Art Show & Sale begins this Friday!

BUY LOCAL ART!


Perhaps ornamentation is your thing, perhaps it is finding the rare gift that says it all ... perhaps it is merely witnessing artistic expressions, whether they be great or small.
Whatever the case, please come to see my latest work at
CCSF Ft Mason Art Show & Sale
this weekend, beginning Friday from 6-9pm.

You may see some of these...
Probably this one...
...and maybe even some of this.
STAYED TUNED!!! & See you there:
FT MASON BLD.B
FRIDAY, 6-9PM,
SAT/SUN 12-5PM

FIRING IN PROGRESS

Here you see the work amidst others from my group... hint: mine looks like wood...



















and other things.. unmentionable...

Visions of Morhdorh

Having some fun with sculptural vessel forms, with walls the texture of wood bark, which i have made a new mold of. These remind of me several things at once, and i have heard the same from others. I like their irregular wall height which moves the eye and provides the empty space necessary for the viewer to fill in the blanks for themselves. I am doing a series, and have four set up already...

perhaps i will stop making them when they cease to amuse me. At least, they provide the background noise while i do the more important large pieces this year, which take far more patience, thus leaving me with intervals of free time in the lab that i must entertain.
This new mold pours simply, pops out within the the course of two & a half hours and can be cut in multiple places to create nuances, as well as limit the amount of replication throughout the pieces.








They call to mind
cavernous volcano ranges,
perhaps a rough hewn crown,
an ancient & weathered tree stump,
campfires, and upside-down icicles.
Being a believer in the made-up lands of man,
I would call them
"Visions of Morhdorh"
and let them give you whatever visions they will...

I wanted to be posting over the last three months, but have unfortunately found myself between several rocks and some very hard places. Alas, the summer has treated me so badly that i longed only for the respite of my much beloved studio on the Bay, which i had gladly said goodbye to in May only to return in August with so much relief and elation. This was just this week on my way in to the studio in the morning... it was a perfect & productive day.
To be back to work that, again, i forgot to write until the first month of the semester had worked its way furiously on by, and some of the summer's demons were finally expelled from me.

It started with a trip to Kabuki Spa, to bath eternally and rid my mind and soul of the negative energy it has been carrying around lately. After the first half, consisting of a long hot sauna, and two stints in the hotter steam room (salt scrub and all), feeling ever foggier and yet all-the-more present, i was meditating in the darkest back corner chair, really zoning out... when i looked up to see the very dim and only source of light: two simple, yet elegant, wood box laterns, which i had never before noticed in all my Kabuki bathing, and which were extremely low lit but had such a defined presence in the space. That moment was an epiphany for me, to recreate these as a narrative and in the language of my wood planks would be my journey...

in that brief breath of time, I had already set a course... and so far, i have almost four sets of these:















And eventually... these wood frame-boxes will become a sort of japanese latern, complete with rice paper, and will each tell a small story with the sculpture being lit from behind inside of them... approx. 20"x 20" x 22", these should make for a very impressive and beautiful series.

Upcomming Show!

Market Street Gallery 1554 Market Street, San Francisco, California 94102 | 415.290.1441 | MarketStreetGallery.com

NEW EXHIBITION ANNOUNCEMENT

Market Street Gallery is pleased to present mud/marriage & magic, 3rd annual ceramics exhibit. This exhibition will showcase latest ceramic works of Steven Allen, Natasha Dikareva, Alex Hackworth, Lori Koening, John Richard Lloyd, Maggie Malloy, Oli Quezada, & Tiffany Schmierer. The exhibit will open July 5, 2011, and run through July 29, 2011. The artist reception will be held on Saturday, July 9th, 2011, from 6 PM - 8 PM. Market Street Gallery will also be hosting a closing event on Saturday, July 23rd, 2011, from 6 PM - 8 PM. From the instant the “light bulb” (idea) goes on, that space allows time for the beginning forms of the imagination (concept) to shape and visualize the actual content of the art work (subject). The courtship between form, in this case ‘thought’ and ‘subject’, compete and juggle for this space and a marriage is formed. “Form” and ‘content’ become inseparable. When using the word ‘form’ in describing a ceramic sculpture one visualizes a physical form i.e. square, round, organic. This exhibit will explore ‘thought’ as a form and the space in between the ‘idea’ and the ‘subject’ of the final art work. My experience as a ceramic artist during this space of the ‘a-ha’ moment begins the push-pull process of imperfection-perfection, closed-open, private-public, oppressive-tranquil of the mind. How does the artist form the ‘thought’ (idea) and the ‘subject’ (content) into a sculpture? Is it going to communicate what the artist ‘thought’? The final piece is often magical.

mud/marriage & magic 3rd annual ceramics exhibit Exhibiting Artists: Steve Allen, Natasha Dikareva, Alex Hackworth, Lori Koening John Richard Lloyd, Maggie Malloy, Oli Quezada, & Tiffany Schmierer July 5th – July 29th 2011 Opening reception: Saturday, July 9th , 6pm - 8pm Enjoy the artist talks during the reception Closing reception: Saturday, July 23rd , 6pm – 8pm Enjoy the artist talks during the reception

New Series... continued

The pressings of
massive old wood posts,
with their nooks & crannies,
cracks and crevices..
now protrusions turned vivid

recollections of the visceral moment
when first set my eyes
and hands
upon flesh of a favored...

Most surprising in the findings,
flesh folding its own nooks and crannies,

hairs protruding in a million different places,

scars and moles and heartbeat and warmth..
breath, all magical.
This is the image i wish to convey...
first sight, body baring...
the image old as man
in the subtle, supple nature that is wood.

...New Series unfolding

These look even better
from the other side... which
is how one would see them...
but this is my view
in the making
I think i am happy
with either way...
soooooo happy...
all because of the
telephone today,
virtual or otherwise,
it's good to be seen for real;
as i see this piece of the world,
where i reside...

Ft. Mason CCSF Gallery show is hung!!

You can see this piece, "Estranged",
along with 11 other sculpture artists' work,
right now through the end of semester (middle of may)
at Ft. Mason Bld. B in the gallery space,
lower level

What's in the works...

The beginning of the end
of something
which i do not know...
pages seized, cut and rendered
woven from the chords
my memory strikes
each time i humbly
recoil at the lines, heard at random,
as if time is taunting me with
remnants of childhood fairytales

lo, the lord works in mysterious ways









this piece, sits atop the
warmed and woven pages... pages of my youth,
screams or
dreams and such of family,
spiked with the woes
of loss...
and guilt...
and self-destructions.















In other news...
the axe handles are multiplying
new characters arise from the
original thought process:
the recreation of a hidden past
our long-lost ability
to find spirit in everything...

And speaking of multiplying, so are the arrows, straighter with each new batch coming fresh from the kilns...
So this means summer will be a blur of gun-pouring, axe-brandishing, and Arrow Assemblage!!!
And really... I couldn't be happier!
Well, i COULD... but well "life is funny" sometimes, you know??

Perhaps perceived as a person
capable of extreme wrong,
even with the best of intentions...
i have begun
the framework of a piece

about the framing of my life
and the perception
of my shattered selves,
lined up against a wall,
built by my own
tangled and woven
wanderings
through the deceiving folds of time.

the pistols stealthily creeping up
to unload a barrage
which fractures my essence
and yet uplifts my soul.









in process...
i see transformations...
such as
< this to this >

and enjoy the playful rhythms
of cascading starshine...
"supernova shots"

and my mind meanders willingly
around seductive curvatures,
hidden meanings,
and long-missed emotions.

"Jumping The Gun", 2011

Estranged comes together....

sometimes... it feels like this...
this is life in the r=present tense..