"If I only had a brain"

Here is the first juet scarecrow. He is ready to dance all the way to the Emerald City

"Babe in Arms"

The inspiration for this piece came when spending an extended period away from my children. I wanted to scoop them up and hold them tight just like when they were little babies. After a break from sculpting this piece poured out of me with the creative juices flowing strong. 

We are at the Upwey Grassroots Market (www.grassrootsmarket.com.au) this Saturday from 9am-2pm, would love to see any of you there!!

SUNDAY SCULPTURE (2)

ALIVE

I found it hard to get a good photograph of this sculpture as the mesh I used on the leaves doesn't show up very well. The steel mesh was fun to work with as it could be easily shaped and manipulated to get the leaf shape I was after. The shape and form of this sculpture was inspired by seeing my garden come alive as the  weather warms and spring leaves its mark.

The things that matter

"The Things That Matter"

This is a wall hanging commissioned for a friend to give to his friend on his 40th birthday. I have tried to capture the feeling of a nurtured garden and a nurtured family. I like the protective feeiling generated by the bigger flowers towards the smaller figures. It was one of those rare projects that seemed to flow from start to finish without a hitch.

On another note, I came across a quote from impressionist artist Henri Matisse in an old sculpture book I found at a jumble sale.

"...The model must not be made to agree with a preconceived theory or effect. It must impress you, awaken in you an emotion, which in turn you seek to express. You must forget all your theories,all your ideas before the subject. What part of these is really your own will be expressed in your expression of the emotion awakened in you by the subject..."

I liked this as it rings true with the feeling I get when working with scrap. Especially the idea of the model awakening an emotion. Perhaps he knew a thing or two.

Sunday Sculpture

"two flowers"

may the breeze

carry your seeds

to fall upon this soil

to grow and find a life beside

and be my friend and foil

Tangled mind

Tangle the mind and carefully step over life still coming

Be alive.

Years of ideas waiting for you

Teaching words of love, of language, of loss; bringing hope.

Pour out thoughts like water and flow over information

with understanding, crossing undisturbed.

Neurons connecting the age old story.

Story...Old age

The connecting neurons disturbed.

Uncrossing understanding with information overflow

And water like thoughts outpour hope

Bringing loss of language, of love, of words

Teaching you for waiting.

Ideas of years alive

Becoming still

Life over

Step carefully and mind the tangle

This weeks sculpture started with the copper wire ball. I made this ball a few weeks ago not knowing what part it would play in a sculpture until I started bending some steel that I thought it could be incorporated into. This is the result, fresh from the workshop, named, and put outside to gracefully rust before a finishing coat of oil in a few weeks.

The quest continues; a sculpture a week! See you next week.

NEW LIFE

When I first completed this piece I wasn't entirely happy with the finished product. After a few weeks of living with the piece in my garden I have grown to appreciate this organic shape and the way the sculpture gently sways in the wind.

The materials for this piece were scrounged from a local engineering business, who were happy for me to go through their scrap piles. I hope I have given a new life to these materials that were destined to be melted down.

Tree of old things

Tree of old things

A friend of ours asked me to make her a tree like sculpture to hang some of her old tools on. I really had no idea what materials I would use until I remembered that I had recently pulled up some corroded gal pipe from the garden. With a little dirty work cleaning them up and some tricky welding, I came up with this. I hope she likes it.

Fire in water

While I was pondering the tree, my lovely wife suggested that I "do something with that old wok". So as I am basically a crochet widow at the moment, I had plenty of time to head down to the workshop to create this. I quite like the copper which catches the sunlight and gives a lovely glow. I will let the rest rust naturally.

I have also reset the sailing ship to be a table piece.

I am now considering a big tree like garden archway....

Sailing Dreams

Sailing dreams

Here is the first attempt at a ship sculpture which may lead to larger and more complex ones in preparation for a collaboration with fabric artist Jude Craig. The ship's main body pieces come from a recently discovered junkyard in South Gippsland, the copper pipe from my generous plumber neighbour, and the copper wire thrown out of a school science lab. All other bits came somehow to my junkpile. It has been inspired by an exhibition called "ships of the way" by artist Sue Gorrell that we were lucky enough to catch whilst holidaying in Northern NSW this winter. If you ever get a chance to see her work it is both beautiful and ingenious. Poem yet to be written although ideas are flowing.

"Old Man Tango"

Between the fire in the belly

And the inhaled heart

Sits a younger man's tension

Now hollow and worn

Like languid loins

Simmering slowly

On back burn

Standing as one

Waiting for the two

To tango

Treasure Hunting, Central Victoria.

This is how we come by much of the junk that we give a second life to. Telling the story behind the materials and adding to that history is a big part of what we love to do.

School holidays are here!!
Time to sculpt. For two teachers the holidays are a time to get back to our creative pursuits. Here is my first sculpture of the term break.

INFERNO

She let herself be engulfed, submitting to the flames

That licked and teased
Spreading quickly to the point at the edge of control

Tipping towards inevitable destruction

A point between life and death

A brazen, blazing moment

Of inferno