cincinnati. It was a challenge set forth at our Christmas luncheon this past December. Each member in attendance was given a fat quarter of batik style fabric. Mine was a beautiful magenta colored fabric. The idea or challenge was to use this fabric to create a figurative art piece. There weren't many rules, just that we had to use the fabric in some way.

So, here is what I came up with for the challenge.

I call this one "Color Does the Cha Cha". It is a fabric body mounted onto a wooden base. The body is then stuffed, I used shredded recycled paper for most of the stuffing. The challenge fabric was torn into strips and then applied using gel medium to the body. I incorporated pieces of decorative papers as well. The body was then painted with bits of gold mica gel and sealed with a high solid gloss gel.

I also used a few bits of lace and such to dress up the neck area.

The head was the second in a series of two I created several months ago. I used one on the previous piece posted and wanted to do something a bit different with this one. It is poly clay as are the hands. I really like how this piece turned out.

You know it is funny how something like this can steer you in a new direction for artistic exploration. I want to create some more figures with this process to see where they go. It will allow me to play with my acrylic mediums and paint a bit more and be a little artsier, if that can be a word. Don't get me wrong, I love my fantasy characters, but, I like to experiment and plan on using some of the fantasy heads and such with the new fabric sculpts. As with many things I do, I am easily bored. So, this may not last all that long. It depends on how far I can push the medium. Also, what new products are available to use in the process. One I have my eyes on to try is Paverpol. I will let you know what I discover.

February's First new Piece

2011-02-03T10:01:00.000-05:00

I am still trying to finish up some works in progress and here is another figure created as a mixed media piece. I love using willow sticks and branches as part of the figurative element. There is something about the soul of the tree that I love incorporating into some of my work. This figure has polymer clay head and hands.

I call this one "Cosmic Pantomime' as he has some of the elements of the pantomime figure. The construction is rather simple, but versatile.

This is a close up of his upper body and head. I am actually going to be teaching this fun little figure type at Artiscape in Columbus Ohio in April. I have one more of this type of figure in progress. I am trying to get these done for the March 4th and 5th studio open house at the Essex Studios where I have a studio.

You ever have tons of ideas in your head that you need to get out? But, you want to finish up existing projects first? That is where I am at the moment. No shortage of ideas and new directions to go for work. But, I am one of those tortured souls who need to finish up works in progress before I move on. I will be glad to get the last of these out of my hair and move on to new stuff. Hope you all have a grand weekend.

Ringing out January with a new piece

2011-01-31T10:12:00.000-05:00

So, I managed to finish a new piece this past weekend. At least it is finished for now. I am not sure if I am going to put anything it the hands. But, there is a story that goes with it. So, let me tell you if you don't mind.

There was trouble a brewin on that upstart planet called Terra. The Elders of the Cosmos were getting a bit irritated at the inhabitants. " Humans were beginning to get a bit ahead of themselves." scowled one elder. Yes indeed those pesky humans were looking elsewhere for their inspirations. Why they even began to have the nerve to think they were alone in the universe. So, without too much discussion on the matter they all agreed something was to be done. One elder put forth a proposal. "What we need to do is send the humans something really fierce to bow down to." "yes, exactly." hissed another elder.

The cosmic design studio was a bit busy on this day that the elders decided to pay a visit. They announced themselves at it's pearly gates. "We need to consult with the head master designer." chorused the elders. "Certainly." answered the gate attendant. The grand gates opened into an amazing place of stars, planets and galaxy's being created. Many of these were awaiting their final placement in the universe by the cosmic movers. Yes, the sights were dazzling to be sure. The elders were always impressed with the work of the head designer.

They came upon a small pergola where the head master designer was going over some plans for a new planet. The elders chorused a throat clearing and the head designer looked up. "Oh, welcome sirs, welcome. What brings you to my workshop on this fine day?" the head designers squeaky voice asked. For you see, the head designer was one of the oldest inhabitants of the cosmos. No one really new how old he was actually. One elder decided to speak up for the group. "Yes, head master we wish to commission you to create something for us. "Oh, I see." said the head designer. " Yes, it is very important that you begin this assignment right away." stated another elder. The head designer raised his right eye brow in curiosity. "The tallest and most imposing elder stepped forth a step or two and began to describe what the commission was to be.

"You see, we need you to create a new God. One that is the most fierce and horrible God ever. It must be a powerful God that will be obeyed without any conviction." stated the tallest elder. "Oh, and where is this new God to be delivered?" questioned the head designer. "A pesky little planet called Terra." snorted the smallest elder. "They have gotten a little too arrogant. We need to show them who's who up here." The tallest elder took another step forward. "Can you create a great God of Doom?" questioned the tall elder. Another elder said. :We need to clean up that mess down there on Terra." So, the elders looked at the head designer and after a few moments, the head designer spoke. "Well, it can be done, but I will have to put some other projects on hold. What you need me to do hasn't ever been done before. Yet, I will step up to the challenge." "Excellent." hissed the tallest elder. " I will call you when it is ready." quipped the head designer. With that he turned and waddled off leaving the elders standing looking at one another.

Now in the grand time scheme of the cosmos, time isn't measured like it is on planet Terra. So, in a few hundred years which is merely a few hours in the cosmos, the head designer called the elders back to the design shop. In the great amphitheater millions of workers were gathered for this special presentation. Why it wasn't everyday that the elders would personally request a commission. The head master designer wanted to show off his greatest creation to the entire cosmic community. He was very proud of what he had designed. The elders arrived and were shown to their seats in the grandstand for very special guests. Soon the head master designer came out on to the stage. He welcomed everyone to this momentous occasion.

"My fellow cosmic brothers and sisters, I welcome you to this auspicious day." stated the head designer. "For I have been commissioned by the elders to create a special deity for the planet of Terra. One that has never before been created. My greatest masterpiece." continued the head designer. Speaking with great pride the head designer, "Now I present to you," pause and a great silence fell over the entire audience. "The Great Horned God of Broom!" Out came this giant horned God Broom creature sweeping up dust and debris as it moved. The elders had such a shocked look on their faces. Soon laughter erupted throughout the audience. The tallest elder became outraged. "What is this monstrosity? How could this have happened?" the elder yelled. The youngest elder spoke up. ":Didn't you know the head master designer is very hard of hearing?

Great Horned God of Broom

Close up of God of Broom head.

So, my fine fellow bloggers and visitors. What is the moral of this story? I hope you enjoyed this fun little ditty and the creation behind it. May the week be good to you. I will be back later with some more art as I get it finished. Thank you as always for visiting my humble art space.

Sneak Peek as a new Work In Progress

2011-01-24T09:22:00.000-05:00

I am trying to resurrect my Monday mystery posts for the new year. Especially since I have been trying to consistently create in the home studio. So, here is a sneak peek at one I am working on currently. The piece is polymer clay and apoxy sculpt. Hopefully he will be finished by weeks end.

Have a great Monday everyone.

Another finished project

2011-01-19T15:19:00.000-05:00

I have been spending some time in the studio finishing up a few projects. Two of which were the soul portraits that were a part of my Alchemy class lessons.

The premise of the lesson was to create a soul portrait. Something kind of ethereal or spirit like. I show my students how to use a variety of acrylic mediums to create texture and stiffen a variety of fabric and paper pieces to create sculptural effects. So here is soul portrait one.

This is a fun technique. I will be teaching this for the Columbus Ohio doll group Gilded Lilies in March. Here is Soul Portrait two. I plan on using this technique a bit more for some of my fun fantasy pieces, I have in the works. The good thing about finishing up loose ends, is I have some new work to show and it clears off my work table to make room for other things. I have several hanging pieces that I am going to finish in the next few days. I am still feeling a bit anxious and restless. Part of that is due to wanting to try some new things and not having the materials at hand to do it. Funds are a bit limited at the moment, so I can't go shopping for them. That is OK as I can always sketch out the ideas so I don't forget them. On the horizon are some figures incorporating needle felting which I have never done before. Until next time my art pals.

New piece finished - Nature of Mercy

2011-01-18T07:24:00.000-05:00

Isn't it odd how we can one day be at a difficult place and yet another in the bliss? I am finding that my spiritual path always likes to present me with interesting challenges. My art is a fundamental part of my spiritual path as some of you may know. It is one of the greatest ways I have discovered the universe in all it's wisdom and complexity.

The above piece is a great example of the challenges we artists can face creatively. I have been struggling with this piece for weeks. It is simple enough. But, man I could not figure out how to finish her. Her identity was illusive to me. After yesterdays post of feeling like I'm in the bardot, it came rushing forth and said I am ready, finish me. So, her is "The Nature of Mercy" a mixed media piece. Her head is made of polymer clay, apoxy clay and a resin horn. Her hands are vinyl doll hands and the body is formed over a fantail willow branch.

She had under gone several re-workings before her final stage.

Originally she had pink hair. Not sure what I was thinking there. Then I came across these resin horns. So that began her new incarnation.

The idea behind these pieces using the branches, is to combine some sort of nature spirit into my fantasy art. I have been working a lot with the concept of the divine mother. So, here she is the spirit of mercy in nature. It is abstract in thought I know. But, sometimes that's how my mind works. I love her and she is a beautiful personal symbol to me. One that I can not put into words at the moment.

Hope you enjoy Mercy. Peace.

Looking back...

2011-01-17T09:19:00.002-05:00

Have you ever had one of those days where you reflect on where you have been? For some odd reason that keeps coming up in my life of late. Maybe it is because I am going through one of those incubation periods creatively, or just plain burn out. I do not know. But, creating anything is like pulling hens teeth. I am using some of the techniques I teach in my Alchemy class and it is helping. I thought you'd get a kick out of seeing me in my early days of doll making. Here is a shot of me working on one of my cloth dolls that I designed myself. It is taken in my favorite studio space I ever had. It was the top floor of where the art store that I work at used to be located.

Our store moved last year to a space around the corner from the old space. I still have dreams about working in the old space and being able to go to my studio on my lunch break. This was twelve years ago believe it or not. Now I am creating in clay instead of cloth. Marching to my own hero's journey. Fortunately the ideas are still swimming around in my head. I am going to attempt to scribble them down before they evaporate. Oh, one of the exercises in my class is one of using favorite foods to trigger creative energy. So, I made a batch of sweets I call cookie crack. It is a toffee like cookie bar made out of saltine crackers of all things. This stuff is so addictive I nick named it cookie crack.

Cody's Cookie Crack

2 sticks of butter

1and 1/2 cups brown sugar packed

1 and 1/2 sleeves of saltine crackers (enough to cover bottom of 9x13 inch pan

2 cups of chocolate morsels

1/2 cup chopped nuts of your choice. I use mixed

Preheat oven to 350 F

cover 9x13 baking sheet with parchment and then line with crackers.

In a saucepan melt butter and sugar together until bubbly and let it cook for three minutes stirring constantly. Spread mixture over crackers and bake in oven for ten minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate morsels over hot cracker mixture. Let chocolate melt and then spread with a spatula over the cracker mixture to coat. Sprinkle the chopped nuts over the chocolate layer and let cool completely. Now you can break into small cookie size pieces. Enjoy! Bwahahahaha....

Anyway, hope your Monday is a good one and the week flows like sweet honey for you. If I get any good scribbles I will try and share them with y'all. Cio!

Second Finished Sculpt of 2011

2011-01-09T18:45:00.000-05:00

This is the second finished sculpt of the new year. He is a Lucky Kappa even though I incorrectly called him a Tengu. He is a Japanese goblin that lives in the mountain streams. He has a depression on the top of his head where there is water. If you trick him to spill his water he is then rendered immobile. So, I created this Lucky version for my friend Micha for Christmas. I couldn't post until we had our exchange today. He stands about 6-7 inches high and is made of polymer clay. His head cup is made from an acorn cap.

Here is a picture of the depression in the top of his head. I created the water from a tinted clear tar gel acrylic medium. This was a fun little piece to make. I think I may make a few more.

Hope your new year is going well so far. Have a great week ahead.

New Art Sort of

2011-01-02T11:21:00.000-05:00

Hello my fellow artists and followers. Happy New year to you all and hope this one will bring some great things your war. I have been busy the last five weeks with my online class and am just about to wrap it up. I had a blast creating video tutorials for it and man was that a big learning curve. My students were all great and hope they liked the class. Below is the final project for the class. There were a number of smaller projects that lead up to this one. This is totality or the Alchemy of ME doll. Below is the one I made along with the class so that the techniques were fresh.

Here is a close up of my Alchemy Me. I am well on my way to making this upcoming year the best ever. I have set myself some goals that are at least achievable. I don't like using resolutions as that always makes me feel like I have been bad. Goals offer a more positive outlook on making changes or improvements in my life. Well, until next, thank you for being an important part of my creative life. Thank you for your friendship and encouragement over the past year and beyond. I truly do treasure that in my life.

Happy Holidays and Merry New Year

2010-12-25T12:04:00.000-05:00

I wanted to take this moment to wish all of you who have been followers and supporters of me and my art a happy and healthy holiday season. Nay your new year be prosperous and bright. This image is a Christmas card I designed for our 2003 yearly card. I am in one of those moods of looking back fondly of times past. This was done with colored pencil on parchment.

I apologize for the lack of posts, but I have been really busy with my online class. Haven't had much time to make art the last few weeks. But, I hope to have some things to share next week. Until then, my love to you all out there and keep on inspiring those around you.

Cheers,
Cody

Second Chocolat Show Piece

2010-11-23T10:38:00.000-05:00

Happy Tuesday out there to all my artist friends and beyond. I wanted to post a quickie picture of the second piece for the upcoming Chocolat show at the Prairie Gallery here in Cincinnati. He is the Cocoa Goblin. As you can see he is accompanied by some little marshmallow critters. He's polymer clay over a paper mache armature with glass marble eyes. He is sitting in a cup my partners mom gave me since she thinks I collect cow stuff still. She is a wonderful mom. So, anyway hope you find him amusing. Now I can focus on getting a few last minute pieces for Winterfair and the Essex Studios open house both coming up rapidly. These are the last three shows of the year. Then I can concentrate on my online class so my students have lots to do and learn. Cheers to you all and Happy Turkey day to those in the USA.

Secret Artworks Revealed

2010-11-20T09:35:00.000-05:00

Hello out there in blog landia. Hope you have had a great week so far. If not, it will get better. Anyway, I wanted to finally share with you all another set of works. These were created for one of my favorite charities. Artworks Cincinnati is celebrating their 15 year anniversary this year and five years hosting the Secret Artworks. The premise is invite artists to create works of art that are 5x7 inches. They can only be signed on the back. So, when they are displayed no one knows whose work it is until it is purchased. They have a big to do where patrons come and buy the pieces at $75 each. A bargain for sure. The money goes to giving teenagers and local artists a job in the summer creating public art. The artists act as teachers and mentors to the kids. It is a great thing here in Cincinnati. I have participated since it's beginnings five years ago. So, I created four polymer clay sculpts. The first one above is called "Oohlah Bird, Goblin". Polymer clay over artist panel and painted with acrylics.

This peice is "Forest Rabbit Goblin", which was a fun little guy to make.

Here is the "Sea Hag Goblin", she has some opalescent colors which give her a shimmer.

Last but not least is the "Tibetan Mountain Goblin" and was one of the first to be sold. Each of these pieces also has designs embossed into the backgrounds which I tried to match to the theme of the piece. I love doing these and will be making many more for myself to sell. Three of the pieces sold while I was in attendance which was a proud moment for me. It is a worthwhile cause. I am looking forward to next years event too. They have lots of great snacks, booze, and tons of patrons. This provides great networking opportunities too. It is held at a downtown hotel in their banquet rooms and is the highlight of my year. So, I hope you all enjoyed viewing some of what I have been up to of late. Now it is time to get back to the lair and finish up some other works. Happy weekend to you all.

Sneak Peek

2010-11-17T15:24:00.000-05:00

Hello to all my artist friends and followers out there. I wanted to share a sneak peek of a piece I finished for a group show. The show is called Chocolat and as it's title suggests has the theme of chocolate. The show opens at the Prairie Gallery located in the Northside neighborhood of Cincinnati on December 3rd. So, the first of two pieces is entitled "The Chocolate Thief" he is a polymer clay over wire armature full body sculpt. The thief is perched atop his pedestal with the remnants of his spoils all around him. He admires the last of his spoils in anticipation of how good it will taste. The piece is about 14" tall all together. I am working on the second piece now and hope to have him ready by this weekend.

Also, I wanted to remind you all of the class I am teaching online. It is called Artspell the Alchemy of M.E. and you can read about it here The class sign up closes on December 3rd. I hope you can join me.

Hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week..

Mini Me!

2010-11-08T11:20:00.003-05:00

Happy Monday everyone. I hope you all are doing well out there. Well, I managed to finish my self portrait challenge doll and earlier than I thought this time. I still have time to get some ornaments made. In the meantime, here's my mini me. The story is, this is myself twenty years into the future. I have become an eccentric old wizard. But, I am not the robe wearing type, so I am dressing myself in something a bit more modern. A little rough around the edges and I have let my hair and beard grow out a bit. When you're old and magical you can get away with it. He's a polymer clay head, hands and feet. His coat is a pieced together one made out of leather scraps from a leather coat I once wore. His hat is also made from the same leather as are his boot cuffs. Every piece of clothing is either hand sewn or glued.

Here is the close view of my head. The glasses were made by my partner Buck. He is really good at detail and these look like the ones I currently wear. I think I will hire him to make all of my accessories from no on. Well, I hope you enjoyed seeing my mini me. I hope to post about my ornaments and Chocolat show pieces soon. Until then, have a great week. Cio!

Self Portrait WIP

2010-11-06T14:27:00.000-04:00

Well I finally have time to post a work in progress. It is the self portrait challenge piece for the local doll guilds annual show. This years challenge was creating a self portrait. Now, we could take liberties. Meaning, we could do a portrait that reflects who we wish to be, see ourselves or a literal portrait. So, I opted for how I might appear as one of my favorite fantasies, a wise old wizard.

I don't know about you, but having to do this challenge was just that. It was difficult looking at myself and trying to be objective. Also, it is really odd trying to project myself into the future and also capture the essence of my dream self. What was really exciting was I got the figure to stand on his own. I hope that I can maintain this delicate balance.

Here is a close up of my head. I am about half way there. I still need to cloth me and add what hair I may want. This is a polymer clay head hands and feet. His body is a wire armature wrapped with layers of batting. I am still debating on how to skin this one. I have several techniques I use and I am not sure how I am costuming myself. So, I an gong to walk away for a few minutes to let this one percolate a bit. So, until next time, have a good weekend everyone.

RiverCity Figurative Artist' Guild Annual Show and Sale

2010-11-02T21:27:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post to let you all know about a show i;ll be in here in good ole Cincinnati. It is the RiverCity Figurative Artist' Guild annual show and sale. Hope to have a bunch of new work and my self portrait challenge piece there. Hope you all out there are having a good week so far. It's getting cold already here. Oh, and don't forget about my class that starts on December 1st. You can read about it here and sing up in the left side of the blog. Hope to post some art later this week. Thank you for stopping by.

And the Winner is!

2010-10-31T22:06:00.000-04:00

Since I am making an early night of it. I pulled the name of the winner of my Halloween giveaway. So the winner of the Dark Angel Baby is

Joyce from Pittsburgh.

Please contact me with your snail mail info and I will send off your prize. Thank you to everyone who played along. It was truly fun. Don't forget I am doing my first internet class starting December 1st, you can read about it in the precious post. Have a great evening everyone.

Artspell - The Alchemy of M.E. Class

2010-10-23T11:04:00.000-04:00

At long last I am now ready to offer this class to the world. It is something that is near and dear to my heart. Ten years in the making. This class combines many elements from previous classes to create a comprehensive art experience. So, what is this class about you are thinking. Artspell is a class designed to do several things. One, it is a great resource for some interesting and fun art techniques. It is designed for those who want to learn how I sculpt, create figures, do mixed media, use of acrylic mediums and paints and so on. Secondly, it is a multi step process that helps you to discover who you are as an artist, as a creator. We explore the three elements of the self and how that shapes the artist in you. Thirdly, it is a beginning approach to using art as a trans-formative and healing tool for you and others that you love.

I use a variety of spiritual, psychological and philosophical views and information that I have learned over some 30 years of my life. Yes, the mystical arts are covered as well some interesting psychology, mythology and cultural information. This class will be offered in a closed blog format. This will serve as a forum for each student to post his or her ideas in the comments section in a safe and secure way. The class will be six weeks long. Which means there will be six lessons with lots of information, how to pictures, hopefully some video too. There will be exercises for each of the lessons resulting in a work of art or two. Also, the class will guide you in the making of your own healing doll, figure or mixed media art piece. Thus, this class isn't just for doll makers, sculptors or mixed media. It is for anyone wanting to expand their creative horizons.

OK, here is the break down:

Week #1 - Introduction and Basics. You will learn to create your own book if you wish as well as sculpting basics, creating your own simple patterns.Why journaling is really important for self discovery and documentation. How the five elements work for you.

Week#2 - The physical world around you, your environment, color and light, earth element. Food and it's creative affect. Music and sound.

Week#3 - The Emotions and your brain. Mythology and the hero's journey, dreams, the water element, what's your story?

Week#4 - The spirit, mystical tradition, arcane knowledge, tarot, fortune telling, seeing the signs.

Week#5 - Your story, putting it all together, your self portrait. The Alchemy of My Experiences.

Week#6 - Creating art that heals and comforts. Conclusion, final thoughts.

There you have it. If this sounds like a class you can learn something in, then join us. The class will begin on December 1st. and a new lesson will be posted each successive Wednesday. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have. I am offering this comprehensive class for first time students $45. I only have room for 100 students in each session. So, if you want to get in on this ground breaking class and be one of the first then click the buy now button to the left in the sidebar. I will add your name to the list along with your email so you can have access to the class when it starts. I would like to thank several people for encouraging me to get this off the ground. Kajy a great friend and my coworker at Plaza Art, my partner Buck, MarZel of The Play of Light and Shadow and last but certainly not least Michelle of Crow Haven Farm.

I hope you will join me for this fun class experience.

Creepy Orphan Society Sept/Oct Challenge

2010-10-23T10:23:00.000-04:00

Well, I finally finished my September/October challenge, "Morbid Curiosity" for the Creepy Orphan SOciety. I have to say I don't do creepy that often. The last was my Halloween giveaway piece. But here is the "Great Horned Boney Bird". He is a polymer clay sculpt over a wood and wire armature. That is wrapped with batting and fabric strips to fill out the gody. I made his talons out of wire and paper. His tail is another piece of fantail willow. I just love using those. The skin of his body is strips of decorative paper applied. Once that was dry, I applied the black netting over it as a drape or cloak like piece. Then he was finished with little pieces of a pink and dark gray fake fur. I like how he finally turned out. The cool thing about some of the more artsy pieces I have made in the last few months, is that I have been developing some fun techniques. I plan on using these for future projects.

This is a close up of his upper body. So, there is the first challenge for our fledgling group. I enjoy the Creepy Orphan Society, a great group of artists and it is fun to share. It gives me a chance to explore a bit of the darker side of things. Have a great fun Saturday my friends out there in blog land. Tomorrow I announce the details of my new class. I hope you will come back and check it out.

Long Week!!!!

2010-10-22T14:11:00.000-04:00

Hello, and welcome back to my little art blog. It's been a week, as in odd and somewhat stressful. Not all bad, but it keeps you exhausted and anxious. Anyway, I wanted to share with you this little guy. He's another in the Dweedle series. His name is Ozloh, and he gets lost in thought a lot. Even while walking through his forest he suddenly starts going off into some far away thought. So, far he has escaped serious injury. Ozloh is a polymer clay sculpt over a paper mache and wire armature. He stands about 6 inches high. His wisp of hair is wool from a local provider.

Well, that's it for show and tell. I am hoping to announce the details of my big class that I have been working on for a very long time. So, stay tuned this weekend. Don't forget to enter my Halloween giveaway. Just scroll down to the next post for details. Have a great Friday everyone.

Halloween Giveaway!

2010-10-10T11:37:00.000-04:00

1st Annual Halloween Giveaway!!!

I am doing one last giveaway for the year. So, without further ado, here is Dark Angel Baby for my tribute to Halloween. In order to have a chance at winning him you must fulfill the requirements below.

1. Be a follower of this blog.

2. Leave a comment on this post and make sure I have contact information.

3. Tell me about your favorite Halloween thing.

That's it, the winner will be chosen on Halloween. You can leave more than one comment if you wish. Hope you all have a ghoulishly wonderful Halloween season. Good luck my friends.

Monday Catch Up

2010-10-04T09:11:00.000-04:00

OK, two posts in one week is rare for me I know. But, I thought I'd play catch up while I can. This is a busy season for me and I have lots of creating to do. In addition to that, I decided to give my blog a new look for October. Hope you like it. It needed a bit of something. I am not sure this is it. But, in the spirit of adventure and creativity I thought what the heck. This little guy is the first in a limited series of characters. He is a Dweedle. They are little magical beings that aren't quite convinced that they are magical. So, whenever they make magic it tends to be accidental and without intention. This little one is trying to lift something quite heavy and out of reach to make way for his walking. He hasn't quite got it yet.

Here's another view of the guy. No, he doesn't have a name yet. When I try to ask him he mumbles something that sounds like Moot. So, maybe I will call him Mumbbly Moot. He is a polymer clay sculpt over a cotton egg and wire armature. His face is a recycled goblin head bead I made two years ago. I didn't use the beads as they were too heavy for the necklace I was making. Nothing like recycling to spur creativity. Have a great week one and all.

Essex open house Pictures

2010-10-03T19:38:00.000-04:00

Well, another Essex Studios open house come and gone. It was a little lack luster this time around. I guess there was more stuff going on in the city. We had perfect October weather for it though. I decided to show you some pics I took in the studio. I didn't get to walk around much. Yes, I did sell some small items. Anything is better than none.

So, to start off the pictures here is a picture of "The Keeper of Ancient Knowledge" in her finished state hanging on the wall. She looked so elegant and otherworldly there. I received many positive comments on all of my work. Her costume is made from fabric and torn pieces of decorative papers from Thailand saturated with Ultra Matte Medium. I love this stuff. She is approximately 24" tall.\

Here is a close of the Keeper. Her hair is a hand dyed wool from a local sheep and goat farmer.

Next we have another recently completed piece entitled "What Till They Get a Load of Me" and he was a really fun piece that made people laugh out loud.

This is a shot of my table full of my children as I call them. Since I am one of three in the studio at this time, I have one whole side to myself. Starting in the new year there will just be myself and my partner in the studio. More room for stuff and I will be offering classes there.

Hah and Zah are there perched on the wall together where they love it.

Another new piece called "Yayeh". He was fun to make. He is a polymer clay sculpt. His head is made from a bead that I made two years ago.

Lastly I end with Willow Woman in all her glory hanging out in the main hall greeting passersby. It was a nice weekend all in all. The visitors were very engaging and the questions were great fun to answer. Our next open house is in December. That is the holiday open house. I am planning some fun ornaments this year. Have a great week everyone.

Works in progress....

2010-09-29T14:49:00.000-04:00

Howdy out there in bloggoland. I am popping in to share some WIP's with ya'll. Spending today at home in the studio home base trying to get two last minute pieces finished for the Essex Studios open house this weekend. I will be hanging these puppies up just minutes before the opening. But, hey that's how most of work some days anyway right? The first offering is one I am calling, warning long title sequence here. "Wait till they get a load of me or Even Cowpokes get the Blues". Told ya it was a long one. He is a tongue in cheek tribute to cross dressing cowboys of sorts.

The next sneak peak is one I am calling "Keeper of the Ancient Knowledge". Oh, and these pieces are not in their final poses or colors yet. I have applied layers of decorative papers and fabrics with a ultra heavy matte medium. They are both polymer clay heads and hands. Then they were built over a wire and wood armature. This was then covered in layered cotton batting and fabric. The Keeper still needs her hair and hair ornament plus the cool thing that she will be holding. Don't worry I will get pictures of these two once they are done and hanging up on the walls at the studio. Plus, I will try and get pictures of the show too. I have two studio mates that will be showing as well. We three all have new work to show this time around. Well, that's it for now. Have a good one out there.

Mondays Offering

2010-09-20T10:22:00.000-04:00

Todays art piece is my Punkinhead Scarecrow. I had been mulling this one over a bit. I wasn't sure if he was finished or not. But, I like the simplicity of him this way and have decided he is indeed finished. His head and hands are polymer clay. The support is willow, paper birch on a wood plaque. His tattered garb is made from a handmade paper that was obtained in the damaged goods section at my job. We get first dibs on any damaged stuff. I used ultra heavy matte medium to stiffen and attach the paper to the body. He was a great deal of fun. Hope you enjoy him. Have a great week out there all my blog friends.

Show News

2010-09-18T08:16:00.000-04:00

Todays post is to let you all know about two of the five shows coming up for me here in Cincinnati. The first one is for the annual show the local guild I belong to hosts each year. We are the RiverCity Figurative Artists Guild. It's the second weekend in November at the Kennedy Heights Art Center. It is always filled with all sorts of art dolls and a few displays too. This years viewers choice display is the theme of self portraits. It should be fun.

The second show is actually in a few weeks. It is the October open studio tour of the Essex Studios where I have a studio space. It is the anniversary show as this was the month they had their first show some ten years ago. There are over 100 artists and performing arts groups located there in one building. So, if you are in the area please come out and join us. It is October 1st and 2nd from 6-11pm.

Well, I hope to post a new piece or two by the end of the weekend. I have been working slowly on getting sme pieces done for these upcoming shows plus a few charity events. So stay tuned.

Monday Not Such A Mystery

2010-09-06T21:00:00.000-04:00

Squeaking in by the seat of my pants on this post. I have been trying to do at least one or two a week. Here is Mondays offering. It isn't a mystery this week. Here is the first witch I have made in a good five years. I like the challenge of creating a character. The symbol of the witch is such a powerful one spiritually speaking to me. Her name is Miranda and she is a skilled practitioner of the magical arts. Her specialty is healing the soul. She does whatever it takes for her seekers of healing to discover what lies at the root of their discomfort or ill health. In addition to the healing arts she loves gardening and communing with tress. However she is dressed here in her finest attire for a special whirlwind speaking tour of Europe and the far east.

This is a closer view of Miranda. She is polymer clay head and hands. Her body is a stump body style made out of black suede cloth. She is weighted with small glass pellets to keep her upright. She has layers of black lace and some type of fancy black sheer material. She is wearing a gold necklace with her magical stones in it. Her hair is New Zealand sheep skin that was cut to size and trimmed to fit. The wand is made of a thin maple dowel and stained to look like ebony. Her belt is a fancy antiqued gold metallic ribbon. Her eyes are small hematite beads.

Well, that's Mondays offerings. I hope you enjoyed the fruit of my labor this weekend. I still have several more pieces to finish. But, I am not sure I will get anymore done by weeks end. Have a good one everyone.

Brick Finished

2010-09-03T10:13:00.000-04:00

I finally finished the altered brick for the "Bricks Along the Journey" brick auction. It is a local charity that raises money for women who are dealing with breast cancer. It covers care and assistance. I love this local charity and it has a lot of personal meaning for me. Anyway, here is this years offering. I can't say it is my best work. But, I really wanted to participate this year. It was hard to come up with an idea this time around. So, it hit me one day that I could do a tree of life. Now mind you, this is not a great photo of it. The brick is done in all sorts of metallic and shimmering finishes which are hard to photograph. It is hard to see here, but the tree has a little set of steps leading up to a doorway in the trunk. The faces represent the faces of humanity and how we are all connected to one another. So, I hope it raises some much needed money for the cause. The auction is in October.

Have a great weekend everyone and if the art Gods are smiling upon me, I shall have some new pieces to share later this weekend. Cio baby.

Giveaway Winner!!!

2010-08-31T23:22:00.002-04:00

The winner of my giveaway is....

MarZel!!!

Thanks you to everyone who played. MarZel, contact me so I can arrange to get the prize to you. Have a great Wednesday everyone.

Monday's Mysteries

2010-08-30T10:21:00.000-04:00

This is my Monday Mystery offering this week. These are some of the beginnings of projects that I will be working on this week. I need to really get some pieces done for an upcoming show my local figurative art guild is participating in. We as members can show some work there and hopefully sell. So, as you can see I have a nice collection of heads. The orange one is my pumpkin head almost complete. The gray one is a witch in progress, she needs more work on her head too. The yellow lady is also going to be a magical being, not sure what yet. As you can see lots of possibilities.

Have a great day everyone.

Sunday Sunny Sunday

2010-08-29T10:25:00.000-04:00

Not exactly sunny, todays offerings are of a piece I was able to finish yesterday. He is called Sandman. You may recall in an earlier post the twig figure that had some batting wrapped around his body and a wire for arms? So, here he is finished. His head and hands are polymer clay. I embellished him with some bone beads and a leather sack full of his special sand. This fella is ready to put you to sleep even if you don't think you can get there. Just try to stop him. He measures about 16 inches tall. His body is a fantail willow twig wrapped with cotton batting and hand dyed fabric. His cloak is purchased cotton and a hand dyed cheesecloth scarf.

Here is his closeup. He has fresh water pearl eyes. You will notice that thee are no pupils. He is a blind sandman. He uses the power of his psychic third eye to find his victims, I mean patients. He floats poised to fling the sands of sleep into your eyes. He does actually hang on the wall. I have made a hand hammered copper loop to hang him from. I am off to work some more. I have a ton of projects in various stages of completion. Thank you to all my followers out there. I appreciate all of your feedback and time you take to visit my humble art place. One more reminder about my give away. You can go here to enter. Cio.

Another Blast from the Past

2010-08-28T11:19:00.000-04:00

I thought I'd share a pic of one of the figures I made awhile back. These guys are called personal Mojos. They were the precursor to my current wall based stick sculpts. This guy is the white flower cowboy. He is supposed to bring a southern flair to your gardening experience. He is sporting some stylish white go go boots. I am proposing a class in making these mixed media figures for Artiscape 2011 in Columbus Ohio. It is a fun mixed media workshop weekend. Lisa Olmer who runs it does a fabulous job. There must be something good in the water of Columbus Ohio. Because two of the best conferences are held there and run by two amazing women. Anyway, I will keep you all posted if I make it in.

Don't forget I am having a giveaway and you still have a few days to enter. You can get to it here.

Today I am working in my studio again, trying like mad to get as much done before the middle of September. Work will be hell then and I will not feel up to making much art for a couple of weeks. Then it is the start of the fall show season for me. So, stay tuned. There will be a witch, pumpkin head and who knows what else will be coming here to make their debuts. Have a great Saturday everyone.

Saturday's Strange Brew

2010-08-21T12:41:00.000-04:00

Saturday's strange brew feature. Since I am exploring some darker things in my art of late, I thought I'd introduce you to Cotu. He is the mascot of my new series I am working on in regards to the Carnival of the Unseen. He is certainly one of those beings from somewhere else. You never know what he will do or say. He is the quintessential bad kid. But, he has fleeting moments of niceness.

Cotu is pure assemblage. He is made from part of a vinyl toy baby and a glass Christmas ornament. Plastic wings finish him off in ghoulish style. A rather simple offering from me. But, you know sometimes I think less is more. Have a great Saturday everyone. Oh, and don't forget about my giveaway. You can revisit the post here.

Fridays Finished Works

2010-08-20T15:43:00.001-04:00

How's your Friday shaping up? Mine, is going pretty well. I have this set of rituals I like to observe on Fridays. After my morning run of errands, I return home for an afternoon of fun. First thing I do is get a loaf of peasant herb bread going in my bread machine. I developed the recipe and it is mighty tasty if I say so myself. Next I spend some time in the home studio working on projects. Well today I was able to finish the two WIPs you saw last time. So, I am presenting them here to you today. After this I am heading to the kitchen again to make a rustic veggie soup and a pineapple exotica cocktail to go with it.

Now, about the figures. If you remember, they were cloth wrapped wire armatures with clay heads and hands. Here is the female figure all finished. These two are the first in my series of work called the Carnival of the Unseen. I will explain more on that in a later post. But, these two were a little bit of a departure for me.

Here you can see the male figure. Yes, his hands are a bit big. They were made that way on purpose. These figures will introduce a very personal series for me. I am exploring the idea of sideshows, freaks etc. But, you will have to wait until later to see how that relates to my personal story.

This is a picture of the two together. They will be hanging on the wall in performance. These figures were wrapped with a second layer of fabric that became the skin and clothing all in one. I then wrapped a variety of fibers around the body. The shoes have couched fibers around the edge and a little bead ornament. Each one has it's own little chest ornament. A clock for the female and a Pisces charm for the male. It is to represent me as I am a Pisces by birth. I haven't named them yet. Any ideas? Anyway, I hope you enjoy the finished results as much as I do. I had a blast making them. As I said a bit of a departure for me. They are a kind of throw back to earlier works I have done in cloth.

Have a fabulous weekend out there all my wonderful artist friends and admirers.

Mystery Monday Four

2010-08-16T09:11:00.000-04:00

It's time for another installment of Mystery Mondays. Even though you can see these two pretty well. Not withstanding my poor photography not much of a mystery really. The mystery is what will these two figures become. They are an experiment actually in creating pieces that will still hang on the wall, but instead of branches for there bottom third, I gave them legs and feet. They are destined to be performers in the Carnival of the Unseen. At least that is the story the have given me. We shall see if that is true or not. I used two of the heads that I sculpted last week.

Still need to sculpt hands to match the other heads I sculpted. All in good time I suppose.

Also, a reminder of my give away that you can still get in on. You can find the details here.

Have a great and wonderful Monday as well as beautiful week ahead.

Saying Thank You in a Giveaway

2010-08-13T09:35:00.000-04:00

You aren't seeing things. I have posted this piece before. But, this time is different. I wanted to celebrate two things in my little life. First is hitting 140 followers here on this blog. I am so honored by the loyal friends who come and visit me and my art goings on. Thank you for that support and encouragement. Secondly, a good friend and artist I know really inspired me with her own unique spiritual perspectives on giving. So, MarZel this is to honor your wonderful contribution to my world as well.

The above piece is only about 6x8 inches in size. But, it's spirit is mighty. At least to me it is. The intention while creating it was to honor the trees that are constantly sacrificed sometimes without thought or honor for humankind. In many cases without a thought, just discarded because they are in our way. The trees are our guardians, give us food, shelter, many things we use in our everyday lives. They help clean up our airand cool down the planet. So, this is my humble offering.

So, I am offering this as a giveaway, to one of my followers. Just leave a comment on this post, be a follower, and on September 1st I will draw a name at random. To make it easier to keep track I will not comment back. I want to make sure everyone has a chance. Thank you for your support of my humble blog and art it is most appreciated. Have a great weekend.

Giveaway Guidelines Again.

Be a follower

Comment on this post.

Last day to enter August 31st.

Good Luck!

Mystery Mondays part 3

2010-08-09T08:19:00.000-04:00

It's time once again for mystery Mondays. Here are a few of the heads I have sculpted this past weekend. These are experiments for a few new pieces I am hoping to get finished for some of the fall shows I am going to be participating in this year. The above is a shot of the four I was able to make. These heads are made from a blend of super sculpey and sculpey III polymer clay. The green ones have a sea shell embedded on the top back of the scull. I was looking for a more alien kind of look for them.

Jere is a close up of the green heads. It will be a surprise as to who or what they will be come. I know, but I am not telling yet. It'll be a mystery befitting a Monday.

This is a bad photo of the cubic head. In revisiting my past I did a series of three pieces I called block heads. So, this is in homage to them. As a matter of fact, I am going to recycle the original three a bit. It is funny how we can see what we would have done differently on something we have made. At least I have a chance to do that this time.

Last but certainly not least is the yellow head with a bit of Mr. Blockhead trying to get in on the shot. The yellow head is feminine but, has an extended skull. Sorry you can't really see that here. Well, there you have it. My mystery Monday offerings for this week. I hope I can continue the trend for a while. Now I need to make hands to match the heads. In addition to these, I still have the heads from the last installment to make hands for. Have a fabulous week my artsy friends.

Frresh Start Friday

2010-08-06T14:52:00.000-04:00

Don't you just love those cutesy titles. Hey I am having a fun day in the home studio. I've been painting and glazing heads that I sculpted earlier. Hopefully, I will get some more sculpting in as well. Anyway, here is the beginnings of a new wall piece I am working on. I am not quite sure who he'll be yet. He seems to think he should be dispensing sand to get people to fall asleep. Boy could I use some of that stuff. But, the identity usually doesn't show up until I get hands and the body covering on. So, who knows who will show up. Oh, yes I know the picture is less than desirable quality. It just adds to the mystery. Hopefully the finished piece will be better photographed. Well, my wonderful friends out there, have a great weekend. With any luck, I'll be posting some more fun stuff. Until then, Cio!

Mystery Mondays part 2

2010-08-02T09:34:00.000-04:00

Well, it's Monday once again. That means another mystery piece or pieces. Here are two heads I sculpted from two of the armatures I showed you all last Monday. It was good to get back into sculpting again. Now the fun of seeing what these two become. I have a few more to sculpt so hopefully something a little further along will show up soon. Have a great Monday out there.

Winner of July Giveaway!!!

2010-08-01T18:03:00.000-04:00

Hey just wanted to pop in and announce the winner of the gibe away for July. The winner is Deb Wallace. Please contact me with your snail mail and I will post your patterns. Thanks to those who participated.

Mystery Mondays

2010-07-26T10:20:00.000-04:00

Mystery Mondays, that sounds rather generic I know. But, I thought I'd try something fun to start the week off. I am always trying to find ways to inspire and encourage me to make art consistently instead of when ever the energy or mood hits. It seems it is easy to get complacent after something like major surgery. There are no excuses at this point now. I am feeling much better, with a nice bit of energy to start my days. But, I seem to give in to laziness and use my being a bit tired to just give up the ghost. Anyway, I am digressing just a bit here. Mystery Mondays came out of my noticing other artists sharing a bit of their creative processes. Like Sketched out Mondays that Michael DeMeng does, so I thought it would be fun to give you all a glimpse into my little world. I will tell you right now, that I am off in a hundred different directions with my sculpture right now, so who knows what will actually end up on the finish line these days. Too many ideas flying around in the old noodle I guess.

In the above picture are a good number of the heads I am working on in various stages. They go from the just getting started armature stage like the egg and cube shaped ones to the middle way flat man in the moon faces on to the finished man and skull heads. Now you get to imagine or guess what these will end up becoming. One direction that I am currently loving is the revisit of some talisman like pieces I did years ago. I make these pieces I call House Mojos and they were essentially a protection spirit for your home. So, I am hoping to make a few of these kinds of pieces but, with a lot more sophistication than they had in the early years. I am also into making fantasy based mixed media sculpts too. Who knows what direction these heads will take me. But, that is the mystery and the fun of it I think. Have a wonderful Monday out there all my cyber friends.

A Finished UFO

2010-07-22T11:25:00.000-04:00

As promised, here is the finished version of one of my UFOs. This isn't such a great photo of it but, hopefully you can get the idea. I call this piece "Spirits of the Grove" and represents the souls of the trees that are released after being chopped down. I have a great bit of anger towards reckless clearing of our precious trees even in the city where they are needed the most. Power companies justify it by saying it interferes with their power lines. So, this is my humble healing piece for the trees that I am sending out into the universe. I love trees and respect them for what they do for us and the planet.

Below is the pre-finished version to refresh your memory of where it started out it's life.

Don't forget to enter my July giveaway that was listed in the previous post. Just scroll down and you will find it there. I hope you all have a smashing weekend coming up. Stay cool if you can and go forth and create.

Summer Cleaning, Feeling Better and July Giveaway

2010-07-21T13:32:00.000-04:00

Wow! what a difference another week makes. I am feeling a lot better since my surgery about a month ago. It has been a long haul it seems to me. But, I know our bodies need plenty of time to heal from major surgery. Despite the ever present exhaustion and other physical unpleasantness, I am feeling more like my old self. So, I have been cleaning up my home studio so I can be inspired to work on art again. I am in big withdrawal from sculpting and such. But, I needed to make room to move and spread out a bit. Still need to clear off my work table a bit. But, I have plenty of projects in the works to keep me busy.

Now on to the give away. I am so excited to see the new followers. You all rock and make my day everyday. It is so much fun and an honor to share my world of eclectic fantasy with you. Whilst cleaning and listening to my Itunes library, I came across a selection of patterns I've been meaning to give away. So, here is my July give away.

Five cloth doll patterns:

"A Stargaze Threesome" by Patti Maderis Culea

"Granny Moon" by Allison Marano

"Illuminat" by Mary Ann Kaahanui

"Auntie Kate" by Ruth Landis

"Curly Shirley" by Sally Lampi

To be put in the giveaway, just comment on this post and also be a follower. After all it is to celebrate all of you faithful followers out there. I will draw the winner by random number on August 1st. Good luck.

Stay tuned, I plan on posting the finished threesome piece I showed you in the last post.

UFOs from my past or Starting a new

2010-07-02T09:39:00.000-04:00

I don't know about you, but I have been on this kick of returning to unfinished objects de art or UFOs as I call them. You know some great idea you have at one time and just didn't finish or take it to it's obvious conclusion. Here are two such examples. I brought these home from my away from home studio back in May after our last open house. I started these last summer when I was just messing around with some stuff. As you know I am into this Icon kick of late. These are some little sculpts made from some of my own molds attached to a small 6x6 inch canvas. The background is actually made with graphite blended into a clear molding paste like stuff. A friend of mine gave me some to play with. She uses this stuff in her theater design job for doing texture on sets and things. It is interesting. Anyway, I am going to transform these gals into pieces based on the idea of the number three. You know the three fates or three virtues kind of thing?

This panel is the one with the graphite mixed into the texturing stuff. It gives an interesting old dirty look or quality to the background. I am not sure it will survive the redo though. Who knows what will happen. I have to sit and look at them and ponder which direction and who these gals are supposed to be or represent.

Secondly, here is the one without the graphite mixed in to the texture stuff. I think the stuff is called Sculpta Coat or something like that. Next time I talk to Lisa, my friend I will ask her the name of it. Just in case any of you out there might be interested in it.

Guess it's obvious that I am feeling a bit better. It doesn't hurt that I am getting bored just laying about. Don't worry I am pacing myself and not over doing it. This recovery thing really bites for sure. But, I am really on the mend. Thanks again for stopping by and for the continuing encouragement.

The Cosmic Clown

2010-07-01T15:05:00.000-04:00

Wow! That didn't take long. So let me introduce you to the Cosmic Clown. He is the one that like to play tasteful jokes on you as you travel your spiritual journey. Of course I don't think the jokes are always in good taste. But, he says that's a matter of opinion. Usually his which ruffles me sometimes. He is a poly clay head and attached to a funky piece of willow branch. He has an assortment of fibers and beads I received in a door prize bag at our last meeting with the Indy doll group this past May. I attached glass marbles as his little magical orbs along the bottom of the branch.

This one was a great deal of fun to make. These pieces aren't all that sophisticated but, they make great blank canvas' to play around with. I thinking of offering this as a class. Anyway I hope you like both posts today. Now I need to go and declutter my worktable a bit so I can start some new things. Until next time love to you all and happy creating.

I finished one!

2010-07-01T14:25:00.001-04:00

Oh, how sweet it is to finally get back to posting. It seems like months even though I know it's only been a few weeks. I have been through my prostate surgery and am recovering at home. I will be returning to work at the art store next week. I am not feeling ready for that but, I can't do without a paycheck for long. Anyway, here is one piece that was almost finished before surgery that I finally did complete today. She is old woman of the willow. I am not sure where I am going from here creatively speaking. I am not feeling overly enthusiastic to get into it again. I am sure that is due to the surgery and recovery process.

Old woman of the willow is a polymer clay sculpt over a willow branch and then painted and glazed. I added a bit of fiber to give her the feeling of some sort of greenery. Not really sure about that one, but it is OK.

Here is a close up of her. I really liked doing this sculpt. It barely fit in the oven so I have to be careful how big I go. There may be more pieces in this same vain, but I am in a very spiritually contemplative mode so that may be my focus for a bit. I loved doing my icon pieces and want to do more of those. I like doing the relief sculpts a lot. We shall see how it goes. I do have one other piece that is almost finished using a willow branch. I hope to post him today or tomorrow. Until then, a big thank you to all of you who have wished me well and sent me words of encouragement for a speedy recovery. You all, my friends out there mean so much to me and to that recovery process. I love you all so very much and look forward to visiting your blogs and websites on a daily basis to give me a bit of cheer and inspiration. Keep up that fabulous art you all do and share and I will do my part. Thank YOU!

More New Sneak Peeks

2010-06-06T11:24:00.001-04:00

Here I am at the end of one week and the beginning of another. I wanted to post some in progress pics of more new direction pieces. This has been a summer of change so far for me. So, I am feeling a sense of urgency and need to get a few art pieces done before my surgery next week. Above is Old Woman Willow sculpted and cured. I am using some curly willow again and have used super sculpey and apoxie sculpt for the body sections. I am planning on creating a number of pieces that incorporate these branches. This idea all started with my sea goblins. Using seashell to make the home or extensions of the goblins body gave rise to these hybrid works. Years ago I used sticks for the main support element in some of my wall pieces. Evolution is a good thing here I suppose.

There is a close up as the first picture to give you a better view of the willow womans face. Next I get to paint her up and add any details. More later I hope. I am off to work today, yuk! I hate having to work Sundays. But, the manager is on vacation and as one of the assistants I have to fill in. There are two people off on vacation this week. Cio!

Second Saint Icon Finished

2010-05-31T16:49:00.000-04:00

My second Saint Icon piece in my elemental series is now finished. I thought I'd put the humble beginning photo back up to remind you how it started.

Here is the finished piece. She is "Saint Celestia Sky Elemental #1" She is the divine being who has an inside scoop into your astrological nature. Her planetary goings on are quite legendary.You can appeal to her star signs for help in navigating the universe of energies that guide us.

This is another mixed media 3D collage piece. I am having such fun with them. I find a bit of tongue and cheek as well as seriousness in their creation.

In addition to making art, I am working on an updated version of my healing doll class I had taught in the early part of the 2000's. I am merging it with my Alchemy of Doll making class to offer a more comprehensive experience. It has been very rewarding to revisit some of the techniques and ideas I presented back then. But, I have learned so much over the past ten years that I want to incorporate those into a more updated version. Part of this was spurred on by my impending medical issues. In case you haven't heard, I am having surgery. I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and am having the prostate removed in a few weeks. So, as a result of lots of reflection and soul searching, I have decided to help others in their healing journeys too. I am trying to decide how to offer the class. There is a great advantage to creating a blog like environment for those taking the class to interact in. The other option is to offer it through another service. But, I like the idea of controlling it myself. So, for those of you interested stay tuned for the official announcement. Now that I have stated my intention here, I must follow through right? Have a great week everyone.

A Little Something Dark

2010-05-29T15:05:00.000-04:00

OK, so I decided since I was gong in a slightly different direction on some art this summer, I'd get a few things out of my system. Now, I don't consider myself a dark artist usually. But, I know we all have that part of us inside somewhere. Normally for me that part doesn't usually surface all that often. But, lately whilst facing some unpleasant medical issues, I have decided to just go for it. You know, expose those demons or fears whatever might be lurking just under the surface of our conscience.

That being said, you remember the skull headed piece I showed a few weeks back. He is finally finished. This piece is based on a nightmare I had as a small kid. I am not sure what age. It is one of those things that happened when I was really sick. So you have those kind of dream or nightmare experiences that kind of sticks with you. This was one of those. I dreamnt of these creatures called shadow walkers. They were spirits that lurked in the shadows and waited for the chance to create fear and terror in your life. They would follow you in your shadows. I never told anyone about these dreams. But, I could swear that I would see these horrific beings out of the corner of my eye from time to time. When my mom died when I was eight, I thought that they were the cause of my misery. Anyhoo here is my version via artistic interpretation, of a shadow walker.

Here is a close up of the upper body area. This was created with a wooden armature attached to a piece of willow. I wrapped the body with cotton batting and dark cloth for the main body. The cloak and under dress are saturated with ultra heavy matte medium to stiffen and shape the fabrics. I use a black lace for the under piece and a mottled black cotton for the cloak. He has silver chains and a silver ear ring piece I recycled. His arms are a variety of glass and silver beads. The skull head is paper clay painted and antiqued.

I am glad I got this guy out of my system. I am hoping to have the other Icon piece finished this weekend. I also have started a tree spirit type figure. So, until next time thank you all for stopping by. I love to share my creative life with all my friends out there. Happy Memorial day to all my US friends and good all around week for all you international friends

New Directions

2010-05-23T15:59:00.000-04:00

OK, I know you have seen this image before. I wanted to refresh your memory a bit. Remember this was the icon piece I had started a few weeks back? Well, I have working on it on and off in addition to one other. I finally have a master plan I think. I am going to create a series of elemental saints. These saints will fall into one of the five elements which include earth, water, air fire and sky. These are heavily inspired by a bit of Hindu spirituality. So the first, very first in the series is "Mother Board, Fire Elemental Saint Number 1". I know the title needs a bit of work. But, hopefully you get the idea.

Here she is finished I think. Not quite sure yet. But, she feels right. Why fire you ask? Well I consider electricity and electrons part of the fire element. She rules over all electronic and electrical communication energy. Need to make sure your computer is running well and safe from harm? Make sure she resides in your home. This one of those tentative steps into assemblage style art for me. I like creating mixed media pieces. So, instead fo relying on founds objects for everything, I like to sculpt some of the elements. The body is a computer circuit board. Her face is one I got from an artist friend Annie Hesse. The hands and feet are my sculpts. I added other bits and pieces to it and gave it some of my painting techniques. I really love how this piece came together. What's even more odd is that I don't really have all that much stuff to pilage through for the bits. I like the serendipity of it all. Hope you enjoy her. If you want to adopt her just drop me an email. have a great week everyone.

For Something Completely Different

2010-05-16T11:45:00.000-04:00

I am not sure how other artists deal with the past. But, for me, I like to revisit previous themes or types of constructions. In this case, oh about six years ago I started making these figurative pieces I called house spirits. Another name I used was House Mojos. They were typically mixed media figures. Simple in design and construction. Less is more I guess you could say. To me they were like artistic talismans that were created to infuse certain energies into ones home. But, they didn't seem to make any connection with other people. Yes, a few would comment on them. I even sold a few. But, I loved them and only made around ten of them. Where is this story going? Well, after teaching at Artiscape this year, one of the pieces I did for an auction to raise money this year was one of these talismans. It seemed to be a big hit. Ah ha, finally an audience that really appreciated them. So, I have decided to teach this very personal art form. So, I created and am still working on some pieces for the proposal process. It is allowing me to revisit some aspects of creating that I tend to loose touch with. You know the spiritual stuff that really makes me tick.

I love ritual and how the act of creating is so therapeutic. Since I am going through some difficult issues at the moment, I felt I needed to find a way to process it all. This first piece was created for a theme that my local doll guild and one from Indianapolis Indiana did for our annual joint meeting yesterday. The theme was herbs. So, my contribution was Lemon Grass and Bamboo. Both exotic and very useful herbs or plants.

Here is an up close view of his upper body. These figures are meant to be hung on a wall or post. I just love this format for some reason. This one in particular was a bit re-purposed as I changed out the original flower head piece for the lemon grass and then added the bamboo branch.

This fun little guy is called the White Flower House Spirit. Just in time to bring some fun spring energy into your life

Here is a close up view of White Flower.

This piece is a work in progress. I am making him as a way of dealing with some issues. He will be a personal piece and also will give me a brand new approach for the class proposal. I had made these skull heads last year for another class and most thought they were a bit too dark. So, I got to bring them back home and thought, ah ha I know how to use this one at any rate. The tail piece is another one of those flat curly willow branches that I love.

Here is the up close view of the upper part of the figure. Still a ways to go yet. But, I am enjoying the break from the goblins to do something a bit more serious or contemplative. No, I am not giving up on the goblins. They are just on vacay for a bit. I have so many other things that need their time in the sun so to speak. Actually I am hoping to do some other fun mythological beasties. So, who knows what will come parading through on the blog. Have a fabulous week everyone. I will post when I have more art thingies to share.

Sneak Peeks

2010-05-02T12:02:00.000-04:00

So, I was thinking about how I could maintain my blog update on a timely schedule the other day. Then I thought, perhaps you all might like to see some of the other art I do and how I start off. One of the kinds of things I really enjoy is a mixed media kind of piece. Ones that allow me to sculpt and put found or constructed parts and pieces together. Icons have always been a favorite format. So, to kind of explore a new type of approach for a really big project I am planning. I decided to create a small series of Icons or in that vain.

The above picture is the very beginnings of one. I am still working on the hands and feet. It will most likely be a saint of some sort that I find humorous. Not that saints are necessarily humorous. But, I am a kind of twisted sort of guy, so I put my spin on things. Anyway, I started with a flat art panel that is six by twelve inches. Glued the face and circuit board to it with apoxy paste. Then I am applying apoxie sculpt to it to make the connecting pieces like the neck. It will receive all sorts of surface treatments and painting layers before calling it finished.

Here is a panel that is truly at stage one. It is a cradled art panel which means it has sides, and is covered with a piece of Zodiac themed fabric I found a few years back. It was one of the last remaining pieces of fabric I have now. It somehow managed to inspire a saint which will have a Zodiac theme. So, besides the occasional fantasy creature that will pop out from time to time, this summer will be spent on exploring the icons. I hope you stay tuned for the progress reports.

Save the followers

2010-04-24T19:28:00.000-04:00

Hello my fellow bloggers and artists. I thought I'd share a few things that are flash back pieces. I saw that a follower ditched the blog and realized people must not want to read about my teaching exploits, but rather see art stuff. So, to satisfy that need I decided to share some fun things. This first one is a drawing I did a while back when I was thinking of doing a series of elemental spirits. I have come back to this idea again and figured I might as well revisit some past ideas. I also wanted to get my scanner fired up. Haven't used it in a while.

The next two are some paper dolls I developed for a paper doll class I taught at Artistic Figures In Cloth and also for my local doll guild. I want to create a class to propose for next years Artiscape in Columbus. These are really fun and I get to play with angelina fiber. They scan kind of interesting too.

This one is articulated which is always fun to play with. So, we shall see what I can come up with. I am working on getting some current art done. But, this is the result of cleaning and organizing my studio at home. It sorely needed it. Have a great weekend everyone.

Artiscape Weekend, Teaching and Fun

2010-04-19T09:33:00.000-04:00

Well, I am back from my awesome weekend to Artiscape. It is a yearly mixed media workshop conference put on by European Papers in Columbus Ohio. It is a wonderful mixed bag of artistic journeys. I had the pleasure of teaching two classes and giving an artist demo on the first night. Above is a picture of the view in the topiary garden that was down the street from our hotel. It is a recreation of the famous George Surat painting Sunday on the Island of La Grand Galotte or something like that. Anyway the figures are all recreated in topiary.

Here is a picture of a couple of the characters. I thought the park was lovely. It is actually on the grounds of the original school for the Deaf.

Saturday I taught acrylic mediums for mixed media class. This was an introduction to some of the fun acrylic mediums on the market. My students created a set of four ATC sized pieces using the mediums. It was so much fun.

Another student hard at work in the class.

Here were a quartet of dolls being offered in the "A Charmed View raffle", which benefited the Susan Coleman foundation. It was really fun to see all the talented artists and interesting and mazing work there. Lisa from European Papers did a fabulous job with it all. She is also very kind and gracious. Here satff were so helpful to this newbie and everyone was friendly and kind. I highly recommend it as a way to recharge your create batteries and add some new things to your creative arsenal.

Here is the shot from our hotel window looking into downtown Columbus Ohio. My home away from home. Have a great week eveyone. Hopefully I will have art to share later in the week.

Bunny Buddha Revealed

2010-03-28T22:31:00.000-04:00

So, I am not waiting to take the best pictures. But, I wanted to share Bunny Buddha with you all. I just finished him today. Originally I was going to make some fun little bits to go with him. But, he said he didn't need them. You know rabbits make great Buddhists as they are naturally vegan. He sits upon his sacred lettuce leaves in the lettuce position sharing his wisdom with the world.

It will be a bit before I get him and some of the other pieces up on my long neglected Etsy shop. If you are interested in adopting this passionate peace bringer let me know.

Oh, and the big store move is finally over. We now have a long couple of weeks getting the store to a point where we can live with it. It is organized just needs the fine tuning. Have a beautiful week everyone.

Bunny Buddha WIP

2010-03-21T12:24:00.000-04:00

Well, I am still working on this piece I started over a week ago. Time flies when you are working a full time job, visiting relatives in the hospital and trying to make art. So, here is the next phase I have photographed. The Bunny Buddha after his body sculpt a baking and then a two coat paint job. He still will be getting another coat of paint in a transparent gold glaze and then my signature antiquing glaze.

Here is another view of him. I have been enjoying this piece even though he didn't start out the way I had expected. But, when you put your soul into something, it sometimes has a different idea of how it wants to be. I will keep his base I am working on a surprise for when I show the finished piece. I hope you all have a great week ahead. I am going to be helping my store move to it's new location. Hard work and thank goodness we will be closed a few days to make the transition easier. My love to you all out there.

Sneak Peek

2010-03-15T22:54:00.000-04:00

Here is another sneak peek into my creative process. The above head is one I started in the class I taught last week to the Waynesville group. When I got home I changed it up a bit and it turned into a rabbit. It was also the result of using my new tools and having watched the DVD from Wendy Froud that this came about. I wanted to do something a little different. I really like how the head turned out. In the picture below is the body I have started with. I am not so sure about this one. I am keeping him on the work table for a day or two before I decide. He is to become the Bunny Buddha.

See his body doesn't look as big in the picture as it does in real life. He will be sitting upon lettuce leaves in his lettuce pose. I think if rabbits were spiritual they would be Buddhists. They are natural vegans. Well, hope to geet more work done on him this week if my job doesn't do me in. Have a great week you all.

See my students shine....

2010-03-12T07:59:00.000-05:00

My weekly post this week highlights my recent class I taught the Dolliologists of Waynesville Ohio. I taught my goblin character head class. It was a fun filled day. As a delightful surprise, the gals gave me an awesome birthday party. These girls know how to treat a teacher like a king. This group are not only talented artists but, awesome peeps too. Check out the heads they were working on.

Dawn

Ginger

Jackie

Jerrie

Jill

Liz

Sharon

Sue

The variety of creations was so fun to see unfold as they took to the clay like a duck to water. Most of them never having sculpted in clay before. This is the kind of experience I think any teacher would love. Thank you again to the Dolliologists for hosting me for another fun class. I hope you all have a great day. I hope to post some pics of my latest rabbit creation. Oh, and if you haven't seen the new Alice In Wonderland movie yet. Do yourself a favor and go. It was a visual feast and such a lovely retelling of the story. Tim Burton has such a magical way with story telling.

It's carrot season.

2010-03-04T09:47:00.000-05:00

Well here is that wascally wabbit holding his prize catch. He gives the crowd a thumbs up for a great hunt for the most delicious carrot. I was very happy with the overall look and feel of this piece. It was one of my rare non goblin pieces. He began life as a sketch on a napkin a few weeks back. I hope to create more purely fantasy type characters. He is a polymer clay sculpt over a wire armature. His carrot is made of polymer clay as well with fancy yarn for his foliage. His name is Watau and he will be making his debut at the open house at my studio this weekend. Hope you all have a great day.

Upcoming Studio Art Walk

2010-02-27T08:58:00.000-05:00

I wanted to post that the Essex Studios here in Cincinnati will be hosting it's first studio art walk next weekend. So, for all my local friends and fans please stop out and say howdy. There will be plenty of new art,wine, snacks and other funs stuff to experience. I will be showing off some new work as well. It goes from 6-11pm both Friday March 5 and Saturday March 6th. If you need directions you can map quest it or email me at codyart@fuse.net if you need more info.

I am still working on the rabbit piece. He has been sculpted and first base coat of paint. I also made his carrot. Hope to have him done by the end of the weekend. Oh, and I treated myself to two new things. One was the sculpting character figures DVD by Wendy Froud. Excellent for picking up some new tricks and techniques. I couldn't afford her latest class so, I opted for this DVD since I did not know her teaching style. She seems to be a really patient and kind teacher. I love her work too so there is that artistic admiration thing. The other was a new set of metal sculpting tools. I haven't received these yet. But, after seeing Wendy use them in her video, I thought I had to have them. I guess that's it for today. I am trying to psych myself up to take a big certification test for work. It is offered by National Artists Material Trade Association or NAMTA for art material industry professionals. Our regional manager wants the Cincinnati affiliates of Plaza Art to become certified. I did really well in the quizzes but, the real test is timed. It reminds me too much of those tests you had to take in school. So we shall see if I get up the courage to take it today. Have a great day everyone.

In a pickle

2010-02-22T09:13:00.001-05:00

Well, it was a fairly productive weekend overall. I was able to finish my pickle goblin. But, first let me show you the first paint layer. I know the green looks a bit off. You have to remember that the primer or base coat is always a little cartoonish. Anyway, I then paint several layers of glaze of several different colors. Glazes by their nature are transparent so, bits of color from beneath show through. Once I have the shading and glazes just right, then I antique with a light bit of walnut stain. This helps to bring out details. Oops, I just gave away one of my secrets. No, not really. I use a variety of stains depending on the project.

So, let me introduce you to Gerkie the pickle goblin. Wouldn't you just love to find him in your big pickle jar? He stands about 9 inches high. He will make his debut at my studio open house in a few weeks. If no one adopts him, he will hang out in my ETSY shop for a while. I still need to decide on how to finish my rabbit. I am also still making goblin chocolates or should that be chocolate goblins. So, have a great Monday.

Work In Progress Sunday

2010-02-21T12:46:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd show you all a bit of the progress I have made. Here is a post baked sculpt of the pickle goblin. He has since been given his first texture coat of glass beads medium. Now, I just have to begin the multi step process of painting him to look like a pickle. This has been one of my more humorous characters. I did this kind of as a joke. He doesn't seem that sour or bitter. But, I think most of my little guys enjoy being who they are too much to be grumpy.

I am still trying to decide how to approach the rabbits construction. I am not sure if I want a soft body or a hard sculpted one. He seems rather indifferent to it all. All he wants is a carrot to torment. Hope you all have a great Sunday. Oh, and the Celtic music I went to see last night was awesome. I heard a group called FinTan play. Very nice people to boot.

WIP Saturday

2010-02-20T16:51:00.000-05:00

Well, I think I have finally gotten out of my slump. I took a few ideas from the little napkin sketches I did the other day. Thought I'd see if I could actually bring them to life. So, here is the rabbit head I made inspired by the sketch. Not exactly as I had drawn it but, at least I did one. I like the first head. I didn't even have the sketch handy for reference. Laziness got the best of me and I didn't want to hunt for it. So, this guy is polymer clay over a foil and wire armature. It's a technique I will be teaching in March for the Waynesville group. They wanted to have me teach them my goblin head or character sculpting technique. So, this is a front view of the baked head.

This is a side shot of the head. I plan on making a wire armature for the body and do a wrapped body using a batting and cloth wrapping technique. Once I get the body the way I want it, I cover it with fuzzy fibers. He will also have sculpted hands/paws and feet. I need to go buy some batting to use. I am all out at the moment.

This is the beginning of the pickle goblin. I have made the armature as you see here. Then covered him in polymer clay and he is now baking as I type this. This was a fun sculpt very much a character style. You'll see in the next post. Well, that's it for today. I can't believe I was able to post twice in two days. Have a great weekend everyone.

Rare look

2010-02-18T10:29:00.000-05:00

To comply with my self imposed posting of at least once a week, I have a rare treat. Well, hopefully you will find it interesting. I have scanned in some little doodle sketches I made at lunch yesterday. I was waiting there and had a few blasts of inspiration. What to do, no paper or pen. Then I remembered I had a Sharpie marker in my coat pocket. The waitress had left me a stack of napkins. So, I made my own sketch paper with napkins at hand. The above fella is an idea I am working on for a series of rabbit themed pieces. Of course it will have my spin on it. I am thinking of rabbit goblins or something along those lines. I am not sure yet. As with many of my fellow artists out there I have Alice in Wonderland fever. Rabbits are one of those animals that I find fun to play around with artistically.

The next sketch above is an idea I had for doing a pickle themed goblin. I was eating pickles the other day and for some reason I thought one in particular just had that shape that spoke to me. I wondered what a pickle goblin would look like. Don't you all think about those things when you eat food?

This guy is a very preliminary idea for a piece I need to make for the joint meeting between my local guild and the doll makers in the Circle City group. This years theme is a doll or whatever based on an herb. We have been meeting at this amazing herb farm in Indiana the last couple of years. So, I have chosen Milk Thistle as my herb. He is going to be a grumpy little guy for sure.

Well, I think I am finally heading out of my creative slump. I need to get busy as I have a lot on my plate in the next few months. The snow has been a major downer for me. I don't drive so relying on the buses and walking is a b#@&@ for me. But, I will survive as the song goes. Have a great week y'all.

My Big Bad Goblin Hunter

2010-02-07T12:55:00.000-05:00

I couldn't resist showing off my buddy Sammy. He is the supreme goblin hunter. He helps me sniff out the little buggers. He doesn't catch them to hurt them just so I can catalog and identify the variety of goblins that live in the area. Most goblins are a bit pissy about my method at times. But, I tell them at least he doesn't eat them. To which they reply, yeah but we'd give him bad heartburn. That I am sure is the truth. Poor Sammy suffers from a very sensitive stomach. So, he knows better than to eat the goblins. We are still a bit snowbound but, making the most of it. Have a great week all of you out there in bloglandia.

Goblin Prototypes

2010-02-06T14:36:00.000-05:00

So, in order to keep to my posting at least once a week, I am giving you a sneak peek. These are a couple of prototypes for a piece I am working on for a special show. I have been invited to participate in a show whose theme is dedicated to all things chocolate. Our work is supposed to be inspired by or in some way promote chocolate. So, the first piece I am working on is a box of goblin chocolates. These guys belong to a newly discovered class of goblins called mimics. They camouflage themselves to look like a common object so in order to hide from or trick humans. These are chocogoblins. They resemble a chocolate candy.

This first offering is one whom can bite back. So, I am not sue I would be sticking my fingers into that box. But, they do this to unsuspecting people. They are all created from polymer clay over a foil and tape armature.

The pieces were then painted with a brown paint to resemble the tones of the chocolates they are to mimic. Then I glazed them with a walnut stain to give them a little bit of luster.

The eyes are fresh water pearls. I even put that swirly line on top like the fancy chocolates have on them. I think it gives them that extra special touch.

I am not sure how many I am going to make yet. But, I am going to go out looking for an actual box of chocolates that I can use as their home. This will make for some tasty field research.

Once I get more details about the show I will post it here and on my facebook page. It is going to be December of this year. So, I have some time to get three different pieces done. These guys will be one. I am planning on a cocoa goblin as a possible piece and a monster chocolate rabbit for the third. But, that can change as I work on ideas. Hope you all have a great weekend. I am snowed in today and am just playing in the studio and on the computer.

And the Winner Is !!!!!

2010-02-01T08:41:00.000-05:00

Just a quickie post to announce the winner of the great monster giveaway. Chosen by random number generator is

Karen Mallory

Thanks to everyone for playing along./ I really enjoy these giveaways. I will have to find a good reason to do another. Happy February and have a great week.

New Sea Goblins for the first month of 2010

2010-01-31T12:26:00.000-05:00

I know it's been a little bit since my last post. Honestly I have been in a bit of a creative slump for me. Normally I can get at lest three pieces done in a week unless it is a big one. But,I have retreated a bit this year. Perhaps new things are beginning to grow beneath the surface of my creative mind. Admittedly I do get bored easily if I stick with one medium for too long. So, I am thinking I need to do some drawing or painting in addition to the sculpture to satisfy that void. We shall see how that goes. In the meantime, here are three little sea goblins I created using more of the lovely shells a friend gave me for Christmas. They are all polymer clay sculpts in sea shells.

This little guy loves his aqua blue shell. He is really proud of his new home. Some of the shells were painted and almost looked as if they had been cast out of clay. They had this curious seam and were painted in bright colors.

Here is the last little guy for this set. He is really shy. But, he seems to have adapted quite well to his yellow shell home.

On a side note tomorrow I will be picking the winner of my monster giveaway. SO stay tuned for that. If you want to get in on it and you haven't yet. Just scroll donw to the post it is only two away and enter. Thanks again for visiting my blog. I love you all out there. You inspire me to keep creating.

Monster Finished Sort of

2010-01-22T15:39:00.000-05:00

So, I finished my monster sort of. He still needs his base. But, I can add that easy enough. This first picture is with his first base coat on and the addition of the blue spots. I wanted to show the process I usually go through.

In this picture he has his first glaze coat of green gold fluid acrylic. I use Golden brand as I love there pigment quality. I add a bit of fluid matte medium to thin it a bit more and just lightly paint on the glaze.

Here he is finished. This is after applying the glaze coat of Quinachrodone Nickel Gold fluid acrylic and a walnut acrylic stain. His eye got it's pupil somewhere in the midst of the painting. This was a fun little fellow to make. As a matter of fact he has inspired me to write again. I am working on the Encyclopedia of Monster and Related Creatures of the Clifton area of Cincinnati Ohio. I thought this would make a fun tome to accompany my creatures. A friend suggested I write about them as I had such interesting stories for each one. So, this will be my attempt at doing that. I will keep you all updated and maybe get a chance to post a few excerpts from time to time. Happy weekend everyone.