Armature wire, 1/8″ diameter, 8″ x 4″.
Holy Father
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Blog Post #1111: One with Ones
A year and nine days ago Chinese linguist Zhou Youguang, who had written and published a number of books after he turned 100, died at the exact age of 111. Google showcased him on the first anniversary of his death, and, reading about this remarkable man, I thought he’d make a good subject for a blog post; but since I was so close to post #1111, I got hung up with all the Ones involved, since OCD and a fascination with numbers go hand in hand in my case.
I feel a little sorry that Zhou got short-shrifted to a walk-on, but better pocket-biographers then I have had a go at him, so I’ll end by suggesting that you find him via an Internet search and have a go at him yourselves.
wolfku
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
jubilant little kid
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?
g l i m p s e d
g l i m p s e d
gainsaid are the scarlet scoffers
all chagrined and aloe tropicked
spillways make decanted offers
plump seditionists thus topicked
Here is play with the acrostic form to third-time “glimpsed” and so make of it a motif. That the text makes sense, with a sly, subversive message that invites reader participation, is a bonus; but the priority is the image and what it evokes.
News from Home
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 . . .”
mel•low
My girlfriend Melony, known to her friends as Mel, was sitting next to me in my apartment’s tiny dining area, checking her phone. She looked Mellow.
Often her texts are accompanied by hearts. Mine too.
Words:
Methinks meknows a gal
Encryptically well. O
Let the Glow-wax flow
show folk
In the midst of reading ALL HIS JAZZ: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF BOB FOSSE by Martin Gottfried, and learning of the friendship between Fosse and Paddy Chayefsky, the acrostic “Show Folk” occurred. Flashy Fosse is Show; and who is more Folksy than the hero of Chayefsky’s MARTY? Off we went.
Here are the words of the double-acrostic sonnet:
Show Folk
SUCCESS: best taken with that grain of snuff
Seize moments, lest the dark steal like a thief
Some mama cats won’t tote us by the scruff
Some ships are built to f o u n d e r on a reef
Huge OPPORTUNITIES have trapdoors too
How quickly handshook YES becomes a No
How quickly sours the Love Nest bill & coo
Howbeit, STRIVE–you may Behold & Lo
Ovations never last. PERSISTENCE will
Obliterate frustration and will quell
Oy-Vehish dark despair. We must distill
Our spirits from beyond ephemeral
We’ll Break A Leg, yet rise above the murk
With Old School secret sauce: workworkWorkWORK
feathers and wire
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.
Rewiring an Art Career
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!!
One with Clay, Image and Text 