Talking Head Series - Part One
This year the group is trying out a new fundraising idea — each artist received a 12” x 12” panel to do with what they see fit. These SMALL WORKS will be raffled out at our private reception party. Tickets are only $5 and can also be purchased online here. Pieces CAN be shipped.
All proceeds go to benefit our scholarship program for local students who want to study art!
I was delighted to see that the panel was made out 1/8” thick BIRCH PLY!!
Photo from Art Alternatives.
I love a blank canvas!
I knew that I had to cut into it. I had way too many ideas, but the one I settled on was based on one of my digital illustrations inspired by vintage Phrenology imagery.
Available online at Society6!
I came up with a rough plan on how to prepare the base.
The panel was thicker than the maximum 1” recommended height, so I had to remove the crumb tray and set down blocks to raise it to the minimum height. Precision is pretty key for anything with masking and layering paint, so I had to take a number of reference photos and measure carefully.
From there, I just followed my plan. I painted the face and sides of the panel with black acrylic paint, masked it with regular painter’s tape, cut the… brain window as you would a normal 1/8” piece of plywood, lightly cut the profile outline so I could pull the mask off and spray paint. Then I engraved the face. Next time, I may change the order slightly and not use high gloss spray paint, because it did get scorched. Oh well, embrace your mistakes, right!
I had accidentally created for myself a second blank canvas and had to think about what would go inside.
I tried out colors, I played with glass smaltz and pyrite, mini paintings, but I most liked the look of a sample swatch piece I had created with with stainless steel inlay.
I was getting pretty frustrated with math as I was going through the cutting and engraving process (no matter how much I measured, I couldn’t seem to get things to align perfectly), so I decided to do a stainless steel inlay grid and set a piece of acrylic over it engraved with math equations. I chose the very messy notes of tragic teen genius Évariste Galois.
Look him up! Evariste Galois
The grid was SUCH a pain! I engraved the draft board, mixed up the stainless steel powder with some paint medium and spread it in — all fine. But then I had to peel the protective coating and that took nine years. Note my pile of tiny sticky squares.
Talking Head 3: Maths
September 2018
Plywood, Acrylic, Paint, Stainless Steel Powder, Notes from Evariste Galois
This piece will be at the Ojai Art Center ready to be raffled off Saturday night at our gala reception. The reception is for ticket holders only, but it’s well worth the $30 ticket price as you have a very good chance of going home with a very cool piece of art AND you have the opportunity to visit 60+ OSA studios.
I also have for sale at the Art Center, Virgil IV, my favorite of the Virgil series. and I’ll have the second of the Talking Heads series available for purchase at my studio in Meiners Oaks.
You can find me at my studio the whole weekend during the Ojai Studio Artists Tour October 13th and 14th.
Wish me luck!!