Chamsa 82

I'm working on making chamsas that have glaze along the sides.

Chamsa 82:

Illinois State Fossil WIP

This is a clay sculpture of the odd invertebrate with a long snout that serves as the official state fossil of Illinois, the Tully Monster.

Finished Tully Monster Sculpture

Dollar Store Pelican Interpretation WIP

Janell and I made Christmas stockings for each other stuffed with the results of a $10 dollar store shopping spree.  One of her gifts to me was a plastic figure with two pelicans.  This is my clay interpretation of the pelican.

Finished version of Pelican Sculpture

Here is the sculpture with the source figure.

Green Pikaia, Off-White Pikaia

These are two more replicas/interpretations of the Burgess Shale fossil chordate Pikaia.

Rooster Pot

This is a 12 inch coil/slab pot with a rooster's head and tail.  Most of the pot, lid, and tail are glazed with a red-brown glaze over a white glaze and the head is painted with acrylic paint.

If you've spent any time around chickens, you may know that their heads are functionally two dimensional when viewed from the front.

 The Rooster Pot beheaded and ready to be stuffed:

Aberrant Hallucigenia

The upside-down version of Hallucigenia is one of my favorite Burgess Shale monstrosities.  Here it is made a little more monstrous with the use of a rubber doll mold.

(Not) The Giraffe I'm Seeing in My Head

Today I obtained a model of a giraffe at a dollar store.  I was hoping it would help me better sculpt the complex contours of the animal's face, but it still isn't matching the giraffe I'm seeing in my head.

Finished version of Goat-Giraffe Sculpture

Why Vertebrate Animals Are Smarter

I found a Russian news site that uses my Pikaia sculpture as an illustration.

A Google Translation:

Russian Original:

Aberrant Warthog Pot WIP

I set out to make a new Warthog Column and instead ended up with this Warthog Pot.  It comes apart into five separate pieces.

Finished version of Aberrant Warthog Pot

December Scraps

Two more impressions from the Yoda watch:

Some miscellaneous crap with skulls and a woman's face (the Virgin Mary from a Nativity scene, for Christmas):

December Gallery Sales

Today I was happy to see that two of my pieces had sold at the studio gallery.

Beholder 7, the finger puppet beholder

The Vicious Animal Mug

Aberrant Giraffe WIP

I made a Giraffe Column in 2010, but it was badly damaged when a shelf collapsed.  This was an attempt to recreate it, but the column turned into a pot and I couldn't get the shape of the giraffe's head right.

Finished version of Aberrant Giraffe Pot

Cthulhu Pot

This is a large (12 inch) coil pot in the shape of Great Cthulhu.  It has a lid reminiscent of the hat of a garden gnome.

Phallic Object 4

This is my fourth animal-like phallic sculpture.  This is another donation to my friend's auction, along with the Vulva Chamsa.  It's hollow and has a lid which doesn't fit that well.  I'm considering securing it with velcro, although I'm not usually one to introduce multimedia elements to clay pieces.

Vulva Chamsa

This is Chamsa 81.  My friend is having an auction to raise funds for her sex toy party business and this is one of the two objects I'm donating.

Space Coyotes 3 and 4

I sold a Space Coyote on Etsy and had a commission for another.  In my fantasies, I received and cease and desist letter from Lucasfilm, but maybe it will be Fox instead.

The one with the black nose is still available on my Etsy shop.

The Mog Project

I made these clay pieces inspired by illustrations from Mog the Forgetful Cat by Judith Kerr a few months ago as gifts for my nephew Milo, but I wasn't sure what to do with them.  My father visited this week and helped me plan the project.  We affixed them to canvases and fit them into frames.

This is Mog's head.  The illustration appears on the cover of the book and again on another page in which Mog has an existential crisis.

She was very sad.

The garden was dark.

The house was dark, too.

Mog sat in the dark

and thought dark thoughts.

This is a scene in which Mog dreams of flying.

She could fly everywhere.

She could fly faster than the birds, 

even quite big birds...

Suddenly she woke up.

I have the copy of Mog which I grew up with.  The binding is only partially intact and it smells like the mold in my parents' basement.  Buy a reprint of Mog the Forgetful Cat by Judith Kerr here.  Note that the classic phase "Drat the Cat" was apparently an attempt to convert the book from British English to American English.  The way Judith Kerr originally wrote it was "Bother that Cat."  I should warn you that the reprints use the original text.  I don't know why the publishers would think that "Drat that Cat" sounds especially American, but it does have a nice rhythm.

More Robotron Ornaments

These are the remaining two robot types from Robotron 2084:  the Grunt and the Enforcer.

Robotron Tank 3

The design in the middle of the Robotron tank reminds me of a cassette tape.  Unfortunately, this tank's head became detached from the body.

Roberto Mask

This is a clay wallhanging in the shape of another Futurama robot, Roberto.  It's a bad photo, but I dislike the piece enough that I don't care.  Hopefully it's just practice for a vessel in the shape of Roberto's head.

Charles Crumb Cowboy 2

A few years ago, I made a clay object modeled on a cartoon cowboy by Charles Crumb, the late brother of the great cartoon artist R. Crumb.  It sold recently and this is a new interpretation.

This is the first Charles Crumb Cowboy from 2010.

And this is the original image by Charles Crumb.

Non-phallic Hallucigenia WIP

I had an idea to make a Hallucigenia with a phallic head, but I just wasn't in a phallic mood tonight and this is what I produced instead.

Finished version of Aberrant Hallucigenia sculpture