Halloween 2012 - a meager homage to Klimt...

...who was indubitably rolling in his grave at my attempt to replicate his work....

I was going for Hygieia, as she was rendered in his painting "Medicine."  Of course, his model was thin and commanding, and I'm rotund and wussy....

Klimt's version:

 Moi, with badly sculpted snake, and sans writhing nekkid bodies in the background.  I tried to get a couple of friends to follow me around naked and looking tortured, but they wanted to dress as bumble bees instead. RUDE.

Hold, please...

Our regularly scheduled programming of art and jewelry will be temporarily interrupted while I make a major move to my new job and new locale: planet Utah.   Did I think this was the last place in the universe I'd ever live?  Why yes.  Yes it is.  

If you know me, you know that Jupiter or North Korea would have been a more probable destination than Utah.   Of course, I never dreamt I'd be forced to start my entire life over from scratch at the ripe old age of 42, either.  Apparently life is FULL of surreal surprises.  And yes, I absolutely, positively, 100% blame this on G.W. Bush -- but the "G" doesn't stand for "George" when I say his name in my head.

My new jewelry store on Etsy!

Okay, I know I've been MIA with the blog, but I've been working my little fingers to the bone getting my jewelry shop on Etsy up and running.  You can now own a little piece of me (just what you always wanted....)
 
http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheGildedGewgaw

In addition to my "regular" jewelry (which is anything BUT regular), I also accept commissions for memorial pieces -- both human memorials and pet memorials -- these can be jewelry, small decorative wall hangings, holiday tree ornaments, etc.  I can work human or pet cremains into clay design elements -- either embedded into the clay, or left visible on top of the clay.  If you have meaningful small objects that you'd also like worked into the design, I will gladly do that, as well.

If interested in this service, you can either contact me at quidditian at gmail dot com  (sorry for not making a hyperlink -- too many spam issues), or through the Etsy site linked above and to the right.

"Cut off at the Waist" - 5" x 7" -- for postcard protest re: Artists and the Economy.  I snuck in a few strands of Baby Diva fur, so there's now Baby Diva fur somewhere in the White House; or more likely, the White House dumpster.

"Kilroy's Maw" - 24" x 30" sculpture/mixed media on canvas

Details

"Warden of the Interlopers" 36" x 48" mixed media on canvas

Detail

The Kiss -- acrylic and enamel 24" x 30"

Still on my jewelry kick... Necklace, earrings, and double-strand bracelet. Necklace pendant is 8" x 4.5" (HUGE). Aside from the mandala-type perfectly symmetrical black and gold beads and the amber colored glass, I made all beads and forms out of polymer clay, then painted. Clearly, I don't have a future in jewelry photography -- the light's hideous on these.

Checkmate 30" x 40" acrylic on canvas

Sea glass and Sculpey. Scale: necklace pendant is 4" long. I'm clearly in an accessories phase...

"Fair Warning" 36" x 48" acrylic on canvas

New sculpture - "Caramel Avenged" - plaster, clay, animal skull/bones 2' x 2'.  For Ali Liebegott project -- Journal Release and Art Show in San Fran in June 2012!

"Fractured: Madness and Civilization" 36" x 48" acrylic and enamel - homage to Foucault

Detail

"Bovine Ephemera" 36" x 48" - mixed media

Detail

Delivered to its new home in LA and getting situated. My brush with fame during the visit was that the woman on the left is Jess Gower, most famous for being the Australian Neutrogena girl, and playing Chase in the TV series Blade...

"Hypnagogia" 18" x 36" mixed media

Gravity

24 x 48 acrylic on canvas

Homage to my Anza Borrego adventure -- "Anza Diablo" - diptych of (2) 22 x 28s, acrylic and copper/gold leaf on canvas. Not sure on best orientation of them...

"Architect Untethered" 16" x 20" mixed media

Dreaming Tree III...Vesuvius Edition - 30" x 40"

Donation piece for Artists Unite for Haiti -- 5" x 8" (I'm not being chintzy -- it was requested that we make them this size)

Participating in an art donation project, and finished the piece for that... The Penny Experiment.

http://www.pennyexperiment.com/

100 artists chose or were assigned a number between 1 and 100, and had to create a piece which included both the number, and a penny. The pieces will eventually be auctioned off, and donations to food banks made with the proceeds of the sales.

I was assigned the number 63, and created the piece based around the fact that 63 AD was the year a tremendous earthquake destroyed much of Pompeii...17 years before Mt. Vesuvius erupted and destroyed it altogether.
Little sculpey godhead I made to hold the penny

The Weekend in Pictures

Tiny little painting -- 9" x 12" - Mixed media "This Isn't About You Anymore"

"Note to Self" acrylic, gold leaf, paper on canvas - 24 x 48

Detail:

Sculpted a "Thing" for "Thing in a Jar" project. Thing getting ready to go in the oven:

Finished and varnished "Perforated" 48" x 48" Donating it to a cause for kitties.

Recapitulation of Self-Flagellation

24" x 36" acrylic on canvas

Archipelago 36" x 48"

He said "You're not an island, you know." To this I replied "you're right...I'm an archipelago."

Ode to 'The Yellow Wallpaper' 36" x 48"

"This wise man sent me home with solemn advice to 'live as domestic a life as possible' to 'have but two hours intellectual life a day' and 'never to touch pen, brush or pencil again' as long as I lived. I went home and obeyed those directions and came so near the borderline of utter mental ruin that I could see over. Then, using the remnants of intelligence that remained and helped by a wise friend, I cast the noted specialist's advice to the winds and went to work again." Charlotte Perkins Gilman on writing "The Yellow Wallpaper"

"Maternal Instinct" - 36" x 48"

Squid Pro Quo

36 x 48 acrylic on canvas

Self Portrait

24 x 30 acrylic on canvas

In Utero in Blue

24 x 36 acrylic on canvas

Eternal Recurrence

24 x 48 acrylic on canvas

Detail