fArt Show

This weekend marks the end of the month wherein sculptures and things I have made have been on display at Sue's Java Cafe.  I was offered this opportunity about four months ago but I didn't really tell anybody until I had put stuff on the walls as I am a professional self-saboteur.  I spent two months halfassedly working on some sculptures and then a month hoping that the owner had forgotten her promise and had already given the area to somebody else.  I then spent five days working eighteen hours a day in an attempt to finish enough stuff to fill Sue's.  I found this hilarious because this time occurred shortly after my one year anniversary of being fired, and one of my eighteen hour days was Labor Day.

Each time I've gone into Sue's I've been told that many patrons have commented fondly regarding my sculptures, which makes me feel pretty good.  Also, I've sold more than $50 in small sculptures and have received three requests for commissioned pieces.

That's me in the picture.  I'm the one sitting next to the cardboard box.  I've been making those trees for a while now.  They are my take on the Celtic Tree of Life and I started making them because I've always like the symbol and I saw at least three really crappy examples of Tree of Life sculptures within the same week and decided to attempt a decent one.  I also enjoy the challenge of manipulating metal wire to mimic an organic form.

I don't feel I can call this type of thing a sculpture (Hell, I don't feel like I should call anything I do a sculpture, or art for that matter.  Take a wild guess at how many times I use the word "art" in this post?).  I usually call it a 2-D wire sketch.


I'm pretty sure that normal people would be able to easily draw something as simple as this.  While I am incapable of drawing any part of this, it turns out I can bend wire to make a picture of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza if I so desire.

This is Daphne (see Greek mythology).  While I cannot sketch any of my sculpture plans, I usually have a very clear picture of how I want something to look and am pleasantly surprised that the wire ends up looking like my brain picture.  I was not pleasantly surprised with Daphne.  I've been wanting to make a Daphne sculpture for a while and this is not what I have in mind.  Jen likes it though, so I framed it and put it behind glass so it seems extra fancy.

While I am terrible at drawing, I was once a student and thus have many pages of notes that are filled with doodles.  These are some of my favorite bits from all of my doodles (the ones that would be acceptable on a coffee shop wall, at least).  The bird usually looks a lot more like a deranged flying dolphin in my doodles, but I am certain that I have increased awareness about how awesome it would be to carry around a bunch of bees tied to strings.

This is the part that I am most proud of.  Sue's has zero shelf space.  This is a problem for someone who wants to include a ceramic bust and metal stand that weighs about thirty pounds.  I had to come up with some sort of shelving apparatus that could hold the weight, but did not attach to, damage, or mark up the wall.  I feel I overcame that challenge with much aplomb.  Also, better than a third of the stuff on this shelf has sold as of last week. 


All of this comes down Sunday night, or Monday, or whenever Sara forces me to take it down.  This will be loads of fun as I recently rode my body down a spot of rapids, dislocating my left knee and turning my right leg into a bruise from knee to ankle and giving myself a lovely bruise on my spine that stretches from four inches above my buttcrack down three inches inside my buttcrack.  I didn't even know that was possible.  I'll spare you the pictures.