Sticks, Stones, and Paper Stew Blog

Cutting

Today I managed to grab some studio time. The weather has been full of rain, high winds, thunder, and even tornado warnings. Tornado??? Am I still in Oregon???? Fortunately it all equates to snow in the mountains, a much needed winter weather event. Last night we went to a girlfriends 45th birthday party. To help brighten her next 45, I’ve gifted her one of my maple leaf luminarias yet to be created. Funny thing is the Arts Center also wants one for their giant fundraiser (Chocolate Fantasy) coming up. Time to get a few more created so everyone can be satisfied. Giving work away certainly makes me feel happy but it isn’t helping out the checking account. Maybe the donation to CF will help fuel additional interest in my work. Most likely, it will end up back in my collection and not even receive a bid (or go out the door for a super low low price!). You may think I’m being pessimistic, but I’ve produced work specifically for CF and it’s not received even a nod of interest. It could be the Corvallis crowd. However, I’ve created 3 other luminarias for fundraisers (two in Oregon, one in Texas) and they were all purchased. Maybe I need to think more seriously about creating lighted work…. but not today. 🙂

Becoming a Poodle

It was time for a change… Much better than this… Nuff said! Thanks to the team at Wash Your Paws Pet Grooming in Albany for a super job!

Recycle process start

It’s the start of a new project. The scroungy, spider web encrusted hemlock has been rescued from the burn pile. Now what? Time to chop off the ends and get some drawing going. I’m still not certain what size the sculpture will become so some figuring needs to happen before proceeding further. Paper will also need to start soaking in coffee grounds and water. Maybe even some turmeric… So many ideas running through my brain. Ah, the fun of starting fresh!

Dave started his work travels today. This is the first of many to come for 2014. He is heading to Santa Cruz for 36hrs. China is still happening later this month. Maybe even Brazil and India in February. Thank goodness my foot is finally starting to feel better so dog walks can happen on my time. Rains are back and snow is finally falling in the mountains.

Off to do some work!

Noodle Doodle

I now know why I don’t sketch around the house. Both doodles and Moby work hard at trying to remove pen and sketchbook from my grasp. Moby was overly enthusiastic today, jumping up and placing his paws on my chest. Reggie was trying to shove his ball on the sketchbook. Hint hint! I guess the hour of ball play didn’t make a dent in their energy level. This was a super duper quickie of an enthusiastic Reggie. Can you tell he needs a haircut?

Woof! 🙂

It’s Up!

The website is up and running, filled with many images of my sculptures and prints. There are still things to add (like print sizes) and some other gobble-de-gook, but I’ve finally jumped over a hurdle. Site key-word optimization to come. I’m tired of the computer today!

Click on the link below to reach the site!

Gale Everett Studio

Sunsets and a new year

Happy New Year! I’ve managed to spend the last couple of days in bed ill. Not may favorite way to start a new year. On Thursday night we had one of the most spectacular sunsets. Very interesting cloud formations with gold, pinks, oranges and violets extending over the valley. Stunning!

The new year started with a “to do” list for art. One of the first things accomplished was dropping off 3 block prints to a show in Corvallis. My friend Julia Lont of Blue Camas Press organizes the event yearly in conjunction with her church. It’s an easy show to do when my flat file drawers are stuffed with framed images.

Sculpture: I’ve started gathering materials for the internal frame of a large “spider/worm hole” sculpture. December was the garage cleaning month and I discovered several piles of deconstructed projects that contained plenty of long boards with paint. Recycling wood is always a great way to go, especially when they are never seen! The reclaimed wood was actually from a sculpture project during university. It was a really cool and highly fragile piece influenced by Andy Goldsworthy, one of my favorite artists. The spider hole piece needs to be completed and photographed by March 1. Show entry deadline is on March 10. I think I can manage that!

Sculpture 2: The community open will be coming up soon so I’ll be whipping up a little piece for the event. Actually, it will be a recycled project with a major face lift and lighting change. The piece was originally created during an advanced 3D class at university but had never been viewed outside that venue. Then it broke in numerous areas after the grading. I continued to hold onto the main frame, thinking I would eventually rework the piece. Now is the time to give it a second life. Thank goodness for clearing out the garage. It’s opened up many more possibilities to come!

Ceramics: I have to start getting serious on a project I committed to back in 2011. The project involves transferring my forest series block prints to 10-12 ceramic tiles. I’m finally going to jump into the decal transfer world of ceramics! The tiles are for my brother Mike’s kitchen. I might have to create a few more print images, but we shall see. One thing’s for certain, I’m not going to be installing them!

Website: My goal is to have the site up and running by the end of this weekend. It’s been languishing for months as my energy has been placed elsewhere. Photos have to be reformatted and tweaked, some sort of artist statement/bio needs creating, but that’s about it. Hopefully by Monday morning, it will be running! I’ll keep ya posted.

Hope you all are having a great start to the new year!

Gale

Mug Experiment

I must admit, it’s rather strange seeing my artwork placed upon a generic white coffee/tea mug. One of my local art friends had recommended Zazzle as a good resource for creating functional ware with your own art images. So I thought “What the heck, I might as well give it a try to see what the quality is like”. My order was placed back on Sunday and the mug arrived today (Friday). Talk about a quick turn-around! It helps that the company is situated in California. 🙂 The site was easy to use and they actually improved the upload/ image placement system since creating the order. It would have been nice to use this improvement, but now I know about it for next time. The site offers the ability to create a shop and allow others to purchase thru Zazzle. Would it be worth it? I’m not certain. I would love to have feedback from those that might be interested. I did notice that the block print images are a tad fuzzy and a bunch of the detail is lost with the reduced size. Not certain how to handle that. This might be the picky anal printmaker in me making those harsh critiques, and the general public might not have the same response. I think the pug print would look lovely on a white mug….

Let me know what you think!

🙂

Formline frogs and other disasters

A rather goofy looking frog drawing but there is a history to it. Long ago (probably back in the 50’s/60’s) someone in my family, possibly my grandmother, purchased a couple of sets of placemats and napkins from the local arts center. These placemats had a formline frog image. Both she and my parents had a great fondness of indigenous art of Pacific Northwest coastal tribes. The placemats were used a fair amount and I recalled them from my childhood. A couple of years back I rediscovered them and wanted to create sets for each of my siblings. Last year I managed to purchase fabric and get things cut but it never advanced farther. Friday I started goofing around with the design, trying to see what works for my taste. It’s still super rough and will need more refining, but the idea is there.

I’ve played around with some formline critters before in clay. Formline art consists of ovids, U and S shapes. It’s very much part of the indigenous coastal art (think Haida or Tlingit tribes). If you’re not familiar with it, you might want to check out Wikipedia. Below are failed vessel experiments I created about 10 years ago. The first couple are of an Orca design. The finished vessel measured about 22″ long by 14″ high, by 7″ wide (ellipse form). It had a mirror image on the other side. Bummer it blew-out in the bisque. How was it created? I transferred my drawing to a 1/4″ slab and created the cut out form. Then it was slipped & scored and attached onto an existing leather hard vessel. Way too many air gaps were created while trying to join the two together, plus the difference in clay consistency probably pushed the limits. Explosions in the kiln. Bummer! But I tried it again, thinking a second attempt would be better. Oh, I did destroy Orca #1. It only took a couple of blows from the hammer to do the job.

Round #2 wasn’t as nice as the first. This time I used 2 distinctly different colored clay bodies (both stoneware), rolled them out and pancaked them together. Then the vessel was built and image carved through the surface red layer down to the white. Looks like I did touch up of more white slip too. For some reason, I missed creating the spout feature and the rim. It surprisingly survived the bisque (with a few cracks) but was never up to snuff. Now it sits behind the kiln holding crayfish nets. An ugly reminder of things past.

If I were to do it a third time, I would probably just add a colored slip to the surface and carve through, rather than trying to marry 2 different clay bodies together. Much simpler with a similar effect. I’ve also done a Halibut and Bear lantern, but those reside at the family coast home since they were successful. Oh, and then there is the other Halibut vessel…

It’s 30″x 15″ and 4″ wide at it’s base. The back side has all the negative forms. Several of the negative forms didn’t adhere well enough and cracked or peeled away from the surface. Oh well, another disaster. At least one side looked fairly cool. I had always wanted to attach twined cedar bark around the tail lid and create a halibut hook. It went through a high fire without any stain or surface glaze treatment. Raw clay in the fully cooked color.

Hopefully something positive can come from the frog. My plan is to screen print it onto white fabric. Then I’ll hit it with fabric dye. If I can keep the dogs out of the mud and my time away from Eugene, it might actually be accomplished before Christmas! But I’m not holding my breath!

🙂

The creature…

from the mud lagoon appeared in the yard today. Ya never know what you’ll find after the snow melts.

Oh my, he has interesting feet…

He looks awful happy… should I bring him inside??? Just look at those cute mud dreadlocks hanging from his face!!!

Now the realization sets in that he’s up S***T creek or maybe that’s BATH creek. How the heck do I move him from here to the shower without getting the mud everywhere?

How many more months of winter do we have left???

I think I need a big shot of rum to get through this one. The bathroom will never be the same.

😦

Cold

Bone chilling temperatures are not part of our typical winter vocabulary here in the Willamette Valley. Our normal December highs are in the mid 40’s, lows in the mid 30’s. Over the past 10 days we’ve been below freezing (day and night) with several nights reaching low single digits and even sub temps. Tuesday was the first day to reach 32F here in Albany!

With the chilly temps and snow, yes we did receive just over 3″ of powder here at my home (plus lots of ice below everything), we are enjoying most of the experience. The dogs have been in heaven! Dogs + Snow = fun! Our garage finally started to freeze Saturday morning which prompted removal of the felines to a warm space. Meme is in kitty bliss, settling in to her new comfy, warm, protected digs. Nigel is plain old pissed! Ok, he does enjoy extra snuggle time with me, plus access to all their great toys and catnip, but he continues to howl and complain for extended lengths of time. Nothing is ever right for both cats.

Here are a smattering of snow photos

Thursday night sunset with moon.