At Home with the Artist: Pumpkin Carving Party!

One of my favorite yearly traditions with my art teacher ladies is our pumpkin carving party. We plan it months in advance, look up patterns, pictures and ideas, and bring lots of food! We stay all day, drink and eat and watch scary movies. This last bit is my least favorite, but it's still great fun with great company. Here's what we did this year:

The ghost pull-apart cupcake cake that I made

All those pumpkins waiting to be carved!

  

My friend Monica always does a zentangle-ish design!

My other friend did a series of Harry Potter inspired pumpkins.

My first one was this adorable owl.

Here's what he looks like lit up!

In honor of all the Pokemon this year, I did a Bulbasaur!

Here are both of mine together!

All the sleepy doggies! They got tuckered out from all the carving!

That's my cute husband finally carving his pumpkin!

If any of you recognize this, it's a paladin symbol from World of Warcraft, pretty cool!

A Peak Inside my Portfolio- Additive Sculpture Update

Alright friends, this piece is a beast! I cannot seem to finish it and even though I've spent hours and hours on it, there still seems to be more to do! I've completed the construction and now I'm on to finishing the surface. I coated the entire piece in plaster which took forever! I had to make small batches and continually rinse out my container. Lots of trips to the sink! I used a fork and my fingers for the application. As you can see, the piece is taller than me so it took a long time to cover the entire surface area.

After the piece was completely covered, I moved into the painting stage of finishing the work. I'm using a matte black acrylic paint. Doing a small area at a time, I paint it and then wipe off a good portion of the paint using a sponge The process is slow (again!) not to mention it is tearing up my hands and the sponges. But, what I'm left with is an amazing texture and finish! I love it! The black paint remains in all the grooves and cervices but comes off of the higher areas so the white can show through. This gives the piece the grungy, gritty look that I was hoping for. I'm about half way done and have high hopes to finish it next week (although that has been my plan for the last two weeks so we'll see...) Stay tuned for finished product pictures!

A Peak Inside my Portfolio: Social Issues Additive Sculpture

This semester, I'm taking a sculpture course as part of earning my Master's degree. I'm liking the course, but it is challenging for me, especially in the realm of construction. This first piece is a additive sculpture constructed of wood, dry wall compound and wire. It's not finished, it's taking so long to put it all together correctly!

The assignment was to create a sculpture that addressed a social issue. I chose to have my piece discuss the idea of our freedoms in this country and how, for some people, more 'freedom' actually means less freedom.

These are just in-process pictures, more to come soon!

Creating a wire loom for my metal wire weaving

Starting to do the weaving!

The structure of my sculpture complete!