An Easter Surprise

The Great Bunny Reveal

I really wanted to have a very fun Easter this year and I figured it would be fun to have an elaborate project to focus on.  I really am trying to investigate molds this year as a hobby, as an artistic learning experience, and for decorative purposes.  For Easter, I chose to make some faux chocolate bunnies that I can use year-after-year (with zero calories-ha)!  

I purchased some inexpensive molds online, used wood-putty for my molding medium, and began my bunny endeavor.  Through the learning process I discovered that the putty was messy to use, I could avoid air bubbles by using coffee stirrers, and that the putty should be a pancake-like consistency when pouring.

After the molds were set I primed the bunnies with white acrylic paint and then I used a combination of burnt sienna, burnt umber, and white paint to make a perfect chocolate-like color.  

Below are photos of my project, which was such a treat to create and put together.  I hope to make a larger bunny next year. 

The putty dries quickly

Almost there...

Ta-da!  The final presentation!

Can you tell the difference between the real and fake bunnies?

Thanks, Portland

This year I'm particularly thankful for the many wonderful discoveries I've had moving to Portland, OR.  Below are just some highlights I'd like to show:

Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving!

Fowl Most Fabulous

It's hard to contain my excitement and my passion for gold leaf.  A centuries old technique of applying very thin sheets of metal, typically gold, onto a limitless number of objects.  Mostly seen on furniture, gold leaf can be applied to practically anything.  I absolutely loved the idea of creating a festive Thanksgiving table full to the brim with gilded turkeys.  Not to be misguided by false idols, gold leaf (I use an inexpensive metal alloy and not real gold) does achieve the 'Gilded Age' affect I'm looking for.  My newly appreciated craft has definitely affected my art and I hope to share the results in the future.

Mark Twain is actually credited for coining up the term 'The Gilded Age' in a derogatory manner against the turn-of-the-(20th)-century robber barons, like Henry Clay Frick.  Fast wealth and very quick accumulation of expensive homes and furnishings reflected the superficial nature of the nouveau riche.  Gold leaf being a surface treatment to furniture, as opposed to solid gold pieces.  So metaphorically, 'gilded' is not always a golden remark.
 
To me, gold leafing paintings and mixed media projects open up a world of interpretation, meaning, and context.  This week I'd like to share my very first project with gold leaf, which was gilding a succulent turkey, just in time for that special November Thursday.  Below are some pictures of the transformation from bland bird to avian triumph.  Stay tuned for more fancy gold leaf entries to come!

Martha Stewart Thanksgiving Table

Animal World - Resin Turkey

 

Indifferent Explorer

My newest art piece is a work that combines the medium of painting with craft of gilding.  A theoretical play between Art and Craft.  I used an appropriated imaged of an Arctic explorer, back-lit with fine lines evoking the aurora borealis (northern lights), layered under several sheets of gold leaf.

Initially, I was thinking about how gold is actually used in many of the instruments of current space exploration.  Note, the explorer is not an astronaut, but he does seem to relate to the cosmos compositionally.  

The central figure could hardly care about the natural phenomenon that is occurring around him, he seems to be searching for something else that might be more important.  Additionally, the usage of gold leaf also evokes an allusion to the Gilded Age, a critical and superficial title developed by Mark Twain toward the robber baron industrialists of the turn of the twentieth century.  

It also becomes spatially relative through the changes of light depending upon the placement of the piece.

Overall, I'm pretty excited over this work, and I hope that it leads me to new tangent of creative production.  

Untitled (Indifferent Explorer):