Friday things

This week has me running here to there. Here are a few bits of my day:

Very delicious veggie hotdogs that I made for Paul and I today, titled “Japanese Egg Dog”

A sculpture that I started, but it dried out so I had to change gears…I lopped off its head and got in some texture. I’m excited to see what happens next. I have an idea, but we’ll see.

This one will not leave me alone today. I love her completely but she only wants me to pet her when I am at the computer… Sometimes! (her name…but also her nature.)

Frantically trying to fit in the last two episodes of Amaya Gurpide’s "The Narrative Language in Drawing” course before the 1st. It has been such a great course and I am excited to try out some of the things she has talked about.

In the bag

Or rather, in the tool roll. As an artist I love to see other artists’ studios, tools and materials. I think there is so much to be learned from what people use to make things.

So, here is a sneak peek at the tools I use to create my work.

This is The Sendak Artist Roll by Peg and Awl, which I’ve had for years and years. It is well loved, very used and stands up to all I put it through.

I used to use a plain canvas brush roll I got from Pearl but was always looking for something that felt more “me”, (and also would stand up to how rough I can be on things.) This continues to do the trick!

I have it organized into sections, the first being practical items: a pencil, a micron pen, a small ruler, a Sharpie (!), and tweezers.

This area contains the workhorses of my tools: a pointed wooden tool for when I need more precision, a smaller rounded wooden tool (which has touched nearly every piece I’ve ever made) and a larger wooden tool, and 3 takes of varying shapes and sizes. I love that the rakes are double sided with a different shape on each side, as the different shapes are better suited to different parts of sculptures.

These are the metal tools: 3 double sided metal tools with different tips for various textures, the wooden handle able is a fettling knife which is helpful for trimming things, a plaster tool (which is also helpful when working with wax), a smaller sort of spatula and a clay tool with a flat point. Each of these tools can but used in many ways but I always seem to use them when getting into creating textures.

This secret pocket has a cuticle trimmer in it and I use this to trim rubber mold edges.

Lastly the front pocket has a clay wire (used for cutting clay off the block) and a serrated rib (a thin piece of metal which rides over the surface of the clay.)

Weekly Update

As I try to squeeze the last bits out of this Summer by running around with Olivia, I am also looking forward to the Fall. The change of weather is of course most exciting but the change of pace is helpful too. I always do better when there is some structure to my days and the Fall schedule always seems to snap things back into place. (Mom guilt looms when it’s a perfectly nice Summer day that I had planned to spend working on the house or in the studio and Olivia asks “What are we doing today?”… so my days are more unpredictable right now because having fun is also important.)

As I mentioned, I’ll be teaching less this Fall, only having taken on one class at PAFA and workshops. I’m hoping to use this time to plan for the future and finish up some things around here.

Current Exhibitions

I’m happy to say that my sculpture, Am I flying? // Am I falling?, that is featured in As Above, So Below at Arch Enemy Arts sold! There is some really beautiful work in this exhibition, but my favorites are:

Upcoming Exhibitions

I’m working on a piece for Spectrum 3, also at Arch Enemy Arts, and this show opens in September with an opening reception on First Friday in October.

Paul and I are also both in the planning stages for our solo show in 2023, so there that has been discussions and the beginnings of ideas.

Upcoming Workshops

There are only 3 spaces left in my upcoming Animal Sculpture Workshop at Union Hall Arts in Atlantic City, NJ! I am so excited for this workshop. It’s going to be a really packed two days, full of information and sculpting (my favorite things.) I’ll also be making a sculpture tool for each participant and we’ll talk about things like moldmaking vs. firing clay work, composition and making narrative work using symbolism.

You can view more information below or sign up HERE

Work in Progress

I’ve started a sculpture but in the chaos of redoing the studio, it’s dried out! So it looks like I’ll be starting again.

I also have a much neglected Eddie Bunson left on my table that I should finish for miss Olivia.

Upcoming Miscellany

Back to School Seconds Sale is scheduled for September 1st! I’ll photograph the sculpture this week for a sneak peek so stay tuned!

DJ vs AI

As a self proclaimed Luddite I avoid most technology (and tease Paul about having worked for Skynet during his time as Creative Director for an Artificial Intelligence company). So imagine my surprise when a few weeks ago we started to play around with MidJourney, an AI used to create images through a series of prompts, and I LOVED it.

I am beginning to learn which words/ideas to use to get the stuff of my dreams. Right now it is a rapid fire inspiration machine…able to quickly produce worlds. I am looking forward to seeing how this fits in with the art world in the long run and hope that artists push beyond this initial image that comes of this collaboration. It feels almost like a trap…like when they put something very obvious in one of the Chopped mystery boxes. You still have to transform the ingredients and make it your own.

Throwback

As I’ve been experimenting in a new medium (more on that tomorrow), I am looking back at some themes that I love but find harder to successfully incorporate into my work on a regular basis. The theater stage is one of them. To me it speaks of drama, artifice, pretending to be someone you aren’t, trying something new, or acting out your dreams. I have a few sculptures in which I’ve used this as a tool but never quite in the way I’ve hoped for.

Every time you open your mouth…(Drama), 2020.

This sculpture was meant to speak to the idea of someone who, no matter what they said, every time they opened their mouth, you knew it was going to be some drama. I love that the simplicity of this piece allows the drama to be implied and therefore invented anew by each viewer. Someone wrote me that it made them think about the former president whereas others expressed knowing someone like this personally.

Another instance of using a small stage is in the sculpture below, To Sleep // To Dream, where in the double sided piece, the viewer is able to decide whether they’d like to be more practical (sleeping bird side) or more fantastical (dreaming bird side with a theater stage in his belly…an invitation to dream beyond what is possible in regular life.)

To Sleep // To Dream, 2021

I’m hoping to incorporate this as a symbol in some upcoming work, on one level or another. We’ll see how it goes… Stay Tuned!

Weekly Update

As we head full speed back into the upcoming school year, I am trying to get back online with consistency in my life and in my studio (as much as is possible.) I’ve shifted my schedule dramatically and will only be teaching minimally this semester in order to give myself a chance to sort out some things. Keep an eye here for upcoming shows, sales, bodies of work, etc.

Current Exhibitions

As Above, So Below 4 opens this Friday, August 19th at Arch Enemy Arts in Philadelphia, PA . Paul and I both have works in the show and each piece is meant to work both right side up and upside down. Here is a preview of my piece Am I flying? // Am I falling?

Upcoming Exhibitions

Next month will be Spectrum, also at Arch Enemy Arts in Philadelphia, PA. I’ve chosen the color blue this time so stay tuned.

Upcoming Classes

I’m very excited about the upcoming Animal Sculpture Workshop at Union Hall Arts in Atlantic City, NJ. The space is run by my friend Jim Dessicino and is really wonderful. Because I’ve dialed back my teaching so much, this is one of only two animal sculpture classes that I’ll be teaching in 2022 (and the only one on this coast!).

You can view more information below or sign up HERE

Work in Progress

Right now it’s really just my studio that is in progress, though I am finishing up the very last of my ‘Tangle’ casts and getting ready to start 2 new bodies of work for solos in 2023!

Upcoming Miscellany
Back to School Seconds Sale coming soon… September 1st, 2022

I’ll list the remainder of any “seconds” I have (sculptures that did not make the cut for one reason or another that are offered at a lower price than normal.)

Studio // Work in Progress... (Like drywall...not art)

Looking back through images of studios past (HERE and on my old blog) always has me a bit nostalgic… Spaces where we create can be magical, and I always wanted that for each space I’ve had as a studio.

My old studio on Amber Street 2008 - 2012 (ish?)

My current studio(s) have been utilitarian since we’ve moved in… I’ve made my spaces within them but am battling one leaky corner and another wall that never quite became a real wall. This month I’m trying my best to tie up all my loose ends in the space and make it feel like my studio…and not just the room in the house that I’m allowed to make messy.

Here’s some process so far:

Before: Fake fabric wall while I decided whether to build this out as cabinets or leave it a wall. Exposed duct work. Hot mess.

Getting closer… Walling in the walls. Building a soffit for the ductwork.

Drywall. We are already beyond this initial ugly phase but I don’t have any updated photos. I love spackling but hate sanding.

I think making a space your own is so important to the creative process. It sounds a little woo woo but if you feel happy and comfortable in a space, of course it will be easier to create there. I’m also looking forward to getting some online classes filmed in here once I’m done but more on that soon.

Finalist for Beautiful Bizarre Magazine's Yasha Young Projects Sculpture Award 2022

I’m very happy to announce that my piece CHAMBER XIX Bring the motherfucking ruckus was chosen as one of 25 finalists in Beautiful Bizarre Magazine’s Yasha Young Projects Sculpture Award 2022.

We have been BLOWN AWAY by the high standard of entries that we have received for the 2022 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize! Thank you so much to everyone who has entered. As a small, independent publisher, it means a lot to us that the global artists community respects and values the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize.

DANIJELA KRHA PURSSEY, CO-FOUNDER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, BEAUTIFUL BIZARRE MAGAZINE

This piece was created in 2021 for my solo show Enter the 36 Chambers as one of 36 “emotional reliquaries”.
Each of the 36 pieces in this show was meant to be a “level” to be conquered, emotionally, and being in the middle of the bunch there are a handful of hard feelings to beat. The specific thoughts for this piece related to the iron maiden (the object, not the band.) As a kid I was always obsessed with medieval torture devices...I couldn't wrap my head around how people could do something like that to one another. The same goes for how people treat one another to this day, verbally, emotionally.

To see the full list of 25 finalists, please visit Yasha Young Projects Sculpture Award 2022: Finalists Announced


Up from the 36 Chambers...!

For the last year I’ve worked on a series for my newest solo exhibition “Enter the 36 Chambers” and it his made of of 36 one of a kind pieces…each a training “Chamber” like in the Shaw Brother’s film “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin”, but if it were for your emotions.

Below is the artist statement I wrote for this work:

Part “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin” and part “Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)”, Enter the 36 Chambers is a series of sculptural emotional portraits that focus on the path to self discovery, and the heart and the battle that it takes to get there.

This series has roots in many things but discovery of self, challenging your thoughts, and emotional growth are at the core, with the story being told through dead birds, found objects and various references to Wu-tang lyrics and Shaw brothers movies, among other things. 

Art is funny. You don’t have to like Wu-Tang Clan or Shaw Brothers Kung Fu movies or even dead birds to find something in this series that might resonate with you. Those things are just starting points, lenses through which a story is being told. When you look at them, you may see them in different ways entirely. For me they are emotional portraits, or a sculpture of a feeling, and I want that to be universal so that anyone can feel it and in their own way.

I use dead birds as a vehicle because they are vulnerable and beautiful. You want to protect them, despite the worst being over. I think looking back at emotions can be a bit like that. You’ve already felt them...it’s over, they’re gone. Yet we sit with them and obsess, relive, dissect or reimagine them. I think the best thing for me is to learn from them and move forward... but I also feel that is a struggle, a daily battle to not dissect what I felt and why.

Enter the 36 Chambersis about mastering emotions... the idea being that as you are working through these emotions, each represented as a Chamber, you eventually get to a place of peace, or at very least the ability to find calm and stillness even when there isn’t any.

You can see this exhibition online HERE at Antlerpdx.com

All 36 pieces before they were sent off to Antler Gallery in Portland, OR

All 36 pieces before they were sent off to Antler Gallery in Portland, OR

Make F*cking Art: A challenge to you in uncertain times...

Feeling helpless doesn’t sit well with me and yet it has been hard to not feel that way daily with the current state of things. Don’t get me wrong, socially isolating is something I’ve been doing my whole life, however seeing people suffer on such a large scale is paralyzing. But art and likeminded people have helped me through many a time before and this is no different in that respect. So friend, amazing artist and fellow PAFA faculty member Maria Teicher (@Mariateicher on Instagram) and I have paired up to push ourselves and others to do what we do best : Make F*cking Art.

Darla Jackson, All my failures (Aren’t they lovely?)

Darla Jackson, All my failures (Aren’t they lovely?)

WHAT YOU NEED

You will not need anything other than a willingness to participate and whatever your medium(s) of choice is/are. Feel free to use traditional materials or to push the limits entirely and work in nontraditional materials, whatever is available to you.

WHAT TO DO

Our challenge to you is to follow the prompts below and make a corresponding artwork every 2-3 days. Every two weeks we will release a new list.

MARCH 23RD - APRIL 6TH

-Botanicals

-Animal Self

-Self Portrait As Community

-Comfort Beverage

-What Lies Beneath

-Self Portrait As Alter Ego

-Impressions

Participate as you are able. Post your work to Instagram and label it with #mariaanddarlasayMFA so we see it. Check out the hashtag in order to support other artists taking part.

OFFICIAL HASHTAG

#mariaanddarlasayMFA

SUGGESTED ADDITIONAL HASHTAGS

#makefuckingart #mfachallenge #artchallenge #quarantineart #stayhomestudio #artonline


Make what feels right. Connect with your community. Find new people. Make f*cking art. We can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Maria Teicher

Maria Teicher

EMOTIONAL Alchemy

There are things I do in my work that I’m not always aware of immediately. There are things I try to do…ideas I hold close while working on a piece, hoping that it seeps in, just a little bit. The combination of this intention and surprise is where I like it to end best. Having every aspect of a series or a piece planned out isn’t as interesting to me as the continued discovery is.
What I’m working on now is the idea of failure. I’ve had some royal screw ups in my life, and despite it all I try to move forward a better person. I dissect my missteps, look hard at my bad decisions and wrestle every lesson I can out of each one of my failures. This causes transformation…emotional alchemy…makes something beautiful out of something that is not.
This is what I’m looking for. The idea that each failure, while it’s still there in the past, changes me for the better. I’ve decided to show this through a series of dead bird sculptures. Dead birds have been part of my work for a long time, as I’ve always loved recording the beauty that I saw despite it feeling sad. This recording causes it to live on…isn’t art just trying to give permanence to a feeling? An idea?
Each day, every day I’m choosing a bird to sculpt that represents this transformation from a failure to a lesson. Each piece in this series “All my failures (Aren’t they lovely?)” will be a one of a kind piece, which isn’t typical for me. Traditionally I make molds and cast, allowing for an edition of each piece, or multiples. However the idea that each of these failures happened once and was moved on from after the lesson was learned is important here, so each piece will be unique.

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A long overdue Weekly Update

Well hello there. I've been toying with the idea of firing up a blog again for a while. It looks like the last ditch efforts were an actual post on my old blog from 2015 and a sad half finished draft post here from 2016. I read back over the entire "old blog" and while most of it spans from 2009-2012  (with a few attempts at starting it up again in 2013, 2014 AND 2015) I found that despite my life being drastically different now, my intent to share information about sculpture processes was there even then.
For those of you who don't know me, and have never read my old blog, I am a sculptor living and working in Philadelphia. I create primarily animal sculpture, working in clay towards pieces that then will have molds made of them and be cast in plasters, resins, and sometimes bronze. My work tends to have a duality to it... cute but dark, funny but sad, strange but true. Each piece is about human emotion and I feel like people can look at these different "feelings" however is most comfortable to them. The animals generally make these ideas more accessible, but I always have seen the animals as stand ins for humans...shadows of us. 
In addition to sculpting, I teach sculpture at PA Academy of the Fine Arts, Stockton University and Fleisher Art Memorial. I also do commission work for various artists and companies in and around Philadelphia (and beyond). My family consists of my 8.5 year old daughter, Olivia, who is turning out to be a pretty great human and Paul Romano, my boyfriend, who is an incredible painter and designer. I have one cat at home named Sweetie Bird and the studio cat is Victoria. You'll meet them all I'm sure. 
My idea here, this time around, is to focus on the why and the how of what I'm making. I talked a lot last time about what I was making and sometimes got into the reasons why and how it was done. But those things are definitely so much more important to me now.  I also love the idea of this blog as a "public sketchbook", or a place that offers more insight into my world than sites like Instagram and Facebook do. I'm looking for more depth than those other platforms have to offer, I suppose. So hi, and I look forward to adding more soon.

This is me working on a piece for Arch Enemy Art's June 2018 exhibition As Above, So Below II

This is me working on a piece for Arch Enemy Art's June 2018 exhibition As Above, So Below II