Infrastructure as Afterthought-Poor City Planning

...And poor armature planning too! As my work gets bigger, I'm finding my engineering skills in need of upgrading. Even though I knew where I was heading (by sculpting small maquettes before embarking on the big ones), it's still almost impossible to predict where the pieces might want to grow as they take on their new and BIG life. It's true, these works now talk to me. They say- "No I don't want my head to be pointed that way, I want to turn this way instead." Or "If you pull off my head and work on it right side up, you'll get a better lay-in." Who am I to argue with an 8' tall woman? But the head is easier to get off than it is to get back on! After wondering if it's me and my bad engineering to blame for these 'urban blights on wheels' that are now holding up all of my sculptures, I'm beginning to think that's just the way it has to be. Even if I took up a torch and learned to weld, my new big pieces would tell me that they want a leg to raise or that they think they'd rather be pointing at someone... so I think I'll just keep going as I am until I've figured a way to start and not make any changes along the way. Right.

Artistic Anatomy Class in Montrose July 13-August 31

Want help in your drawing, painting, and sculpting the human figure? You need to understand why the surface is making the shapes it is. My dear friend Rey Bustos - the best anatomy teacher there is- is teaching a 2-D drawing lecture class at my studio for 8 weeks on Tuesdays July13-August 31 from 4pm-8pm. $400. Rey is a completely entertaining, engaging, and knowledgeable anatomist. You can see his stuff at reybustos.com. Email me back quickly at cjacksonsculpture@earthlink.net and reserve your space. I think it will fill up quickly.
Your head will spin with Rey's information and you will learn soooo much!

My studio is in Montrose, one street South of the main street (Honolulu)
1639 Brodaview Dr., Glendale 91208

An update-Cindy is back in the studio

Hi All,
Just a quick update. I'm no longer at LAAFA. I'm back in the studio now and boy, does it feel good. It seems that LAAFA is having some financial difficulties and they wanted to cut my hours, along with my pay. Though I completely enjoyed being there and working with all the fabulous teachers and the models, I couldn't possibly see how that position could have been anything but a full-time job. Everything works out for the best though, my project-Requiem, the Babyn Yar Holocaust Monument has started again, this time with funding! Go to the website and see. Tell your friends. I am accepting donations through the US-Ukraine foundation. Donations are tax deductible. This sculpture will become a traveling exhibition to Jewish History Museum and other interested venues. What a wonderful thing to be part of! Every little bit helps... $50, $100- it will all be used 100% for the production of this work.
Maybe we can start an open drawing class again in the studio, or maybe a sculpture class- let me know if you're interested.

California Art Club upcoming Gold Medal Show

I will have three bronzes in the 2009 California Art Club Gold Medal Show. The show will be at the Pasadena Museum of California Art in Pasadena, CA from April 26-May 17. If you get a chance, go see this show. They always have really beautiful works in it!

Art Renewal Center

Hey, I just found out I was in the finalist category and the honorable mention category of the 2008/2009 Art Renewal Center National Competition. Just scroll down and you see my work and a lot of other interesting work too.

Coolest Street Art!

Here's some really wonderful sculptural hit and run installations by Mark Jenkins in NYC.
Go here to see more... you'll love them!

The Power of Art DVD's (Simon Schama)

There is a series of DVD's put out by the BBC with Simon Schama narrating on the Power of Art.
The three DVD series highlights Caravaggio, Bernini, Rembrandt, David, Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso and Rothko. I picked up the Picasso/Rothko video and it was sooo well done.

Simon Schama posed a number of questions in this video:
Can art cut through the white noise of daily life?
Can art connect us with the basic emotions that make us human- ecstasy, anguish, desire, terror?

He says the power of art is to take people somewhere where they would recover their humanity.

Mr. Schama says that you can tell a great work of art when you turn your back on it and you can still feel its presence.

This video really spoke to me. I completely resonated with what he had to say! I so agree with him that great art grabs you and won't let you go.

If you go to the BBC site, you will see the synopsis of these videos.
Got some time? Find/rent/buy these DVD's.
They are completely worth your time.

Getting out of your own way

Today I was thinking about "mark making". I was thinking about the painter Steve Huston
and how much I love his work. His marks are the marks of a person who is drawing the anatomy and discovering the form while he paints. There is an immediacy about his marks- all while having complete control at the same time. I also saw a sculpture by David Simon at the foundry that was absolutely beautiful to me. He made every little shape within the body become a little egg shape- after Michelangelo. It worked for him. Beautiful. But that doesn't mean I have to run to my work and mimic that very same approach. It's good if I am able to dissect and understand what he is doing.
I think about technique and how, really, one shouldn't even think of technique. The work should be honest and true. How one achieves that is more personality than it is technique. It just happens. It's part of what you are training your hand to do and your eye to see.
Some days, I feel that I have connected; and when that happens all the chatter in my head stops, the world quiets down, and all I am thinking about is "oh, that is there... and that form does that... and that form does that... all the time that I am making the marks with my sculpture tool, and those marks are completely my own-because I'm not concentrating on them, I'm thinking of the body instead. That really is drawing, isn't it. So, maybe I should think on that more often. Drawing the form- even if it's with clay and a sculpture tool.
Think on being purposeful. I think that might be the key. Be purposeful and be present.

A blog with Q & A

I'm asking for artists to donate art for an auction to raise funds to allow me to sculpt this work.
You can see more about it and the auction at
www.babiyarrequiem.com
A very nice blog called Artist Showdown featured me for the month of March
and asked some questions of me.
Go to the Artist Showdown blog to see that.

Maillol's Miniatures at Norton Simon

There is a wonderful little show right now at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena of Maillol's Maquettes. The show runs until the 18th of August, 08.
There is also a film running in that same room of his model/muse talking about herself. It's a hoot.

Way Cool Kinetic Sculpture

Theo Jansen of Holland is making these amazing sculptures
that are powered only by the wind.
Go to the you-tube movie to see them walking. Absolute Genius.

Linear Form vs. Organic Form in Sculpture

This is an interesting comparison between Linear Form (as in Brancusi) and Organic Form (as in Rodin). In it I even talk about how that sculpture is really drawing and architecture combined.
If you'd like to read the article, view the PDF here.

And you think it's cold here...

Here's some marvelous sculptures made at an Ice Festival in Fairbanks, Alaska!
If you want to see more go here
How do they do this???
I'm sticking with clay in my warm studio.

The Eyes Have It

Looking at sculpture, you will begin to notice that
artists approach the eyes quite differently from one piece
to the next. When you are sculpting yourself, it can be hard to
decide how to handle the modeling of the eyes.
Given the fact that, as sculptors, we don't have color to rely on;
light and shadow are all we have to explain form.
So painting on the pupils doesn't work from a sculptural
point of view. How do we then explain the eye ball, the pupil, and the iris?
If you'll look at Rodin, he tended to dig out the eyes completely,
relying on the strong shadow that the hollow eyes would give
to the face. For that reason, his faces have a real sense of
mystery and intensity.Bernini and Michelangelo would model
the sphere of the ball and many times leave out the pupil
for that far away look.
I believe it was either Bernini or Houdon who would
talk about sculpting for the highlights.
To that effect I have known of sculptors who would model
the eye ball, dig out where the iris is and the put in a nail
where they want the highlight to fall
so that light would hit that nail head and look like a highlight.
One must think about the psychology of the head and what attitude
they are giving the sculpture in order to model the eyes
appropriately. Also, if you are sculpting a likeness of someone,
whether they have dark eyes or light eyes will make a difference
in how you handle the modeling. I've put together a compilation
of sculpted heads to give you some ideas on how to handle them and
to also show that there is no one way to properly model the eyes.
Go here to see a variety of sculpted eyes.

Bernini's Sensual Form

Remember when I was talking about
sculptural form?
Isn't this absolutely beautiful?
This is Bernini's Pluto and Proserpina.
I'm gonna go shoot myself now.

Robert Graham's Newest Work

I have always been a big fan of Robert Graham's sculpture.
His latest work is so different from his hyperreal style
that it threw me for a loop.
The more I look at it though, the more intrigued I am am by it.
Go to the tab on the right or here to see more.