#amalgamystic

[imp-perfectionist]

Guitar #5, The Hydra Hey everyone! It'd been longer than I intended since my last real post. I've been crazily busy. I'm nearly finished with another sculpture! But first things first, I've been meaning to show this off and talk about it a little. Picture 1: The finished product! Actually, there are several finishing touches I have yet to complete, but this is essentially it. I can hardly believe it actually worked. Picture 2: This isn't where I began. I actually began by trying to carve out of the back piece of an old guitar, but the wood was layered super thin with the grains crossed and I couldn't carve it correctly. I found a piece of wall paneling and started over, first by a light sketch, and then by outlining. Picture 3: Here you can see I've added details and carved around the edges. Picture 4: After totally removing the dark colored paneling top, I took a picture of the break away. Picture 5: Here is the beginning detail, edge cleanup, etc. tumblr only allows ten pictures per post, so the jump to the next one is kind of jarring... Picture 6: Here it is nearly complete! If you look close you can see it's been decapitated in the middle, going from five heads to four. I can't tell you how hard that was for me to do- I'd spent hours and hour detailing it. But the composition was wrong so I sucked it up and knock it's block off. At one point in the in-between process, I accidentally broke off a section of the tail, and it looked so much better I kept it off. During the process I busted two different heads off by accident, and tail in two different spots. The reason part of it is yellow is because I put a light stain on it just before the final detailing. That allowed me to see where I was at. It's a trick i'll probably use again if I ever do another inlay. Picture 7: The carving was warped, and the wood too strong for double stick tape, so I picked up some street sweeper brush wires and used those to paste the carving down. I first wrapped them in tape so that they didn't damage the work. Once that was done, I traced around the entire thing with an exacto knife. I took my time and was very careful not to push the carving. Picture 8: Once that was complete, I began carving out my guitar to hold the work. I have to say that this was the most tense and emotionally difficult part of the entire process. I had no idea if I'd done the outline correctly, and I felt like I was performing surgery on my best friend. I know it's nerdy, but I had to stop and hug my guitar every now and again to reassure it. Or me. Lol. Anyway, I just chose to have faith in myself and take it all the way. In the end, it was almost perfect. Carving out the guitar took a good three days. Finally, I lacquered the hydra and glued it in. I had to glue it in several steps. I finished the morning of the radio interview. JUST IN TIME! During the interview, it was hard to see but several sections were raised up still. I ended up gluing them a good week later. Pictures 9&10 Details! I have to say, I'm really pleased with how it turned out. And I'm amazed it's actually done. I began this in October of 2015, and then had to put it down for six months while working on commissioned projects. It's really quite a relief. Thanks for reading and following my humble little tumblr blog! There's more excellent content just around the corner...

[imp-perfectionist]

Last week Heather Hanson interviewed me on 99.1, Portland FM! Here's the recording of it. This being my first experience of this sort, I was nervous as all hell. About five minutes ahead of tome I decided I didn't have time to be nervous and refocused on what we were about to do. But it didn't stop me from shaking. The first song and interview bits went off perfectly, but the second song was really tough. I kept forgetting things because my jacket had cut off the blood supply to my strumming hand at the elbow, like a sweaty tourniquet, and my hand kept having weird sensations. I took it off after the second song and the third was much better- except that my fingers had begun to sweat and kept sliding off the strings. And somehow, all in all, it turned out really good anyway. In other news, i've been very busy. I'll have a post regarding the guitar that's in the picture here very soon, and after that some figure sculptures I've been commissioned to do for a midwife, centering around motherhood.

[imp-perfectionist]

Amalgamystic Costume: Part 1 Hello again everyone! I've been working on this pretty heavily for a while, and just realized that this could easily be the new project we document. I began working on this back in late 2014, but due to priorities I have been unable to continue until now. This is the costume for my Singer/Songwriter persona, The Amalgamystic. (You can find me on Soundcloud easily, but if you do, please don't judge me too harshly by what's there! It's been since Nashville that I've done any recording.) The first three pictures are of the entire costume from where it's at right now, sans blindfold since it's hard to take a picture that way. (That's what's hanging around my neck.) I have to thank Leigh Torrance for helping me along the way. She used her sewing machine and spent several days helping me get the pants made up. Anyway, the first thing we should notice is that it doesn't work. Yet. There is a very long way to go with this before the entire costume is put together and complete, but the biggest problem is obvious- the cut of the top coat around my waist elongates my torso and spoils the curves in the pants. In pictures 4 and 5, you can see where the coat is at. It started as a full suit jacket. I took the sleeves off and sewed the edges, then wrapped each side with a shoelace. So that part is complete. On the back, you can see where Leigh sewed on a section I cut from one of my T-shirts. In picture 6, there's a closeup of the line i've drawn to cut the bottom. Before I make the cut, I'm taking care to backstitch around the inside of it. This keeps the liner in place and the edges from fraying too badly. Picture 7 is a close up of this. I'm doing one side, and when it's cut out I'll either use it as the pattern for the other, or do something asymmetrical.

[imp-perfectionist]

Guitar #6, Part 2 Once everything is cleaned and removed, the sanding process begins. There is more than a millimeter of varnish on this guitar. Reaching the point of the first picture took upwards if two hours using 150 grit sandpaper. Granddad said he had a power tool I could use, so I did. The second picture shows the guitar after we used the grinder. It was difficult to control, particularly because the part of the disk that would touch down on the guitar wasn't always the part I expected. Even though it's messy, the rounded bits still strike me as very beautiful. I also did the headstock, which you can see in picture 4. Once the grinding was done I got back down to the hand sanding and smoothed it out until it felt right. I had no intention of getting all the varnish off. The process of sanding reveals a nice organic shape, and that shape will in turn affect and inspire the work. Finally, as a bonus I went to church with my grandparents and did kind of a cool little sketch while I was sitting in church. Not really sure what it is... Man church is a thing I haven't been to in a long while. And I have to say it feels exactly the same as it used to.

[imp-perfectionist]

The Urn: Part 1

For the last few months I’ve been working on many projects. All of them are difficult and long term projects- my favorite kind! I’m about 25% done with recording my first album, and I’m about 80% finished with my fifth art guitar. That dragon I’ve been posting about is the main piece for it. It’s taken me months already, all told, and I’m stupidly proud of it.

Still, it’s a personal project. And as such, it doesn’t have much meaning beyond the immediate meaning someone gives to it. Also, it isn’t making my rent.

On returning from Nashville, I resolved to get a regular job only to find myself suddenly commissioned with so much work I don’t have time to job hunt. I’m grateful for this, and hope it stays this way!

I’m designing a bumper sticker that encourages people to actually use their blinkers while driving. (A cause I think we can all get behind!)

I’ll be carving a talented photographer’s logo into a pendant, and possibly a cameo to attach to his car. (Super fun and fairly easy)

And finally, the reason I’m writing this blog. I asked the client permission to post about this and she agreed. Normally, I blog mainly about my personal projects. But today is different.

Today I begin the most important and difficult project of my current career. A project with serious weight to it.

Last month, I was encouraged by an artist friend to try doing a GoFundMe campaign so I could survive long enough to record an album. During the process, people I hadn’t spoken to in years came out of the woodwork to be supportive, and one of them is a woman I've known since we were both children.

Six months or so prior to our reconnecting, she had given birth to baby boy. He lived for an hour and then died in her arms. She had seen my work and wanted to know if I could somehow decorate an urn for the child, so that he could rest.

She gave me something that took a lot of bravery on her part: her total trust. She let me choose the receptacle, the art, everything. She just asked that I keep her in the loop with the process.

I’ve never felt so honored to be a part of a project in my life. It has real importance to someone's life.

It took me about a week and a half of consideration and two days of concepting to find the solution. I am unashamed to say that it will be the most beautiful and well thought out piece I’ve ever created. She has already approved the rough sketches as well as given permission for me to write about my process for others.

Once I have the final concept sketches completed, i’ll make another post. Stay tuned, and follow my blog if you want to know more!

[imp-perfectionist]

An informal session. The idea wasn't go for perfect, just to lay something down to have it be there. So we set up a mic in my little studio and did it. :D It...

Made a youtube video of me performing a song I wrote.