HBD Baby JC

The inspiration for this piece came back in the summer while on a walk with my kidlets.  We walked past a backyard with a pileup of kids on a trampoline.  Each one of the kids had some form of mobile device and despite the fact that they were all so close that they were making physical contact in one way or another they were communicating via said devices.  I made the kids stop and watch as they giggled and snorted,  and commented on each others comments they made.  I advised the children that this is the epitome of everything I don't want them to do when they grow up.  We stood there for a good few minutes and when we left they had still not noticed we had been there, as they were so engrossed in their cyber world.

I was looking to find a holiday piece to mutate, and stumbled across this one in a Salvation Army Thrift Store on my way home from work one evening.  I knew I could do something with the piece, but couldn't decide what so I put it back.  Of course, as soon as I was halfway home it dawned on me what was needed.  I fretted the rest of the evening and the following day that when I returned the piece would be gone.  (It's happened before).  It was still there upon my return thank goodness.

Anyway, I present to you 'HBD Baby JC', my take on what Christmas means in 2012.  Alternate titles for this piece included: WiFi in this manger sucks, and Baby Jesus invites you to play Farmville!'.

Happy Holidays, no matter how you celebrate...do it safely and responsibly.

>K

The Process

For those interested in the process, here is the piece I'm working on before...and after applying the clay.  The next step is priming and painting.  I'm really enjoying building this one!

Awoooo!

>K

Gaston's Last Trick

People would come from miles around, spend their hard earned pay to see Gaston's Blue Angels.  They were the things of legend.  Some say that man's anus was a portal to some other beautiful dimension.  Perhaps it was a sudden change of wind direction that night, perhaps he should never have tried the unheralded two-canner, perhaps it was some jilted ex-lover who juiced his fire with extra excellerant...whatever it was, that man died bringing joy and laughter to the world...and that's okay by me.

Every now and again the universe throws you and easy one.  It was pretty easy to tell what was going to happen to poor Gaston here.  I didn't want to be crude though, not really my style.  I think I got my point across without going overboard.

I posted on my precious mutations facebook accound taht I've been channeling 'Sol the Clown' during the mutation of Gaston.  Sol the Clown was a clown on TVO (TV Ontario) during the 1980's that both bewildered and fascinated me as a child.  He would come on the television and attempt to teach the basics of french linguistics.  His facial expressions, his voice, even the opening music would have me enthralled from beginning to end...and yet I never learned a lick of french from him.  Still one of my earliest and most vivid memories as a child though.  Him and the creepy creatures from Read-a-Long...shudder.  Perhaps this is where I developed my twisted takes on things.

Original sculpture:  Happy Hobo, made in Taiwan by Jasco.

Enjoy!

>K

Boppo Preview

Hey kids, realize it's been a bit since I posted.  I have returned to school and the homework is pretty overwhelming.  Even still, I take some time to paint to clear my head of mitre joints and window stool.  Point of note...if your carpentry teacher gives you a definition assignment about window frames components, don't just type 'stool' in google search.  Trust me. 

Well I didn't want you to think I'd forgotten about you.  Here is a sneak peek at Boppo, just to keep your appetites whetted:

I hope to have him done by the end of the weekend, but I have a major project due on Monday so it all depends.  When it's done I'll have lots more pics too.

Thanks for your patience.

>K

You Don't Have To Have Suicidal Tendencies To Work Here...

But It Helps!

Not my happiest piece but it turned out REALLY well.  The glove is because it's impossible to cover an existing hand and still make it look to scale.  The washed out colours really make it, and I was able to get great skin tones and even liver spots!

I'm going to be in school for a bit so production may lag...now now, stop your cryin'.  I didn't say I was stopping completely.  On Friday we will determine who was the winner of the piece I shall mutate next from my previous post.  Don't forget to tell your friends to come and vote!

Thanks again for all your support!

K

Hell's Bell

Hell's Bell

Who couldn't use Hell's Bell?  Call your friends to a cannibal feast, or be the official timekeeper in a game of Russian Roulette.  A million uses for Hell's Bell...and all it will cost you is your soul!

I'm not crazy about this piece and I think the reason is that I mutated it too much.  With the first couple it was subtle changes to the piece and alot of art.  I think I should have stopped with the tail and hands and not done the skin peeling back around the face here.  Meh, you're your own worst critic.  Clowns are creepy as it is, making them MORE creepy is fun.

Now that I'm starting to gain a 'collection', I find myself wondering what I'm going to do with them.  I thought it would be really funny to try and re-donate them, but then you don't get to see people's reactions when they open the box.  Maybe I could smuggle them back into a thrift store and just place them back on the shelves then try to blend in like a shopper and watch as people come across them...you can't get in trouble for reverse shop-lifting can you?  Shop-dropping?  Plus if my plan failed miserably I'd probably have to pay for my own property to get them back out of the store.  I couldn't just abandon them...I've put too much of myself into each piece.  I'd like to sell them, but have no idea of their worth.  Each one has hours of work put into them, and are guaranteed one of a kinds.  Maybe I'll get a booth at one of those festivals in the summer and try to solicit my wares.

Lots to ponder.  Enjoy!

Keith

All For You...

"It's not fair, Thomas!"
"I know Marg, I know...but you heard the doctor.  It's just not meant to be for us."  Thomas reached across the table and squeezed his wifes hand.  With the other she wiped tears away from her puffy red eyes.
"I would give anything Thomas, anything for a baby."
A shadow cast itself over the table, the couple looked up to find a sharp dressed man smiling down at them.  His sudden presence seemed intrusive and yet they felt captivative, time seemed to hang heavy in the air as they waited to hear what if anything he had to say.
"Excuse me,"  He said in a deep voice.  "I couldn't help but overhearing your situation.  Perhaps I can help."

Perhaps it's too early in my mutating career for something like this, but this piece was screaming to be altered from the moment I picked it up.  It's wonderfully done, I really didn't have to do much to created depth and shading as it was already in the piece but it lacked soul.  If you look at the original the eyes and the expressions of the new parents was so eerily lifeless and unemotional I couldn't NOT alter it in this way.

The hardest part of this piece was the goats head.  I was using a substance very similar to mighty putty, but it became very tacky as it dried and when it warmed up it didn't stay the way you wanted it to by the time it settled which is why it lacks some detail.  I've since purchased a different type of air drying clay for future projects.

I do LOVE the childs pajamas.  The original had a design of one circle surrounded by 5 smaller circles on them.  I'm not sure if this has some religious significance, but it did make creating the mini pentagrams alot easier and the end result makes me laugh because I can't help but imagine some devil worshipers walking through Babys-R-Us and picking these up saying 'Oh, these are cute!'.

I was so excited to post this piece that I haven't glazed it, and the pics were taken quite quickly so they may change in the next few days.  I'm still working on my photo skills and some of the feedback from my last piece was that my backdrop for Jenny was lacking a little sumpin' sumpin' so I tried to spice it up a bit.

I look forward to and appreciate feedback, although try to keep the hate mail to a minimum. I'm NOT a satanist.

KBu

Jenny

Jenny missed going out to play.  She missed the sunshine, the squirrels and her friend Peter.  A few days ago her parents had told her that she wasn't allowed to go outside anymore and plunked themselves down in front of the television.  They'd been watching the news constantly, and wouldn't let her have a turn to watch cartoons.  They just kept watching the news as people cried and screamed and fires burned.  When she tried to watch with them they would shoo her from the room, telling her everything was going to be ok and to go play with her toys, but she was sick of her toys.  She wanted to play with Peter, the boy from down the street.  When she asked they told her it was too dangerous to go outside and went back to watching the news.  Jenny was bored, she wanted to go outside, would they even notice if she went out just for a few hours?  She could probably go and be back before they even noticed.  She tiptoed to the back door, quietly unslid the chain lock and slipped outside.

She was right, her parents didn't know she had gone until nightfall...

This is a statue that I've primed and repainted.  I was inspired by an artist from Brampton by the name of David Irvine.  You can see his work at http://www.gnarledbranch.com/.  It's fantastic, stop reading my crap and look at it right now, then come back!

Alright welcome back...David had the brilliant idea of cruising thrift shops, yard sales and the like for old pieces of art that people have decided they don't love anymore.  Then in the style of those pieces he adds his own spin on it.  My personal favorite is 'Partners in Crime'.  David's only rule is that he doesn't cover the original artists signature.

David inspired me to head out to my own local thrift shops in hopes that I would stumble across something to stir up my own creative juices.  I came to the display cabinet of ceramic figures and got to thinking about all the warhammer paints I had kicking around.  I collected quite a few of the warhammer pieces but something was always missing from painting them.  I tried changing the colours around from the 'suggested' coding, but it still felt like cheating.  Nor could I bring myself to spending my weekends in crowded game shops getting my geek on with kids half my age laughing at my inability to counter a simple dwarf regiment.  So I ended up with a tupperware container full of paints with lovely names like 'rotting flesh' and 'bubonic brown'.

The ceramic figurines began to change before my eyes, in Jenny's case it was the akwardness of her stance.  Others stared back at me with pale, unpainted faces with souless eyes (as you will see in future posts).  These things are creepy...they just need to have that creepiness exposed!

So home they came with me, a small collection to start with and see how it goes.  I've used some model clay to add a few details, primed them up and added my own paint job.  Jenny is my first.  I'm sure they'll get better as I go.  I'm pretty happy with my first attempt though.

KBu