The way I get around that is to bring the piece into another room and hit it with a hard cross light. If there is something that needs fixing it will jump out. I’ll circle it so it will be easy to find when it comes back to the studio and a day or two later when everything looks right I will repeat the process. Eventually I will be satisfied that it will paint well.

Since the piece I going to be painted you might question why this attention to detail is so important at this stage. It’s simple. I learned long ago that you cannot make a good painting out of a bad drawing and flaws in a sculpture cannot be covered up with a layer of paint. The construction and surfacing of these 3D pieces become the skeleton of the final wall sculpture. I cannot fix anything later so it has to be right .

The surface texturing has held up under this harsh light so i can now move on to figuring out how to paint it.

Construction and surfacing is finished. On to the next step.

If you compare this stage of Geisah #2 with Geisha you will see that they are very similar but different. Where they will make the complete change is in the palette. I plan to make a radical jump from cool to hot. My research shows that the Geisha costume runs the gamut of colors so let’s see where this ends up.

Over the next several days the joints will disappear… sort of. I’ll be working on it as a sculptor and using knives, rasps and abrasives to blend the separate parts as much as possible. At this stage no matter what I do there will be cracks, small holes and irregular surfaces that don’t match, Once I get the piece cleaned up I will begin working on it with fillers which will, in the end, make it look like one unit instead of the many separate pieces you now see glued together. That is when the surface texture will begin to show up as well.

I’ll show that in a future post.

The rough construction of Geisha #2

Each of my wall sculptures involve many individual pieces cut and hot glued to create the rough form. You would think that once you have an accurate drawing all you would have to do is copy each shape and place it into position. Wish it was that easy. If you take any rectangle and lay it flat it works that way but lift one side and you now need a larger piece to fit the same area. Then raise an opposite corner to create a compound angle and the measurements change again. It becomes a trial and error process. All the while I have to visualize the angle and depth of the individual section I’m cutting. What is the elevation? How will the next piece fit in? What do I want it to look like when all of the pieces of the puzzle are connected?

On this piece I have added compound curves to the mix, both convex and concave plus the compound angles. After working on this for a few hours my head is spinning and I have to walk away from it for a while. Sometimes it will take several cuts for each piece before it fits the way I want it and then each piece has to be supported underneath to provide the structural strength that I want. When this construction is completed it is only the beginning.

This is a photograph of where I am on the piece a week into the project. On the left is the drawing I’m working with which in effect is my floor plan. On the right is the elevation in 3D.. Very rough at this point but all art starts bad and grows from there.

Detail

I’ll keep you posted as the piece goes though the various stages from now until it’s hanging on the wall.

About that time I came across this story and used it to answer their question.

If you haven’t seen it yet it something to think about.

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An American business man was at the pier in a small Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the boat were several yellow fin  tuna. The American complimented the fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied only a little while.

The American then asked why he didn’t stay out longer and catch more fish.The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.The American then asked, but what do you do with the rest of your time?

The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife Maria, stroll into the village each night where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life senor.”

The American scoffed, “ I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat. You could buy several boats and eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the processing and distribution.  You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run the expanding enterprise.

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But Senor, how long will this all take?”

The American replied “15- 20 years.”

“But what then senor?”

The American laughed and then said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions.”

“Millions, senor, then what?”

The American said, ”Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play the guitar with your amigos.”

When I get into a series the work will move from one piece to another over a period of months. I will sometimes be working on 2 or 3 pieces at the same time. Then, one day, I just don’t feel like working so I find other things to do. The piece which is almost finished is staring at me but I know if I don’t feel like working on it I will screw it up if I try.

In this case it is the unfinished Geisha which I study each time I walk into the studio but I’ll go to the drawing board and play around with a few new ideas for the next wall sculpture instead of painting. I have several of them ready to go but the cycle was not ready to begin again… until yesterday.

I like the form of Geisha so much that I began to ask what might happen if I tried to do a variation of that piece. This morning I have the 32”x 39” drawing ready for that sculpture. It is somewhat different from the one I’m working on and I’m sure it will change again as I work on the construction but the process has begun.

Geisha #2 Working Drawing 32"x 39"

Now that I have another sculpture to do it will give me the incentive to complete the Geisha painting. I have a backlog of work to be done and another goal. That is the fuel I’ve been waiting for. I learned long ago not to rush it. The creative juices don’t dry up, they gestate.

There are two reasons for that. As many of you know I’ve been trying to sell my building in Orange so I can move north. I may very well be here in 4 months when I reach my goal but my realtor and I are working on it so I don’t want to plan that far in advance . Meanwhile it’s business as usual. I’ll keep you posted on any changes as they happen.

The second reason is I am really excited about these pieces. They combine the things that I am good at and everyone who has seem them so far feel that there is nothing like them out there. If that is the case I would like to find a metropolitan venue to present them.  My dad always taught me to start at the top and work down never the other way around and maybe after 40 years of creating art I’m ready to do that.

If any of you across the country know of an established gallery that might want to take me on I’m open for conversation. Have portfolio, will travel.

Here are two in finished form . As I create a new piece I will flesh it out here as well as on the Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/edjaffegallery.

Papoose Mixed Media 28"x40"x 3"

And finally for this post here is one that really taught me the process.

Family Group Mixed Media 32"x 40"x 4"

The sketch I made for this piece was definitely figurative but very abstract . It didn’t come together until I enlarged it to 40 “. In the process of correcting the drawing my final figure became more defined. It remained untitled until it was almost finished and then I saw the influence of Kabuki theater in it and that guided me as I went to painting.

I find any form of sculpture almost natural and intuitive. Painting on the other hand is tough work. For me every step has to be thought out before the fact or corrected after. Eventually I end up with something that works but it doesn’t come easy. That is why you will find so many glazes in my work. I am constantly fixing something. Obviously I like the end result and it has become my style but after doing this for many years I wish I knew more. Maybe that’s the incentive that keeps me looking for answers.

Kabuki Mixed Media 31"x 29"x 6"

For those of you new my work I’ll try to do some catch up . My paintings have always had a geometric look. As a sculptor I have also used a great deal of texture on the surface . My goal has been to create as much 3 dimension as possible on a 2 dimensional plane. For quite some time I have been thinking about converting some of the paintings into wall sculpture to see how they would look in actual 3D. The first idea was to make them out of clay and fire them but I gave up on that because of the weight factors involved.

Over time I couldn’t get rid of the idea . It morphed into trying to construct a piece out of a lighter material and then using that surface as the base for a painting.

The new process began with something I mentioned previously in this blog. I photographed one of my paintings and then cut it up in an arbitrary manner. For days I played around with the puzzle pieces until I got something that might work as a wall sculpture . Then it was photographed to use as my working sketch.

Montage used to create the first 3 dimensional painting.

I had some thin but strong pieces of cardboard laying around the studio and I used that material to figure out how to construct a piece from the sketch.

This 8”x10” maquette was the result. Then I painted it to see what might work in the final piece.

Blowing the maquette up to 30”x40 “ was not only a question of scale. When you enlarge any piece of sculpture changes have to be made to keep everything in proportion.There was more math and geometry involved in this than I have used since college . I could only concentrate on it for two hours at a time before I’d lose direction and have to walk away until another day.

The 8"x10" maquette on the 30"x 40" sculpture.

Once the construction was completed, finishing the sculpture was the same as working in any other material. Filing, sanding etc, Then I could seal it, add the texture and the begin to think about color. My theory here was the same as on paintings. Put the texture on first and let the paint pick that up later.  It was an interesting process as I now had multiple surfaces that had to be painted . This is where the original maquette came into play again. It was a perfect guide for the final piece.

2D-2-3D 30"x 40" Multi Media.

Start to finish this project took 6 weeks. But the series had begun.

http://io9.com/5898440/theres-so-much-awesome-in-this-photograph-i-can-hardly-stand-it

The one which is the most fun is the new series of painted wall sculpture. I haven’t said much about it on the blog because I was busy telling you stories that would bring you up to date on me and my work. You can catch up on those stories by going to the archives if you are interested. I feel you have all the background you might want and it’s time to move on to what is happening now. Going forward I will give you some insight into the process of creating the 3D pieces….and anything else that might come up.

None of 3D pieces have been shown as I learned long ago if I show my work one at a time I usually sell them one at a time and I never collect enough to have a show. Right now I have seven completed and two more working. Each one takes about a month to complete so I’m looking for a show toward the end of the year.

I’ll keep you posted on that.

That brings up item two.

Most of you may know that my building has been on the market throughout this real estate recession. I’m still here and expect to be unless I get lucky .  In the meantime nothing will change, The gallery is here, It  is loaded with sculpture and paintings . It is open at your convenience and most Saturdays and I keep creating new work.

I will do my best to keep you up to date on both counts.