A peak at what is to come

Due to Labor Day, we only had our Arts Metals class once this past week.  Although I love holidays that allow all of my family to be here at home (or at least the ones that live in here in Houston), I really did not like only having class once.

I've already written about how I had to show my project sketches on Wednesday.  What I didn't tell you was that most of the class time was spent on demonstrations.  Our professor showed us different ways to rivet two pieces together.  Here are some examples:

He also talk a little about how to texture metal.  The easiest way is with a press, which the studio doesn't have.  He does plan to bring his into class, but until there he showed us two simple examples of of what you can do with a hammer.

He took a piece of metal from this:

to this:

Next we talked about polishing and buffing our projects.  This process allows you to go from the original textured finished to a more polished finish like this:

and then to a buffed finish like this:

Cool, huh?

We also got a small peak at what we will be doing in the next project when we learn about soldering.

I'm very excited and starting to think this metal art is going to become addictive.  I'm also wishing we had class 3 times a week instead of 2.  Oh, and I never want a week where we only meet once again! 

Two amazing artists!

Two days ago I wrote about my experience watching "I am a Mormon" videos at mormon.org. What I didn't mention was that in those videos I discovered two amazing artists.  I loved them so much, I just have to share them with you.

The first artist is a man named Jeff Decker.

Jeff is a motorcycle enthusiast and an amazing sculptor.  I love works done in bronze, and have never seen any like these:  

Boardtrack Racers

Petrali Racer

Hill Climber

The detail is incredible.  I love Jeff's personality, his love of what he does, and especially his unique art.  You can learn more about him at his website:  jeffdeckerstudio.com

The second artist I discovered is Cassandra Barney. 

Cassandra is a mother and an amazing artist.  She paints wonderful pieces about strong, beautiful women.   

Together They Could Do So Much

Be Where Your Feet Are

And Then They Danced

Atonement

I love her work!  And I love that she brings her three daughters into her studio so that she can balance her passion for creating art with her role as a mother.  I think that comes at least in part from her own family background--her father, James C. Christensen, and her sister, Emily C. McPhie are also both artists.

You can learn more about Cassandra and her work at her website: cassandrabarney.com.    

Facing my fears

Don't know if I have ever openly admitted it here, but I really want to study art.  By study I don't mean take a class every semester and slowly dabble in learning new skills, I mean enroll in a degree program and be a real art student.  Why don't I?  Basically I'm just too afraid.  I know that when you are an art student a large part of the program is putting your work in front of your class and having the professor and other students critique it.  And that scares me to death.  I took a Community Education watercolor class about 10 years ago, and although I loved learning about that medium, I absolutely hated showing my work to the class.   And because it made me so uncomfortable, I didn't take another organized art class for years.  Instead I tried things at home so I only had to show people my successes.

But now that I am getting older (and I supposedly wiser), I realize that I have let my fear deprive me of a goal that I really want to achieve.  And now I have two choices--abandon the goal or stand up and face what scares me.  I really, really, really want to study art.  I want to learn how to draw and paint and sculpt.  I am even intrigued by the thought of being an elementary school art teacher or opening a studio where I teach art lessons for kids.  So the only real option is to be brave and move towards my goal.  The problem is that when I start to move forward, my heart starts pounding in rhythm to the obnoxious voice in my head that tells me I can't do it.  I start to think I'm too old and and just too untalented so why waste the money and time on something that I won't be successful at anyway.  I really hate that voice and wish I could figure out how to get it permanently evicted from my head.  But until I can figure out how to get rid it, the voice causes me to forget my determination to jump head first into the art education pool, and all I can allow myself to do is to slowly, and cautiously wade in. 

This semester is a perfect example of that.  I signed up for my Arts Metals class shortly after enrollment for fall semester opened.   And even though I was really excited about the class, I just kept thinking about how I needed to take a drawing or design class so that I could start checking off the prerequisites needed to take painting and sculpture.  I found a beginning drawing class that would fit in perfectly in my schedule, but I just can't bring myself to add it to my schedule.  In the end I decide to take a shorter drawing class offered as Community Education so that I can have some instruction and experience before actually taking the real class.  So it's a semi victory.  Sometimes baby steps are all that we can do.  But the goal is to keep moving forward so in the end it is all good.

Since my drawing class doesn't start until next month, my Arts Metals class is the only place where I have to face my fear of public critiques.  My professor had told us the first day of class that we would review our design sketches for each project, and that our final would be a showing and critique of all of our work for the semester.  This made me a little nauseous (am I a baby or what?).  Yesterday we had to show our sketches for project 1.   Towards the end of class he told everyone who had drawings to put them on the middle table.  Several people started moving immediately.  I just stood by my table for a few moments doing my best impression of a deer in the headlights.  But then I shook it off , picked up my sketch pad and laid it down with the others.  I looked around at the drawings of some of the other students, and listened to the reactions they were receiving.  It was encouraging, and so I opened my sketch book and showed them what I was thinking.

And guess what? I survived. My teacher said that several of my ideas would work very well. Several students made positive comments. And I learned that sharing our ideas help to make them better.


And since I am gaining an understanding of how showing my work to others will help me reach my goals, I'm ready to expand it to a larger audience.  OK, not a much larger audience since I know of only a few people who follow this blog.  But it could be googled, so the potential is there.  I'll stop rambling now and show you the ideas that I presented.   I can't wait to actually make one of these!

A spider in a web

A flower

Sunflowers and butterflies

I feel like I've put a small dent in overcoming my fear of public critiques and am actually looking forward to the other opportunities this semester will bring.  At least I am right now, when they seem far away and my heart isn't pounding.  But when that happens, I'll turn to some of the best advice there it.

Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.

and

Keep moving forward!

After all, some of the best life lessons come from Disney/Pixar movies, right?

Surf here

I love surfing the net and really enjoy it when I find a website that uplifts and inspires me.  This past Sunday I spent some time at mormon.org
I am a Mormon and had heard that this website had been recently updated to include a social network aspect.  The site now allows members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to create profiles where they can talk about themselves and share their testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ .

That morning. I decided to spend a few minutes reading some profiles. While I was there, I discovered many of these profiles included videos. They are amazing.  I felt the spirit strongly as I watched these brief glimpses into the lives of people who have a deep love of the Savior.  And they all reinforced the theme that God has made each of us different and expects us to be individuals who develop and use the varied experiences and talents He has given us.  Each was a powerful message of love and hope that made me want to strive harder to become the person God wants me to be.

So if you have a some free time, check out the I am a Mormon profiles at mormon.org.  It will definitely be time well spent.   

Learning new ways to be creative

This semester I am taking an Arts Metals class at our local community college.  It will be an introduction to metal fabrication through the study of basic materials and techniques.  We will be soldering, riveting, sawing and filing metal.  I was really hoping to get to learn how to weld too, but apparently they only get to do that in the commercial welding classes.   But I am still very excited to try something new. 

I have a teacher, Chuck Schwarz, who is a talented metal artist,

a cool new textbook,

and some new tools:

Our first assignment is 3 layered design construction.  We'll be creating a design using brass, copper and aluminum that we cut, pierce, drill, rivet, file and sand.   Here is the example that my professor made. 

Can't wait to learn and create this semester!