I'm of Two Minds...

Finishing is as terrible as it is rewarding. It's tedious, stressful, and very, very satisfying all at the same time.

These girls are a milestone and a collective voice that says "Here we are and this what it is like to be half of an inspired pair. Aren't we just amazingly cool and beautiful in our not so subtle confusion?"

The dog who fell to earth

Yesterday afternoon I stepped out onto my porch to see if I could survive for more than a couple of minutes without catching fire. We all have our ways of keeping cool. Apparently, Gator thinks that China is cooler and that if she digs long enough and deep enough, she'll get there.

It just looked like she just rocketed in but did not burn up on reentry.

We are calling this.... wait for it....

The Gator Crater.

She lives

Well, the image is a little soft but the mood is right. It's been a long time coming but there is finally light. No name yet, because she has not definitively told either Paula or I what that might be, but she lives- And short of a few more tweaks and a final and formal permanent assembly she is finished.

"Two minds" which you might remember from former posts, is permanently assembled, but also lacks the final

touches. We are close to having these two new friends stand on their own and speak for themselves.

Paula and I took a hiatus to rest, recover and renew after the plan for a group show blew up and took with them some unexpected pieces of us. We have been busy polishing them to their former luster and look forward to blowing up and blowing away the rest of the obstacles and challenges.

I still love robots

Nothing really edges out the first loves, visually, verbally or literally. I love robots, puns and my first grade teacher.

I've been working on this off and on for a few years, sometimes for a creative stretch and a little fun to break up my day job.

It's almost a growth chart. I swear I still learn something everyday about Photoshop and Illustrator. It's like my brain, I only know how to use about ten percent.

Rust

As I half listened to my daily portion of "Morning edition" on my drive in last week, a name caught my attention, then a voice. The name was Ted Rust. The voice, Veda Reed's.

I had read Ted Rust's obituary on that Sunday morning with a mixture of lost opportunity and hero worship. I rubbed shoulders with him briefly a few years ago, and will miss his influence and fingerprints.

As for Veda, still a heroine, still a great influence from my graduate study years and present way of seeing, some of which I am still processing and probably will be for a long, long time.

A new head

The heads are always a response to Paula's most excellent bodies- (I'll shoot the body and include it soon. It is somewhere between attitude, attitude, attitude and a great height glance) this one is no exception, she's still pretty rough but I'm still figuring out this new black clay.

It's easier and harder to work with, I like the finger marks that are still in the shoulder and bosom, but I want her head to be smooth and polished. So, it will be a challenge finishing her to match the image I have in my head, of course I can't remember a time when that image did not change daily or even hourly- so I'm guessing it will be a surprise to all of us.

If you put a dress on a sculpture, does that make it a doll?

After having spent ten days that I'm calling the "Doll Days of Summer"

I've finally made progress enough that I'm not completely freaking out at the notion of having the girls ready for the show in August.

My fireplace mantle is completely covered with little hands, little feet, little heads and the internal structures that they all hang on, respectively, in order to become the statement that finally defines them.

I think Paula and I are both almost tempted to show this one without her skin- but I can't wait to see what she looks like after I hand her off to Paula for the final futzing and assembly.