Five Years Later (And Forrest Photos)

   I started this blog as an experiment five years ago.  The goal was to make as much art as possible in three weeks. This agenda was both to challenge myself artistically, but also to occupy my time while transitioning to life in New Jersey.  It accomplished both goals in abundance.  I kept up with the blog off and on for quite a while after the initial three weeks, but as I made friends in New Jersey and as I became more involved with work, I fell off the wagon.  Yes I make art occasionally, but not with the dedication that I once did.
   So seeing that I regret the downturn in output, and that this blog is having its fifth birthday, I plan on updating it more often. Since it is so hard to quantify "more often" I'm going to say ONCE A WEEK FOR THE NEXT TWO MONTHS.  Please hold me accountable.
   In the meantime, enjoy some of these photos that I took in various swamps and woods around where I live.

Jangles The Raccoon...

   I'm having a hard time justifying a blog post about this...as I wouldn't classify this as fine art. However, this was a fun project...and part of my 10 Awesome Things that I'm doing this summer. If you want to know more about that, just ask me...I love talking about it.
   Adam and I have been spending a lot of time at estate sales here in north Jersey. Every Saturday we spend our day digging through peoples junk, often times finding amazing a bizarre treasures mixed in as well.  About three weeks ago I found a box of animal bones in the basement of an old home in Clifton...

   I assumed there was a mixture of different animals in this box...considering the random large jaw bone.  But after sifting through them for a bit I realized it may be a complete skeleton.  Probably a raccoon or fox.  The only thing missing was a skull.  But then something serendipitous happened...

   The following weekend while visiting an estate sale at a 200 year old barn, right on the front table, was a raccoon skull.  Are you kidding me?!?! This was perfect.  I went home and starting figuring out whats what. 

   After spending a few days studying skeleton articulation I got started asap.  I knew that if I didn't start on this project right away it would sit in my closet for years.

   Learning about the spine was so much fun...but putting this thing together was huge challenge. I arranged the bones on a wire, connecting them with epoxy that sets in about eight minutes.  AKA...the spine took an entire day basically.

   Then came the scapulas and legs, which required drilling small holes and attaching wires through them, to reinforce the epoxy.  I was basically terrified that once the skeleton had to stand up that it would fall apart.

Me and Jangles. 

   At this point I started thinking about how I was going to display my new treasure.  While walking around Manhattan on Saturday I found a gorgeous piece of discarded wood on the street.  There you have it...my base.  I didn't want it to look polished, and basically left it as is...even the nails.

   A week after starting my project I attached the skull and mounted my raccoon.  There were no tail bones or phalanges in the box of bones, but I'll keep my eyes open for them in the future.

   Pretty cool right?  This was the second of my TEN AWESOME THINGS that I'm doing this summer, and I can't wait to share the rest of them!!! 

Finished Borneo Slit Drum Painting

   Last week I shared two giant six foot cardboard tikis I made for my 30th birthday.  On a similar theme, I finished this painting back in August and forgot to post it here.  These are stylized versions of slit drums from Borneo...which you can read more about here.  This painting was made specifically to giveaway on my other (real) blog.

My 6ft. Birthday Tikis

   I just celebrated my 30th birthday, and threw a fun polynesian birthday party.  Obviously I had to make two 6ft tikis to watch over the festivities.
   Each tiki is made of seven cardboard boxes that I collected at work.  They're coated in white acrylic paint, and washed over in watered down acrylic colors, and refined with sharpie marker to create a wood grain effect.  The details were added last.  These guys are inspired by Disney World's Adventureland Tiki Drums…who are in turn inspired by the native slit drums of Borneo.

Early stage of the first tiki.  Each piece took about a week to finish. 

starting to come together. 

Paper Sea Urchin Sculpture.

   Hey guys! I actually finished a piece of art! I'm feeling the end of Summer, and therefore getting back in the groove of making art. Thank god.  Here is a paper sculpture I made today...I liken them to sea urchins.

the moon.

Two Pink Boys

Today I made a few water colors of 'the pink boy' which is a little ceramic statue we have on one of our book shelves. In fact, pink boy is the guardian of our library. (And quite a snob.).
I thought they would look nice as cutouts on my refrigerator.