Driftwood to work on

I like to use natural materials as a base for my sculptures to work on. Mainly because of the contrast with the style I add to it, but also for the story between artificial and natural behind it. More general; the way we get more and more detached from nature by making and inventing things and systems. Bones and skulls are a particular good base for a sculpture because it has this darkness of death around it, that makes it an even better contrast with the bright colours and funny characters.

But I was looking for something different to push myself to innovate and discover more expression and develop new techniques. Last year I have been trying some small sculptures with fossils, but I am not that enthusiastic about them. Only the fish I made were interesting. Fossils are hard, because they don't have extreme shapes and weird angles. Also, these limestone fossils aren't very obvious, so it is harder to see what I was trying to do.

For the coming months I will be experimenting different things with driftwood and see how the various things I have done, would come out by using this natural material. One of the thoughts I have right now, is using driftwood more as a canvas for a painting instead of a base for a sculpture. Let's see how that works...

Developing style

I have been looking back recently to see how I came up with making the sculptures I make today from the sculptures I started to make. I find it interesting to see my sculptures consisting more and more out of found objects. I try to keep them in the same funny and freaky style I have always used. Within those found objects I am slowly moving from using sheep skulls, to using any kind of bone, to mixing plastic objects with bone, sometimes clay being just an adhesive.

Yesterday I have sorted all the small found objects, thrown away some, and started making a few more small sculptures. I still have the feeling I haven't reached my goal with them.

Further, the driftwood is starting to get dry and I can't wait to start using that as a canvas.

WIP: no name yet

So I announced something new I am working on, and have progressed quite a lot. I am already in the phase of adding details and almost at combining all the different parts.
Yes, it will be a total figure; arms, legs, body and head! Which means quite a lot of work, the amount of work I only used to do when I was sure I would replicate it through a mold, but this will be a one-off and unique figure!

Making sculptures again!

I have been working a lot to get some money in and now that work is finished I have time to make sculptures. The negative explaination would be; Oh, no job anymore....what would I do now? Oh, I could make a sculpture. It feels exciting now with this backlog of ideas to work on, but it is sometimes difficult to make sculputures by the flow having work or not. It would be ideal to have a paid job that has positive effects on my art, but where to get a job like that?

Sometimes I hear that the stereotypical view of the very poor, barely eating artist is gone and that artists nowadays are quite well off. To be honest, wealth has gone up in every profession and the differences between an artist and someones else is probably just as big.

Anyway, I have started making a sculpture with a sheep skull, what a surprise, in a Pop-art way, but with my style. Further, if I don't get a paid job this month I will experiment with some different materials I have found. I just have to figure out how I can add my style to it. It does require a different approach. To be continued......