Silver Inspired
December 17, 2018
Inspirational Art
So here we are, a week before Christmas and I thought it best if I can share some things to put us in that holiday spirit. As for me, I think I’ve had enough of Santa Clauses, Christmas wreaths, snowmen and candy canes. Not that there’s anything wrong with those motifs but you’re seeing those everywhere right now. So I get to thinking about the season in a more noncommercial way and, perusing through my collection of art to share at a future time I found myself drawn to the silver pieces. There’s something about the stately near whiteness of silver that feel so appropriate for this time of year. Its quiet and yet bright manner are also seen everywhere in silver bells, silver ribbon, silver tinsel, and even outside our windows for those of us who get to admire a snowy night landscape. I don’t know if that wholly explains what I’m doing with silver this week but that’s going to be our theme.
This is a piece that started me thinking on it. It’s a recent necklace by Celine Charuau. I had been thinking stars like on the top of Christmas trees or the radiating ones often found in nativity scenes but this is what I ended up finding. It’s not a star but is a beautiful radiating piece full of texture and still presenting that quiet, stately feel. The lines in the urchin are followed by the lines of the silver pieces radiating from the center and, combining with the silver color, gives us a sense that it is heralding some moment or celebrating an occasion. It may seem like a stretch but it feels a little like Christmas to me.
Of course, Celine’s work is often quiet and stately, using pale or subdued colors and lots of silver. You can see more of her work on her Flickr photostream.
An Abundance of Dimensional, Tentacled Dots
August 24, 2013
Inspirational Art
I wanted to do a post focused on dimensional dots and their variety; but in my search, I found this bit of beautiful insanity and just had to share it. It’s one kind of dimensional dot, but there are so many!
I have a bit of a soft spot for polymer artists who work what we call the “con” circuit–known to muggles as those weird Sci-Fi/Fantasy conventions. That is the arena in which my polymer art sales actually got started. These shows can be wonderfully weird, it’s true, but they also gather some of the most vibrant and active artistic imaginations on the planet. Even after my art went in another direction, I still participated in a few of these shows each year just to be surrounded by the tremendous talent and intellect as well as discuss the state of art in general; as with polymer, the Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror art genres are other areas that struggle to be appreciated as true, fine art. Not that the genre arts aren’t appreciated–DragonCon, which occurs every Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, had about 65,000 attendees last year, and Comic Con had to cap their show at 130,000 last year. And these people buy a lot of art! I would sell out or come awfully close at the shows I attended. It’s a fantastic market if you create genre art. But that is a conversation for another day or another magazine article.
Back to this crazy use of dimensional dots … this set of tentacled wonders by Kaity O’Shea was sold at the most recent Comic Con. Talk about a lot of dimensional dotting! I’m amazed at the patience it must have taken to create this, not to mention I’ve been wondering how she held up the forms so nicely while baking!
I’m pretty sure she created the tentacles in three sections, with the center swirl latching onto the twining tentacle masses on either side. Can you imagine trying to give someone a hug with this on? You do have to admire the engineering here, even if tentacles are not your thing.
You can see more of Kaity’s cephalopod inspired dimensional dotting on her Deviant Art page and in her Etsy shop.
So here we are, a week before Christmas and I thought it best if I can share some things to put us in that holiday spirit. As for me, I think I’ve had enough of Santa Clauses, Christmas wreaths, snowmen and candy canes. Not that there’s anything wrong with those motifs but you’re seeing those everywhere right now. So I get to thinking about the season in a more noncommercial way and, perusing through my collection of art to share at a future time I found myself drawn to the silver pieces. There’s something about the stately near whiteness of silver that feel so appropriate for this time of year. Its quiet and yet bright manner are also seen everywhere in silver bells, silver ribbon, silver tinsel, and even outside our windows for those of us who get to admire a snowy night landscape. I don’t know if that wholly explains what I’m doing with silver this week but that’s going to be our theme.
This is a piece that started me thinking on it. It’s a recent necklace by Celine Charuau. I had been thinking stars like on the top of Christmas trees or the radiating ones often found in nativity scenes but this is what I ended up finding. It’s not a star but is a beautiful radiating piece full of texture and still presenting that quiet, stately feel. The lines in the urchin are followed by the lines of the silver pieces radiating from the center and, combining with the silver color, gives us a sense that it is heralding some moment or celebrating an occasion. It may seem like a stretch but it feels a little like Christmas to me.
Of course, Celine’s work is often quiet and stately, using pale or subdued colors and lots of silver. You can see more of her work on her Flickr photostream.
Read More
I wanted to do a post focused on dimensional dots and their variety; but in my search, I found this bit of beautiful insanity and just had to share it. It’s one kind of dimensional dot, but there are so many!
I have a bit of a soft spot for polymer artists who work what we call the “con” circuit–known to muggles as those weird Sci-Fi/Fantasy conventions. That is the arena in which my polymer art sales actually got started. These shows can be wonderfully weird, it’s true, but they also gather some of the most vibrant and active artistic imaginations on the planet. Even after my art went in another direction, I still participated in a few of these shows each year just to be surrounded by the tremendous talent and intellect as well as discuss the state of art in general; as with polymer, the Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror art genres are other areas that struggle to be appreciated as true, fine art. Not that the genre arts aren’t appreciated–DragonCon, which occurs every Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, had about 65,000 attendees last year, and Comic Con had to cap their show at 130,000 last year. And these people buy a lot of art! I would sell out or come awfully close at the shows I attended. It’s a fantastic market if you create genre art. But that is a conversation for another day or another magazine article.
Back to this crazy use of dimensional dots … this set of tentacled wonders by Kaity O’Shea was sold at the most recent Comic Con. Talk about a lot of dimensional dotting! I’m amazed at the patience it must have taken to create this, not to mention I’ve been wondering how she held up the forms so nicely while baking!
I’m pretty sure she created the tentacles in three sections, with the center swirl latching onto the twining tentacle masses on either side. Can you imagine trying to give someone a hug with this on? You do have to admire the engineering here, even if tentacles are not your thing.
You can see more of Kaity’s cephalopod inspired dimensional dotting on her Deviant Art page and in her Etsy shop.
