Dragonfly Sun Mask: mark II and new wall panel

This is the finished product, finally. It took me a while to finish because a) I got busy working on other things due to the fact that b) I spilled the off white paint I mixed to just the right tone, and I was worried I wouldn't be able to match the whites if there wasn't enough to finish left in the bottom of the jar. Finally I gave up the avoidance technique, and tried to salvage the approximately two tablespoons of paint that was left. I added a little water and hoped the thin paint would cover adequately. For once I was lucky. It would have added hours of time to have to repaint all of the white to match tones. Because this mask does not include salmon with abalone eyes around the rim, I decided to do a little more elaborate painting on the frog. I think it would have been to busy and cluttered had I done that on "Mark I."



















On to the wall panel. Typically when I have done wall panels in teh past, I have attempted to tell a story. In this one, not so much. It just struck me one day that it was quite interesting that a Thunderbird likes to snack on Killer Whales the way they like to snack on seals. I am really liking this one. I am not sure if I am going to paint it yet or leave it natural wood. I think I will just live with it for a few more days before I decide.
I finished the copper dagger. My opinion of it is "meh." I started the turtle bowl too. I will post pics next time.

Murals!

I am working on some tennis backboard murals for our city parks, with the delightful help of the local Campfire USA kids. The backboards themselves are in pretty bad shape, and required quite a bit of prep work. They are 10'x6' and the wood is cracking and peeling off. Not the best surface, but what the heck.
This is the first of three.










And.. after the initial stages:




I decided to go with a killer whale design on this one. I drew out the basic picture then did a "paint by color code" chart for the kids. They whipped out the initial painting pretty quick.











Here is the "finished" product.













I then spent some time cleaning it up, adding a little detail, and covering it with a nice layer of spar varnish, what with the tennis balls to be smacked against it.

Here it is finished. It has yet to be mounted at the tennis courts.
Next mural will be a frog eating a bug.

I have been busy

But not in a "busy doing art" kind of way, but a "work/get girls ready for Taiwan/ sleep" kind of way. There, that is my excuse. I have made little progress in the last month.
Here are a couple pictures- The Dragonfly is about half painted. THe dark blob in the lower corner is Olive the Lab, she must be in all photos.



Rather than just mention the copper dagger here is a picture of the blade. Note the patina. Secret formula. :)



I will be by myself for almost three weeks while my family is overseas. I have big plans for finishing my current projects and starting a couple new ones.

Yes I have been working

But not too much to show for it yet. I was able to get some red cedar bark for the many beaked hamatsa, I will be glad to see it completed. I broke the jaw on the upper beak at the show though, bummer.

I should have the copper dagger and the dragonfly finished within another week or so, I will post pics then.

Ready as I am going to get

So, no copper dagger. Just ran out of time. The blade is finished, but the handle requires too much work to finish at the show. Oh well.
The dragonfly sun mask is ready to be painted, but I will do that at the show. Thanks to Bayley and Channing for helping me sand!
The many beaked Hamatsa raven is painted. All it requires is a little touch up, and the hair and cedar bark. Oh yeah, and the little skulls dangling. I will carve those up at the show, out of alder probably, and attach them to the hair.


No turtle bowl. Oh well, I will just do that with the dagger when I get home.
Instead of the turtle bowl, I will be doing a panel sculpture of Thunderbird attacking lunch, in this case a killer whale, while the sun looks on. I will be using a technique by one of my favorite deceased artists, and a good friend of my Uncle's, Lelooska. He did a fantastic small sculpture about 15 years ago called "Puffins on a Rock." I am going to copy his use of wavy water in that piece, to an extent.

with white paint.

Notice the sad, neglected Colnago.

1 day left

And I have a hell of a lot of painting to do.

Bird, assembled, pre-paint:




Dragonfly sun mask, partially sanded:




Probably another 12 hours to go.

Progress, but...

I only have 4 days of carving and one day of painting to go. So why am I typing this instead of working feverishly? Because that's how I roll. Let's see... Here is what I still need to do:

For Hamatsa many beaked raven:
1. sand and surface- 4 hours
2. pin and install rope pulls for all moving beaks- 4 hours
3. paint- 4 hours
4. Hair and cedar bark- 2 hours
14 hours minimum!


For Dragonfly sun:
1. cut out and install 12 to 16 pieces of abalone shell- 4 hours
2. finish carving main head- 2 hours
3. finish carving backboard- 4 hours
4. sand and surface- 2 hours
5. paint- 3 hours
15 hours minimum! GAAHH!
Bad cellphone pic of offending party in process:


For copper dagger:
1. cut out and install 3 abalone inlays- 2 hours
2. finish carving head- 4 hours
3. surface and finish head- 2 hours
4. assemble blade, head, handle- 2 hours
11 hours!

Turtle bowl: I am going to work on and finish this piece at the show, so all I need to do is get it prepped.
1. shape bowl- 1 hr
2. fit pins for tail and head- 2 hrs
3 hrs.

grand total work time: 43 hours.
I will be lucky to finish. I need to sleep and work full time in there somewhere.

Big Bird (in progress)

It has six beaks, 5 of which are articulated. The main beak and the top beak will operate together, while the two rear and the bottom beaks will work together on a separate drawstring. I am seriously debating having the two small birds face forward, flanking the larger top bird, face the top bird to the rear, and make a crooked beak to replace it facing forward.... if that makes any sense. In this picture you can only just see the head of one of the smaller birds facing towards the rear.
The main bird will also have ears. If you have never seen a mask like this that probably sounds odd, but trust me it works. I can't get my hands on any good cedar bark so I will probably have to use horse hair, rope and raffia to finish it off.
The top bird will probably also have his own set of ears. I am concerned the lower beak might be a little overpoweringly large, but what the hell. The little guy sitting in front is actually the main bird's tongue.

I have also decided what I will work on during the show: A loggerhead tortoise bowl with a lid. The lid will have hitchhikers, perhaps dogfish woman and an octopus.

After this show, I plan one more mostly N.W. Coast style piece. It is something I have been wanting to do for a while. It is a very large sun mask, about six feet in diameter. It will be amusing. I don't want to give it away just yet. It is not traditional, but it still fits the N.W. Coast "playbook" for lack of a better term. After that, I plan to do a couple surreal/abstract pieces.

Like always, it's down to the wire

Just like old times, it's a last minute rush!

I have my first major show in 14 years coming up, February 22-26th. I had plans for about 12 pieces. It is down to six. It would have been nine, but three pieces already sold. They will be a nice six, if my equipment does not fail me. (My restored 1926 bandsaw has been experiencing some age related issues lately...)

The pieces include e a fully articulated many-beaked hamatsa raven (not a crooked beak- this one is fairly non-standard, perhaps even "un-authentic" to some). It has six independently moving beaks, and is about 50" long, 30" high. I am running behind on it though; it is a fairly complicated mechanical piece, so I expect I will be working on it down to the wire.

I was going to do a pipe using my last piece of petrified ivory mastodon tusk, but the remnants I have left are just not quite big enough to do the whole thing and the bowl (note- this type of ivory is legally obtainable, and should in no way be confused with elephant ivory). The cost for petrified ivory is high, so I am going to use the scrap I have for the handle of a copper dagger. The copper dagger blade is 14" long, and pounded out on an anvil. I then "carve" it into shape. It is in the aging process now, using a proprietary method involving turkey shit and beer. The knife handle will be a shark with a hitchhiking octopus.

I am also making a smaller version of the dragonfly sun mask (my avatar). Rather than a 6' diameter monstrosity, it will be a much smaller 24" inches wide, 27" high. I am using port orford cedar for the backboard, and incense cedar for the mask portion.

I hope to have time for one more major piece: a moon transformation mask. I have not idea what I will do here yet. But I have about 3 weeks to do it all.
So in total:
Small bowl: completed
Wise old woman: completed
many beaked hamatsa: in progress
copper dagger: in progress
dragonfly sun mask: just started
moon transformation mask: not started

Last, I need something to work on during the show. I have no idea yet what that will be.

Sold!

A collector bought the frog and the dance wand.
I am working on a copper dagger and a bone pipe now, like below. I think I did this guy about 96, and it has been almost that long since I worked with bone at all. This new one will be much smaller, maybe 3.5" long. Hopefully I will remember how!

Working

Working on an old woman mask. I did the one in the photo about about 12 years ago. The new one will be a bit smaller (13" tall opposed to 16") and will have even more of a bent beak of a nose, and cataract eye. I am thinking about surrounding the labret inlay with bone or aged copper.

See now I am just going crazy

ALl of the sudden I am motivated to post. Here are two pieces I recently finished. Both of them copies of earlier works I have done. Getting back on the horse and all that. One is a talking stick, try to figure out which is which, and the other is a frog "frontlet." I use quotes around the frontlet part because it is ginormous for a frontlet, yet a frontlet it is. It would be a great frontlet for Hagrid. frontlet.

Why this blog?

I decided to chronicle my efforts (or at least mentally assist) as I return to doing art as a central part of my life. Sort of a personal kick in the pants.

I have traditionally worked in the northwest coast style. I did it almost exclusively- it was how I was trained, and it was what I did for a living for many years. I stopped about 12 years ago for the most part. I never intended to stop; but life (mostly happy life) got in the way. I am in a position to start over. In doing so I plan to take elements from nw coast design and mix it up a bit with post modern and surrealist ideas.

This highly stylized shaman's doll was one of the last pieces I did.


Clearly I was already thinking of moving to a more abstract and surreal style... But for a while, I will be returning to my roots. I plan to produce a few pieces within the confines of late 19th/ early 20th century nw coast style, then move on.

It's Alive!

The first blog is always the hardest. I feel so cheap.