peace pigeon project # 15

Peace pigeon project - Friend

Peace pigeon project - Friend

One thing I like about art is the people. The Houston art community is very supportive.  We all help each other and cheer each other on. A few weeks ago leaving TXRX I saw a big wooden wire spool by the road. I thought it might be a great pedestal for one of Barbara's found object pieces. I saved it for her. She ended up cutting up the spool for another piece. Peace pigeon #15 is a scrap from that spool. Barbara saved it for me. It is a beauty just like Barbara. I was very touched that she would go to the trouble to capture this pigeon for me. 

Thank you Barbara.  

Acid rain patina - 3 little Muensters

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.  

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Peace pigeon project- Migration #13

 From a sombrero- 

The step by step is below. 

Migration  - found object (sombrero) 

Migration  - found object (sombrero) 

Sombreros  

Sombreros  

Covering the sombrero in wax to give it body.  

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Heating the wax until it completely soaks into the straw.  

The heat gun gets so hot the piece is smoking.  

The heat gun gets so hot the piece is smoking.  

Lastly I shape it into a pigeon while it is hot. 

I am creating a sculpture a week of a German beak trumpeter pigeon with leg muffs. Each week I use a different material.  This pigeon was Picasso' peace dove. 

 

Additional artist statement and title -

  A few months ago I  found an article online regarding equestrian women and suffrage. Specifically the role of riding aside vs riding astride and the right to vote.  The side saddle is in fact a symbolic of man's empowerment over women and riding astride was used to protest for the right to vote. It is a fascinating story. Details are in the link below. http://www.lrgaf.org/articles/sidesaddles_and_suffragettes.htm

This additional historical layer in the piece's beautiful narrative calls for me to write an additional artist statement.  The purpose is not to provide historical fact that can be obtained on the internet. The purpose would be to convey the experience of the suffragettes and Victorian equestrian women. To encourage the viewer to listen to the stories enscribed by ages of wear and tear, to feel the frustration women without voting rights have felt, to experience the fear women felt riding a 1200 lb. animal with no control. Below is the piece and my first attempt at this additional artist statement.

 

suffrage - victoria aside 10" X 20" X 30" bronze and distressed gold leaf 2014

suffrage - victoria aside

10" X 20" X 30" bronze and distressed gold leaf 2014

My first attempt at rewriting my statement-

suffrage

Torn billets - whisper tales

of antiquated sexual expectations. 

A single iron slipper stirrup - weighs

of masculine oppression. 

A lower pommel - lames 

fashionable Victorian feminist. 

The crackled and distressed girth - surrenders the scars of suffrage riders. 

Riding aside - symbol

of suffrage. 

witnessing evolution - an artful moment

November 22,

Curtis, Griffin and I went on a mid day dog walk. Griffin pointed out (evolution happening right before us)  an egret hunting for food (in the neighborhood). Egrets normally hunt frogs and fish near edges of bodies of water. Hunting near four way stop signs is a change in eating habit. This egret is evolving to eat the Cuban brown anole. Houston has had an abundance of brown anoles the past few years. The brown anoles are so abundant they have pushed the green anoles to a higher habitat niche. The egret has apparently seen an opportunity and is evolving his diet to the current food environment. I hope we are not having a shortage of fish and frogs in the bayou. I do wonder why an egret would venture into a urban environment eat.  

This artful moment of evolution proposes so many questions and opportunities for artful expressions. I

 

There is a lot of information regarding the anoles on the arboretum website. 

http://houstonarboretum.org/2015/09/new-lizard-cuban-brown-anole/