Free Falling

This little mask is on a journey much like my own. I feel sometimes as if life is very much a free falling adventure with little to grab onto to slow the descent. And then too, a wind can come up and change my course - or a bird could capture and carry me away. So many possibilities and yet, so little control. I wonder if we're all free falling and colliding with each other as the winds play.....

A Gathering of Old Friends....

Here is a grouping to illustrate what I was talking about in my last post. All of the sculptures are wearing masks - except for the "Open Heart". The masks can be removed to reveal the face underneath. I play around with these and put different masks on the sculptures: there are always so many possibilities within my own creative sensibility that I have a difficult time putting limitations on it.....

Open Hearts

I was pleased to find that I still had photos of these small sculptures since I thought they had been lost in a computer crash. I made them circa 2000 and they were the first sculptures that I meant to be stand alone pieces. Previous small sculptures had been created as stands to display the masks......and a number of people commented that it was a shame to cover them up! So began my journey with freestanding pieces. I love making them but it's difficult to find places for them in my small studio: walls are so much easier! That said, I'm having more and more ideas for new ones and have a few in the works......

These particular pieces are each around 10" high and were made of earthenware clay.

Half Empty or Half Full?

How we look at things really does matter: it can make the difference between feeling good or bad, ascending or descending, too much or not enough and on and on and on. When I look around and see my life as half full, there is hope. In those darker moments, when I see it as half empty, I question my very existence. At this point, the choice becomes clear: half full is enough...

I pierced this mask all over to imply leakage - and this in turn implies that one starts out full.

Glaze test Friday - 3

And so, it's Friday again and I thought I'd post a couple of tests from this week. Tests are about all I've been doing lately, but next week I must get serious about starting some full size pieces.

Where Do We Go From Here?

This is the follow up piece to "Which Came First?" (shown a few days ago) and it too poses a question. Once we're here, then what??? So many choices, so many directions are possible - but what happens when you arrive at a crossroad? I'm asking these questions now because it's where I find myself and I'm puzzling through a load of options. I love making and sharing the masks, but it feels as if I'm working inside a vacuum: I've been sucked up and everything is whirling around inside. It must be time to empty the bag, but I'm not quite sure how to do that.

Yes, it's a difficult time, but I'm certain that it will pass - and soon, I hope......

Half Wit, Half What....

Continuing with the "Fool" this week - guess I'm in a foolish mood! Last week, I re-viewed the Kurosawa film "Ran". There's a wonderful fool in that picture: he's always at the King's side and often makes cutting, witty remarks that warrant him needing to be quick to dodge the whacks. A loveable and yet painfully honest fellow. That's how I like to think of my own inner fool - but without the whacks.....

Glaze test Friday - 2

Here are two more recent glaze tests. In a way, they cancel each other out, but I can't ever seem to show (or make) a devilish piece without some sort of balance. The sweeter mask is named "A Watchful Eye" and its task is to keep an eye on "In Sheep's Clothing"......

I find myself somewhere in between the two!

Lightheaded

When I was a child, my mother was always telling me that I would "lose my head if it wasn't screwed on". I don't remember being especially prone to losing things.......perhaps she was warning me of what was to come! At this point in my life, losing and forgetting are daily tests - and I'm on my way to school naked and unprepared. Lightheaded is my version of keeping my head where it belongs, even if it is a bit emptier than it should be.....

Glaze test Friday

I thought I'd show some of my glaze tests today. I use these to test my engobes and glazes and to try out different ideas. I don't always make bigger pieces based on these, but often I get new directions from the results. These little guys are some of the latest out of the studio and I'm thinking of making this a regular Friday feature. Yes, I've got a lot in the works!

They do have names also:

top - A Rosy Outlook

middle - Bewitched and Bewildered

bottom - Simon Says...

Till Monday, adieu....

Fallen Angels

I love to draw leaves and on this mask I went a little crazy! Autumn is my favorite season with leaves falling all around in a gentle hurricane: reminding me of cycles and renewal. The leaves make me think of falling angels touching us on the way down and softening the path ahead...

Midas Touch

This mask is based on the mythical King Midas and carries the message that we should be careful what we wish for: yet another theme I'm fond of using. I try to be content with my life and who I am, but can't help but think what if? What if...... and of course, that lead to wishing. I sure wish I wouldn't do that!

This is an older piece and I'm sure I had a reason for the coin on top of the head - but I can't remember exactly why I put it there. It probably has something to do with mechanical functions and automatic responses.....

Beginnings

Here's another piece about growth and beginnings. I think of the mind as fertile ground for all the seeds that have been planted. In this mask, the ideas have taken a physical form - a fitting metaphor for the mask itself. What remains to be seen is the fully realized idea.....and what it becomes is not as important as the process.

Back to the studio to contemplate some new beginnings!

Just a Drop in the Bucket

Sometimes I feel so small. When I consider how big the world is, how many people there are and how much wonderful art has been created (among other things), my own insignificance whacks me upside the head. We're all just small drops in a very large bucket. When the bucket becomes full, the hand of fate tips it to allow so many more drops.

So many tests in the works this week. I may show some here soon - if all goes well!

Second Sight

Possessing second sight is supposed to be about having the ability to foresee the future. I've given this mask extra powers with a little help from two more sets of eyes! The background of the main face is meant to be a table cloth or other everyday kind of fabric that is so familiar, we barely notice it. This puts the focus on the windows of the soul and the magic that can be revealed behind them.

I'm not sure if I fully believe in the idea of prophetic vision, but I like to think we're capable of more than what is commonly accepted.

Strategy

Is having some sort of strategy a good thing? I'm not so sure about that! Seems to me that the word implies games and winning. And if it is applied to a life....what a sorry state. Of course, it's nice to feel the winner sometimes, but if life is a game then there must also be losers.

While making this mask, I was definitely thinking of the corporate world (in which I worked for a few years a very long time ago). I consider myself quite fortunate to have escaped! So, does that make me the winner????

Waiting in the Wings

I recently found this idiomatic definition of the title: If someone is waiting in the wings, they are in the background, but nearby, ready to act on short notice. I feel, sometimes, like that is how I spend a lot of my life - ever waiting and ever ready.....but for what!? I wanted this mask to show a little of the apprehention and anxiety that this condition can create.

I hope someday to come out from behind the wings and use them to better purpose.....

Life is But a Dream

Isn't it? If I were to have a "theme song", this would be it. This simple childhood song plays on a continuous loop in the back of my mind. Occasionally, I'm confused about whether life is the dream or the dream is life. Either way, it's a fine journey!

I purposely left the boat empty of passengers.....there's room for you to get on board if you like.

And so, it's Friday....not much to say about that.

What Goes Around.....

...comes around. This is a concept that usually puts me a bit on edge. I mean, really - haven't most of us done things we're not proud of? It is those "things" that inspired this mask. I spend a lot of time thinking about the best way to get an idea across using the face as a medium. Of course, some of these portrayals are more successful than others and this mask is, perhaps, a little on the obscure side. Without the title, the viewer might just be clueless!



I like the idea of a wind driven existence, but must keep in mind that the wind could change direction at any moment.

A Glazed Look

This is one of my most unusual pieces. What makes it so is that it was fired in the big noborigama (four chambered, climbing, wood-fired kiln) at the Ceramics Institute in Shigaraki, Japan. This kiln is only fired twice a year by a ceramics group from Kyoto. It was an honor to work with the group through the entire process of making, bisque, three day firing and unloading. A ceramics friend from Denmark and I had a midnite to 6am shift stoking the fire (along with the Japanese fire master). It was an experience I will never forget - and I don't think they will either!

When the mask emerged from the kiln, I felt it was finished. That could be the most unusual aspect of the piece since I normally do three or four more firings to build up layers of color and glaze. This is one mask I will never voluntarily part with!