Beauty In Bloom - paper coil assemblage sculpture with resin

If you analyze my work you will notice all of them are a first, and all of them have a common thread, you can almost visualize the new idea take form in one and adopted at a larger scale in my next. Beauty In Bloom is a sculpture where I added color to the paper that had little color. My past coils were made with recycled magazine paper in its original state, refusing to alter it at all for the sake of keeping it organic, humble, in the nature of the gift. Someone hinted adding color and I tried some in a couple of coils in my last piece, and decided why not make one entirely out of altered paper, why not make one also our of magazine quills instead of coils and why not create the base with resin??? So Beauty In Bloom has three firsts, I sometimes am impatient with my new ventures and can't pace myself. 

Of course it took longer than ever to make this one, but again, I sit and do as I watch TV or better, get the TV to distract me from menial or constant tasks. If I had to do this work without background fodder I thing I would go mad with all the noise in my head, JK, it's me rehashign my life by myself, wondering all the what ifs of life, or new ideas exploding in my head which cause me to go on overload creatively.  

this is the base with coils trapped in resin

 

Beauty In Bloom was completed her in September 2018

Beauty in Bloom measures 9.5”x16.5”x16.5”

Baby Blue - paper coil assemblage sculpture with resin

Baby Blue - Paper coil assemblage sculpture

2018

Occasionally I have these compulsions to make smaller more portable coiled sculptures in case I want to submit to an art call in Cali or NY where shipping becomes a ridiculous obstacle because I am well outside the standard sizes. Baby Blue was also another idea where I pick out a specific color, in this case, 'blue'. I made it small because there is incredible beauty and dignity in small, and the instinctive desire to hold and protect small. 

I believe I achieved my goal, Baby Blue is just that, even with the random thorns it is still something you want to hold and to have... 

I started Baby Blue with a paper mache shell I made out of my very appreciated never ending supply of gift tissue paper,  I make my paste, I create the shell with the aide of a balloon and once the shell is dry I glue the coils to it. Once the whole piece was assembled, I then cut the edge of the shell to match up with the outer coil edge and painted the inside of the shell with white acrylic pearlescent and glazed it with resin. My sculptures are all signed by me and have my tag at the base of them.  

Baby Blue measures 6.75" in circumference x 7" tall 

Baby Blue sold

Please contact me should you want to commission a little gem like this for yourself!

Chasing Dreams

Chasing Dreams is trying my hand at new boundaries in my coiled assembled sculptures, a shape obviously unfamiliar to me, disliking people calling my work a basket or a bowl. Wanting to remove myself from that instinctive craft tag, wanting to have my work make it to the fine art ranks, so I could dispel the low worth of craft back to it's glory days of what it has been and should continue to be, amazing art skilled by hand. My coiled pieces are sculptures, assembled, hand forged, no utility to these at all other than they are glorious to look at like a bronze, handblown glass, wood or any other amazing sculpture out there.  

the sole purpose of my work is to raise your spirits, give you joy, please your eyes as it does mine. I spend my evenings coiling, when all my day projects are done in my studio, and I sit down with my husband to watch some TV after dinner, I coil for its one of the few things that I can now do with my eyes closed (sort of speak). I have to keep my hands moving, 

Chasing Dreams was inspired by my last project, Great Barrier, where I created an exhaustive installation out of recycled plastic and paper to show the public what bleached coral looks like and make it out of what is causing bleaching. Chasing Dreams looks like the coral with bleached tips.

I created this with ArtFields in mind, ArtFields is this incredible annual competition in Lake City, SC inviting artists from the 12 south eastern states, they get in average 900 applications and 400 get adjudicated into the show that involves the entire downtown of Lake City. The event lasts 10 days with incredible events and awards handed out on the last day of the show. First Prize is $50,000!!! Win or not if you get in the accolade is incredible!! Plus you are part of an incredible collective of art and artists. 

Chasing Dreams did exactly what I intended it to do, make my dreams. I absolutely love this sculpture, it fills my soul with joy. 

It took me two months to assemble, but I had spent months making coils for the projects to follow. I sit and coil at night, mostly to build up volume of coils because it becomes much more challenging to stop assembling them for lack of material.

It measures 14" x 22" x 22"

Going back to where it all began

My little pearls of wisdom... these are my findings, my thoughts my heart

I love to write, have been writing all my life, but that is focused more on email responses, art applications, letters to loved ones and so on. I created this blog account in 2011 and forgot all about it since my life took a huge turn, divorce and downed economy, but here I am again, going to try my had at it again. It's just hard to don all these hats all the time...

My primary work is forged from recycled paper, magazines to be precise. I use People & Time magazines for my coiled works for they are the right paper weight and print process that lend itself best to my work. I don't keep much of a collection of other magazines for coiling for now it my thing. I do occasionally weave paper or collage some shapes into my canvas work, but not often. The years have passed, my work has evolved and now I have started working with plastic as much as paper too due to the natural progression of things. 

an image of my coils.

In 2011 I became super busy working full time, managing my family as a single mother of three at that point, for my oldest had gone to college in California; running a monthly art crawl in my community and creating trashion (trash fashion) for a runway show in Charlotte where I started working with whatever recycled material caught my eye and simultaneously lent itself for a wearable creation. My first piece was made of paper, coils to be exact, my second was made out of milk gallon jugs, someone mentioned in passing and I jumped on the idea. 

Because of all this progression I have slowly become more aware of trash, consumerism, waste, and because of my last installation I started researching the damage all this is doing to our air, land and water. It is not a sudden awakening for me, it took years for me to become this advocate against pollutants, waste, plastic. I am by no means a hippie, not at all, but I am becoming more and more outspoken for all the harm we are doing to ourselves. We are not trained to think of what we do to ourselves as much as how convenient is everything we do and hey, this convenience makes me happy. I found out we are inherently lazy too... the trash is graciously given to me, but usually unclean. If I ask for it to come to me already prepped for use (cleaned or even rinsed) I loose 80% of my source. Too much work... 

I am a hypocrite myself, thought I don't partake in the use of party materials like single use plates, cups and cutlery, I do still find myself using everything else that is convenient, like shampoo, toothpaste and all the cleaning supplies and toiletries. I have not gone there yet, where I create my own supplies and keep it in glass jars, though I am slowly purging what I have and exchanging plastic for glass as I go, and I have not accepted plastic shopping bags in years, not even in other stores, I carry my cloth bags everywhere.