In even more prestigeous company

The Association of Sculptors of Victoria was given the opportunity to run a selling exhibition in the Sarah and Baillieu Myer Pavilion at McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery. It was an amazing experience - the Pavilion is used as an education space, or for events such as weddings or conferences. And so we were able to lay it out for small to medium sculptures for two weeks. That was probably not long enough but we got to see some lovely visitors. 

The view through the exhibition to the grounds of McClelland Sculpture Park

I showed two works Lockdown 6 - with a little help from my friends and ...cry out: Olivia

..cry out: Olivia is a new work - carved salvaged wood from a tree in my daughter's garden... the wood with its warped form and grain full of character decided not to be a fruit bowl and told a story instead - of having two faces and a hidden yearning in the willow cabin.

Thanks to Rob Anderson Photography for the use of these images.

The inner surface
showing the text

transition one face
to another

the willow cabin

Three faces to Cry Out: Olivia inspired by Shakespeare's Twelfth Night:

Make me a willow cabin at your gate,
And call upon my soul within the house;
Write loyal cantons of contemned love,
And sing them loud even in the dead of night;
Halloo your name to the reverberate hills,
And make the babbling gossip of the air
Cry out ‘Olivia!’ O, you should not rest
Between the elements of air and earth,
But you should pity me…

 

The Lockdown 6 - with a little help from my friends looked well in the easterly light and against the timber walls of the pavilion. 

Lockdown 6 - with a little help from my friends
image courtesy Rob Anderson Photography

Dreaming in Uncertain Times

 

"Once Upon a Time"
cast glass, upcycled red gum garden sleeper

A small one to supplement the big one at the upcoming Sculptors Victoria Annual Exhibition. I'm giving the Lockdown 6 companions another run - this time set up on a burnt oregon board. It's exciting to be back exhibiting in real life... but people are still catching it and dying. 

I'm collecting from @flb_58  tomorrow - last chance to see "Sun and Moon" - I'm quite fond of it... if it doesn't sell this time I think I'll keep it.

"Once Upon a Time" - a story about storytelling or a story about parenting? Well parenting never got an image out of me while I was parenting myself... too all consuming not to mention heartbreaking and demoralising. It's only afterwards I got romantic about it - and the children have grown up to be amazing people!

As they say - write your own story! 

first try with the
glass casting

carving from both sides

ready for the glass...

Today I would have been....

Today I would have been helping set up the title labels for the exhibition at the Carlton Gardens.... but the whole Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show was cancelled a week ago and we have all been running around ever since trying to figure what to do....

Hopefully there will be an online exhibition. It will be hard putting that together since sculpture is a matter of real presence.

A Silver Nutmeg and a Golden Pear (2018)

It's been a bit tricky getting work done lately - car out of action in the airbag saga and not going to be replaced because my dear little Honda is 22 years old... but irreplaceable... I suppose I'll be managing with car share for a while - I'm just nervous of that too while the 'rona is about.

So wash hands everyone - we'll get an online exhibition going and put on a better show on the other side of this world changing crisis.

Herring Island 2019

Herring Island in the middle of the Yarra River is a great place - it appears to be natural bush but the Friends of Herring Island will tell you the long and arduous battle they have had to get things to grow. But it's coming up a treat as pioneer natives give way to something closer to a community. The Association of Sculptors of Victoria runs a show as part of the Herring Island Summer Arts Festival - in 2019 from 12 January to 3 February.
So I put two works in:
"Sun and Moon" and a new one "Meander"

Sun and Moon (image Rob Anderson Photography)

"Meander" is a continuation of the bronze and glass story - and the subject - maybe a lament for the Darling River - was intended to find an echo of sunlight through water and the re-wilding of rivers.

two waxes for the two media under construction

In Mal Wood's Foundry

glass fish out of the kiln

In the exhibition

Where it won the People's Choice Vote

The Next Step

Extending the lessons learned from the Dancing Tree I got hold of some casting wax - much harder and structurally sound - but still the ideas marched ahead of the technique and Mal Wood had heaps of work making sure that the cast work reflected my plans... but it worked!

The Moon

Casting the glass pieces provided its own adventure... it's been a while since I built a mold and one ruptured - the mess is still in the bottom of the kiln - but the next firing with both sun and moon in the kiln together gave me the results. And thanks to James Thompson of Blackwood Crystal for coming up with the right colours... the adventure never stops...

The Sun

The final work was shown at the Association of Sculptors of Victoria Annual and Awards Exhibition. And amazingly my peers awarded me a Highly Commended mention. And of course I got a professional image of the work in all its glory.

"Sun and Moon"

So what is the work about? A bit of nature worship? The fire of creation and the water cycle? To me it is a mini cosmos - the pull of the sun and moon driving the water cycle and linking growth and maybe beauty. Hopefully it will speak to different people in different ways - there is no one perfect art form and no one perfect idea of being. Just this is the way I'm working at the moment.

The work is at Qdos Gallery until the end of October... then - who knows..

Dancing Tree

I owe so many people for their support in making this one... first Yvonne for putting the pressure on to make something for the ASV exhibition at the Flower Show. Then Mal Wood for taking my experimental work and coping with the inherent difficulty of an experiment and the deadline... and getting an amazing result...wow! And - there's more - Andrew Bryant found some timber lying around and turned it into the base for the work...... all that to produce an object from an idea - thank you everyone...

Stage one was the experiment: to see if bronze woven wire can be used to support a wax sculpture for a lost wax casting.

the wax - on  bronze woven wire

That was tricky - the micro crystalline wax I used was too soft... so the work was floppy and had to be cut into multiple pieces - a total learning experience - but now I'm on the journey and can make more complex pieces... I hope.

the first view of the bronze casting after it has been reassembled

There was some holding of breath and then mad exultation when Mal and his team showed me the casting - it danced - it lives!

 Then to find a base to present the work - much thanks to Andrew!

Burning is magic too

Thanks Andrew.... then assembly and patenation - alchemy!

And finally the pear.... it's been a while since I cast work in the kiln... now I can get a reading on how my power consumption goes: 



Two molds went into the kiln on the Saturday afternoon.... I tried to pick the time when there wouldn't be a "curb your power" moment... just made it!

two castings and one to be used on this tree

And then... oh yes David helped me get the work out of the car and set up at the show.

image: Rob Anderson Photography

image: Rob Anderson Photography

and then... thanks everyone.... the work won a second prize in the Garden Section... and it sold! Am I a lucky one!

"Dancing Tree" in its new home - thank you everyone!

Another Fravashi

Stone sculpture at Pasargad

Back in 2011 I undertook some work to represent followers of Zarathustra at the Museum of World Religions in Taiwan. It was a remarkable learning experience during which I learned a lot and attempted to use new techniques to get a museum durable item from lightweight materials - all the while imitating the original sandstone sculpture of ca 530BCE.

Amongst the work was a Fravashi which was made in glass - designed to be seen through the glass rather than modelled from glass. The first casting didn't result in a clear face - so a second was made to send to Taiwan. The original is now on its return journey from the Canberra Glassworks after expert polishing.

Fravashi in the Canberra Glassworks post polishing

This year I was commissioned to make another Fravashi - to provide the backdrop for a Navjote ceremony. The work is 2.4m long so it took up the whole available space in the studio. And because of the nature of the work it was made in paper clay/papier mache - another experiment with materials. In many ways this gave a better result than the coated work - and it's protected by some acrylic paint - many coats.

First came the drawing

A casting from the mold of the glass Fravashi

drawn on a cardboard base and paper clay modelled on

more modelling

Top and bottom panels added

one coat of paint or another

pronounced ready

taking leave

Ready for the ceremony

The Social License to Operate

A social license to operate is an intangible, fragile thing - an extension of Good Will in businesses. It depends on perception, communication, transparency and community values. I suspect though that it will be a pretty good indicator of the future viability of a company. I've done my rant about the ills of decoupling money from the goods and services it represents; now I'm thinking that a method of assessing and recording the social license might be as important as the current accounting of a company when due diligence is done.

A system of assessment would need to be agile and flexible to allow for lots of different situations and technologies, and would need to be able to cross national borders. It needs to be community based and not an arm of a multinational company. In other words it needs to be crowd sourced and used. And verified - no one wants a good company ruined by false information or misrepresentation.

Should an individual self assess? What is my long term philosophy?

I think in future rubbish will be more expensive than recycling

Recycled will be cheaper than virgin materials

Renewable should mean just that - consumption no greater that the earth's replacement capacity - with a bit built in for resilience and global repair.

Kiri and Jamie's Tea light holder

And where do I stand? A long way behind my own standards: this little item in cast glass doesn't just have glass manufacture and a kiln firing - there's a pile of waste mould material I have to answer for - how can that be re-used or recycled? I should get back to carving wood!

The Best Laid Plans....

Well the new wet cutting saw works a charm... my glass casting experiment - well it was a learning experience.

How to turn flag irises in Dutch irises

They were meant to be flag irises - but it was a real loaves and fishes act - I ended up with a lot more off cuts and broken bits than the left over glass I started off with......

Casting in the copper stems seemed like a good idea at the time - but the copper has burned out so that it doesn't hold the thread I cut - not strong enough so I'll have to glue the flowers into place. Back to brass stems for flowers and apples? I'll have to think about this.

In fact there was a break away on the first iris I cast - much food for thought here.
Now out to the garden with you while I use the time to try another approach......