My girl Mel and I were having a video chat, and one enhancement after another led to this:

So I later wrote this:

wolfku

behold my true self
thanks to video chatting
see you next full moon

This is wire, 1/16″ diameter, on a background of black poster board. Its transformation into a jubilant little kid depends on the miracle of human pattern recognition.

Do you believe in miracles?

Hello. This post is a message. I regret not being a better messenger. The artwork is clumsy, the words are inelegant, the message content is as confusingly ambiguous as a Delphi oracle. News from home is most ambiguous when it is most truthful.

Who is the menacing figure, gripping the acrostic, tears in his eyes, foam at the mouth? Could be Donald Trump, what with the basketwoven hair and the foam at the mouth. Could be myself, what with the tears. We are both citizens of the United States of America. We call America home.

Words:

Now buffoon now fool now pharaoh

Enter scary LOVELESS stare. O

Weapons locked and loaded? AIM

Silence critics–mum’s the GAME

As for the sheet music, it is “Smile” with lyric by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons and music by Charles Chaplin, also known as the “Little Tramp.” The first words are “SMILE, tho’ your heart is aching/SMILE, even tho’ it’s breaking/When there are clouds in the sky, you’ll get by//If you SMILE through your fear and sorrow,/SMILE and maybe tomorrow/You’ll see the sun shining through/For you . . .”

The 2018 incarnation of the Glendale Arts Council’s annual Juried Show is accepting entries in exactly ten days. I intend to submit at least one entry of wire sculpture. This probably isn’t going to be an entry, but what I’ve learned from it will make a more suitable entry possible.

At the tender age of 63 I have begun exploring wire sculpting. Getting the discover-rush has been one of the highlights of 2017. Wire is like calligraphy, like scribbling in space, like playing with dolls, and like reductionism on steroids, all at once–and 32 feet of the stuff, available for less than five dollars, is enough to limn a full human figure. Try it, Friends!!

I’m on the #70 bus, heading home from South Mountain Community College after taking my AR115 (3D Design) final exam. I had hoped to do many clay pieces in the class, but the instructor sliced a clay project from the syllabus because the wire project went extra.

I did manage this tiny bowl, though.

Yesterday was the last session of my 3D Design class before the final exam next Wednesday. We had a critique on the Wearable Sculpture project, with five teams each presenting a team member modeling the clothing. Lexi of my team made a napkin scarf with enhancements cut from playing cards, and a diadem of aluminum foil, card cutouts and Monopoly money; José made a necklace of ribbn and poptop tabs enhanced with card cutouts; I made this bird mask of styrofoam cup bases, feathers, an old pair of glasses with one lens missing–and two hearts cut from a playing card. We called the look “It’s In the Cards.” Lexi modeled the outfit, and I did the “next on the runway, we have Lexi in a smashing ensemble…” spiel. José lent his strong, silent gravitas to the proceedings.

I would be surprised if we don’t get an A.

Now I have a boatload of cards and a Monopoly set left over. The repurposing-of-elements possibilities are endless!