These bronze pieces are bronze with a liver of sulfur patina under a gold leaf. The problem with gold leaf is it looks gaudy until it ages. When it rains I put them outside to speed the process.
moments that matter - opening
comb here
30" X 22"
charcoal and ink
forgotten soul – S. ERICKSON
S. Erickson was one of the thousands who died at the Oregon state mental hospital whose ashes were abandoned inside one of 3500 copper urns. I saw his picture in the newspaper and could not forget him. He has a quiet presence about him that stayed with me. I tore out his picture and put on my bulletin board. S. Erickson's file stated he was a laborer and suffered from senility, he came to New York in 1883 from Norway. Mr. Erickson was one of the forgotten souls but I could not forget him.
Picture from the newspaper
Fyi- "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" was filmed at Oregon state mental hospital.
forgotten soul - S. Erickson
Armature and wax
I made the armature so that with a pull of the cord I could remove it from the wax. This way I can cast my sculpture without making a mold. You could never mold the beard I sculpted.
Building up the facial features.
Hay makes an awesome matted beard and hair.
Sprue system for building a mold.
The next step is to dip the piece creating a ceramic shell. The wax and hay will then be burnt out in a furnace. Then the bronze will be poured into the cavity of the shell.
After the bronze cools I begin breaking off the shell. The beard is very difficult.
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It is a very slow process to remove the shell from a heavily textured surface. This is why almost a bronze is smooth-ish. But I love texture so I have to do the work to get it.
The shell is removed.
The next step is to patina the surface.
forgotten soul - S. Erickson
11"X 12" X 9" 2014
Up-cycled
When shopping for my home, I love to go to flea markets and garage sales. I often buy broken things. A crack here there does not bother me. When I first started making #fauxbois furniture, I was always checking out concrete objects. I ended up with two concrete chickens; one was minus its head, and its tail feathers were damaged. Instead of throwing away the broken chick, I hung on to both - something about “like a chicken with its head cut off” was intriguing. That headless chicken hung around my garage for years, it made a good weight. When I started working in bronze, one of the first things I did was up-cycle the headless chicken with a new bronze head and tail. I sculpted the head and tail feathers in wax mixed with grits and grass. I made a mold of them, and then burned out the wax grass and grits and then cast them I bronze. I like the idea of giving new life to objects no one wants. I think these chicken could be seen as my first environmental pieces. They are not only upcycled chickens, but all birds also play a critical roll in nature. Fowl keep pests numbers in balance. All living organisms are connected.
