Unusual Girl Studios

I'm 41 and sitting in my bed at night watching bad tv making mini birdcages out of wire and large buttons! I'm really starting to question this art thing! Its driving me crazy! Every time I have to "design" something in my head- so it can be "original" (damn standards I set for myself anyways) spend hours figuring it out- hours! It won't leave me alone! My kid is greeting me at the door when I get home from work demanding to know why I haven't paid her hot lunch bill and now she'll only be allowed to eat a peanut butter sandwich and just one thing off the salad bar! I'm looking at her thinking- she's more in the real world than I am! Shh! honey, this is just another step in preparing you to be in charge of me, its all part of my plan...Shh... By the way, what does the kid do? Uses this as the opportunity to bring a cold lunch and makes her own self a pb&J. Back to the birdcages- maybe its time to call it quits on the art stuff, I don...

The family thinks I am preparing for a meeting I have tomorrow. I don't think I can do that until I publish these pictures. I told you all that I would start two sculptures and they would decide which one got done first. This one is winning the race as I am at a standstill on the other one until I figure out/build it in my head- the whole birdcage in the hair thing. I may have it though, I picked up some very thin wired ribbon at Michaels that I can fashion into hair and wind up and around the cage. I found the perfect size cage in the bead section of Michaels and decided that I would have to make my own. I don't mind including "found" objects in my work but.....I don't know, wanted it to be more me and less mass produced? I don't know where you draw the line there. Anyhow, this sculpture is from a sketch I call "the source" based on the theory that we create our atmosphere and energy. This lady conveys a kinetic energy- her countenance looks as if ...

I might just be giving myself permission to change horses in mid-stream. I might. Ms. cardboard cone lady keeps talking to me. She is supposed to be one thing but she's screaming at me that she's another. At first I just ignored her, cardboard shouldn't speak after all. People who admit to hearing cardboard talk get sent places with padded walls- quiet, kid free, places with medication readily available.... She is supposed to be "The Keeping's", a work about the physical items we keep from childhood on and how we use them to define ourselves, correctly or incorrectly. "But look at me" she says. "I have a really cool shape with my long thin cone body ending in tiny shoulders and topped by a head tilted upwards. I already have a message. You don't have to shape one to me, it's there. Please don't distort me." OK, I hear ya. All last night I have wandered past you, wondering how I would do your hair, what is the right answer- wi...

But...never to be completely finished with my to do list....Here's the next one! I saw this done with a china doll back in the 90's. It was the kind of doll that creeped me out so badly that I could not even abide the thought of a future in which I created a doll of any kind. She was a patriotic matron waving a flag and her skirt opened to show another doll waving a flag. What? And, suprise , suprise, the name of the doll was "The Suprise ". Well, that is all I am going to say because I strongly believe you should never belittle any one's art. More power to you, creepy confederate doll maker! But I want to apply the idea in a paper mache format and while I want what's inside to relate to the overall I haven't decided quite how. I posed the question to my peanut gallery and they have had some good ideas. Perhaps her skirt will open to reveal a magical garden. I will leave out the fairies and angels, sorry KAYLA. But why the rush to the next project you...

So for all intents and purposes, she's DONE! What shall I call her? If you remember her story from a few posts back- well, I'm still debating the title. I think it may be "Awaiting Renaissance" but am not sure. I do not like the finish that I used and think I will use the matte spray all over her- before I would have used the matte on her face and body only. Not loving the way it makes the fabric or the base- the broken vessel- shiny. Speaking of broken vessel, that is what I called her when she was in the beginning stages. I want to put a positive spin on the work, thinking in terms of breaking down false beliefs and building anew on an honest foundation. I think the strongest tool in our personal arsenal is honesty. Honesty in self and honesty outwards.