Magic Wands

Here are some magic wands, like the Harry Potter ones but a lot fancier. Some of my wands are available at the Clinton County Arts Council shop in St. Johns, Michigan, and others are up for sale at my Etsy shop on the web. Watch for price cuts coming soon on these fine collectible art wands.

It's a New Day

Three cheers and a cupcake for the individual who can tell me the artist who created this lovely altarpiece. (I'm not teasing--I forgot.) And is that God the Father pictured there, or Christ?

I had never realized until a few years ago that God the Father has been pictured in Western art. I had thought that was a no-no (make no graven image and all that); and it is, more or less, but it has been done. He is almost always pictured, as far as I can tell, as an old man with a beard--surprise, surprise.

How would God be pictured today? Perhaps as Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime. Donald Trump with good hair. Rush Limbaugh at a weight within his category on the weight-height chart. Donald Rumsfeld if the Iraq war had gone as he imagined it would have. The Supernanny. The latest American Idol (God as Boredom personified).

This is getting silly. But it is a new day, and a worthy day for looking at a beautiful picture.

O Joy

Right up there in my announcement I talk about the joy of making art, but it's not always joyous, is it? If you are an artist of any stripe, you probably know it.

When things aren't going well with the project at hand, or even with life outside the art transaction, working on the art can seem tedious and pointless.

And then there is the obsession. Feeling driven to create is most often a good thing and a fine feeling, giving you purpose and energy; but at times the unfreedom can feel like addiction or slavery.

Also when one's art seems to be going nowhere in the marketplace--that is surely a downer especially when compounded with any of the above.

Given the character of these gray ideas of mine--can you tell that it's been a long winter here in Michigan? On the bright side, we haven't had any flooding or suicide bombings lately.

If none of this is helping your own mood, please come back when I'm happier! That will be tomorrow.

A New Table

This table is about 19" wide, 29" long and 23" high. The top is covered with a sheet of galvanized steel and should develop an interesting patina over time, especially if folks are not too fastidious about putting coasters under their glasses and cups, and it is only lightly cleaned once in a while to get the gross crud off. In this way, you can let this table record a little bit of your life.

The rim around the top is a thick piece of poplar stained dark and the legs are of pine painted with a dark red shiny enamel. The legs are turned, all to different shapes, wavy and sensuous. See this piece soon at Absolute Gallery in Lansing, Michigan.

I Had a Bad Day

The title is added by me; the art is a by creative young friend of mine, done with Paint software. It's pretty gruesome but admirably colorful, and would make an interesting T-shirt.

A Work in Cut Paper: "Anatomy of a Dream"

I like to take a genre and then do something with it--fill it in, so to speak; fill it to overflowing, I guess (as I have done with "magic wands"); maybe filling it with stuff that doesn't necessarily belong in that particular shell.

The "Coat of Arms" or family crest is a unique genre in art (something like the commercial logos we see everywhere today) with a few straightforward elements to be set up and filled in. That's where the idea for this piece started.

I haven't done much conscious thinking about the parts of this composition and how they relate--or I've done some thinking and not let it develop too far--which is intellectual laziness or a canny strategy for letting "inspiration" kick in.

The motto says, CONVIVIUM MAGNUM MULTI MORSUS, which I'm pretty proud of because I think the Latin I have come up with is correct (as far as I can tell with my 12th grade Latin--thanks, Mrs. Rens) and also because the Latin meaning is clear on the face of it, but could also be taken in another interesting way (again I say this based on my 12th grade Latin, so CAVEAT EMPTOR).

I'm thinking this piece might have gotten out of hand. I'm not sure how good it is. You be the judge.