This is a piece I’ve been working on for my portfolio.
Here is what it looks like when I combined it with my other art.
This is a prop I made for class, the newest one anyway. This post sort of shows the process.The cart is for a Buddhist monk who lives in a Cambodian temple ruin.
The inspiration
The cart, wire frame, poly count 696
The cart rendered in 3DS Max.
The cart in the Unity game engine.
The texture map for the cart.
The rucksack front.
Sugar Palm Tree
Bare bayan tree
Bricks
The rucksack in game.
The center room completed.
Inside the temple complex, in game
The temple, front view, in game.
The boat, in game
This series of work is entitled Ghost of Our Past. This series explores how our past, even distant past, effects our lives. Some see pictures of people long dead, and just see a person in out dated clothes. Each picture tells a story, but an incomplete story. When I look at the picture and try to see the whole story, and try to understand the lessons the story can teach me.
Motherhood
24 in x 24 in
When Do I Get to be a Swan
6 in x 6 in
Happy Birthday to Me
6 in x 6 in
Family Ties
24 in x 24 in
Dreams of Our Youth
6 in x 6 in
Daddy’s Girl
6 in x 6 in
Over 16 encaustic artists will be showing work in “Contemporary Interpretations in Wax” this January at the Julia C. Butridge Gallery at the Dougherty Arts Center in Austin. This show is a strong body of work exhibiting the diversity and versatility of encaustic. The show over all is great and I wish I would have gotten more photos, but I kept getting distracted. Below are just some of my personal favorites.
Me with my art
Opening night
Artist Daphne Holland
Artist Kathy Van Torne
Artist Barra Gustafson
Show runs through Jan 29th. Please join Austin Encaustic Arts for our first exhibit of the New Year!
After posting things to pages for the last few months, I am finally doing an official post. These images are from my 3D Modeling pages and are things I was working on since August.
Stack of hat boxes, poly count each box 2368
Another view of the tricycle.
Chair, poly count 36,592
Old box, poly count 3246
The tombstone with teddy bear, poly count 4300
The Church, a screen capture from Unity
I just have to share these two articles. Both are on the same study, but with slightly different view points. Interesting, but maybe I’m bias.
http://www.reddotblog.com/wordpress/index.php/control-your-time-and-become-a-more-successful-artist/
This works comes from the artist Guy Laramee. See more of his work here:
These image is one of a series of gorgeous book sculptures from Kaspen, created for the Anagram Bookshop in Prague. The artist website is down , but you can see more here:
http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2006/10/ragtag-and-whimsy.html
These two are from artist Brian Dettmer. See more here:
Happy Book Lover’s Day!
The box is finally empty. The box of sewing supplies I inherited from my mom when she moved because she could no longer live independently at age 82. The box has been sitting open in my studio open waiting for a couple of weeks now. Cleaning it out today and putting everything away has evoked many surprising emotions in me, kind of like a Pandora’s box.
The first one was excitement, the kid at Christmas kind. Opening the box and seeing all the treasures was very fun. Next was happiness as I found things that I didn’t own already, like pressing hams in several small sizes and a metal hem guide- the kind you use with an iron. This was followed by surprise as I came across a pair of pinking shears and a cutting tool that belonged to my grandmother. Things I will treasure. And also relief, as there were many things in the box that I needed but hadn’t taken time to go buy yet, like small hem rules and hand needles. I now own more hand and sewing needles than I will probably ever need.
I have had a lot of nostalgia with this box as well. I have come across things I remember from my child hood, when my mom was teaching me to sew, like the thread holder. But the nostalgia has given way to loss, mourning, hopelessness, and a bit of fear.
Growing up, I never considered my mom a creative person. She wasn’t an “artist”. But she was creative in her own way. God knows she had to be raising six kids. She was a good cook, and a good seamstress, but the time I came along the cooking was mainly birthday cakes, and the sewing Halloween costumes. She didn’t sew much for herself, but she taught me how, and we shared that passion of creating beautiful clothes. She would tell me of garments she created in the 1950s. The white linen two piece outfit she made from a pattern she stilled owned. I made one just like it. I own a dress designing book she owned from that time. It wasn’t until I became a mother myself that I truly appreciated her artistic talents, and understood why she no longer created. Life gets in the way.
Many years after she retired she would make costumes for grandkids, but she once said she felt she wasn’t up to the task. She had lost her skill from many years of not sewing. She doubted being able to do it. I certainly can understand this doubt. When I sewed every day I could whip things out, now they take a little longer. But she continued to dream about new projects. She continued to buy patterns and fabrics to make gorgeous clothes. Now she no longer can. Her memory and eyesight no longer allow it. So when I came across sewing notion still unopened and fabric still in the bag from purchase, I feel this things represent dreams lost. Things my mom wanted to do and now never will. And I mourn the loss of her creative side, and I mourn the loss the woman she once was. As I get older I worry about losing ability to create, and the day I might no longer be able to do it.
I see my own mortality staring back at me from the needles I will never use.
But that day has not come yet, and I plan on raging against the dying of the light. I use these items as a cautionary tale. Time is short and getting shorter, make the most of it ,the four spools of black thread say to me. I know I will never get done all I want to do, the box of unused patterns reminds me. The cards of buttons state plainly that all the sewing supplies I own will not be used up by me. But that won’t stop me from trying. I will take my mother’s cue and continue to dream and plan new projects, but I will not let life get in the way because I know if I allow it, I could lose it.
Because while this notions have a cautionary tale, very quietly they are whispering to me. ” Use me”. “Wouldn’t I make a beautiful skirt”. “Fall is just around the corner, I would make a fabulous dress” .
They whisper to me of hope and dreams and potential, and of things to come.
I may not use everything, but one day when my kids move out on their own, I will be able to give them sewing supplies. And hopefully they will treasure them a bit more when I say “They belonged to your grandmother.”
When I am 80 and can no longer thread a needle, I will still be able to paint and collage. I will continue to create as long as I can. In honor of the mother who inspired my creativity in the beginning.
Thanks Mom.
