Still working on the Railroad...

The new sculpture-- top left-- with blue gazing ball. Johnny playing guitar. Extension cord and part of a very pink wall. That's all I got right now. So much to do! October is waning. Work-work-work!

Garden-bed sculpures coming!

This was an eighties-style straw covered etagere (World Bazaar kind of thing). Was trash, and thrown in a bonfire while we were cleaning up yard debris so the old funky grasswork could burn off--- and it did indeed--- worked a treat, and the process revealed this cool archy frame thing(left)--- like a wedding photo-op trellis you could rent somewhere, only not all sooty of course--- White.

It has been waiting quite some time for the purpose I knew it had. I stuck it in the flower bed here at Railroad a couple of weeks ago and weighted it down with rocks so it wouldn't fall over. Just it, naked.                              
Then, when I was beginning to assemble the big sculptural thing I am currently making for the bed behind this one ( fuzzy river cane is leaning out of it, in the background) I had an extra barrel band and saw it would hang nicely inside the arch. Then I had to get "fish spinners"-- one of my favorite things!  They are called barrel swivels really- but I love 'em. available at WalMart and such-- pretty cheap, a couple of bucks a pack. Lots of sizes, brass or gun-metal usually. they can be tied between any two objects and then the items can freely spin.
Fabulous.
Annyhoo-- I used some spinners between old barrel rim and etagere frame, and also between the elements of bright color I hung inside of it with clear stretchy bead (1mm & 1.5mm) string so all can turn with breeze. The colored things I found are from  the new crop of Christmas ornaments at Michael's craft store. (NO- it's not even Halloween yet- but,  I have found the really cool stuff goes fast. I look forward to the Christmas shopping season b/c you can find crazy wacky stuff everywhere! Can use for art! Somehow people become really whimsical and over-the-top colorful at Christmastime and I am ready to pounce. Need any purple velvet thingy-ma-whozits? Better get 'em now, before the penitent season rolls around.)
The dangly things are anodized aluminium molded like starbursts of incredibly saturated lime, turquoise, fuchsia, and orange. I  tied a crystal ball on the bottom of each one too-- the stars conveniently had a top and bottom hole and Michael's had these wonderful faceted beads the size of filberts.
Photo does not quite capture the zesty understated presence. It's not a real flashy sculptural thing but it has a not-too-invasive presence as it stands in its little nature zone bordered by the brick edge. I like it!

Flowers among weeds

These photos are two weeks old-- if my blog was a gerbil it would be dead with its feet in थे air because I have not gotten back to it in all this 

time. Writing about creating is very different from the actual doing of it. For one thing it is hot as balls this week,  damp and muggy and its really hard to maintain squirrel-like energy. So I push it and don't care that I am sweaty and have paint all over me. Rather than sitting in a nice cool cafe blithely blogging on I have been in the actual space making room for art.  What I have been doing is painting, and cleaning as I go to manage chaos--- just grabbing on to the next chunk of the whole as I finish each  little piece.

      The gallery space has progressed since these photos were taken. Tom has covered the wall of the loft with some maple paneling saved from another project, adding polish and crisp clean to an area that was raw sheetrock and studs. I am attacking every nook and cranny with the paintbrush and every wide space with a roller. My goal is to cover it all--- somehow. Each time I open a can I consider for a minute  what the previous color  wants. What do colors want? Like in W.J.T. Mitchell's book What Do Pictures Want?  I am trying to get loose from expectaions and see fresh.