"Mama Bear Blueberry Hedge" Commission

I completed the "Mama Bear Blueberry Hedge" this week and Daddy-O and I did the install this afternoon. This was a dream job commission. The client contacted me last Fall with her idea of a blueberry hedge that would be act as a year round divider for the beautiful bronze Bear sculpture by Jacques & Mary Regat. It was a luxury to have the whole winter

to think about how I was going to construct the small hedge and attach the blue glass bead "berries" the client requested. I wish I would have had this idea on my own but the idea completely belongs to the client. After studying digital images of blueberry bushes near our cabin, I plasma cut out small leaves from two large steel sheets of steel and constructed branches to form the 105" length of hedge. I built 3 sections of 20+ inches for a first fit then welded the sections to a length of flat

iron that was attached using all weather screws to the wooden section on location. We needed to have the hedge installed before the plants, flowers and landscaping started their summer bloom. The steel was left uncoated so it will weather to a natural brown patina. The highlight of the install today was stepping inside of the client's home and watching the sunlight catch the blue glass beads through the large, beautiful window as Mama bear smiled back at us.

Watering the Soul

My favorite Garden event has come and gone. As the Volunteer Art Show Coordinator, I was pleased to see the last of the sculptures loaded out of the Alaska Botanical Garden Fair and Outdoor Art Show yesterday under wet, gray skies but the positive comments on the art kept my disposition sunny. There was even an opportunity for me to do some Plein Air work on Saturday while I was art sitting the Show. A bit out of practice but painting and drawing out in the fresh

garden air actually felt like I was replenishing my soul. I sold two of my three sculptures, “Crescent Moon” was delivered last night and I will deliver “Lambelia” to the Lowenfel’s house today. The event sold more works than last year and judging from the comments and voting for the People’s Choice Award, the show has evolved to feature more confident and professional works of art. Congratulations to Marieke’s “Karmic Instructions” win

ning the 2010 People’s Choice Award. Click here for a copy of the sculpture Artists brochure I put together for the Show and here for the painters/mixed media brochure. “Solstice Love” is still for sale but there were two customers who wanted to find just the right place it in their garden before committing to buying. The sculpture has a relative small footprint but needs a lot of space for good visual placement at 73” wide x 85” tall x 45” deep. This year the trend seemed to be more gardeners but gardens and landscaping being done in smaller spaces. Overall budgets were also a bit smaller than in

years past and much consideration and more thoughtful conversations were taking place before purchases. A big help this year (especially for Daddy-O who has been the Show's muscle every year!) was the youthful strength of the 9-Star volunteers helping customers and artists haul out the sculptures via 4 wheeler. No rest for me today though, I’ve got to replenish Katie’s Gallery with works as she has sold out(!) and the Spenard Farmers Market awaits us this Saturday… m-u-s-t g-o t-o t-h-e s-h-o-p and c-u-t the m-e-t-a-l then w-e-l-d the m-e-t-a-l…

Thought you'd like to see Gina Hollomon's large, pit fired "Berry Patch Bear" at the Alaska Botanical Garden Show.

For a contrast to the green, lush, warm Garden, Kristen sent us the latest pictures from the top of the world. Their captain gave everyone “Ice Liberty” in the Arctic! She said she and fellow grad students really enjoyed the experience. The man with the gun that Kristen is “strong arming” with is one of four official Polar Bear watchmen –fortunately, his “expertise” was not needed… Here is a great link showing more of NASA’s Arctic Ice 2010.

Meet the "Lambelia" Family

With the help from Daddy-O my Sheep Topiaries have been built,

wrapped, planted, watered and now are being babysat in a cool area of our backyard. The extra set of hands was much needed not only to help hold the sphagnum (I think this is kind of a gross word) moss as it was wrapped with floral wire around the sheep forms, but to swat all the HUGE mosquito’s that were swarming us! I have about two weeks of growing time before the Alaska Botanical Garden’s Gala, Art Show and Garden Fair! The “Lambelia” family will be one of my entries. The form I used was the same one I used to create the "Steel Wool" garden

sculpture sheep. For the topiaries, I welded more 1/8” round stock to the body as “ribs” and added and wrapped poultry wire for the form to better hold the sphagnum moss. The big tip came from Patty at Sutton’s greenhouse and that was to wrap my

poultry wire in plastic wrap! She told me her son came up with this idea as a better way to hold in the moisture of the plants and moss-

what a great idea! Thank goodness I’m holding in some moisture –I couldn’t imagine how dry these topiaries would be without the plastic helping hold some of the moisture. As it is, I’m misting and watering at least 3 times a day. For the plantings, I’m using my favorite Regatta Sapphire Lobelia and Bambini Mix, Splendid Blue & Yellow, Sorbet Lavender Ice Violas. So far none of the plants have shown any shock but Derek and I laughed while having our coffee because yesterday morning there was a clump of potting soil on the ground right behind the Mama Sheep that looked like she left us a little “present” overnight!

Speaking of needing an extra set of gloved hands, this morning Daddy-O helped me make three trips to Alaska Metal Recycling. After a few months and the side yard starts to look a little hill-billy, I can usually have about 2,000 pounds of scrap metal that are cuts left over from plasma cutting and welding –today there was a lot of the galvi duct work that I had up-cycled for the “Steel Wool” sheep sculptures. For you local artists, Alaska Metal Recycling is also where I purchase all my copper wire by the pound and copper pipe I use for the garden chimes –they are located off King Street here in Anchorage.

What's The Opposite of Shearing A Sheep?

I’m in love again. It’s a good thing my show at Half Moon Creek Gallery, “The Artful Garden,” is still a few weeks away, because otherwise, the price for my new Sheep sculptures would be one million dollars each! I’ve Blogged before about loving certain pieces I make a little too much to realistically put a price on them to sell, but I know the love affair will end and I’ll soon be able to part with them. I’ll probably be out of love by this weekend because I’ve got so

many other ideas percolating right now that my artmaking is in high gear. Good timing with all of the Shows coming up I need to be highly creative AND productive –which isn’t necessarily something I can conjure up on demand.

Based on my patterns and maquettes, SteelFab got the bodies of the Sheep cut out in record time. I plasma cut out their curls from some of Half Moon Creek’s up-cycled galvanized duct work they tore out of

the new Gallery building. As I was welding the metal “wool” to their bodies I was laughing to myself thinking what the opposite of shearing a sheep would be?! The adult Sheep stand about 30” tall and their lamb is about 15” tall. Their steel bodies will have a nice rust patina over time while the galvanized “wool” will contrast and stay bright and shiny. I want to make

a whole flock… we’ll see how my stamina holds out! They would have photographed so much better on a pasture of green grass, BUT we still have a yard full of snow.

Mother’s Day weekend is going to be jam packed for our family, not only do I have “The Artful Garden” show opening but my parents are coming up here that same weekend for my nephew’s high school graduation. It’s probably a good idea that Alaska Airlines charges so much for extra baggage because I think my Mom is going to have to come up with another way to sneak some of these sheep home to her garden…

The middle son William, my ever handy shop helper, delivery guy, sculpture installer, traded his Chevy Tahoe for another open bed truck –YAHOO! Just in time for Garden Show season! Will’s trucks over the years have been so much easier to haul my larger works in than in our Tundra which has a topper on it. He’s smiling because FREE gas from Mom is ever-so-nice.

Ma'am Just Step Away From The Skis...

Some real artmaking actually happened yesterday in town and I finished up my Transformed Treasures. The idea behind the Salvation Army fundraiser is to find a “treasure” at the Salvation Army Thrift Store and “transform” it into a work of art that will be auctioned off at a May 1, luncheon. My Thrift Store finds were the small wooden bank and a foam/resin plaque of St. Francis, the patron saint of animals and ecology. Lacking a good solid grasp of Catholicism I had to google St. Francis because I first thought he was St. Peter but when I read

that there was no mention of animals associated with St. Peter I knew

it was another guy who was the patron saint of animals. You find a lot of garden sculptures depicting St. Francis holding small animals and gardening tools. My mom has a beautiful bird feeder statuary of St. Francis that offers bird seed from his hands that I especially enjoy. When I found this plaque I knew immediately that I wanted to “transform” it using plasma cut and welded steel vines to create an outdoor hung wall sculpture. My thought was that it would look great on the outside of a greenhouse or on the fence near a garden. It’s finished size is about 32” tall by 20" wide.

I need to add some enamel paint finishes to doctor up some wear and tear on the plaque and mend some burn holes… Yeah, almost set the whole thing on fire when I was welding the finishing leaves to the front! The hilarious part was when it first caught on fire, I panicked and was actually trying to blow out the stupid fame from INSIDE my welding helmet!! Duh. I finally got a spray bottle of water to weld the other leaves attaching the plaque and squirted out the mini flames right away. The little wooden bank is now a

5’ tall Topiary Bird house. Those little Red Cedar logs only caught fire once…

**Oh, and don't forget to vote for our daughter, Kristen's quilt! It's called "Fairbanks Birdhouse" entered in the Snowman Quilt Challenge at The Material Girls fabric store, in Fairbanks, Alaska. Kristen has started a Blog called Rosie Creek Quilts -in her "spare time" of doing her grad work in chemical oceanography at UAF. Vote by sending an email to materialgirls@alaska.net and vote for "A1"

-THANKS ahead of time to all my blog-buddies around the world!