For the love and mystery of Birds.

What started as a demo for a small face sculpture for my Ceramics One students evolved into this.  It is part self portrait, not the bird part.  I put the fingers and the crow on the piece to show the students ideas for adding other "stuff" to a face.  I chose a crow because of the crows flying around outside the ceramics room window and because of my post in March about Crows. 

The front of the face cracked off in the bisque fire.  A fine example to the students of "do what I say, not do what I do"!  I'm always cautioning them about hatching and slipping their work well and letting pieces dry thoroughly before we fire them.

But, as it turns out I like the cracked face and so did the students. A lesson learned in allowing mistakes/accidents to work for you.

For the assignment students were to integrate the front and back of the sculpture by making a connection with words, poetry, lyrics, a quote or any other way they could think of.  This quote is from a book called The Poets Guide to the Birds, edited by Judith Ketchen and Ted Kooser.

Book Art

                                                      PEACE

During the months of November, 2009 through the start of February, 2010 The Geauga County Park District held The DiscARTed Art Show revolving around the theme of recycling.  Artists submitted a range of works from stringed instruments made from cigar boxes (a bluegrass band played them the night of the opening), to lamps, jewelry, wall art, huge iron sculptures......

I submitted this book.

Last spring our school librarian was getting rid of boxes and boxes of books, to make room for more computers. (I've got mixed feelings about that.)  

I took many of the books for conversion to Art; for both me and my students. The book I reworked was from a series called THE GREAT IDEAS.  Full of writings by philosophers of whose work I know next to nothing.   The first page (shown above)  includes some of the names; Cervantes, Descartes, Spinoza, Newton, Locke, Hume. Faraday--these last three names are significant for any LOSTIES out there!

When I started with the book this summer, I used the pages in a random fashion for wiping my excess paint from my brushes.  Which then becomes a nice start for sketching, painting or collaging on.

What you see here is the Front Cover and the inside cover (p. 1)

Collage, oil paint, oil pastel, photographs, string.

A Legacy from my Father (Christmas Gifts)

My Dad wouldn't like it if I was "making a fuss" over his work. But, I have to! I love his drawings. As far back as I can remember, he was always sketching, especially comics. He created characters and played around with the punchlines. He taught us how to draw our own comic characters. There was a steady supply of scrap paper and pencils on hand. My sisters drew paper dolls and designed outfits for them.

. 

My Dad went to The Cleveland School of Art before it became The Cooper School of Art (now closed) for a year.  Then our family started growing, so he set aside art school but he continued with a lifelong interest in art and in bettering his skills.  About 15 years ago, he took a pen and ink class at BayCrafters (now BayArts) in Bay Village, Ohio. The works shown here were produced during and after he took the class.  He loved Pen and Ink!  After Dad died, I was given his sketchbooks.  This year for Christmas I framed 8 of his drawings and gave one to each of my siblings, keeping one for myself.  I loved how they turned out and I wanted to keep all of them!  The hard part was deciding who should have which piece.  Eventually I fugured it out; matching the drawings to personalities and interests.  It was so exciting to give everyone their drawings and see their reactions!  Which were wonderful!!

Birds. It always comes back to birds.

So, there isn't a title for this collage yet.

There is an Art show sponsored by our local park district using the theme "discARTed" as its basis for all entries.
The show was a motivation to finish what was started some time ago. I pulled out all of my collage stuff (lots and lots, eek...!)and was able to wrap this piece up.

It is about birds. The background uses part of a 1955 National Geographic article about a trip some ornithologists took to Papua, New Guinea, which turned out to be dangerous when they encountered the native people. Along with the danger, they were educated about a people who were a 'dying culture' The imagery features birds.
I'm seeking a parallel between dying cultures and species loss. But also, noting where we (the human race)have contributed to these losses.
I've got a couple of other collages/assemblages happening, with the same themes. It'll be tough to decide what to enter, since I can only enter two works.