The Old Days

[GlennT]

Thanks Blake.

For those interested, here is my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/glenn.terry1

Friends of course are welcome, but if you were one of those weasel-brained numb-chuck-breathed feather tar'ers with manners failing the standards of a juvenile detention facility, acceptance will be hit or miss.

(Notice: no name calling on my fb wall, please.)

And now, back to your regularly scheduled Old Days reunion...

[Blake]

So Here are some of my latest
They are collaborations with Boky a wonderful artist
We like doing pairs of sculptures, these we call Prophets.
We thought that we would have more fun and so we left them unnamed... so no one (us) gets their throat slit!

So here are Jo and Mo!
Sorry these are the UnNamed Prophets No.1 & No.2

Comments anyone
Love to hear what you have to say.
Don't be shy and you can even call me names if you like!
Just no Fatwas please!
LOL
Blake

[Blake]

Sorry here are the images

[Andrew Werby]

Those remind me of some of Steven de Staebler's pieces. He was a local (SF Bay Area) artist who died recently; I'm a big fan. Here's some of his work: http://www.stephendestaebler.com/1990.html

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

[Blake]

Hello Andrew

WOW!!!!
You picked one of my favorite sculptors
Stephen de Staebler is amazing and I am so in love with his work.

He is a mentor to me, in the 1990's I created a piece that was a tribute to him but it did not make the mark... and I did not keep it.

To me that is a HUGE complement and very much unexpected, thank you so much.

Blake

[raspero]

The two preceding posts, by Andrew and by Blake, are a perfect example of an exchange that leaves both parties empowered and wanting to continue posting here.

Richard

[Andrew Werby]

I wasn't sure deStaebler would be known as far off as Monaco, but yes, you do seem to be on the same path. There are certainly worse directions to follow in contemporary art; I'd be interested to see where this current body of work goes. When you collaborate on a sculpture like that, who does what? Aren't there conflicts about what goes where? Or are each person's contributions discrete - one building the armature, the other adding the clay, the first one roughing it out, the second putting in details?

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

[Blake]

Dear Andrew
Well I am pleased that we are on the right path
Where we are going shall be great fun... Taking the figure further into the 21st Century I hope.

Next will be an analog digital mix and I will print the mold in sand to cast in bronze... with a little luck and some help from my friends.

As far as collaboration is concerned.
I have been working with a most amazing artist.
We collaborate on everything from pouring the wax to the chasing as well as the concept behind the work and the writing... even marketing decisions.

We work seamlessly and the work just flows, I have never experienced anything like this before. We just seem to know what needs to be done and we go about doing it. Some times we will be working in the foundry on the same piece, She is on one end and I am on the other,,, it is quite wild.

Here are a couple of photos of us pouring the wax together and one in the foundry.
Cheers Blake

[Andrew Werby]

I'm quite interested in the process you mentioned, where a sand mold is printed and bronze poured in. I think that method has a lot of potential for sculpture production. As far as I know, though, there are only a few places in the world set up to do that, like Hoosier Pattern in Indiana http://hoosierpattern.com/sand. Did you cobble together a machine of your own, or did you find a service bureau over there to do it for you?

Andrew Werby

[Blake]

Hi Andrew
I don't believe that there are a lot of companies that have the equipment to print sand molds but it has been used for some years now in the automotive and aeronautics industries for precision parts.

The disadvantage is that it will increase the costs of production considerably, so it has to be financed by a client for a large size public sculpture or it be funded through a gallery.

Of course you also loose the advantage of casting a series of copies as the mold is lost with each cast.
I understand that some car engine blocks are cast this way.
The sand printer I know of is in England and I have not had a quote yet as I am still at the prototype stage.

Cheers Blake

[Blake]

Hello Andrew
I am interested in Hoosier Pattern in Indiana http://hoosierpattern.com/sand.
for printing are you in the area?
Have you visited this company?
Let me know if you have any further information as I am interested in the price structure that they have indicated on their site.

I think that this forum has slowed down to a crawl.

Cheers Blake

[Ryder]

I signed up on this site got some good advice and then kind of drifted away to facebook, Photos are simple some of the people are simpler. I am trying to recoup from a twisted knee which I got packing put driftwood. I currently have 8 commissions stacked up and a small show the 16th of oct. and november and dec jan feb the exclusive ski area where I have been selling some stuff says it gets crazy. I like busy in the end of dec jan feb .Bill ryderhorses.com

[Andrew Werby]

Originally Posted by Blake

Hello Andrew
I am interested in Hoosier Pattern in Indiana http://hoosierpattern.com/sand.
for printing are you in the area?
Have you visited this company?
Let me know if you have any further information as I am interested in the price structure that they have indicated on their site.

[I'm in Oakland California, about 1500 miles from Indiana. I know about them, but I've never visited. If you want information about them, I'd suggest contacting them directly. If you wanted to use their services, it would probably make sense to find a foundry there in Indiana which could fill the molds for you; then all you'd need to do is ship the castings, which would likely be cheaper and work better than trying to ship the molds.]

I think that this forum has slowed down to a crawl.

Cheers Blake

[You're right about that, but some of us are hanging in there...]

Andrew Werby
Juxtamorph.com

[Mack]

Hi,
Nice to see some names from the 'good old days'!

[Nelson]

Most of the time I check in here, this is the usual attendance:

Currently Active Users: 51 (1 members and 50 guests)

so in my view, is kind of hopeless,isn´t it?

[raspero]

One would think that sooner or later people will tire of the novelty of Facebook, and of seeing the endless photos of babies and puppies and . . . but maybe not—we may have become so trivialized that our lives are now lived through a viewfinder and people will soon forget how to talk and communication will be through electronic gadgets.

Richard

[Art-Deco]

Originally Posted by Nelson

Most of the time I check in here, this is the usual attendance:

Currently Active Users: 51 (1 members and 50 guests)

The 50 "guests" are likely 50 different search engines and spam robots, I used to see absolutely ridiculous numbers on that artspan site I used to moderate, it would constantly show a crazy statistic like 1,837 "guests" and on every folder there was a statistic for how many were actually reading each and those would show hundreds "reading" but hardly anything was ever posted, turned out the forum was being inundated by spambots and registration bots that created hundreds of new accounts a day if not more!

The owners more or less abandoned the whole forum thing and eventually shut it down.

[Art-Deco]

Originally Posted by raspero

One would think that sooner or later people will tire of the novelty of Facebook, and of seeing the endless photos of babies and puppies and . . .
Richard

FB's layout stinks, but a plug-in fixes a lot of the junk and nag screens, still, every time someone posts in a thread you post in you get a "notice" and every time someone "likes" some blurb you posted and forgot about, you get a notice, then you get the "so and so has shared bla bla with you" notices.

The son of a co-worker friended me and then he started posting stuff on my page or "shared" with me that I have no interest in, pictures of his new hat, his new coat, his guitar, junk like that. Some dude friended me the other night and then invited me to "like" his page and join his groups, and on it goes.

The layout stinks, if you comment on something, pressing the enter or return on Mac posts it instead of adding a line return, the plug in fixes some of that, but it doesn't fix the issue of only being able to add ONE picture to a comment and there's no word processor style, no bold, underline, quote etc.

[Chris_Johns]

I think that one of the issues at the moment is that a lot of people are mostly using smartphones and tablets for web browsing. To a large extent these give you convenience at the expense of losing a lot of functionality. For example if you're on a phone it's a lot easier just to use a single facebook app for everything forum-like than to visit individual forums in a browser.

There is perhaps a bit of an irony in that more compact and mobile technology has in a lot of ways been a retrograde step as actually writing more than a few sentences becomes a bit of a faff and things which just need a couple of taps or swipes to interact with and a lot more tempting.

Similarly in the rush to make everything 'interactive' the actual level of interaction has often become a bit shallow and is usually limited to a like button and perhaps a few hundred characters of comment. So in many cases the degree of actual creativity in digital technology has actually gone down sharply compared to the days when you had to know how to write code to do anything.

[Art-Deco]

We are going backwards, from tiny TV screens to bigger and bigger and bigger, then computers with 12" screens, 14" then 21" and they got bigger yet, now it's going back in reverse to 2" screens for web browsing on a flip phone.
I see it a lot in emails, I'd send a detailed email about something, or covering several questions maybe, and the reply I get back maybe addresses only one question and it's a 2 line response half the time!

[raspero]

Years ago I decided to preserve my intelligence and my sanity.

• I never ever watch television.

• I have a cell phone that cost thirty dollars and that makes calls and can write text messages. I never turn it on unless I want to call someone.

• I do not have a Facebook account.

• I talk to people face to face.

Richard

[Blake]

Richard
I don't blame you, I have stopped watching TV except for the news as I need to know what is going on in the world.
I isolate so much as it is that I need a window to what is going on out there to some extent.

I agree with you about the telephone, I use my telephone as a telephone and to receive text messages and perhaps the GPS so I can find my way around when required.
No emails every, I have not even set up any email accounts on my phone!
Web surfing is good if you are discussing something and want information... how many, much, who, when, weather, etc. otherwise, I leave all data links off.

Facebook is a business thing. The Blake Sculpture page is the only one that I use and I only post a link to our blogs there, as in order to keep my website active you need new content every week on your site, so we write a blog about art and life and we post a link to it on the facebook page and the pintrest page.

Otherwise, like you I like to talk to people face to face it is so much more rewarding... however, I think that we are a minority today.

Cheers Blake

[tonofelephant]

Re: The Old Days
Years ago I decided to preserve my intelligence and my sanity.
I never ever watch television.
I have a cell phone that cost thirty dollars and that makes calls and can write text messages. I never turn it on unless I want to call someone.
I do not have a Facebook account.
I talk to people face to face.

Agree Richard. It is all about controlling your time & making sure that You are deciding how things affect you & what is important to you.

Sculpture is a communication vehicle so are you. Can't let your sculpture wither & die nor let your personal communication skills die. Besides friends and clients are what adds yeast to the dough of life.

[obseq]

Originally Posted by evaldart

I propose a Renaissance. And in the name of Michealangelo, I will try to bring it and bring it fresh with the fresh help of the meager numbers still coming around (here).
Hah!

What better time than the new year?

[bluedogshuz]

I spend way to much time on FB and get sucked into political crap. I used to post on art sites to judge number of likes.. Big waste of time. I sell my work local face to face and have been getting enough commissions to cover my esoteric sculptural works. It's sad that this forum has lost so many people, used to be so vibrant , and the professional discussions were great. I suppose like me many members have migrated to FB but it's sad....