12.23 Studios

This week has mainly been about post-holidays and personal business, but next week is prepping for the new term, which involves getting a jump on my reading for class (found a pdf copy of McKesson's "Story" I'll be buying later, plus an old school early 20th Century book on sculpture and modelling by Albert Toft), and getting back to the piece of black chlorite I started in November, then stopped because the room wasn't set up yet. Another reason was that after starting on this one I got stuck on visualizing the elements on the bottom.

It wasn't until my meditation session on New Year's Day that I realized that this piece had to be approached from the bottom up to compensate for the delicate structures I want on the top and sides and not lose too much of the stone while trying for deep details.

Once I flipped it over and took these pics the design ideas emerged - rather, I could see the elements I want inside the stone, working with the topography. Especially with the sheared off 'face' of the stone where the design begins and evolves.

Because the stone has a dynamic 'gangster lean' to its planes, I want to emphasize that without removing too much of the material from the outside or the inside (essentially, the top is all inside).

This back section, which will be very busy, was what got unstuck by flipping the perspective. The thickness of the rough structures and the depth shows some of what I'm after design-wise, though the first stage of carving this piece (hammer and chisels) will be a bit tough practically. Normally you carve from the outside edges to the center of the mass; some of this work will have to be done outward, and carefully...

(01/10/16)

The fresh take yesterday was continuing the design work on the piece to get it past stage 0 - 'just a hunk of media.' First thing is to ignore the top and sides and put an abstract design on the base...

A contrasting color lumber crayon marks out where to create voids for dips, folds, and creases. And forget carving outward; it's just a matter of perspective.

The outside voids also tests the overall structure of the stone, just in case there's a hidden fissure or something that could split it in half at a crucial point. The piece is now back at stage 1, just in time for class...

Today I was a sculptor. My hands bore their own witness before this piece of stone, in process...
Anyway, the matchbox studio opens up in five minutes, lay out some gear, throw some Miles and Bird in the CD player and the 3-hour session sails by.

This first session is just making baby steps, establishing where the voids go. And being careful on the angle of the chisel...

This black chlorite may or may not have a buried fissure, but the surface structures can chip off at the tips...

The foot is coming along fine...
Once I wrapped up for the day, the first new benefit of a functional workspace kicked in - clean up involved all of draping a drop cloth over the works and sweeping up the few stray stone chips on the open, uncluttered floor.
Being able to make a mess and leave it, no matter how small, is a huge help.

(01/12/16)

With this particular piece the chisel has to quickly give way to rifflers and files on the foot to work out the contours and splits. I've also had to slow the process down from a hard three hour session a day...

I have a neat little 5-day/10-day studio timesheet whipped up to test the '30 hours to create a sculpture' rule of thumb, but not for this stone. I don't want to rush this chip-prone surface, so it will automatically take longer than 15-20 hours just to get past the carving. The worksheet will have to wait until I take on one of the alabasters...

On the outside back section, I switched to the carbide rod saw to open up the elements, but not too much...

This week begins my 'Senior' semester at CCSF Art School (pun kinda intended) and I'm approaching it with the main goal of a fully functional artist's studio...
Aside from Sculpture Studio and Advanced Casting, my third class scratches another creative itch - Screenwriting. That class begins on Mon., so I'll talk about it next week...

This is the view just behind me in the Metal Arts classroom, at the coveted back bench reserved for the advanced students. As teacher Suzanne attended to the beginners, I went through the syllabus and handout for the first project and the four independent study projects I'm to propose.

Casting is Tues. and Thur.; On Wed., I went to the familiar Sculpture classroom early to take in the ambience of the empty studio, then I noticed leftover works outside. Anyway, I showed the progress on the chlorite to teacher Stephanie and got the syllabus and info on the three proposed projects to do in this class. And since she had hands full with beginners, I was done for the day.

At Casting class, it was mentioned that there would be an exhibit opening at the Nob Hill gallery Velvet da Vinci on Friday; if the weather is decent I may go to test out the gallery work clothes. This is a better view of the jacket; nothing special, classic worsted wool with a regular width lapel. Now for that turtleneck...
Thur. was spent researching and working on the project proposals for both classes, so this weekend is all about finishing the proposals.

(01/29/16)

Art School is in full swing, now that I've sat through the collegiate Star Wars Cantina vibe of Screenwriting class on Mon. As expected, there will be much reading (Trottier's 'Screenwriter's Bible' & McKee's 'Story') and writing outside of class, but luckily, I got a student discount on the industry-standard screenwriting program so I don't have to worry about formatting my script (we'll be writing Act I or 30 pages of a 90-min. movie.) Next week's homework is to come up with one or more story concepts that might carry a full length flick...

Meanwhile, it took the full week to present my studio project proposals for both teacher sign offs. The main task is to dry-run the various studio skills that can produce work over the next year or so, which includes new ones like enameling and silicone mold-making...

Anyway, the first Sculpture project involves the use of ADC (Air Dry Clay) in making a few general abstract geometric shapes that take a day (or two) to fully dry so I can carve them. While that was happening, Stephanie showed me some stones still available in her office - two soapstones, some alabaster, and the one that caught my eye, the red one in front...

She said it was a raspberry wonderstone from a quarry in Utah that was closed or closing, making it rare and no longer a buck a pound on the market, my price. She said it wasn't '38' lbs., but '33.' Good deal...

I like that it's a larger stone, definitely vertical. The colors in the stone will really pop after a good sanding...

The best thing about the stone is that it's kept at school so I can work on it there while I have the Chlorite at home. I'm going to switch to power tools on both of these babies; the red stone I wanna carve a couple holes in...

On Thur. I was researching the first Metal project: 'Split-Finger Style' Flatware - designed to be used only with the index and middle fingers and thumb, as adaptive utensils for a person with a disability (say, a Gulf War vet who does a 'Gourmet MRE Chef' YouTube show and his birthday's coming up, and he's a Cubs fan.) Some casting, but mostly stainless steel fabrication...