Plant Propagation

 Rubus  calycinoides , ( an evergreen ground cover from the raspberry family) I found  this  mutant with it's pinwheel margins of lime, cream and green variegation on a design job a few years back . The 4 inch mutated sprig of variegation was in a over grown planting to be removed.  I took a cutting and rooted it. The mother plant is in England being tested for it's potential for world sales, I will call it "Cash Cow" or Retirement". The picture with the berries is the stock plant where I found "Cash Cow's" mutant growth.

Chinese Coin

O.K this was my first go around with making the cement coins, and although it was not a train wreck, I do like the idea / feeling of wood, copper and cement mingling.

                                                            




  "Hypertufa" Kanji coins

Balance

My brain works best ( relative term)  when feed a regular diet of contrast. I am ever suspicious of the pious tongue that glosses over the glaring irony and humor of this temporarily condition of releasing carbon.

Angel pictures from A postcard  series I shot at Vasquez Rocks California.

I have found water plays a huge part of  my creative process.  rain, streams,oceans and lakes  clean my pallet of obstructed and often stagnated energy and ideas. 

Nature and Photography

Nature is my fuel,


with a language and expression  (visible and not) that we are incapable of comprehending with the human limitations.
When I toil to celebrate it's images, (in one form or another), there is always an absents, a contrived whisper of my intention, but it's the "River" I  forever return to for guidance, where inclusion is all but insured.



                                                              Earth made Textures

                            I am always on the lookout for the opportunity to integrate nature's shed skin.

monkey puzzle pod

                                              
 These barnacles are art already and I hasten to mess with natures perfection, there is such a fine line between art and macaroni-glitter craft.

Hypertufa Sedum Containers

Faux  Rock outcropping

 I wanted to make containers I have not seen in the market place and  (as always) seek the boundaries of the  medium I am working with. I will replace the Images as soon as they fill out and reach a more marketable appearance. I started to make odd "outcroppings" for the planters with left over hypertufa, they add texture, (conductive) warmth and architecture in my minds eye.

Outcroppings and Water Element Inserts 

                                                                      

 I was aiming for fluidity and movement

                                                          

using course peat moss to get the ancient archeology dig look

A Costco Lettuce container was used for the mold here

7 old years with the same planting

Containers great for Sedums, Conifers and Ground covers.

              

Lost

Dorian Gray gone bad

Therapy made solid. This is from a very dark place in my past and the desire to change the perceptions that echoed in the mirror.
Creepy in a "Dawn Of The Dead" way, however to me,  thats complement.
 Using  a round table top, plaster of Paris, resin, cheese cloth and work shirts... ( hmm , metaphoric maybe?) This piece has been hidden in an storage area for many moons, as it still holds more charge than I bargained for. I used a dental  product for my face casting (don't do this alone, I about passed out holding my breath till the compound solidified)
I don't love the end result, but can't depose of...yet!
 The resin hands reaching out, was my feeble nod to the Sistine chapel's "Creation" with God's determined hand and Adam's (man's) flaccid passive.....although my hands indicate escape!

Tee shirt "Karma Dispenser"

http://www.cafepress.com/DV8_TeeS.392340814

Tee shirt "Garden Variety Hoe"

FOR SALE

3http://www.cafepress.com/angepasse.387911742

Fish wall Art

For whatever reason, I got hung up on doing "Fish" when I returned to the world of cement;  I used a barnacle  type of shell for the eye, I wanted to add texture for interest... so I cut strips of "feed sacks" or "gunny sacks" dipping them in a diluted Portland cement mixture and layered them on the hand formed fish in the "tacky" state of drying.  A few days pass before I paint with acrylics, then a final coat of cement sealer.

                                                         

I am always looking for a new way to make the "fish eye", this time I used a light bulb (the male screw end) and like the depth and elements it offered.

I seriously don't know how I came to make a mermaid, I thought I was making an Angel until I started making a fin tail rather than wings.

Freshly made and naked

Seahorse, staying with the ocean theme.

Playing with the native American flavor.

Hypertufa, Art and objects for the Garden

The Ankh is the Egyptian Hieroglyphic sign or symbol of "life". The above picture shows the moss growing in the pits filled with peat moss after about 7 month of aging

This is a four-sided "Ankh", and I like it so much, I am planning (when weather allows) to make a series of large Ankh's  for fountain heads and free standing garden art.

This  grave marker was made
 for a friend's Boxer, as per request, it was made with hypertufa, (although I would have rather done this with just straight Portland cement), it does have a earthy quality and will gather moss more readily. The bone shape was  done first by hand, then the next morning I started to inscribe for my rough outline of the script. 

I will typically wait till the 2nd  or 3rd day to refine and sculpt, as if done too soon,  can take over sized chunks when making the smaller details. When the text is complete, I use the cement pigment to enhance the lettering, using a paint brush and a syringe for the hard to get to areas. I mix my cement pigment  "thick"  (in a plastic cup) for better definition and fewer applications.

This is my first attempt at doing fountains with Hypertufa. Although this is a jump off point, I can see the potential using this lighter weight material.

"Hypertufa" = Portland cement, sand and peat-moss. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertufa 

 (Or here is a link)

"Tribal" pond water spitter.