Down but not out for the count!

This has been a week of, yes, sculpting but also a week to assess where I am going to work in permanance and what with...tools I mean!  Yes money, which I am certain first came to your mind, is always a concern; most of my work has been done by hand, but, the deeper cuts now required for some of my designs mean an air compressor and their carbide tipped tools are needed.  Another big deal is studio space...I have contacted a company that, perhaps, could fashion a studio space for me here at the house.  That is my preferred space, but, (money being a factor) this week will, also,look into renting studio space and sharing with another stone sculptor.  Therefore...to be decided!!!!  The spaces for stone sculptors are at a premium...painters are lucky, give them light and they are happy.  Sculptors need good ventiation systems when grinding...cough, cough, sputter! I have decided to do more work with an air compressor and bought more carbide tipped tools to that end and an air hammer (a couple of months rent#$%!**)...I used one in Italy and it makes my job more easy!   At the moment I am working at the Ottawa School of Art downtown as even the new Shenkman Centre is not set up with a ventilation system. Spring I can work outside, well bundled up, of course!
Oh well, all is not gloom and doom...I wrote alot this week and boy my tools are gorgeous! I felt like a 'kid in a candy store' making choices!!
Today I am off to work...'Thought for the day'...Would it not be wonderful, if, we valued our artists  to the extent they never had to think of the media, studio space, shows...they just worked at their passion and made everyone's life more relevant for the culture they reflected.  Sadly, movie news and actor's lives are more important...read the newspaper's 'ARTS' section!! Artists, good artists, are giving up in droves for lack of support!  Gallery openings are rarely covered...that would be a step into the future...Canadian art for Canadians...we go outside the country and are valued, at home we are ignored...a sad statement for Canadian culture!

Ha! I did warn you my mind has no pause button...

Raindrops

Enveloped,
delicate white
cascading raindrops
Ghost Dance,
conjuring a wind-ridged
Ice Temple
into
Abstraction.

©Angela Verlaeckt Clark

To Pause is a Virtue???

Well I never!...I have been silenced!  It's only for the day; have no fear I shall be back to normal (if there a normal for me?) tomorrow...

I went to the dentist, had a small surgical procedure and have chosen not to provoke the 'gods' of speech...until tomorrow!!  Perhaps I'll even make up for lost time??

Sorry, this really has nothing to do with the 'tour' except to delay me a day or so, but, I did not want you to think I was doing nothing.  Even when not working my mind is singing with ideas...there is no pause button on my mind!

Ta, ta 'til we meet again!

Sunday/Funday, one and the same!

Yes! Today is a fun day!

The Cube Gallery has an private view today and Bruce Garner, one of Canada's premier sculptors, is the featured artist...all my sculptor friends are going and I shall join them!  Gossip...being in the know, so to speak, is a riot of fun!  I love my sculptor friends!  We all work in isolation but when we get together there is no stopping us...talk, talk and more talk!

Yesterday, after I signed off, I completed a small finger sculpture (an abstract bird)...I love it and now the ideas for mounting the work are playing on my mind.  This is the part I sooo adore, until I find out the price of the work to be done by the architectural metal designers...then I freak!
They say you can't take it with you but artists never had it to begin with! Gawd...

The 'End' of January...time to get serious!!!

I just looked at the calendar...it is already the 23rd of January! Getting ready for a studio tour, here in Orleans, has now hit home!! In four and a half months, June 12th and 13th it will be here...in my back yard; now, I am definitely feeling the pressure...big time

I have been a sculptor for 'too many' years but a few months from showtime and the panic settles in and takes up residence. You know that 'Hey you! What's for supper?' Familiarity be damned!

Funny how things start out, you are so calm, cool and collected, then the heat is on and it builds within, to a crescendo. Full orchestra type! Family on your case, you can't sleep without visions of what is 'certainly' going to happen. The worst case senerios; you can imagine...no one will come...you will sell nothing...people will hate what they see.

This will propel me into action! I began this week to be honest...I tend to work and produce well under pressure. This blog will help me keep the panic to a minimum...I hope!

My intent is to fill you in on all the things a sculptor does to get ready for THE SHOW!