The Red Chicks Debut
The Road Ends - Artomatic Begins
The Red Chicks Debut
These past few days have been hectic, somewhat frustrating but mostly exciting. After glazing and hand finishing stoneware pieces, I got down with the Red chicks. Last post talked about fixing her arm which broke in several places. I mixed up some paint to match her natural color mixed it with spackle and fixed her arm. Now she is a red garnet color, instead of coronet. Gave her the name Mercy, why? she just looked like that's what she was saying in her pose. Mercy was very cooperative, unlike some of my chicks, she was a breeze to finish.
This is her on her pedestal at Artomatic. She is a nice dark metallic garnet. I noticed in my installation that the new hand treated stoneware pieces had some type of metallic glaze or finish mixed with a little acrylic. My Nephilm (angels) are glazed with a wash of
metallic, making them look old, but maintaining the opaqueness of the paint. Washes, are thinned down versions of the paint being used. The paint glided over her like it was meant to be and she of course, took it very well. The broken part of her arm now hidden. I'm good like that, if I must say so myself. Mercy, graciously let me finish her and stepped aside to make room for my red bottom chick who needed her dusty butt waxed.
Red Hot is special type chick, she is difficult, brash and bootylicious all in the same breath. Someone asked what made me have her face down butt up, my response was, that's what the stone dictated. When I get stone, it may not be carved for a while. The stone will be flipped around until it speaks to me. There is stone that hasn't been carved because the image it holds within has not been revealed to me, or maybe the artistic eye hasn't found it yet. But when that eye saw her form, it was on! Especially, since she was a last minute decision, so time was of the essence. Our interaction was red, hot and intense. Working feverishly to at least flesh out her form, keeping it easy breezy was a challenge. Her breaking in two was not her fault, just a consequence of trying to get things my way, when its the stones way. Knowing time was an issue, maybe I pushed to hard too fast and broke her. But nevertheless, we made up, she got put back together and it was on again!
Now, in the last two days before her debut, we spend countless hours together, filing, rasping and sanding until 2-3 in the morning. All stone has striations (lines, veins), so I tried to blend the line where it cracked into the body of the stone. Her dusty torso, hiding the real beauty underneath, taunting me to get her polished off. Friday night, was the turning point, having already sanded her once, the count down began. Most pieces are give 13-16 sandings, using different grits ranging from 60 grit (stripper) to 800-2000 grit (super fine sand paper). 600 grit is usually good enough for soapstone. Red Hot demanded 800 grit to make her smooth round booty really shine. Friday night she got sanded twice, between each sanding she is washed off to remove the dust. This is done to keep from adding scratches when moving to the next grit. I couldn't do anymore, couldn't stay awake, she wore me out.
Saturday, after watching my grandson, yes, I have one! we proceeded to continue our sanding dance. But watching an infant is hard work. Especially, when they are not yours. Its been along time since I've had to deal with a child who cant talk yet, with little to no idea what they are crying about. Guess that's where maternal instincts kick in....right! I'm so removed from that, that I had to go looking for those instincts and then dust them off. By that time, I was through! Love my grandson no doubt, it was wonderful to be able to babysit, but Red Hot was on my mind, and little dude needed to go home so I could get back to work. At 1am, I'm sanding away and realize that my brain has shut down, my eyes cant focus and my head hurts. Trudging through two sandings, it was all I could do to stay awake. Had to do more, Sunday was the last day to install and I had to get her down there no matter what.
Sunday morning around 8am, I jumped up like my pants were on fire, made my coffee and grits, then proceeded to get down to the nitty gritty of getting her butt done. Red Hot became my ride or die chick at that moment, she cooperated fully and the sanding was on! Was glad to get to wet sanding, where the color really starts to come through, these are the last four sandings before polishing. It was noon, had to get to the space by 4:30, to tweak my space and add my name tags and put Red Hot in her place. When working on stone, I become really anal, wanting perfection, when its not reached I will work until it is. The final step was happening, we both felt a sense of relief. Red Hot was ready to get hot, she was heated up slightly, and applied a marble polish. The heat allows the wax to sink in and be absorbed by the stone. Now its wax on, wax off. By 1:30, Red Hot was cooling down temperature wise, but her color became red hot and beautiful. She was done, and I...satisfied.
So may I introduce Red Hot Mama
This is the stones true color, red with yellow flecks. The soapstone is called red delco. She made it to Artomatic and took the her rightful place amongst my other chicks and her big booty attracted a lot of attention. Very proud of her outcome, I think she's pleased too.
The Road Ends, Artomatic Begins
Arriving at my space on the 3rd floor, the tweaking began. Put up my about me stuff, which will be tweaked again and changed on opening night. I was really surprised at the number of people there installing and even more surprised at the number of people who had not come to install at all, it was already after 4:30 on the last day,10pm was the cutoff time. The road to Artomatic has been an interesting one. In the beginning, there was not much to photograph now there's waaay too much. Each floor has a grid on the walls where artist can post a flier telling people where they are. Any artist/performer can be in artomatic professional or not. I was really impressed with the setup that most artist had, it looked professional and well put together. There was also a lot of questionable exhibits. Before leaving, I started on the 11th floor and decided to look around. Why did I do that! There was so much to look at, it was overload. So much creative energy, it was amazing to see the talent this venue has brought out. So many artist go unrecognized, but famous or not, any buyer would not be disappointed if they purchased a piece by the unknown, or little known local artist. Now all the artist interviews I've been promising, and the events begin. The kickoff date is this Friday 6-10pm. Will take plenty of photos. Make sure you check out the photo essay. It's now posted. look forward to chatting with you next time, same blog time, same blog channel.
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