The title of this piece was “Back to School”. It, along with other wall mounted pieces, flew out of the gallery. I think I’m on to something.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been posting steadily. Lots of stuff has been going on and I have been turning my brains out but nothing has appeared here.
Last November I mounted my first solo gallery show. It took me over a year to produce a body of work that would make a decent showing. The show was titled “Thinking Outside the Circle” and the theme was exactly that. Much of it wasn’t round and a lot of it was “off the wall” by being mounted on the wall rather than on a shelf or table. Consequently this took up a lot of time to not only turn and finish the pieces but also develop the concepts that I employed. There was a lot of shaving on the floor and a lot of one-off prototypes that never made it to the show. The end result is that the show took my work in a whole new direction. Something that I never expected but also something that I had been seeking for some time.
The title of this piece was “Last Days of Summer”. I had a few other “leaf” pieces as well.
An array of more “standard” pieces designed to be shown on horizontal surfaces.
“Into the Wind”. My new favourite form. They appear to lean in either direction depending on your angle of view.
We felt the show was a tremendous success, not because we sold well, but because the pieces that were “outside the circle” sold very quickly so were obviously well accepted.
“Lau Chuang”. Oriental calligraphy brush rest, in honour of my friend, John Stubbs (Lau Chuang), an oriental calligraphy master.
Anyway, I’m back. Sort of. It seems I’m entering another crazy-busy phase. I have been invited by Pat Barker to show in her new gallery, The Pencil Studio, in Fort Langley. She does beautiful paint art herself and is passionate about my work. I’m hoping she is successful because she has put a lot of hard work into her new venture. I also have to prepare for three more shows in summer as well as probably a collaborative show next year with Steve Smith. That isn’t in the bag because we haven’t been accepted yet but we are optimistic. Steve is a native artist who I have been providing with “blank canvases” for his art. He has another turner who provides smaller turnings but I am working on large turnings (up to to 24″ tall) and forms that are more on the unique side. Like my three sided vessels that I hope to post about soon.
Bottom line is that I am still crazy busy but will try to post more often, especially regarding the newer stuff in my portfolio. Wow. Who would ever have thought that I had a “portfolio”.
