Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

I’m feeling stingy with some of my pieces. This I know is not conducive to making a living at selling my art. This is a problem I sometimes have with some of my works of art. Feeling overly protective has  happened before with the giant steel rooster, “Big Red” it’s happening with some of the “Gilper Fish” and the Grasshopper that Shara wants for the new Octopus Ink Gallery.  I’m also in love with the new Wheat commission… I’m not sure what triggers this reaction, but I want to keep certain pieces, handle them, weather them longer than necessary in the garden, or hang them in the Studio, feel them a bit longer before they go to their new homes. This is especially difficult when I’ve fallen in love with a piece that needs to go right away to the Gallery –my knee jerk reaction is to price the work at a million, gazillion dollars, but again, not very conducive to selling!

The good news is that once I am able to let a piece go, it’s because I’ve created another that I’ve fallen in love with. I suppose the other positive is that I’m happily married and this issue is strictly containted to my art...

In between suffering complete fits of inspiration because of all the FALL COLOR I’ve been surrounded by, I’m working on a special commission for a “Wheat” wall sculpture that will accompany the Chapel Tabernacle Rick and I made this past Spring. For a few weeks I’d been spinning how I was going to go about creating the stalks of wheat that needed to be fabricated to a custom designed, wall mounted candle holder. I called upon my friend Rick again at Western Sh

eetmetal to fabricate the perfect candle holder and from that the wheat design took off. I love being inspired by talented people! I was at the Chapel yesterday to custom fit the stalks of wheat to the curved wall and they looked graceful. Hopefully the committee will approve the burnished gold finish for the wheat and brushed steel for the stems, which tie in with the Globe Tabernacle and lighting fixtures.

Whew, A Sigh of Relief Upon Approval

Commissions put a lot of pressure on an artist and this piece was no different. It was important to me that I get it just right. The clients who commissioned the Tabernacle were pleased with the finished work. Whew! In the beginning, I wasn't sure what a Tabernacle was or really used for, but did some research and worked closely with the client, Sister Kathleen to have a better understanding of it's uses and symbolism. Rick, the fabricator and I worked hard on this piece and had to overcome a few design challenges. First, creating a symmetrical globe (not affected by the heat from welding!) is not very easy, especially one that features a lock and key. Ultimately Rick had to fabricate a custom rear pin hinge because the commercial hinge proved too weak and tweaked the lid of the globe when opened. In addition, we wanted to combine 3 different types of metals. The base is all hand formed stainless steel, the sphere is aluminum and the land mass details are plasma cut from black iron to hold the forming and heat treating for color.

Recently, a lovely new non-denominational Chapel was built at Horizon House and a Tabernacle was needed. The inspiration for the Tabernacle was the Cosmic Eucharist provided in writing to me by Sister Kathleen O'Hara of the Providence Horizon House, assisted living facility. "The Eucharist is always in some way celebrated on the alter of the world. It unites heaven and earth. It embraces and permeates all creation..." read in part the writing Sister Kathleen provided me, which was part of the Ecclesia de Eucharistia No. 8, Pope John Paul II. Though I am not a Catholic, the writings Sister Kathleen provided me helped to better understand and create her vision of a world or globe shaped Tabernacle. There are many artists who specialize in creating Liturgical Art but this was the first piece that I had created. From the begin

ning, it helped me to know that I had the faith and support of the Tabernacle committee to complete their vision and was honored to have been selected to produce the globe sculpture for such an important part of the new Chapel.