Beginnings

 Beginnings

 

Wednesday 3/2/22

The peyote is in bloom. These photos were taken about an hour apart. There's some new growth  showing on the plants.

Many posts ago I brought up the subject of amateur artists. I noted that there are two different definitions for "amateur". The word can be dismissive, as in: "That's a really amateur (poorly done) effort". Or it can be admiring, as in: "It's the amateur mechanics (those who work for the love of working)  who restore these beautiful old machines." 

One of the problems of being a self-taught amateur, is that it's very hard to know how good your work is. It's impossible to take a disinterested look at something you've invested serious amounts of effort in creating. Your loved ones will always give you kudos. Your friends will never say, "Dude, that thing blows chunks."

The only way to find out is to put your work out to the public.  When I began doing this in the 1990's, that meant finding juried shows, and entering them, or approaching galleries. Approaching galleries took a portfolio of 4x6 photographs that you could carry with you should you get the attention of a gallery owner. I bought myself a nice Minolta SLR film camera just in time for film cameras to become obsolete.

Now we have the internet. People who can speak freely will speak honestly. This is from GAB AI (name redacted)

 

Anyway-

So here we go again. This oddly shaped chunk of California desert weighed in at 79 pounds.  

 

Yesterday I hauled the rock into the middle of the yard, plugged in the angle grinder, and spit stone dust all over the place. It didn't take long to get the surface shaved clean. I levered the stone up onto the table, turned it every angle, and way until I had it where I wanted. I got it propped upright, and scribed a pencil line around the bottom. The rock was ready for the base cut. 

 

I've had the devil's own time getting this part of the job right. Whatever knack I had for it seems to have vanished. The rock was firmly wedged up, and strapped down on the table. The base line was  plumb vertical. I put the bow saw to the line, and slowly began the cut. This chunk is softer than I'd like, but it doesn't seem mushy like the white stone from  a couple of projects back. 

 Who you callin' mushy?

 The cut started clean and straight, but one half of the material is harder than the other. The harder stone  pushed the blade to one side, and the cut came out with a big ditch in the middle. This happened with the red stone as well, and it was a pain to correct. So that's the first job of the day today: getting the bottom flat...

Like this. It took two days to get it right, but it's right.

Now comes the part where nothing happens. Stare, sketch, stare, sketch, stare...

 I got ideas. Several of them.