Something Big 

(Link to index page)

I remember  English class way back in my freshman year of high school. We had a lesson on reading for escape versus reading for interpretation. Reading for escape was wasting time on murder mysteries, science fiction, or rock 'em sock 'em adventure stories. Reading for interpretation was what more sophisticated folks did. They read talky books about real people doing real world things. Unlike escape reading, these books were good for you. Sort of like the difference between eating healthy  broccoli, or junk food burger and fries.

Now, I'm old enough, and well-read enough to appreciate, and even enjoy broccoli literature, but I'm still a burger and fries reader at heart. And in this troubled age and time, sometimes a good burger and fries read for escape is just what the doctor ordered. 

Get ready for a double double with cheese.

A week or so back, I posted a link to the Arkhaven comics page. Arkhaven has been part of the reward I give myself after going through the mostly depressing news of the day. My favorite story on the Arkhaven page has been "Something Big", story by Chuck Dixon, art by Frank Fosco. This week Arkhaven posted the final installation, so the whole tale can be read start-to-finish.

The aliens have landed. Earth is in ruins. Larry Dorfman is a former bank robber living in a ramshackle trailer outside of Reno. He watches the massive alien ship out in the desert, and discovers that whatever it is that the Gorks are doing out there, it involves gold, and lots of it. Gold.  But how in the world do you pull off a heist on the aliens?

Maybe with a little help from a gang of feral kids.

It's a comic book plot with a comic book climax. If you sat down, and thought about it, you might recognize that almost every trick in a good pulp writer's bag is incorporated into the story. And they all work like magic. Chuck Dixon is the master of the craft.  You're going to be set up, you're going to be played. And you're going to shout YEAH!!! Like you never saw it coming. 

Take some time out for Something Big. It'll lighten up your day.

JWM

 Rock, Ride, and Rooster

Rooster? We'll get to the rooster. Strange story, I promise.

We have our spring pattern weather settling in as April gives way to May. I like this time of year. I love the overcast mornings, and long hazy afternoons. 

Last Friday I got the stones submitted for the Art Fest. This Thursday we'll have the reception, and  Friday the show. Last year, I took first place, and an honorable mention for three dimensional work. Quite an honor!

It's odd, but this year I don't seem to have any of that mix of anticipation, and apprehension that usually comes with entering a show. I'm grateful for the opportunity to display. I'm strangely indifferent as to whether my work takes a prize, or sells. Truth to tell, I hope I didn't make a mistake by putting a price on the Aerodyne carving. I'd hate to part with the thing so soon after finishing it. That's a problem with sculpture. It's really easy to get Dragon Sickness over your own work. 

"I put all that effort into this. It's too precious to share with anyone else. MINE, ALL MINE bwahahaha..."

 

Or maybe it's a problem with me. Hard to tell.

Work on the new stone is underway. The first round of sit-and-stare, points the way to what needs to be done. At first I wanted to do something with a lot of open work and detail, but there are several large cracks in the stone that could make that a risky proposition. I know I want a curve in that straight vertical edge. I know I want every  surface machine smooth, nothing rough, or "natural", except for the overall shape of the rock I started with.

Time to break out the angle grinder. This is my least favorite part of the job. The grinder is fast, but it's messy, noisy, and always trickier than it seems like it ought to be. So here we are:

Before:

 

After:

Tune in next post for more of this stuff.

Anyway.

Sunday the bike gang got together to do the Foothills Ciclavia ride in Pomona, La Verne, and San Dimas. These are some darn cool events. The cities involved sponsor an all-day street party for the public. They shut down about twelve miles of surface streets for bikes and pedestrians. There are food trucks, entertainment, booths for all kinds of organizations and causes, some vendors, bike repair, and even a farmer's market.  

Takin' a break in San Dimas. (ht Penny)
 

We broke out the stretch bikes, and wore the club shirts, but not our vests. Not so long ago we'd have brought the club vests, and we'd have joined up with riders from several different clubs for the cruise. But not today. We saw no other clubs, only a couple of other guys on stretch bikes, and maybe one or two riders on classics. Things change. Me, too. The foothills route was (take a guess) hilly. 

 

Not very long ago I'd have pulled the long incline easily. Now it's uh- less fun than once it was.

needin' a break. (pics ht Troy)
 

OK. Now the rooster.

First, my good camera broke, so I had to use the cheapie. Here's our kitchen rooster:

I'll note here, that the kitchen rooster is actually painted green. The picture had all kinds of glare, so I P/shopped it black. 

Before I was born (1952), my grandfather cut this out with a jigsaw, from of a piece of 1/4" plywood, as a gift for my grandmother. It was on the wall up behind the stove in my grandmother's kitchen back in Dearborn Michigan. She brought it with her when she moved out here after my grandfather died, in '66. When she and my mother bought this house in '72 the rooster went up on the wall behind the stove here, where it is today.

Last Sunday at the bike ride I spotted this on the chimney of a house in San Dimas:

Compare:

I looked in Google images for "rooster silhouette."

There are zillions, but I found no perfect match for this one. Note missing toes on the hind foot on the black one. It fell and broke long ago. So where did the pattern come from?

'Tis a mystery.

 Steely Spring

 

Hey, how's that for a snappy title? It's a pun! You see, springtime here in So Cal means  a couple months under steely gray skies on marine layer days when nothing casts a shadow. Like today. But Saturday we had sun, and it was a perfect day for a cruise along the Santa Ana River. I never bring my camera anymore, but Penny always gets some good shots with her phone, and I swipe them for the blog here.

Rest stop at Yorba Regional Park

Contemplatin' the river in the early afternoon.

Kicking back at the park. Russ, Dave, Troy, n' me.

End of the line. We did a little over twenty three miles for the day.

 

 I left off on the smallstone project last week after getting a base cut done. 

 

 

Unfortunately, the base cut was off by about the width of a pencil, and the stone was leaning slightly to the left. I could have left it as is, and corrected the lean as I shaped the figure. But the lean irritated the hell out of me, so I decided to correct the base cut.

This meant sawing a very narrow slice off the bottom at a very acute angle.

It's tricky, but I pulled it off. Note the precision measurement, and  high-tech engineering at work here.

 

 It worked!

However, getting a clean cut across the bottom brought problems to light. The big concern is the crack:

 

Cracks just go with the territory when working alabaster. It's a feature of the stone. But there are cracks, and there are fissures. Both of these lines are part of the same break. It almost splits the rock in half. I Love the shape of this little chunk of rock. I had ideas for something intricate, and airy, but now I'm not so sure. We'll just have to see.

Take a Break at Arkhaven

Take a Break at Arkhaven

So, the news of the day continues its never ending journey from bad to worse. I’m wondering when “worse” runs out, and what kind of awful thing follows. The morning tour through the bookmarks gets depressing as hell. But just like in the newspaper of yesteryear there is still the comics section.

 Vox Day has got a darn good comics page going. I've been following a few of these stories, and they're all kinds of fun. It's a great break from the toxicity.

ARKHAVEN 

Main Page

 
Here are links to some of my favorites The links open to the index page so you can start the stories at episode one. The installations are short.

Avalon:  Crime drama serial with super-powered “specials”.

Something Big: (my favorite of all these) The UFO’s have landed. Earth is in ruins. A former bank robber, and a gang of feral kids plan a heist on the aliens.

Vegfolk Tales: A fun, quirky fantasy, laced with satire. Young mushroom finds himself in an alternate story universe.

Invasion 55: Aliens attack a remote airbase outside a tiny Nevada town in 1955. This is classic fifties B movie material. An absolute blast!

There is a lot more over there. Check Rebel Dead Revenge for over-the-top weird, or  The Saga of Evil Monkey Man for wacky, crazy fun.

Have a great day, y’all.
JWM

A Small Stone for Spring

 

 Monday, April 10, 2003.

 

 Smallstone project, Day 1

More on this after I get done writing, and upload the photos.

I got an email from The Santa Fe Springs Art Fest this last weekend. They offered me space for up to three more entries in the Three-Dimensional Category. I'll be submitting these two pieces: 

Stoneblossom
 

 

Airstone
 

in addition to these two that I already entered:

 

Aerodyne
 

Waterstone

 

 That's some good news.

And we had some of our favorite people from the cycling world, come out to cruise with us on the So Cal RatRod Ride last Saturday.

 

Newport Harbor

Big blue boat

 

Little purple boat
 

I even made the drive home from Huntington Beach by way of the choking traffic on HWY 39, Beach Boulevard without getting flustered. 

All to the good.

 

Easter Sunday, Mary and I held our first gathering at the house since Christmas. The day was warm, bright, and clear. Not to mention, dry.  I roasted a big hunk of beef on the coals, and sliced it thin for sandwiches. We also set out a ham, got crusty rolls at the Mexican market, and Mary made her famous potato  salad with tomatoes, and bacon. Friends brought fruit salad, and three bean salad.

  Mary's niece, Katy and Katy's steady, Avi came over.  Mary's nephew, Evan and his wife, Jennifer came by as well. 

 Mary's brother Randy was Katy, and Evan's father. Randy  died rather suddenly the year before last. His wife Martha, Katy and Evan's mother, also died suddenly shortly after. This left Mary and me as the elders of the clan. We're doing what we can to hold on to some tradition.

 I like these... I want to say, these kids, but we knew Katy and Evan when they were kids. I remember bringing them toys and dolls for Christmas. They're all fine young adults, and I like them tremendously. If we have enough like them, the world as we know it may yet get by.

It is to be hoped. 

 

So, on to the stone.

 Well, wouldn't you just know- within a few days of finishing  the odd white wedge of rock that became Stoneblossom, I'm once again faced with working a carving out of a narrow three-sided splinter of rock. I have to remind myself that I chose these pieces after spending over an hour rummaging through the rock piles up at Art City. Water brings out the color.

 

As I'm sitting here at the keyboard I seem to remember that I tossed those two stones on the purchase pile almost as an afterthought before weighing up the whole batch. The new stone is rather petite; it weighs in at just a shade over twenty pounds. 

 

I'm pretty sure it's a chunk of the same material as the Aerodyne carving. We'll see.

 

 

At any rate, it's a nice firm piece of stone with interesting bands, and good translucency. I got the bottom cut, and flattened. You can see the line for the base. I have a whole school of ideas swimming around in my head for this one. Later this morning we'll start exploring.

 Working Between Showers

It has been a while. I started this project back in November, after doing the Aerodyne sculpture:

 

 I wanted to do a simple, improvisational piece; just make it up as I went along. Just as a reminder, here is what we started with: 

This narrow wedge of striped stone did not seem to have much potential. The challenge was to find a pleasing form within the scrap of rock.

 

 

 

Then the rains came.  So Cal does not handle them well. And it's been quite a few years since we've had a genuine wet winter. We spent more time indoors than we are used to. It was fun at first, but we've had all the fun we can stand.

Spring has arrived, and the Southland is drying out. I finally got a few days of work in, and the stone is finished.

And here's the finished piece. 

 

 Stoneblossom.

 

 

Every one of my pieces has some quirky element to it, something sort of odd that just emerges as I work. The odd feature here is that while the form is quite simple, it defies all attempts to find a good angle from which to view it. 

 

 

Maybe put it on the turn table...