"Play"

Press release submitted by Dawn Wohlford-Metallo, visual arts director, Quad City Arts.

ROCK ISLAND -- The public is cordially invited to attend an exhibition titled "Play" by Steve Banks, Terry Rathje, Jillian Moore, Susan Czechowski and Monica Correia at Quad City Arts Center Gallery from January 15-February 26, 2010.

An opening reception will be held on January 15 from 7-9 pm.

Inspiring and unconventional mixed media works by Steve Banks of Davenport, Terry Rathje of Long Grove, IA; Susan Czechowski of Macomb, IL; and Monica Correia & Jillian Moore both of Iowa City will be on display from January 15-February 26 at Quad City Arts Gallery in Rock Island. Be prepared for the unexpected, as anything is possible from this group of eclectic regional artists.

The Quad City Arts Center Gallery is located at 1715 Second Avenue in the Arts and Entertainment District of Rock Island. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturday 11 a.m.-5 p.m. All Quad City Arts programs are funded in part by Festival of Trees; Quad City Arts Partners; and operating grants from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency; and the Iowa Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs. Quad City Arts is a nonprofit local arts agency dedicated to the growth and vitality of the Quad City region through the presentation, development and celebration of the arts and humanities.

For more information, contact Dawn Wohlford-Metallo at 309-793-1213, ext. 109 or visit www.quadcityarts.com.

Only Two Left

The Holiday Sale went amazingly well! I've only got two of the new rings left so I've put them on Etsy. I'm also working on more sellable things for the What a Load of Craft fair this coming weekend in Iowa City. Hopefully it will also go well!

Summit St. Holiday Art Sale

Rings

More images to come soon. These are part of a new experiment to use polymer clay instead of foam/aqua-resin for smaller, more detailed pieces. I've got a lot of local sales coming up, and hadn't made any rings in a long time. I'm hoping they disappear quickly, but if not then they'll show up soon on Etsy.

XMAS

I've been too busy lately!

Juggling several projects right now. Making tons of ornaments for Velvet da Vinci's holiday crowd. Below are various types I'm working on.



Painted/sanded/oxidized tolling copper.






Strange space d-nuts for your XMAS. Or for whatever, I won't judge you.

(There's a ring tucked up in the top left corner, second image. We'll talk more about him later!)


And I've finally gotten things to Friends of Carlotta gallery in Zurich. I am forever in debt to Bruna Hauert who bravely battled customs so that she could take my work to Blickfang!

An Act of Desperation

"Vivis Indehiscent" electroformed and fabricated copper, paint, wax, 26" x 14" x 14"

Sadly this piece was damaged in shipping. I have repaired it by patching the two small cracks and matching the paint to the best of my abilities. Still, there are shadowed areas around the damage so I'm not comfortable exhibiting the piece anymore.

I've listed it on Etsy in the hope of someone buying it at a much lower price than it would have sold for.

Better Late Than Never

Given a series of stressful events, I let this slip through the cracks!

I was in Metalsmith Magazine's Exhibition in Print this year!

I may have mentioned it before, but I'm going to do it again...






Whooooooooooooo!

Rearranging!

Posted some new things on Etsy today. Also finally preparing to send work to Friends of Carlotta!

Digging Back In!

So it's been far too long since I've been working in my studio.

I had to leave for a family health emergency for a few weeks and returned to chaos at one job and an overabundance of hours ($$$ opportunity) at the other. Today is the first day I've really been able to get back to work.

I have to finish some rings for a Spanish jewelry book I was asked to participate. It sounds like a very neat project. I've been meaning to do some rings with the smaller forms so this is perfect!

And in a couple of days I'm going to get organized and send things to a gallery in Zurich, Friends of Carlotta!

Whoa!

New images soon!

Zing.

What a week!

Going away parties, a sick cat, and now flying away for three weeks for dad's surgery. What happened to lazy summers eating snacks on the couch and watching crap on the interwebs? I miss the mundane.

Things are finally settled up with the online show at Object Fetish and can be seen here--

Creatura: A Thing Created.

Moving Along

Things have fallen together for the Object Fetish show Creatura: A Thing Created.

Leo at Klimt02 just posted the show announcement, so much thanks to his hard work on that.

The show will officially be up August 1st!

In the meantime, I've started adding some older sculptural pieces to Etsy. I need to empty some space downstairs--it's getting out of hand.

Finally!

More info. later....I'm tired

Almost There

Things are finally wrapping up with the show for Object Fetish. I'd like to say I'm bummed my piece didn't get into Cheongju, but now that I can add it to the tally for this show I'll have a less hectic week.



The interior of the hollow piece. You can just see what's happening inside while the resin runs out.


My strange polymer clay experiment--the red forms are clay that has been painted and coated in epoxy resin. The yellow form is fabricated copper that has been painted. Next comes sanding, oxidizing, and assembly.


The horn had some interior things I didn't like at the cross section so they were ground out yesterday. Another layer of epoxy resin, and then I'll redo some things.


This giant d-nut is starting to grow on me. The chrome on chrome painted surface was a satisfying discovery of the last couple of days.


This piece is in the grinding phase while layers of paint and epoxy resin are exposed. It looks a little chalky from the dust, but the layers will show more clearly once it's finished. Still a little bit to go with the pattern.

Continuing to work on Show II

More things coming along for the Object Fetish show.


A large extruded foam piece. I'm attempting to do a more complex piece with it. I've typically used the extruded foam for quicker, less detailed things.



And a new carved foam piece that rests on the shoulder and has a sort of amputated/vivisected thing happening on the front. It needs aquaresin and a lot more.



So far this is going well. The interior has layered colors and it's first layer of epoxy resin as well. Still working on what will occupy the void.



Front and back of electroformed piece. It's been painted, but not sanded. The next steps involve wet sanding, oxidizing the exposed copper, and printing on the "labels" so still a bit of work to go before finished.

Continuing to work on Show

I've started spreading around info. for my upcoming online show with Object Fetish.

"Creatura--A Thing Created" It will be comprised of 20 pieces--all work completed this year.

Here are some of the pieces I'm finishing up still. On the plus side with it being an online show, I have more time because nothing has to be shipped!


Here are two pieces with aqua resin applied. Still a lot of layers to go. Both are experiments to a degree. I have not tried to do larger, more complex pieces with extruded foam as a base rather than carved foam.



Another sort of experiment. This form has had the supporting foam removed, so it will be interesting to see how I sort everything out with the final piece.



Two forms with epoxy resin layers growing.


A lingering electroformed piece with some fabricated elements. I'm trying something I did with a wall piece--fabricated "labels" that will be printed on rather than printing directly on the surface. The interior is painted, but that's all so far. It looks strange in all white.


The front, only primed so far.

Last Minute Deadlines

As a brief diversion from the pieces I'm doing for my show with Object Fetish, I hurriedly finished a piece for Cheongju and a local show for the Iowa Metals Guild.

Par Lobbe (brooches) composite and epoxy resin, fabricated copper, paint, mixed media, dye
largest brooch dimension--8" x 4" x 2.75"

Asprutan (brooch) composite and epoxy resin, copper, paint
9"x3"x3"

Lots

Minus Rooty, who already sold to Jennifer Culp on Etsy, and the batch at White Rabbit, this is the giant pile. It's very satisfying.

Just sent 10 to the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia this morning. Now what to do with the rest...

And Another Batch

I've finally started putting more of these up on Etsy. I need to get back to work on larger pieces for the Object Fetish show in August.

It's fun to pile all of them together. They sound like fake plastic beach pebbles.

Another Clutch of Little Beasts

Soon these will be sorted into those going to the Mutter Museum and those going onto Etsy. There's still one last batch that's almost finished. I'd like to wait to divvy them up just so that I can have one giant pile picture.

Some New Old Things

Some things recently came home in the mail that I never had a chance to shoot. Although I finished these back in Feb., I hardly had a chance to look at them before they were gone to the Metal Museum Gift Shop.

All of them started as weird cedar eggs I bought from Granny's oh so long ago. After some lackluster whittling, they got copper doo-dads that were all painted and resin-ed up attached. Oh, and lots of layered painting.

Initially I put these on Etsy, but they've now been earmarked for my show in August on Object Fetish. A sucking vortex has begun.

Switcheroo

So I've dropped off some of the new little nuggets at White Rabbit here in Iowa City and took home some nuggets that just couldn't get adopted. I've put them on Etsy in the hope of sending them off somewhere.

Now back to the rest of the little beast army. There are still about 40 more that I need to finish.

Time Thieves.

Rooty

Red Lumpen

Little Worm

My attempts at jumping in to the Gallery Walk were in vain. I think I'm officially giving up on local venues outside of White Rabbit. On the plus side--a bunch of my new little guys will be showing up there soon and it should be the pick of the litter.


But I did put these three up on my Etsy site because I just couldn't wait!


And yay for Young Joo coming over and cheering me up after my meeting with a time thief.