Reoccurring themes: Saddles

              My good friend Joe Von Stengel is undoubtedly a lot more tech savvy than I. Aside from creating some very cool digital themed art, he knows everything there is to know about  having a successful web presence. He always tells me that I need to post on here more frequently. This annoys me. It is particularly irritating because I know he's right.

The trouble is most of what I do is fairly time consuming. I could crank out two or three pieces a week and post them, but only if I had sufficient financial backing to not have to worry about minor details like food and bills (anybody who happens to be fantastically wealthy and follows my blog: Hello!). To rectify this I've decided to start a regular feature where I discuss some of the ideas and themes that repeatedly crop up in my work. Hopefully this will provide some interesting insights into my work. Also it gives me a valid reason to post older pieces.

It's MY blog and I can do whatever I want with it......

Saddles:
Whether it's because of the copious amount of fairy tales I read when I was younger or an enduring affection for carousels,  there's something very appealing to me about putting riding gear on animals that don't ordinarily wear it. To me it implies a whole story. Who rides this beast? Where do they come from? Where could they possibly be going?

This is one of my newer themes. I hope to do a lot more with it in the future. It's also apparently one of my more popular ones. Both the pieces that I'm showcasing here have sold fairly quickly.

 

"Charger"

This is the more recent of the two pieces. He comes directly from the Grimm Fairy Tale "Hans the Hedgehog."  Like all my work he is carved from a single block of wood. Notice the gap between the reins and his neck? This sculpture can balance entirely on one foot in flat surfaces. At his new owner's insistence, he was later mounted to a base, a weathered wooden box that i feel really adds to the piece. She also displays him against a white wall which make his colors really "pop". I want to photograph him in this location soon.  Those colors are not paint by the way. I love using experimental finishes. On this piece I used Kool Aid, rust, steel shavings, paprika, curry powder, colored inks, shoe polish, and coffee. There may be one or two more ingredients but I forget what they are.

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"Western Saddle"
I used coffee, paprika, ink and white watercolor in the finish of this Jackrabbit. He now lives in someone's home in New Mexico, which seems fitting to me. Note how thin I made the ears and that once again the reins and stirrups are free of the main body. One of the things I like about this theme is it allows me to work with this kind of obsessive technical detail  (Trans.: Show off).


















I'd love to continue this idea in a larger format. It would be a lot of fun to maybe do a rocking "horse" or full sized carousel figure. Any takers? Anyone have any ideas they'd like to see in this series?  Let me know. I love your feedback.