Descending Ashtray

I just got back from Iowa a few days ago, where Gabe told me he thought Will Oldham was coming to Portland in the near future. Well … he is. For three (3) shows at the Misison Theater. You can read more at McMenamins’ web site, and even purchase tickets from Ticketmaster, if you are inclined to pay $6 handling per $15 ticket (holding back rant). I am going to go pick some tickets up in person this week.

Bonnie Prince Billy
+ Visual artist Shary Boyle
Friday, November 3rd, 8 p.m. door, 9 p.m show
Saturday, November 4th, 8 p.m. door, 9 p.m show
Sunday, November 5th, 8 p.m. door, 9 p.m show

We have a pesky little critter that has been eating our tomatoes. So I set up this deadfall to see if I could catch it!

I spent the last 10 days or so working on this new drawing, which was inspired by the yellow cedar carving I’d been working on, with its alternating tool marks. Above is a much-magnified look at a drawing that is about 15 inches square.

Above is a pretty terrible photo of the whole drawing. I think I can get a better photo once it’s framed under glass.

One funny thing that happened when I was working on the vertical areas: I used the horizontal sliding bar on the drafting table (bottom of second image) as a reference on the horizontal lines, and a the vertical side of a 45-degree aluminum square rested on it for the vertical lines. After hundreds, maybe thousands of vertical lines, the aluminum square literally cut the pen tip on the left, causing the tip to eventually bend over. Thankfully, it fell apart gracefully and I replaced the pen before it caused a drawing accident. Entropy at work, I guess.

I was invited to design a mini golf hole for Holocene’s annual miniature golf tournament. Each year, they ask 18 artists and designers to submit plans for a hole to be installed at the large bar.

Here is my entry:

Click the image above to download a PDF with a bigger image and more legible text.

Spent most of the day yesterday working on this piece inspired by one of the last flowers I did. Ended up using some copper discs that were scrap from another sculpture I did a few years ago. The discs were pieces left from the hole saw I used to cut a copper sheet, and were essentially circles with a hole drilled in the middle.

When I first completed this yesterday, I wasn’t very happy with it, but it is growing on me a little looking at it again today.

I burnt the base as before, but tried some spray laquer on it to seal the carbon-laden surface, which although awfully shiny, did seal the surface quite well. Have to play some more with that technique.

The base is approximately 9 inches square, 5 inches tall with flowers included.