September 29, 2008

Gloves

Rubber gloves in the garden. When I wear out a pair of rubber gloves I fill them with concrete, and place them in my garden.

September 26, 2008

Pyramids

Pyramids 2003 24x60x24 inches each

This is a set of 5 pyramids made from the metal mesh removed from one of those huge old satellite dishes. I then filled each Pyramid with shredded office paper from our local school. Each was encased in concrete of a different color: red(faded to pink), blue, yellow, white, and black.






These are still in my yard and have held up to years of weather. One was slightly damaged though after being knocked over by our horse when he tried to use it to scratch on.

One Done!!

Yesterday was a good day!

I finally finished one of my Encased in Concrete 88. Number 27/88 is done (they're not in numerical order, I have a can with all of the tags in it, and as I finish one it gets whatever tag I pull out). Currently, I have 47 pieces in various stages of doneness (wrapped in wire, tiled but not grouted, partially concreted, partially tiled), so it felt so good to have one reach completion.


Work in progress.

September 24, 2008

Mosaic Pillar


Mosaic Pillar, 2004, 48x12 inches

Ferro-cement shell filled with packing peanuts, and then tiled with ceramic floor tile. So far, I have made 3 of these, one is at my home, and the other 2 are at Persimmon Garden Gallery in Redway, Ca.
The plan is to make eventually to make a total of 40 of them.

September 22, 2008

Tile, Tile, Tile...


Today, I decided to take a break from concrete work. I spent part of my time breaking up ceramic floor tile with a hammer. The rest was spent doing mosaic work on several of the pieces for Encased in Concrete 88. Tomorrow, I will be back to concrete work in the morning.








As, of today it looks like at least 42 of the 88 pieces will use recycled wire for their wrapping. The rest I will have to use new wire (aviary netting and poultry netting).

September 21, 2008

Pinata






Pinata before.








Pinata after being encased in concrete, and tiled with tiny tile (3/8 inch tiles)

September 19, 2008

What's in it?

People always want to know what's in my sculptures. Well, the current project Encased in Concrete 88 has a little of everything. Here is a partial list of non-recyclable garbage that has been collected over the last few weeks to put inside these pieces: old toothbrushes, used wooden matches, toilet paper wrappers, band-aid wrappers, insulation, paper cups, mexican chocolate wrappers, old dog toys, remay ground cover, cardboard milk and 1/2 & 1/2 cartons, rubber gloves, holey socks, sand and cement bags, styrofoam packing material, some pieces of plastic that the dogs dug up in the back yard, tar paper, broken window glass, and the list goes on and on.

September 18, 2008

Redwood Art Association


The Redwoods Art Association is having its 50th Annual Fall Exhibition
September 18 - October 18, 2008 at 527 4th Street, Old Town Eureka
.
Arts Alive!
Saturday, October 4, 6 - 9 pm
RAA Member Reception before Arts Alive!
5 - 6 pm with awards at 5:30
Gallery Hours:
Wednesday - Sunday, noon - 5 pm

My painting The Bird House (36x48" acrylic on canvas) will be included in the show.


September 15, 2008

Encased in Concrete 88

Today I work on several different aspects of my project. I mixed up a batch of concrete and applied it to 6 different pieces. It can take 4 -6 applications to cover one piece in concrete. I have to allow one side to harden before rolling it over to work on the next.




Working concrete into wire surface.




Next, I wrapped 4 more bags of garbage with wire.

Then, I started on the name tags for each of the 88 pieces. They are cutout of recycled 1/2 inch cooper pipe that I have cut into 1/2 inch pieces, and flattened with pliers. Each one will have my name, the number of the piece, and the year on it. So far I have all 88 cutout and flattened, with 26 of them numbered and ready to go.


Ex: M. Schill
1/88 08






Tomorrow, I'm hoping to work more on the concrete application, and set up my outside mosaicking area. A few of the pieces are so big that I can't get them into my studio, so I'm setting up a shaded area outside that I can work in.

September 14, 2008

September 13, 2008

The Beginning of Encased in Concrete 88




January-June 2009 I have an exhibition at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, CA. The piece I will be showing is called "Encases in Concrete 88" the show will be in the Melvin Schuler Sculpture Garden.

Encased in Concrete 88 is made up of 88 individual pieces. Each piece is a bag of non-recyclable garbage (insulation, roofing material, wrappers, twist ties, old socks, over used dog toys, the list goes on and on) the sizes vary from 1 foot to 3 feet in diameter. Each bag is wrapped in wire (so far about 40 are covered in used poultry fencing and aviary netting). Then the bags are encased in concrete. 22 of the pieces will then be mosaicked with tile collected from a local tile shop (their leftovers that would otherwise have been thrown away), and tile left over from other mosaic commissions that I have done.

The idea is to give a representation of the space that this many bags of garbage would take-up in a land fill and to give an option for dealing with them.

September 11, 2008

Milk Jugs

Milk Jugs (5 pieces 17-32 inches)

Years ago, when after saving the plastic milk jugs for a year from my family of five, I wanted to recycle them, but our local recycle would not take them (happy to say they do now). So, that led to the art piece "Milk Jugs". I crushed the jugs then wrapped them in old poultry wire. Next they were covered in concrete. To this day they still sit in my yard as a habitat for wild lizards.