And A Lovely Galentines Day to You!

Happy Valentines day to all my viewers and a special Galentines Holla at these lovely ladies whom I have shared many an adventure with and love very dearly.

These gals (as seen in photo) have been such great friends to me through a lot of the ups and downs of this crazy world. Even miles away we still hangout via Googs + and occasional trips Northward or Southward :). 

Sorry ladies if this is publicly embarrassing, but you must know how amazeballs y'all are, especially for being so awesome and visiting for a Galentines Reunion! Anyways, I'll tone down the sappy. I know how some people get about mushy stuffs lol. I tried to find recent picks of all three of you ladies, and I found this one most suitable...Since it is a perfect reflection of the start of our friendship-as we all met at the Old Cabin. 

So Just wanted to say, Thank you ladies for your friendship!

OK, Now what many viewers/followers have been waiting for...(drum rolls)..........

TA-DA!!
"My Love Runs Deep..."

2'W x 1' 1/2" H: sheet metal, LED lights (lights off)

2'W x 1' 1/2" H: sheet metal, LED lights (lights on/angled)

2'W x 1' 1/2" H: sheet metal, LED lights (lights on/forward)

"My Love Runs Deep..." as I've titled my sculpture piece is a piece I would have liked to have entered in an art gallery open exhibit. Sadly, I was unable to finish it in time for registration. :( But I'm not all too bummed out, because I had lots of fun getting back into the swing of sculpture! Besides I'm still able to share it with all of you.

So I added three different images of the same sculpture. One with lights off as to give full effect of the red LED lights reflecting off the black of the sheet metal. For the most part it is done..I just need a few minor adjustments and some tine fin-tachments ;P....The next two images following the first are with the lights on and angled. I took an angled picture otherwise the viewer cannot really see the shape of the heart made by the two conjoining pieces.

Why did I name my piece as I did? Great question!
Let me first explain how I came to design my piece. With Valentines coming up I wanted to do something in relation to love. If you have not figured it by now, the two pieces are representative of two fish joining their tails together to form a heart. I took a sketch I had (image B) from my notes back in College...as I did (and still do) doodle. I love the arching of the fish and spherical forms in general. You can see in (A.) to the left is a slight sight of another fish facing the opposite direction. I played around with the idea of placing the fish emblem together. That's how I ended up at (B.).

B. sketches to Design

I decided to play with the emblem a little more, adding some darker parts and finally some color. The darker areas ended up being the parts of the sheet metal and the glowing red areas are where I cut and left open. So, basically took one of my random sketches and designed a sculpture piece from it. Pretty cool eh!

Alright, so back to the main question..how did I come to name it such? I was trying to come up with a few crafty names for this piece, but couldn't find any. So I looked hard at my drawing and thought..'well, there are red lights running through the body like blood or veins (looking at the sculpture itself the wiring and lights add a vein like effect on the backside) and these two pieces are living creatures that like all living things are just searching for a soul mate or another to form a bond with.' I kept thinking 'blood' & 'inner soul searching'...So I finally came up with "My Love Runs Deep..." as in blood(love, life) runs deep through ones body. And when you find your soul mate you share that love with them and give life. Also, you can think of fish as creatures of the deep sea, searching a vast ocean for some signs of life & a place in which it can only exist (water). So the title kind of takes that sense of "deep(er)" than physical love and plays with that idea. The ellipsis at the end is to give the viewer the freedom to finish and interpret the piece as they wish-perhaps have a more poetic take on it. Any how, I leave it up to the viewer to make something of this.

Hope you enjoy my piece. I'm really glad I have others to share my love with. :)

<3 Amore ti <3

Dr. Horrible, We Have a Pulse...

Hello my dearest viewer(s),

Hope your week has been better than mine, because tutoring a group of first graders has me pulling my hair most days. If my job were made into a sing-a-long, most of it would include a broken ominous soundtrack...ok, so I'm exaggerating a bit much. I swear, sometimes these kids make me want to crawl into fetal position and rock myself back to sanity. But enough of my wonderful adventures with Dr. Horrible and his minions. Let's solve some of those mysterious shapes from our last post...

1) A turtle 2) my attempt at a bulbasaur 3) boat 4) fish 5) giraffe 6) camera 7) coyote 8) badger? 9) Seahorse 10) dragon

Alright, ya'll want to see some sculpture making, right!? Here it is!

Fig. A: Sheet metal cut, primed (4'Lx 2'H) 

Fig. B: Sheet metal shaped

Ooops! Forgot to tell you, these pictures are just a preview. :) Didn't think I would spoil your Valentine's Surprise, did you? That would be lame. 

So here are just a few pics of my progress I've made since taking a piece of sheet metal and going all Edward Scissor Hands on it (Fig. A). The two pieces cut out have been cut, softened the edges (so I don't accidentally stab myself when putting it together), and put two layers of primer on them suckas. Yes, metal needs to be primed before painting. The primer didn't leave the best of surface texture, but luckily I can always improvise :). 

The next step (Fig. B) is shaping the pieces the way I want to set them. Of course, this is just one piece. I was hesitant about showing a preview of my piece, but I don't think I'm giving anything away with these pictures. I mean, I still have to paint, put together, and add the lighting to ALL of it. Oh, yeah! I also need to add a few minor attachments. 

Fig. C: Shaped and lit (Lit work space)

Fig. D: Shaped & lit (unlit work space)

So there you have it- an almost completely pulsating piece of sculpture. Thought you may want to see what it looks like lit. Hopefully, once I get it painted and the lights properly placed along the entire sculpture the red light will be more reflective and apparent. 

 I'm wishing for some good weather this weekend so I can finish my piece, and research all the reasons why Valentines Day is a joke :)... Or maybe just watch Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, and eat my Christmas chocolate rose, given to me last year by one of my students. Ha!

Tutto è lecito in amore e in guerra

Puzzle Pieces

Buona notte fellow viewers,
 Are you ready for a sample of my Valentine's Day sculpture?

Well, sorry to say you still have to wait 11 more days... tee hee. I'm terrible, I know.

** For those just following (newcomers) you may want to check out my last post "My Bloody Valentine." It has some insight as to what's going on..as this is a follow-up to my last post.

For my daily viewer: Updates on the sculpture piece..It is coming along. Slowly. I received my lights for the piece last week. Yes, it will be lit. AND I have a majority of the cuts done. Just waiting on the primer to dry, need the shaping to take place, painting, and lighting.

For now I give you a few images. I had a bunch of small pieces left over so I thought I'd create something fun out of the pieces. Try to guess what each one is!!!

Here are all the pieces I had left over. And here are the puzzle pieces put together....

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1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Think you guessed them all right? I don't think they are too hard. A 6 year old should be able to guess these all right. Want to challenge your brain cells? What else can you make with these pieces? 

I'll share the answers in my next post :), and probably give a peek at the progress of my sculpture. So keep your eyes open!

Molto Amore <3 <3 <3 <3