Open Studio 2013

My annual open studio show will be Sunday June 2nd and Sunday June 9th 11:00-5:00.

Please drop by to see my new glass frit (dust) drawings, glass castings, recycled wine bottle tiles, pendant necklaces and more.  Many are so new I have not photographed them yet!

Click Here for all the info including a map.

Lets Jet!

Jet Pack Babies!

Jet Pack Babies leave vapor trails across the sky.  Their powerful rocket packs emit only the cool mist of escapist dreams.  Jet Pack Babies fly to explore; they fly to be together; they fly to be free.

My growing Jet Pack Baby series includes works in glass,  pencil drawings on gesso (large and small) and colored pencil drawings on recycled acid free file folders. (so far)

Below are just a few samples from a larger series.  Click on a thumbnail  to see the slideshow.

F.A.Q.

Q: Are Jet Pack Babies boys or girls?
A: Yes.

Q: Do Jet Pack Babies have teeth?
A: No.

Q: Why not?
A: Jet Pack Babies are more aerodynamic without teeth.

Q: What happens to Jet Pack Babies when they grow up?
A: They become artists.

Q: Do Jet Pack Babies Cry?
A: Only when they must land.

Q: Why do they have to land?
A: So they can understand what it means to fly.

Q: How do they learn to fly?
A: They dream about it every night until they take off.

Coming Home

After a year on loan to Broomfield, Colorado,  Turn Around is coming home to Oakland, California. in October 2012! She is looking for a new home; either temporary or permanent.  Click on the pictures above  for an enlarged slideshow.

Do you remember looking up at the sky when you were a kid?  Did you ever spin around and around to make yourself dizzy until you fell down?   Turn Around is about the dizzy connection between today, tomorrow and yesterday. She is giddy joy and a spirit of hope and the sadness of change and loss along the way.  She is spinning in the past, spinning in the present, spinning in the future.  As the sweep of her arms billows out in the wind,  items from her past and future fall into the weeds arounds her.  Part of my Time and Space series in which I apply traditional sculpture methods to twenty first century scientific concepts of physics and time, the individual theme of Turn Around is an exploration of growth and change, which is representative of the growth and change that Oakland is going through today.

Turn Around is life scale work in bronze I created in 2011 in Oakland where I live and work.  She was cast at the Art Works Foundry in Berkeley under my direct supervision.  She is 50 inches tall and 30 inches in diameter and requires a steel plate or pedestal to be bolted to.  Turn Around has been on display in for one year in Broomfield, Colorado as part of their Art for Awhile program.  She is scheduled to come home to Oakland this October and I am very motivated to find a  home for her.

Please contact me for more information.

Message in A Bottle

There are over seven billion people on the earth.  Will the person who gets my message in a bottle speak my language?  Maybe if I use drawings instead of words they won’t have to.

See my Message In A Bottle Series Showing at:

CK Gallery
August 11-September 7  2012

4125 Piedmont Avenue
Oakland, CA 94611

Detail from Message in a Bottle #2: Facetime

Collecting Dreams

Dorothy and Herb Vogel

There are few heroes in the art world who stir the imagination as Herb and Dorothy Vogel do.  A librarian and a postal worker, Dorothy and Herb started their art collection in the 1960s with modest means, a one-bedroom apartment, and a passion for discovery.   Over the course of thirty years, they created a large, well respected collection of American art that now hangs in the National Gallery of Art for everyone to enjoy. More importantly, they created a rich life for themselves and meaningful relationships with artists by visiting the studios of struggling NY artists and getting to know them.  By supporting emerging artists, the Vogels actually influenced the direction of American art.

I think the story of Herb and Dorothy is so appealing because the Vogels acquired art out of a sense of joy.    They were guided by their own inner sensibilities and not the whims of critics, curators or other collectors.  The Vogels  really loved their art collection as well as the process of acquiring it.

Today, art is more readily available than ever, particularly here in the East Bay when artists open their studios to the public June 2-3 and 9-10. Over 400 artists in 16 East Bay cities invite you in to see how they work and if you like, purchase work directly from them.

Use the free catalogue with maps to studios and plot your route.  As you make your way through one studio and another, you will be astounded by the sheer variety of the work as well the amount of creative energy in every neighborhood of the East Bay.

Most art never makes it into a commercial gallery or museum because curators and gallery directors will only support a few trends which they deem important.  Therefore, if you want to see the true diversity of what is going on in art these days, you have to go and find it for yourself. And when you are ready, you’ll find works in every price range and every imaginable style and medium so that almost anyone can have their own “Dorothy and Herb” moment.

You can visit Georgianna’s open studio during East Bay Open Studios  June 3rd & 10th 2012

http://db.proartsgallery.org/ebosGallery_12.php?iconNumber=376

East Bay Open Studios June 2-3 & 9-10
www.proartsgallery.org

more about the Vogels:
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/herb-and-dorothy/film.html

Recycled Glass Tiles

After months of trial and error my dream of turning wine bottles into recycled glass tiles is realized.  These are my first batch just out of the kiln.  As you can see, the color of the wine bottle determines the color of the tile.

The dark greens and browns would be very striking in a craftsman style interior.  I can really picture them on a tiled fireplace or kitchen hearth.

If you are interested in learning how to do this, I am now offering this workshop: “Turn a Wine Bottle into a Glass Art Tile”

Kiln-Cast Glass Art Tiles

My first group of kiln-cast glass art tiles are available now.  These are solid glass tiles which can be used architecturally in a tiled wall or displayed on a stand as art.

Kiln casting is a lost wax process.  Each tile is first sculpted in clay, then I make a silicon rubber mold so it can be cast  in wax.  Then I make a refractory mold so the tile can be cast  in glass.  The kiln fires them for about two days.  Its a detailed process with many more steps than you would want to read about.  I like to let the work speak for itself.

Contact me for prices.

Its exciting to finally have a glass kiln in my own studio.  (coming soon: small sculptures and recycled glass!)

Turn Around in Bronze

Do you remember looking up at the sky when you were a kid?  Did you ever spin around and around to make yourself dizzy until you fell down?  It is only for a moment and perhaps the next moment will not be so joyful…..

I began working on Turn Around in January of this year.  Ten months later she is finished in bronze and ready to ship to Broomfield Colorado.

Turn Around was cast at the Artworks Foundry in Berkeley CA.,  and is now headed for the First Bank Performing Arts Center in Broomfield Co. ( updates coming soon)  where she will be displayed for about a year.   If you are in the area take a look, and let me know what you think.

Because she will be displayed outdoors, I needed a simple patina that will last in the elements. This is a simple ferric and liver of sulphur patina.

Turn Around is part of my Time and Space series. It is about the dizzy connection between today, tomorrow and yesterday. There is giddy joy and a spirit of hope and the sadness of change and loss along the way.

Beginnings and Endings

They say all endings are really beginnings too.  Its always a little sad when I finish the modeling stage of a sculpture.   Its exciting too to think of how the finished work will be realized in a permanent material.

My sculpture-in-progress Turn Around is ready to be cast in bronze. In fact the mold making has already begun.  She is also ready to find a home.

This intimately scaled work is suited to a small park, pocket park, garden, courtyard or atrium.  Turn Around is 50 inches tall and aproximately 30 inches in diameter.

recognition for Light

I’m pleased to announce that my sculpture entitled Light, in kiln cast glass was awarded the silver medal in the three dimensional  art category, of the Night of a Hundred Angels exhibition.  The show benefits the Make A Wish foundation and is sponsored by the Whelan Gallery in Laguna Beach CA. http://whelanartgalleries.com/

Light will appear in the show’s catalogue available through Whelan Galleries.

Rendered from a living model, Light is a very special piece in my Time and Space series.  From start to finish it was two years in the making.  Creating Light involved making a temporary kiln and many months of patient cold glass working after the risky process casting.  I won’t get into all the technical details, but here are a few pictures of the process: