opening shots

A good time was had by all.

The opening reception was just swell, marred only by the fact that I have no photos of the event itself. Many came over to our home for dinner afterwards, and the best part was the cross-fertilization among people from different parts of my life. Evidently these souls are as compelling to each other as they are to me.

Here are some photos from the exhibit. This is my latest piece, Alstromerias, flanked by two digital image prints from my new printer!



The stairwell - the two pieces on the right are based on photos of cellular structures:


The wall of glass (all these pieces incorporate fused glass):


The two pieces on the right sold -- as did this one:



I have blogged about the creation of each of these. It's interesting that all the pieces that have sold are based on the same "nude stitches" image that I started this blog with in August. Some affirmation there -- that image still begs for reinterpretation, and I am wont to heed her plea...

The latest assignment in my Color and Design class: create an abstract from a concrete image. Use analogous colors and one complementary.

My image, a succulent from Lotusland, a stellar garden in nearby Montecito, which as I write, is fighting a devastating fire (not Lotusland itself, I hope):


The structure provided a wonderful graphic abstract:


I desaturated this photo and took the black and white print to Kinko's to enlarge it. I numbered each segment of the leaves (or whatever they are called!):


I was going to use red and red-orange as my analogous colors, and because blue-green (a.k.a. turquoise) is the complement to red-orange, I could work in my favorite colors!

And I wanted to incoporate fused glass. I would make three glass "leaves" in the analogous colors.

Hmm, 41 pieces, fusing the glass would take 18 hours in the kiln, time to cool, then shape the glass if necessary. Only one of the three glass pieces turned out, and the red is a little dark. Here it is in the sun:


And with less light (i.e. how it might read on white fabric):



I could grind off the excess glass to capture the shape, and the bas relief nature of the piece would make it 'read' as a leaf. A possibility...

But I really wanted three leaves, not one. And I wanted to do a good job, not just throw something together because the project was due soon.

Time to lower expectations. Another Plan B moment. First, I needed to decide what to do with this red glass leaf. Up to now, I have only worked with transparent glass. I could also use opalescent. Okay, in the future, I am going to rework this piece, and here are the glass "leaf" candidates:


To forge on, I decided to abandon my 41 piece plan -- too much. I chose a turquoise solid as a background. Onto that, I would fuse leaves in the analogous and complementary colors, varying the hues within each color.

I traced each leaf onto a two sided fusible and, rather than follow the strictures of the numbered pieces in the photo, I just cut each leaf into pieces, leaving space so the turquoise background would show through.

An overall rectangular shape did not work, so I cut the finished piece in a curved shape, reflecting the shapes of the leaves. I did not bind it. It is mounted on black foamboard -- and has been turned in for grading. Some of the piece works, some parts do not (the light blue reads as a 'hole' to me, and the dark blue at the top has some undertone that is fighting with the other colors).



As my dad used to say, I should get an "A" for "affort"... if not for artistry (I said that).

And now I have some fodder for future projects...