Friday, March 4, 2011

I've been accpeted into the 2011 Loveland Invitational Sculpture Show!

It's been a niggling dream for nearly all the 20 years that it's been operating. I remember seeing the articles about it in Southwest Art magazine way back when as I was living and struggling as a young artist if Florida. I always hoped to participate in this show but didn't believe in myself enough.

Thanks to the encouragement of my family and friends, I've started to apply myself to my sculpture last year. It was a real challenge to get my application and images submitted and I truly was uploading it at the midnight deadline ;-)

I am very excited about the opportunity and intend to continue to work hard, learn more and create the best I can!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Mad dash to enter the Loveland Sculpture Invitational Show

It's been a busy month! After finishing my latest children's book, Nana's Silly Goats,  and signing a contract for another one with Operation Outreach USA, I worked long hours getting my submission ready for the 2011 Loveland Sculpture Invitational. I had to purchase some lights and backgrounds and practice my photography, as I couldn't afford to go with a professional photographer at this time.

Having no other place, I set up a temporary photo studio in the garage (thank goodness we insulated!) and learned to control my white balance and lighting better. It took two trips to Boulder (pretty drive, but still a 2+ hour round trip) to Mike's Camera to get the softbox and paper.

Next I scoured off the patinas that I did in class that I felt were too dark and heavy. Since I didn't like the existing patina, I figured it wouldn't ruin it to try and take it off and do another. So I spend days doing glazes on the ceramic until I found what I liked. This seated woman, "Sitting Pretty" is definitely better with the new patina as the older one was very heavy and nearly black, obliterating detail.

The sleeping woman came out rather well - the patina is soft and warm and compliments the sleeping figure well.

Ascension is still a work in progress, but is coming along.

Next is Sweetness, my plus-sized figure and last is Contemplate, a seated nude.

Hopefully I made the deadline - it was midnight tonight, but I did have some trouble using Zapplication and by the time Paypal processed it was 12:01.

Well - I did the best I could and I'm glad that I tried. Whether I made it into the show or not
learned a lot and it's all part of the journey.


Now for a well-earned glass of wine!