Matchbox Studio
(08/04/21)
The studio saw little progress due to my diversion into producing the anti-Trump pro energy independence podcast Magnetofunky, but it's four years later, the orange tinpot dictator has been ousted from power (even with an attempted coup to prevent Democratic President Joe Biden from sitting), meanwhile, the world is struggling to recover from a deadly pandemic that the GOP (actually, the GQP) is trying to make worse in a bid to create enough chaos that they scheme will return them to power (even as red states push voter suppression and election overturning measures to stifle the non-white vote).
Also meanwhile, I decided to take SSA at 62 and, after a few months of having recurring earthquake dreams, I began preparing to take my personal 100W power plant (invented after building my own Bedini Motor as an electronics experiment) and my sculpture studio and go mobile as a bike nomad. The pandemic slowed down my plans, but I'm now on track to make the big move by year's end, fingers crossed.
Part of the move is getting my mobile studio running by getting on with the handful of stone pieces I'd neglected. The first piece to return to is a small alabaster work I started on at the 2019 California Sculpture Symposium - Little Big Sur.
A couple months ago I was contacted by Michael Warr, who asked if I might be interested in donating a work to the Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates Art Auction. I agreed and took the piece that only had a few hours of stone camp work on it and finished it before the submission deadline. As I was updating and shrinking my Matchbox Studio from the 'Dexter' style room to a dust box, I skipped taking lots of pictures in favor of finishing the piece, but here's the final pics of the piece, shrunk down from submission format:
Little Big Sur, a meditation of stone and water frozen in time, inspired by a California landmark...
The stone itself was weirdly shaped when I got it at Stone Camp and a third larger, though those parts were unstable and fell off during the hammer and chisel stage...
The back end has a strong 'gangster lean' I didn't intend, but I still wanted there to be features that would make an observer want to peek around and under...
The first time use of the butcher paper backdrop works well enough, though I won't be taking it on walkabout. I'm not crazy about using a smartphone camera, but it's what I got...
I have two options for the final polish/sealing stage for a stone piece - a liquid sealer for marble, and neutral shoe polish for softer stones like alabaster.
The shine is not too glossy, just enough to bring out the contrasts of colors...
The donation page stated that not all submitted pieces may be accepted for the auction, but in any case, it's available for showing if the opportunity presents itself...
(08/05/21)
A day or so after submitting the above stone for consideration, I resumed work on the largest piece in my studio - Spelunker's Choice, a 30 lb. raspberry alabaster covered with a beautifully rough skin I didn't want to completely remove. That's what inspired me to make a piece referring to exploring caves...
I decided to keep most of the corners and sides intact and make a major feature the contrast between raw and sanded sections, with some areas a hard border, some a gentle fade...
The other major feature is the numerous holes drilled into and through the stone for interior voids and passages. Most of this work was done using the dremel...
I like carving features into stone that can't be seen unless you're up close...
The stone was at the riffler to sandpaper stage when I went to the 2019 California Sculpture Symposium and got this set of Italian-inspired Raschietti Scrapers that takes out riffler marks and eliminates the need for many early sandpaper grits. Once I finish one last side and the top, the stone will be ready for sanding...