Women’s weekend

I’ve been a bit slammed at work but wanted to share info from last weekend. I drove out and took the Kingston Ferry from Seattle to Port Ludlow. The hotel for the event was very cool and we had a really good turn out for submissions for the rolling pin challenge. Here are some photos of those pieces. I think by far one of my favorites was the dough boy piece.

Here is a bit of my progress on my piece which I started down in Cambria, CA at CSS in April. I finished the shaping of the piece and got it up to about 400 grit on wet sanding (thanks rain) The images below are after I rinsed the piece off as I wanted to preview how the lines would show once I get it up to a higher grit. Now hopefully today I can work on scraping any imperfections out and plan how to attach the base I bought for it. I’m hoping it will fit the base well but need to test it out before attaching it to be sure. I need to go pickup a new drill as well so that I can mount it as the drill I have is quite useless lol. I unfortunately did chip a tiny piece off of my other sculpture driving back. So at some point I’ve got to go back and sand that back to remove that imperfection. I may need to get some better storage containers in the future and some kind of krinkle paper filling when traveling with them. Here are pictures below of the transitions of the piece.

Excited for Women’s Weekend coming up…

So I’ve been working on finishing up a rolling pin challenge sculpture. Here are some images of the piece I’m working on. It started as two fingers and I’ve decided it looks much better as 3 fingers. I made a base of cement for the piece as well which I like as a contrast to the marble which I’ve just polished up a bit. I’m trying to get the fingernails to a really high polish so they have a nice sheen and pop a bit from the fingers.

The other project I’m working on I’ve decided I need to use color shift paint because the goat leather I’m going to use may have tint seams showing when I cover the foam piece so I’m painting the surface to be the exact color and shine so that the piece appears like a warped sea creature. I’m painting the netting parts a creamy white and just brushing a light surface of the purple to make it have a sort of sickly bleached coral reef feel. May take a few tries to get all the colors correct. The tricky part will be adding porcupine quills because the ones I got are pretty soft I may need to create holes in the leather once attached so I can glue in the quills on the surface. I want it to look natural like a slightly balding animal.

So the next event I’m doing is part of the NWSSA women’s weekend. It’s my first time going but I’m hoping to finish this piece which I’m loving. It’s got some beautiful colors and I’m trying to make one perspective be a little more figurative than I usually do. Kind of fun to mix it up a little bit. This image is not the side I’m referring to but here is a view of it in my window. I already purchased a beautiful stand metal base my friend made. I’m going to bring some of my pieces, even works in progress are okay or so I’ve been told. The show will be held at the Old Alcohol Plant Hotel in Port Hadlock, WA on June 3rd – 5th.

California Sculptor’s Symposium

So last Tuesday afternoon I flew out with horrific anxiety. Work had been so much I needed to get away for some art. The symposium was a little less dramatic and hyped up but there were some of the amazing people from both here and all over California. I had someone claim a beautiful piece of alabaster which I am loving working on. Typically I’m more stressed but I’m taking an easy approach.

Here is the piece at the very early carving stage. I wish I had an earlier photo but I just got into it for a good 30 minutes.

Here is the other side which was a little tricky as I tend to have trouble with straight lines and flat sides. But as I worked I watched the crack in it that looked as if it went straight through a large piece. You can see it well in the last image. I sealed the crack with super glue and switched to rasps and scrapers before I typically do. I really want to see how the crack plays into the piece at the end.

As I worked I decided to slow down and work on my other piece. I did a small cement casting in a bucket to create a base for my rolling pin challenge sculpture. Basically there are people carving them into all sorts of things. Mine kept splitting and I realized they now looked like fingers. So I create a defined line for a nail and will attach them to the base I made.

I took some other photos of the event as well and the best part is always the people.

I’ll update once I finish the rolling pin challenge piece and I’m excited for June as I’m hoping to finish the larger sculpture there.

Abstract piece

So I started working on a piece for a friend who wanted 3 tier staggered piece. The idea was to start with a gradient background in a few colors while I worked out my plan. The piece kept taking on it’s own space landscape vibe, so instead of fighting it I’m just going to go with it and see where I end up. I’ve already put in a lot of time which normally I would have finished in one weekend. I had to take a bit of a break too and so now It’s progressed and I keep getting slightly stuck mostly because it’s got a lot of darkness already so I feel like some highlighting would be helpful. But of course I have the urge to blend the left side almost blackish with red and some highlights almost like that’s where the sun is going down behind this strange place.I tried one new technique towards the bottom where I do circles or cots to connect the surface I’m not sure if it will stay I kind of like it but it also makes the piece seem more landscape sometimes it stops the eye and I’d rather have a piece that pulls you around the canvas.

Sticking with Etsy

So I’ve decided Etsy is probably the cheapest way to go since I can post items and pay small amounts. I do need to add the rest of my art and maybe just offer drop downs for pieces paired similarly. I’ve purchased a bunch more foam materials and some necklace pendants to create something cool with. I think this weekend I’ll go through some of my stuff and try out some cool options for the jewelry. I think I may get some black or generic string for them for now as it would go well with the sort of bronze like colors. I am going to try our cutting wood, adding pressed flowers and painting and most likely finishing with resin since I like the look and finish. If I can create some this weekend I will add and update on Etsy as well. I am about to do a commission for a friend who just knows he wanted 3 panel paintings so sort of brainstorming what to create for him. I may just freely paint something and go with it and if he’s not a fan I can transition the background into something more real such as a bridge or mountain type of scene.

New Painting & Shopify Account

So I’ve decided since I get quite small traction with Etsy I’ll try Shopify and link over to it https://aerinsizelove.myshopify.com/

I was trying to carve a rolling pin this week and it split while using my 1 point to add some definition so I’ll put a hold on that until I get a 4 point as if it splits again, which it’s trying to. I’ll just be making some gravel. So I decided to do a painting to relax. Once I was done with it I remembered some time ago I had wanted to use one of my backgrounds for a silhouette. Instead of doing the style used previously for the portraits I decided to go solid black so I searched for some silhouette outlines online and found two that reminded me of my niece and nephew and figured that’s a good route. Here it is before and after the silhouette’s – It may need a little touching up on the back ground but I’m happy with the overall piece.

New Medium

So I’ve been working playing with carving Styrafoam but wanted to practice before getting into a large project that’s I’ve been working on. Since it’s a material that we find free everywhere I’ve been collecting a bunch. I’ve noticed much of the materials you get free however seem to be in odd shapes. I could take advantage of that or use some thinner boards I purchased cheap at Home Depot. I have realized carving through a thick layer is someone harder than using the heat cutter through thin sheets and connecting after. I discovered a site called www.hotwirefoamfactory.com which sells lots of great products for foam sculpting. I started the smaller pieces with All Purpose foam coat but have decided to get bounce as it seems to make a sculpture more flexible and waterproof which I like since the all purpose seems to be a little chalkier I will finish up the curved piece below once I get that and try a 30/70 ratio of bounce to APFC. I also found a glue that works well but doesn’t prevent the hot wire from cutting the foam. Here are my very first few beginnings at some little pieces. I feel the wire cutting tool works well for shaping overall and sharper lines but the use of small rasp tools works best especially for curves.

Back painting finally

So I’ve been a little MIA and have not added any work for some time. I’ve been a little caught up in some big life changes. In November I moved from San Francisco to Seattle. It was a lot I had difficulty with movers and kept finding myself spread really thin week after week. I’ve finally caught up a bit and feel pretty settled in now. I realize that Seattle is not a public transit city but more of “you need a car” kind of a city. So I’m currently trying to look into this new shopping experience. However the first week of January I got tested positive for Covid like much of those who flew on a plane over the holidays. I decided to start painting and even though I wasn’t feeling quite in the zone I got really into two mixed media pieces. One has yet to be resined and the other I’ve decided to leave as is. Here they are here. They took an entire day of a holiday weekend and it really was a fun project though extremely messy. I used a painting from quite awhile ago that never felt “done” I was initially going to resin it but never ended up doing it. The best part was the canvas was a wooden base so it was super durable and a lot of weight could go on it without any warping. Here it is almost completed:

Also I’m sad to report my moving company lost 3 of my favorite large paintings. I’ve been super bummed about this tbh and it seems odd how they could lose a box like that? The 3 were Big Island Adventures, Wormhole and my absolute favorite (one of my 1st abstract paintings) Secret Forest. I’m hoping they either find them or I get over it but art is near impossible to reproduce as for me I paint more intuitionally and when I paint something it really has to do with my current surroundings and moods and experiences I’m going through. Also the painting above for instance I was stuck indoors sick and had been watching a lot of Netflix documentaries so ideally it’s about how us people basically destroy everything beautiful in the world because we think everything is a possession we need to fight over (Greed) so I’m calling it “Greed vs Nature”. I have been waiting for my foam sculpting supplies which just arrived the other day so I’ll start testing that out for my next sculpture which is going to be cool but weird. I want to do a couple installation pieces but I may do some mini’s first since it would be nice to travel with those vs bringing a big version to the CA symposium with me when I go. Here are some more images of the finished piece:

Here is the second project I did that weekend. It was fun and I based it off colors I was liking at the time as well:

Here is another painting which I did last weekend. The painting underneath was one I did during one of the worst times when I was in a really toxic relationship and it needed to be gone so I painted over it, it was definitely one of my more intuitional paintings where I purposely had no plan of what I was going to paint. I’m happy with the outcome and the texture from the previous painting actually went well with the movement of the canvas.

Times are a changing

So I’m moving to Seattle next weekend, technically on Monday afternoon I fly out. I’ve been trying to see people often and have packed up all my stuff. This has been very physically draining but more emotionally. I’ve been in San Francisco for almost 19 years and I always thought this was where I would stay. This city will have my heart but I’m ready to leave Neverland. I had my last show and it was honestly not very fun for me. I sold two prints and made about $20 and one other person is buying a painting on Sunday. Once I’m settled in Seattle I hope to get back into some art and really make some life changes. I want to eat better and exercise so that I have the energy to create after work. It may be a bit before I write but please feel free to follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/aerinsizelove/

See you later…

Last show is next weekend

Next week I have two shows one at a flower shop in my local neighborhood called Dasluz flower studio it’s going to be Friday October 15th. The following day I have a show at Public Glass and have ordered 4 different prints of my 12 x 12 and 9 x 12 so I’m excited to be able to sell those at a lower cost. Since today was my day for packing as my next few weekends are super busy up to the move. That and apartment searching I’m kinda starting to be like “Wow I’m moving to Seattle in less than a month”. During the day I was packing up and I found all my other prints, I had been looking for them but they were really buried. Super happy to have a bunch of these packaged up. Going to sell them for $10-$15 so will be nice to have some less costly items that hopefully a few people will buy. Fingers are extremely crossed that I sell at least one paper mache sculpture. I’m really stressed about the movers moving those. I guess if I believe they will sell they will I just can’t see someone buying something so large lol. I know they eat up my studio space but maybe one day I’ll have a bigger place to present them in or can get them into a show of some sort.