Over the past 3 or so months I have been working on a variety of projects. The previous post I did of the coconut also took place during this time.  Pictured here are some of the other projects I have done. 

This First picture is actually from a project from work. It is a door pull for a Brewery with the companies logo. One of the first steps is making a "master" or original out of wood, which is the center object. Then, a mold is made of the master, and the mold is cast onto a pattern board to latter be cast in bronze via a sand casting method. 

 
I threw a lot of pots in our garage, and these are two that I decided to try carving. I actually used a dremel tool to carve them after they were bone dry. I'm not sure that I would recommend doing that... It produces a ton of dust, and I will probably have lung cancer from it.

These next two photos are of a bust I made out of fired clay...

Lastly, this figure was made out of an oil based clay. He is roughly a foot long, and has been a lot of fun to work on.

ART QUOTE:
" I would say that one approaches one's own work with yet happier spirit, with calmer passion, when one sees that other possibilities (which are endless) are correctly (or more or less correctly) exploited in art. As regards me personally, I love every form which necessarily derives from the spirit, which is created from the spirit." -Kandinsky

I'm done with my college level art classes. All of the credits I needed for my degree are finished (except for that one last half credit I'm working on now). So now that I don't have any art assignments to work on for school, I've found a greater need to figure out my own way in sculpture. It would be really easy to just come home after work and spend the rest of my night hanging out and watching movies. But I am finding that the more time I spend developing my skills something remarkable happens...I get a little better. Not always. There are plenty of times when I've been out in my little studio for a few hours and look at what I've created, and think "what was I thinking?! I'm not an artist, I'm a hack..Maybe I should just be a hot dog vendor instead."

At times when I've gotten discouraged like this, I might step back for a moment, take a breath and count to ten. But I have got to get back to the work I am doing and just push through the mediocrity. And then things start working out a little better soon after. Perseverance really is a great teacher.

So...Kandinsky talked about creating art from the spirit. The past few weeks, as I've been trying to figure out where to go with my sculpting I decided to do what feels free and natural for me... I started carving a coconut. Kind of a unique medium I know, but for some reason It's a lot of fun for me to do. I first started carving coconuts with a dremel tool in high school and have continued on with it on and off since then. This one here is my most recent creation. It's abstract and its nonrepresentational, but the designs really did seem to flow from my "spirit" through my hand and onto my little hard round canvas. ENJOY!  

I've also been spending a lot of time on a throwing wheel making pots. I decided to dry some completely and carve on them too.

ART QUOTE:
"When Columbus returned from the New World and proclaimed the earth was round, almost everyone else went right on believing the earth was flat...Then they died- and the next generation grew up believing the world was round. That's how people change their minds."

- From the book "Art and Fear"by David Bayles and Ted Orland

I really like this quote for the challenge it brings to be willing to accept truth. It is difficult to change ones own mind, especially when it has been conditioned for a lifetime to react the same old way. It's difficult but possible. That is why seeking knowledge and expanding our views should be a life long pursuit, because it can take a long time to see things more correctly.

Tons of new and crazy stuff has happened in our families life recently. January 31st I was hired on as a "pattern maker" for a bronze foundry here in Idaho. A week and a half later we had our FOURTH little boy, and during all of that I was a full time art student. My semester ended in April and we decided to move to Idaho Falls to be closer to work (before that I was driving 2 hours a day). Things have changed a lot, but I can see some really awesome stuff taking place in our lives. Though I'm not in any art classes right now I've set up my own studio in our new apartments garage and have been working on being consistent on doing art each day. Here are some pictures of a figure sculpture I've worked on the last few months:

ART QUOTE:
"When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive searching, daring, self expressive creature."  -Robert Henri

My mind is on art like never before. It has really become an integral part of my life and it has been great to see the changes I have made in my skill as an artist and as a sculptor in particular. I've also been reading a lot of quotes from artists. I read this one from Robert Henri the other day, and really can identify with it. I read a quote from someone else who talked about this same subject, and pointed out that the word"art" used to be synonymous with the word "craft". In that sense, doctors carpenters and a host of other skilled workers could be considered artists of their trade. I'm reminded of my cousin Brandon who runs his own remodeling business. I worked with him far a few weeks a couple of years ago and could not help but look at his work and consider it art. He has skill and talent in what he does. He is inventive and daring and I consider him and many of those other true craftsman to be artists.

Recently my focus in sculpture has been working on human figures. It has stretched me, and has been pretty difficult to work against my own ignorance, but as I've grown it has been immensely gratifying. The following photos are of a sculpture I've been working on for the past few weeks, and which is almost completed. It is sculpted out of water based amador clay and is about 18 inches tall. My inspiration for this comes from those hard workers who have lived through the ages toiling away with their bare hands to get things done. It is simply titled "The Wood Cutter."

Here is the finished product from the sculpture I last showed. I hollowed the clay out, fired him and using metallic shellac and oil paints created a bronze like finish on the surface. I'm really pleased with the final result and am even more happy that my wonderful wife likes it enough to display him on our computer desk. 

This is about my third week into another semester of school here at Brigham Young University Idaho. It's my second semester as an actual art major. For years I have loved creating things with my hands, whether through carving, sculpting or bending wire to make something new out of raw materials. It has been an interesting journey getting to this point. I took a year of construction management classes before I made the switch to art. I learned a lot during that time. I learned that math is not my skill. Let me expound on that.

After my mission for my church, I could barely remember how to count on my fingers. I had to take two years of math courses just to get me up to college level. When I was studying construction, I took two other higher math classes; trigonometry, and a class called "statics". I worked hard in trig. I slaved away at the tutor center on campus trying so hard to understand that stuff. It was only because of the grace of God and having turned in all of my homework that I passed that class. On the final, I wrote a little note in the margin of the incomprehensible test I had blundered through, pleading for mercy from my professor. Mormons really are Christians. I know it, because that man let me pass his class. 

Statics was the class that nearly made me change majors. I say nearly because at the time I thought to my self "if I don't pass this class, I'm not going to take it over again. I will change majors." Somehow I made it through though. But I can't remember a single thing I learned, except that I'm not made for it. After struggling through those courses I think something actually broke inside my brain. Whatever feeble cells were functioning to get me through it all must have finally exploded from the strain. 

Soooo...now here I am. There were a few other significant events that have taken place since then and now. Lots of praying. Tons of blundering. Breaking down and building back up. I would like to say that I have finally "arrived", as though I could say I have reached "the place" and my journey is now over. But if the journey were over I would be dead. Life keeps moving me and there is a whole world open I have not reached yet, as is true of all of us. For now, I feel that I am on the right path. And now, here are some things I've been working on:

For the past seven or so months I have been working on sculpting realistic heads. I've seen a great deal of growth in myself and keep learning each time I go into the sculpture studio. A few weeks ago our teacher brought in a your Nigerian guy to model for us. He was dressed in some traditional Nigerian clothes and had a bright countenance. Our assignment was to get down the basic structure of his head and face in two hours, and than put our own interpretation into the piece. Here is how he ended up at first: 

And this is the final piece. I changed a lot about him and worked on getting the anatomy right and finishing the piece by adding a base. It was fun and stretched me quite a bit.

-The First Post: the Journey-

I've been on a journey. Each of us is on one. Mine really kicked into gear shortly after my oldest son was born almost four years ago. I had been married to my sweet wife Nina for a year and a half and had worked for eight different employers during that time. I had my family, and my faith in God, but my occupational focus was very blurred, as was our financial life. I had one part-time semester under my belt at a university, but other then that was lacking in education... Education... Going to school for four years...having the responsibility to provide for my families needs! We just had a baby! There didn't seem to be any way for that to happen. So here I was, living from paycheck to paycheck, working at a job (this time at a metal pipe manufacturing plant) which I nearly had a nervous breakdown at after a month, not sure about what I was doing or would do for the future.

There came a moment one day, when I was cutting pipe at the factory and I felt inspiration from God that changed my life's direction. I was standing there working and felt that I needed to start going to school and get a degree. Time would pass no matter what, and I had better begin now. I went home and talked to Nina about it. We couldn't figure out how we were going to provide for our needs and go  to school full time. We would have to live somewhere practically rent free, and how were we going to pay for tuition? The quarter at the community college was just about to start and we hadn't applied for financial aid. Though everything didn't add up at the time, it all worked out. We were blessed by God. Despite our weaknesses and meager faith, he provided. Since that time, we paid off what little debt we had, had two more babies, have stayed debt free, we've both gotten our associates degrees and I am now working on a degree in art at BYU-Idaho. It brings overwhelming gratitude to my heart and tears to my eyes to look back at the goodness of God in our lives and see what he has done.

The journey continues. We often have high and low times. There are joys, successes, surety, doubts, and frustrations. I have seen some really tremendous growth over this time I've had. I have searched for what my passion is and what I can do well and feel that I have finally found it! It's been there the whole time but I couldn't see it. Once again my Heavenly Father has guided me and helped me to see more clearly. The future is bright!