Just sculpt...

Sorry for the blog silence yesterday...on top of being tremendously busy, it was a rough day all around. I'm generally a very happy person but this past week has just felt like one thing after another and sometimes everything just hits you at once and you need to go off and cry for a few days over everything that you didn't let bother you for the last year or so. (And I'm sure a crazy full moon and Venus rolling in front of the sun didn't help...) But I will say this... When I get upset, I become the most inspired and productive. I can't help but make things. I know this is me processing what I'm feeling but because my work tends to be very emotion based in general, the things I create at times like these tend to be some of the stronger stuff...I've been sculpting and sketching alot and have a few pieces started and a few more on the way, which feels amazing. SO why all this about me? Well, I think 1) it's helpful to know that other people are out there going through it. Being an artist (or a human) can sometimes feel extremely isolating, especially when you're upset about something, and 2) I think as artists, our work is an extremely important outlet...like a pressure release valve. I know alot of people who feel this way but are too busy/tired/sad to make work...just make something, even something small. I'm already feeling better and am excited about the new work...now to build a giant armature...yikes!

Speaking of Spring cleaning...Soap for sculptors.

Anyone who knows me knows that I try to be hyper aware of the ingredients that go into health and beauty items. I checked our "organic" and "all natural" products against the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Database before Olivia was born and ended up tossing almost everything we used. Our bathroom cabinets are now filled with things like baking soda, apple cider vinegar, vitamin e oil, coconut oil and essential oils...I think the only thing that stayed from before was the Dr. Bronner's. There are so many things out there that are awful for you, even in things claiming to be "organic" or "all natural", that I try to take little steps that add up and make a difference. SO, one of the things that was on my mind (one of many things) is what kind of soap we will have at the Philadelphia Sculpture Gym...I know, I know...our doors are not even open yet and I'm worrying about soap...I said it was one of many (many) things! I wanted to find something that would work on sculpture grime and asked Rachel of LuSa Organics if she had something that would work. She recommended the Garden Scrub Soap, which is made of:
Saponified oils of *palm, *coconut, *olive, and *sunflower; shea butter (fair trade), essential oil blend (lavender, peppermint, spearmint, and rosemary), pumice, loofah. (*certified organic ingredient)
I'm ordering a few bars to test out and will report back. Anybody have soap that they swear by?


Image from lusaorganics.com

Inspiration

 A shot of Julia Levitina's studio

I was sitting at a coffee shop early yesterday AM with the fabulous and lovely Julia Levitina, and we were talking about sources of inspiration for the pieces we are currently working on...and while they varied greatly (my inspiration being Pet Sematary, crackheads, and those weird "With Love xoxo Philadelphia" ads, hers being a show she saw in Paris, poetry, and lyrics from a Josh Ritter song) we both realized that these weren't the things we were immediately thinking about when starting the pieces, but things that were tucked away in our subconscious somewhere, surfacing when we needed them to. Take my zombie cat for example...it was directly inspired by an outdoor cat who hangs out behind the house of the woman I cat sit for... Once I had the idea to sculpt him, I started thinking about how similar crackheads are to zombies (As a side note, we live in Kensington, where, unfortunately, crackheads are common passerby. And as someone who grew up in small town New Jersey, this was at first shocking. I've since (sort of) gotten used to them but they still freak me out a bit.) because they do that slow zombie amble down the street. I'm also regularly accosted by the "With Love xoxo Philadelphia" billboards, which market Philadelphia as a great place to come visit (which it is). They always makes me laugh because I am coming from North Philadelphia, where zombie crackheads and whatnot run rampant...So I'd already thought maybe I'd make a piece (or body of work...we'll see) about what happens in North Philadelphia. The zombie cat seemed to fit (since all my animals are representations of humans or experiences) so I got to work. At one point though I got stuck and was thinking that I needed better zombie cat reference, when I remembered Church, the cat from Pet Sematary, the original zombie cat...

 

A quick Google search brought up this image and I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of this reference before...I've probably seen this movie atleast 6 times, so of course it was in my brain somewhere, but it took weeks to surface. Anyway, all this rambling is to say that sometimes inspiration comes from the strangest places and sometimes it been with us for a while, just waiting for the right moment...

Why the Philadelphia Sculpture Gym is a Good Idea: Reason #583

So you don't have to cast pieces in your bathtub.

The studio is oh so cold these days so I've taken my work home with me. I also commandeered the 2nd floor bathroom as a makeshift mini studio (don't worry, we shower in another bathroom on the 3rd floor...this bathroom is slated for demolition/renovation hence the reckless abandon with which I am using the materials). Once we have the Philadelphia Sculpture Gym space up and running, there will be a fabulous and wonderful moldmaking area and I will no longer have to worry about bringing work home with me...atleast not this kind of work!