Friends

Sometimes, you just need a little encouragement from your friends… I have a young artist friend I used to work with, and we would sometimes take an afternoon break, go to one of the conference rooms with our art supplies, and paint together. She worked mostly with acrylic paints, but she was fascinated with watercolors, […]

Courage

Sometimes an image just sticks in your imagination. I was going through an online website set up to help you practice your figurative drawing and sketching skills. You enter a number of parameters for the images you want to sketch from (eg, male/female, clothed/nude, static/action, etc.) and a number of minutes for a timer. When […]

Timeless

When I create a title for a particular figure sculpture I am working on, I have developed a practice of spending time sitting with the sculpture, letting the sculpture itself tell me what its name is.

Sculpture Class

I started following the Proko educational art site several years ago. The site is primarily dedicated to resources and videos for drawing, especially around the human figure, but they recently added in an emphasis on 3D art and sculpture. I enrolled in their first sculpture class, watching the videos and doing the homework assignments. This […]

Little Birds

As an artist, I often find my journey following odd little twists and turns. As a Christ follower, the Holy Spirit is the one who owns my creative process, and the manner in which even the little bits of beauty I try to create find ways to speak life to those around me. Some time […]

Arms and fingers and legs, oh my!

I have always been fascinated by how our arms and shoulders silently communicate our thoughts and emotions. Working with clay forces us to deal with the fact that the arms are the most slender feature of the body, and thus pose some serious technical issues

Rest

Drawing dancers in their tutus, and the layers and layers of translucent tulle has always been a challenge for me … Trying to sculpt this in clay, … that was a technical challenge I had never been brave enough to attempt.

What’s in a Name?

I have spent a great deal of time pondering the process of attaching a title to a piece. I wrote a post some time ago, bemoaning the title of “Untitled” which people sometimes use, and talking about the significance of a title as it becomes an integral part of the work, giving us a window […]

Through the Fire

There is something very ancient, even primal, about working with ceramics and the process of earth and fire. As much as I appreciate the advent of computerized controls on modern electric kilns and the ability to precisely control the firing profile, with the resulting high degree of predictability in the outcome of one’s work, I […]

Work in Process…

Some people have asked me about my work process when I sculpt a figure. I took this opportunity to capture a few photos along the way as I was working on a figure sculpture, showing the various steps.