In the works ...

"Shared Joy"
A busy transition stage in the studio. I finally have all the rough bits smoothed out of "Shared Joy". Being a bubbling up of laughter, I wanted this one to be smooth and rounded in its sculpting. It's now done, but with very thick molding, it's going to be wet and very heavy for quite some time.

This one was built on the old canvas for the original attempt at "Stellar Flame". I wasn't happy with that one and built the current one from scratch. Then I removed as much of the sculpting as possible and built "Shared Joy" over the remnants. There were still some ridges of upward movement that I went ahead an incorporated. They fit the mood pretty well. The cluster of heads at the top and bubbling up from the guts at the bottom (can you say "belly laugh"?) took care of the most obvious ridges.

"Shared Joy" features a cast of Karry Brothers, who was kind enough to do an open-mouth, smiling pose. The faces of those sharing in the laugh include my parents, John and Sophia Wessel, my partner Wendy Sawyer, Peter Mitchell, Tom Fitzgerald, myself and my friend Helen Wassell, who passed away in October this year.

Crown Chakra Studies
I have a bunch of smaller pieces, four "portrait" sized pieces focusing on the crown chakra in different states of energy. These are sculpted and currently being primed. I always do several layers, so they need to dry in between. One more layer and they're ready to go.

The cast for the one of the left is Daniel Garretson. It's intended to reflect a balanced, zen-like state. The upper center features a cast of Wendy. Called "Preoccupied", I used canvas to drape the top of the head, so it looked weighed down. The lower center one is a cast of Sophia, and is intended to reflect the heightened state of mental energy people experience when they're learning something new and exciting for the first time. The one on the left is a cast of Wendy and is intended to show someone watchful and alert.

I have more in mind, but I'm running out of face casts. I'm ALWAYS looking for people to cast, so if you're interested, please contact me. The idea is to have as many different faces as possible. These images are about everyone, so the wider the range of humanity, the better - all sizes, races, ages welcomed!

"1,000 Feet per Second"
This one popped into my head today while listening to Radiohead's "OK Computer". The song "The Tourist" is about that overcharged, hyperactive state and the sparks given off while in that state. I know that feeling very well, and could see the finished painting in my head. This is just in the sculpted state right now, so it needs to dry thoroughly before priming. It's lightly sculpted, though, so it shouldn't take long.

Wow. The top of my head is really flat. So *that's* how I balanced a cantaloupe up there!