Fostering Sculptural Arts And Community Awareness
Apr 7th, 2011 by ModeratorJT
Submitted by Carole Turner
The cement parties are back! If you remember the weekend gatherings that Jackie Woodward hosted in past years, they’re back! But this time the cement is in the form of AAC blocks.
In response to the interest expressed by PNS members for more sculpture/sculptor involvement and interest in AAC (aerated cement), Jackie has agreed to resurrect the cement parties at her studio.
WHAT IS A CEMENT PARTY? Continue Reading »
Mar 27th, 2011 by ModeratorJT
Submitted by PNWS member Jim Talt
Helen and I visited San Antonio during spring break. After several days consuming our body weight in fine food, chips, salsa, and green beer along the River Walk, we left the crowds to follow the calming river path to the San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA).
The River Walk in mid afternoon before the lively evening crowd.
SAMA is a gem of a small art museum set on the river bank about 1.5 miles from downtown. Though small, it houses an outstanding collection of art spanning ancient Egyptian to contemporary times. The ancient work, of course, is principally stone sculpture. Unfortunately, there was very little modern sculpture.
Gallery of Greek and Roman Sculpture. San Antonio Museum Of Art
Admire the expressionable brow and gentle fabric by Lorenzo Bartonlini
In painting and sculpture I prefer the abstraction of modern times. Never the less, I admire the objective figurative works of past centuries for their incredible control of medium and exemplary expression of human emotion.
Here then are a few more images. 2)3)
This work by John Borglum is somewhat smaller than his other major works... Mt Rushmore
A beautifully crafted work ... but I misplaced the artists name.
Sculpture of Ariadne who legend says helped Theseus slay the Minotaur but he abandon her while she slept. It worked out in the end because she later married the God, Dionysus
Dec 11th, 2010 by ModeratorJT
Short Video Click Here: Sculpting Classes Portland
This is a video of Sculpting Classes teaching adults how to sculpt from a carvable form
Sculpture by Carole Murphy
of cement. It shows a bit of the process, the students at work and some grand finished sculptures in shows.
Scroll down about 8 blog posts to see a post on Carole’s student art show.
For more class information you can go to: http://www.carolemurphy.com/gallery.htm Art Classes or Sculpture classes available both days and evenings, new classes starting with the new year. http://www.carolemurphy.com/workshop.htm
Dec 5th, 2010 by ModeratorJT
Contributed by PNWS sculptor and past PNWS President: George Heath
(Part 1 of this article was published on this blog 9/25/2010 and can be found by scrolling down through past posts)
The Fussy Stuff
Taking pictures is an exercise in compromise. There are several variables to deal with; exposure time, aperture, film speed (ccd sensitivity), and the size (focal length) of one’s lens (zoomed in or out on a zoom lens). Continue Reading »
Dec 4th, 2010 by ModeratorJT
“Heart Connection”, (powder coated steel sculpture) by Alisa Looney of NE Portland was chosen “Community Favorite 2010″ by public vote and was purchased by Arts Downtown, Puyallup’s Outdoor Gallery. On Saturday, November 6th, 2010, Judy White, Director of Arts Downtown dedicated the brightly colored sculpture to the city
"Heart Connection" by Alisa Looney
of Puyallup WA for their permanent collection. Mayor Kathy Turner spoke to the group of public art enthusiasts and expressed her appreciation that “Heart Connection” was perfect for Pioneer park, which “celebrates family.”
Accepting the award, Artist Alisa Looney said “I am deeply honored and hope this public piece will bring a sense of joy and heart-felt connection to Puyallup residents and visitors for years to come.” She thanked the voters for their support and enthusiasm for the piece. She also thanked Arts Downtown volunteers and the city of Puyallup for partnering to create this opportunity for artists, and for continuing their commitment to provide art for public viewing to increase visual literacy.
Looney described “Heart Connection” as “portraying the energy between two people, deeply connecting with each other. The spiraling shapes come together to form the shape of a heart, indicating two spirits dancing, merging, yet each person remains separate as an individual. The rich crimson color reflects the deepest love.”
“Heart Connection” is currently located in Pioneer Park, 324 S. Meridian, Puyallup, WA, in front of the Puyallup Public Library.
Oct 4th, 2010 by ModeratorJT
Contributed by PNWS sculptor Susan Gallacher-Turner
Over last 15 years, I’ve worked in many schools doing art projects with children. I’ve taught Art Literacy, mask making, drawing, painting, clay and Dramatic Arts. I always envisioned combining my love of art and writing in one project that would bring literacy into the classroom in a whole new way and this year, I was fortunate to have a teacher share my vision.
Farmington Elementary in Hillsboro, 4 classes of students from 4th to 6th grade worked for six weeks on the Cultural Book Box Project.
At Farmington Elementary in Hillsboro, 4 classes of students from 4th to 6th grade worked for six weeks on the Cultural Book Box Project. Funded by a grant from the Hillsboro Education Foundation, I worked with over 120 students to complete this visual and verbal art piece. Each student picked a boy or girl from around the globe and researched their country and lifestyle. They gave their boy or girl a name. Sculpted and painted their faces. Painted a landscape and the book box in colors and patterns taken from their boy or girl’s country and wrote a short essay about their life. Continue Reading »
Sep 25th, 2010 by ModeratorJT
Contributed by PNWS sculptor and past PNWS President: George Heath
Next to the quality of the work itself nothing is going to do more for one’s career as a sculptor than the quality of the images one uses for submissions or an online web portfolio. Having submitted images to juries for way too many years, (don’t even ask), and done web based portfolios for the last eight I’ve fallen into just about every pitfall there is. Perhaps I can save the reader a little head banging and maybe some serious money. In the coming articles I’ll cover the whole process from setting up a studio to proper submission format for Zapp. Finally I’ll write a bit about website design. For the first article I’ll cover the fun part. That is, buying stuff cheap.
The Equipment
Professional photographers earn every penny. It is a highly skilled occupation with an insanely high equipment budget. For your premier pieces the professional is a great idea. $90 an hour is not unreasonable. You can also take excellent photos on your own with little if any pain to your pocketbook. In fact a complete photo studio, (assuming you have a computer already) need not set you back more than $200, and that includes a good camera.
The bare bones 'get it done' set-up is possible for less than $200
The Camera
You will want a decent digital camera. It should have a good sharp zoom lens and manual settings. A new one will have a 10 megapixel ccd and set you back $200 to $500. Here’s the neat thing though, 3 or 4 megapixels is ample for web work or for submitting images to a jury. Find a good candidate on Craigslist and then Google the model number and read the reviews. Continue Reading »
Sep 15th, 2010 by ModeratorJT
Contributed by Pacific Northwest sculptor Ken Patton
I thought it would be fun to make time-lapse videos of the processes of creating art. A potential buyer could view the video on YouTube showing the actual piece they are interested in during its creative processes.
I investigated my cameras and found that none of them had a time lapse feature and after checking on the internet I found that almost no digital camera has the feature. So I invented a device to attach to any digital camera to do it.
Time Lapse SteamPunk Machine intalled on Ken's digital camera
Click here Time Lapse Machine to see what I designed and built and also watch me build it at time-lapse speed. Please be patient with the intro, it doesn’t last that long and then the process begins.
Sep 13th, 2010 by ModeratorJT
Contributed by PNWS sculptor Patrick Gracewood
Creating commercial sculpture means making art that works within the requirements, deadlines and budget of your client.
I was approached by the Oregon Association of Nuseries to work with landscape designer Iftikhar Ahmed to create two large relief sculpture for the Farwest Show.
The relief panels needed to be large scale, reinforce the Asian theme of the display, and be easy to install and remove. Ransacking my library for patterns, we decided use a 7th century Buddhist flame design to accompany a large ceramic statue of the Buddha.
I was initially going to carve AAC blocks and fit them into the frame. A BAD idea as it would be this sculptor’s nightmare of heavy AND fragile AND dangerous! That and moving the artwork to and from a three-day show, with a miniscule budget, quickly brought me back to reality. Plywood was the only way to proceed.
First I glued down a full-scale pattern onto luan plywood. Easiest glue in my shop is a 10-year-old bucket of wallpaper
Full scale pattern transfered to 3/8 plywood
paste. It lasts forever and never goes bad or dries up. Then using my old trusty scroll saw, I cut out the stencil. I used the stencil and spray paint to transfer the pattern onto the full scale plywood. The notch at the bottom and top is to insure correct registration. I align it onto the centerline. Here’s the full-scale design on 3/8th plywood ready for cutting.
Once the pattern was completely transferred to the plywood, I began by drilling many holes so I could use my scroll-saw. I changed bit sizes to match the tightest curves of the pattern. The drill automatically cuts a round hole, cutting that with a scroll saw is much more tedious.
The wonderful thing about creating sculpture under a deadline is how many ways it teaches you to be practical AND efficient. Continue Reading »
Aug 11th, 2010 by ModeratorJT
The Maiden Foundry had quite a challenge last year fabricating 4 huge umbrellas for Providence Hospital in Portland
Providence Hospital in Portland
Oregon. The proposed Umbrellas were to be 10 feet in diameter and over 12 feet high. The idea was to be simple, just weld together the eight pedals and form an Umbrella canopy from sheet bronze. Then ad a bronze pole and all the bronze mechanism underneath that makes an umbrella. The Foundry worked over the year to discover just how to create the complex form of an Umbrella from flat sheet bronze.
The first failed attempt was the brilliant idea of scanning a real umbrella and trusting that CAD software could flatten out the scan revealing what shape to be cut out of sheet bronze. After all it was 2009, and with all the high tech computer gear available, this would be easy. It turned out that this was so complex that the computer froze up trying to describe the shape of one umbrella pedal. At best it looked like a section of an orange peel that was mashed flat. Cutting that shape out of bronze sheet would waste a huge amounts of very expensive material. Then it really wasn’t that clear to see how we could bend that abstract shape back in to an Umbrella pedal. Continue Reading »