The Show Must Go On

This is my living room. It is also my studio. Don't feel too sorry for me; it's a big space. We have a sofa and a TV, and other living room accoutrement. Even still, I thought I'd be in a great studio location by now. Studio or not, the show must go on. I need to make four sculptures by the end of the year. The scale models need to be done before I can even start on the five-foot ones. Here I go.

The silver lining in all of this is that I am saving a tremendous amount of money. For this project, my budget is very, very tight and I need to stretch my dollars as far and as wide as I am able. So, I sculpt in my living room, listen to Pandora, drink coffee brewed by me just the way I like it, and enjoy the time alone.

Nonetheless, a grand studio project is underway. It involves more people and more money, so the logistics are still being worked out. Stay tuned...

First Annual Art Walk in Grove City

The arts are coming to town! The arts are coming to town!

Olde Town is hosting its first Autumn Art Walk on Thursday Sept. 15th 4-8PM. Select merchants will host regional fine artists in their storefronts; the artists will be on hand to discuss their artwork, and many will have pieces to sell. The walk will also feature art demonstrations, entertainment and refreshments. Art from George Jr. and Hillview Summer Art Camp will round us out with student art. Olde Town is a great place for art!

Hempel Studios will be up to something fun and will love to see you.

Re-Openings, Re-Awakenings

In the past three years, I've moved from a vibrant arts city to a small town far away from everything. I closed my studio, finished up my Master's degree, adopted a child and adjusted to a new life as a stay-at-home-mom. It's taken me a Herculean effort to adjust, but now I find myself more peaceful, healthier and happier than ever- even if I do miss Frederick, Maryland and her beautiful downtown, arts opportunities, and glorious spring weather! (Not to mention my dear friends, a fantastic organic co-op, Clay Oven, brunch at Firestones, Baker Park, etc. *sniff* *sniff*)

Enter the fall of 2011, I am preparing myself to be a working-outside-the-home mom! I have contracted with St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Carnegie, Pennsylvania to sculpt four niche sculptures: Sts. Joseph and Mary,  St. Luke, St. Ignatius, and St. Vincent de Paul. My hours and the nature of my work will not be typical for working moms, but it will nonetheless require a significant amount of time and energy. I'm working hard to be more organized at home and to focus my attention on my daughter while we are home together. (Our time together is still quite significant, but compared to all the time, it seems like a lot of time away.)

I have also partnered with two other wonderful artists, Stacey Hogue of Green Pine Tree Studios and Grace Ellis Barber. (Yes, that very same Grace with whom I showed together for our senior show way back in 2000 at Hillsdale College. It's been a dream of ours for eleven years to have a studio together. Here we are!) We are working together to get a studio downtown Grove City (location TBA). It will be a sanctuary for the three of us to get to work as well as a place to host open drawing night, workshops, lectures, film night with discussion and open studio. We also want to be a place of sanctuary for other artists who may not feel supported or nurtured in their art. Artist's Way group, anyone?

On that note, I leave you with a fabulous quote from Chuck Close:
"The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who'll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you're sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that's almost never the case.".

 (HT Mary Landavere)

March Musings

It's snowing outside. It has been wet, cold, white, grey for months now. I waged war with February and managed to come out alive. I've learned to swim this winter. There is something magical about being at the pool while the wind blows snow into the windows. March 20th is around the corner, which means spring will certainly come to us. Here, it is already full-blown winter when the solstice arrives and still under a blanket of snow when the vernal equinox announces the arrival of thaw. There is all together too much winter here.

While the snow melt has leaked into our basement, I've been wading through two inches of water, dusting off sculptures and heaving them up the stairs and onto my kitchen counter. I really need a studio.

Nonetheless, having these sculptures around feels like home. My hands in action, moving clay, raking over the surfaces with tiny tools, feels like home. The smell, home. The heaviness of the armature, clay, board, pipe, somehow home, too. And yet, in this place, I am not entirely sure how to do this. I am at last comfortable in my role as Asha's mom and think that it might be possible to be "sculptor mom." It isn't that. It's the network of mold-makers, welders, sculpture movers, marble carvers, models and a vibrant drawing group that I've lost. How do I do sculpture here, without all of them?

Something new must be born. A new way of working, a new scale, new materials. I have discovered there here in Grove City, there are many creative people- artists, musicians, craftsmen, dancers. But, until recently, it seems that they have been hiding. A wonderful artist, Stacey (Please, please, please look at her blog. You will fall in love with her paintings!) moved to town about the same time I did. In fact, she and I looked at the same houses when we were shopping for real estate. She has brought a fabulous art show to our local coffee shop and enlivened this city! The next show will be soon: March 25-26th! I'll be doing a sculpture demonstration on the 26th from 10am-4pm.

Creativity has been steaming under the surface in Grove City and is now bubbling out. I am in fervent prayer that this place will open itself to creativity. I, also, have my eyes on a studio downtown that I hope will be a sanctuary for other "artist moms." Keep posted for more news on that!

the Nude and the Christian

As an artist who specializes in figurative sculpture, I have spent countless hours in the studio working with nude models. It is a time-honored practice in the Classical tradition, employed by artists throughout the centuries. Depictions of the nude are an important aspect in understanding the history of art in the West. The Department of Art at Gordon College states that the study of the “nude has much more in common with medical knowledge than with popular sexualization of images in advertising and movies. An art studio with students or artists surrounding a model is akin to the operating theater. Knowledge is being gained and a professional activity is being practiced.”

Many of those who oppose the use of nude models for Christian artists do not draw a proper distinction between pornography and fine art, between naked and nude. Pornography seeks to tear body from spirit, rendering flesh disembodied, and exploiting that which was made in the image of God. Pornographers reduce humanity, usually women, from temples of flesh to tools of debased pleasure in exchange for money. The nude in art celebrates the beauty, the mystery and the delight of God’s creation. The artist marvels at the complexity of the human form, the perfection of original design, even as it is broken, marred by sin. Exposing Christian eyes to redemptive images of humanity can work as an antidote to the damage done by pornography.

God created the heavens and the earth, the sky and the moon, the sea, the fishes, birds, land and all that inhabit it, plants and animals alike. When He was finished at the end of each day, He was pleased with His work and called it “good.” On the sixth day, He created male and female in His own image. Satisfied with His work, He called it “very good.” Humans, made in the image of God, are the crowning glory of His creation.

That we are fallen and that sin has entered the world does not negate the “very good-ness” of God’s creation. He sent His only begotten Son—incarnate, that is “in flesh,” like us— to live among us, to die, and resurrect, destroying death and the grave. As we look forward to the Heavenly Jerusalem, we groan in this fallen world. Some of us are called to create artwork that hopes for and imagines that glory to come. When we receive garments in the world to come, they will not be to hide our nakedness, for there will be no shame in the Heavenly City. Rather, we will receive robes as adornment.

To be a Christian artist, redeemed by the Son of God, is to have a holy imagination, celebrating the very handiwork of God, and bringing glory to the astonishing creativity and goodness of our Creator.

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I highly recommend going to Gordon College's website and reading their statement on nude models at a Christian college.

Maternity Leave

Sarah will be taking a year-long maternity leave after the arrival of her daughter, Srushti, from India. Srushti was born June, 2007 and will be adopted in the United States by Erik and Sarah Irani. You can follow our adoption journey at our family blog, Cafe Irani.

Rejection

"Your request for a grant was considered at a recent meeting of the Trustees and we regret to advise you that you are not a recipient of an award. You may re-apply on or after June 11, 2011."

Oh well. I was rejected in 2001 as well. Keep trying.