The Old Days

[tobias]

A renaissance hey? I've always been torn between the classicist and the cubist.
Anyone listen to podcasts? You should listen to "The Sculptors Funeral" it's pretty interesting. I try to check it out when I'm. Not running my Metabos or blasting swamp rock.
There you go. I anti ed up some info. What do you guys have other than lamentation for days gone by?

[Nelson]

[dondougan]

The 'Good Old Days' were when the internet was relatively young and we (relative old timers) were finding the joy of communicating with others who were on parallel, convergent, or divergent paths. I never got into the aesthetic quibbling so much as the details of the nuts and bolts of process. Those were the things that made this forum valuable to me. But stonecarvers (I consider myself one, though I work in many media) are a conservative bunch on the whole. <grin> And I found the technical help queries posted to be less and less about my areas of expertise (stone) and more about almost everything else, so my log-ins here became less frequent. I post of facebook periodically, though I only log-on perhaps once every couple of weeks (not terribly interested in what my 'friends' had for breakfast on a daily basis), still have my website and update periodically, but find my tumblr blog (fromthedust.tumblr.com) a more convenient way of conveying my retrospective thoughts on a wide variety of art topics. One thing about the 'Good Old Days' is you can never go back, only forward. Remember fondly. My two cents.

And — for what it is worth — the idea of collaboration in producing artwork is one I have experimented with many times since this forum became less visited (though one sprang out of the forum quite directly). Collaboration with other artists is like a dialog without words, and usually producing quite invigorating results. Each collaboration has taken a different turn, and has opened my perceptions in new ways as we feel and respond to each others' aesthetics. Attached is most recent example wherein Corlia K. (painter and sculptor) did the seed piece consisting of a Batman profile cut out of an old circuit-board, pharmacy bottle with flowers in it, wood box, and aluminum leafing. I responded with circuit-board cut-out of Nancy, pharmacy bottle with printed comic-book 'POW', 'BOOM', and 'BANG's, slate backer, and filling the box with computer parts and soil. My title (for an upcoming exhibit in which it will be displayed) is ALTER EGO (NANCY WINS OUT).

[WillPaq]

There is little here for me as realist to gain, so I stopped coming. Plus I'm way too busy.

[Art-Deco]

Sales have pretty much dropped to almost zero in the last year or so to maybe one small item in a month or two, down from a high of like $800 a week, so I stopped doing any more new models or molds about a year ago. The last couple hundred pounds of water clay I have sitting in the studio for a couple of years now is probably dried out enough to be unworkable and will likely be thrown out next time I do some cleaning.

A couple of years ago I was going to look at investing in a large oval kiln and have my house incoming power line upgraded to handle it, and do some more high quality hand pressed terracotta pieces, but there's been absolutely no interest or even inquiries on that version of my designs at all, so I won't be buying that $3000 kiln or spending $2000 to upgrade the power now.

I've more or less moved on to other stuff and interests, I don't see sculpture being viable any longer and the market is very unlikely to suddenly do a 180, tastes, times, and peoples' spending habits have changed it seems, so it's time to move on, take care all.

[Andrew Werby]

That does sound discouraging; have you kept up the same level of advertising as before? Have you done any outreach to architects, designers and restoration companies?

Dried-out clay can easily be revived; just let it soak in a bucket of water for a while.

[raspero]

The sculpture market is hard to figure. I showed at a gallery a few months ago, and when I was setting up the gallery owner took one look at this:



and said, "Oh my God! How much is it?" I told her and she said, "Sold." She bought it for the entrance hall of her house. It's just something I tacked together for fun.

And these bronze snails. I seem to be able to sell all I want to make for 100 dollars each. They are purple snails, the snails the purple dye comes from, so there is a local fascination with them down here on the South coast of Mexico where I live.







Go figure.

Richard

[cooljamesx1]

hey y'all! nice to read some friendly pseudonyms! remember the old days? I was a wee lad back then! I still am! I was under the influence of some mild drugs and decided to check on the old sculp comm and what do I see? EA sounding like a big sack of wet blankets, carvers complaining about concept, pictures of iddy biddy clay babys n'all'at. like going home. I wish I could say I've been up to much, but the pace is slow. like many a sculptor, I got roped into real estate. But you can catch up here: jamesrobertsstudio.com. hope all are well. EA do you have a website?