California Art Club's 102 nd Gold Medal Juried exhibition

for the debut of

FEARLESS

Opening Night Artists' Gala Reception

Saturday, June 1, 2013  6 - 9pm

please contact the CAC for ticket and additional information

www.californiaartclub.org

I look forward to seeing you there!!

After months and months of working  on  Fearless it was finally time to bid a

farewell to the clay and start the process of having a mold of her made.  

This is a peek into the very special world of mold making, one that is rarely seen.

Enjoy!

With love,

Tanya

Please join us for this wonderful two person exhibition at Gallery è.

The gallery is located at 8574 1/2 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood, CA  90069 310.243.6703.

The opening reception is Thursday, September 13, from 5 - 8 pm but  as I am sure you know we will be there well past 8 pm.  So, if you have dinner first ...no worries!There are some amazing restaurants in the neighborhood and hope you take advantage for a fabulous night out with great art and food.

Comme Ca - 8479 Melrose Ave.

Ago - 8478 Melrose Ave.

Lucques - 8474 Melrose Ave.

Sur - 606 North Roberson Blvd.

...just to name a few

Looking forward to seeing you on Thursday night!

"Don't let your fears overwhelm your desire. Let the barriers you face--and there will be barriers--be external not internal. Fortune does favor the bold. I promise that you will never know what you're capable of unless you try...Go home tonight and ask yourselves, What would I do if I weren't afraid? And then go do it!"--Sheryl Samberg, Barnard Commencement 2011

While sculpting “Doubt Kills The Warrior,” I kept returning to the torso and how it held the core of the movement. I was inspired to focus on that part of the piece at a grand scale. I wanted to concentrate on the essence and axis of the movement, illuminating that at the center of everything lays risk, release, and making oneself visible.

Highlighting a small section of a form has been a theme of my work forever. It all comes back to focusing on the quintessence of form, movement, and beauty. The geometric windows in my architectural work, like “Cradle,” “Rolling Hills,” and “Progression of Four” all have been an exploration and variation on this theme.

Cradle

Rolling Hills

Progression of Four

Between the scale and the gesture itself, this piece is really about being fearless (which may ultimately be the title of the piece)—open, exposed, grand and expansive.

More to come...

Doubt Kills the Warrior just installed at the Autry National Center - the show is up through April 22nd, 2012

The Gala opening Saturday night - a fabulous event

My muse, Sara

Jena (without whom I could do nothing) and my Dad

Mom and Dad

My Team

Here I am receiving my award for excellence in sculpture from Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine - they honored me with an incredible advertising opportunity in their prestigious publication which has national and international distribution

My proud parents

Isn't my fabricator a stud? Thank you Nick Petronzio for everything!

The morning after - the artist brunch

NOW, Chapter 2

Here's my new Gallery  MMCA, in Little Italy in San Diego. Make sure if you're there, drop and and visit, it's a beautiful space with a wonderful owner and staff

Ryan is 6'5" just to give you sense of scale - each one of these pieces is ceramic and weighs about 75 lbs - it was a fun installation

Through the Fire could not have found a better new home

Relaxing after the installation, with Pat McNabb Martin

And relaxing with Jena and Ryan - my TEAM!!!

Another good day...

 Here's another quickie - also in San Diego

I installed one of my all-time favorite pieces, Rolling Hills, at Pacific Sotheby's

It's a difficult piece to install, everything went smoothly, they loved it, and it's terrific exposure

and LASTLY, I am THRILLED to share a beautiful two-page editorial in American Art Collector, in the April 2012 issue

So Thank You Everyone who came to the Autry or saw my facebook posts and congratulated me (or those who didn't know about it but would have) -

In any case, I am now working on an enlargement of an element from my life-size piece 'Doubt Kills the Warrior' (formerly known as 'Sara'). It is the heart of the piece that embodies the core of the movement: "Axis."

I've never built an armature in foam before. My friend and artist, the awesome Nick Petronzio, is helping me. It has been quite a learning process. Many (most) sculptors are now employing laser technology to enlarge or reduce sculptures. This is not a choice I was interested in at all. Even when I sculpted 'Doubt', I made a decision to sculpt the hands 10% larger than life-size; first of all because I love hands, but more importantly because when you look up, they are way above your head, and would appear smaller if they were true to scale. These and many other kinds of aesthetic decisions cannot be made by a machine.

Here are some early progress shots - so far I have about 900lbs of clay on her. It's just the beginning, the sculpting hasn't really started.

Here's the original and the 8' bock of foam. We decided to incorporate the base into the piece, took preliminary measurements, and started adding dimension to the bottom.

We added foam in some places, and then, using a hot wire tool, cut off major sections from others to block out the general shape.

Disaster struck. The ceramic broke in ??? pieces. By midnight, she was back together...I needed the master to work from. Shit happens.

Analyzing the next phase...subtler angles and high-tech sculpting tools; sawzalls, any manner of knives, and my favorite - curry combs (a metal brush for horses)!

And finally, clay! We went through 600lbs in the first day. Most of which was on the base.

By the following weekend, we got her covered!

Also, 'Doubt Kills the Warrior' will be having her coming out party at the Autry in Griffith Park for the California Art Club's 101st Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition, April 1st- 22nd. More details to follow.

Here's my own piece...a small one of Sara...

Here's my student Molly and I standing around her newly painted torso...

These next three pieces were made by my student Marsh Drucker, who's been experimenting a lot with paint, and getting some fabulous results!

For anyone interested in taking a class, new 8-week sessions are starting at the beginning of October at the following times:

Saturdays 10:30am-2:30pm

Wednesdays 6:00pm-10:00pm

Thursdays 10:30am-2:30pm

For more about classes, check out my Sculpture Classes site and join my Facebook studio group!

For those of you who haven't heard about this show, initially 10 artists were invited to participate, those 10 then invited 10 more whom they admire and so on. This cycle continued for 30 days, here's an excerpt from the website:

'Chain Letter' is a group show rooted in the ideals of inclusion, and highlights the social nature of the art world. It is the hope of the curators that the response will be vast and that the artists represented will be an exponential representation of all artists that are currently working and admired by their peers.

The result is an exponentially massive, artist-curated group show based entirely on admiration...Chain Letter mimics communication today; and the way in which information is passed.  The outcome will be a testament to the power of connectivity within society at present.

It's an awesome idea, the concept is incredible, but the gallery space was maxed out- they had given out 650 numbers, and there were still hundreds of people waiting in line with art of all shapes and sizes. It looked like a swap meet.

People were mostly of good cheer, although some cynical voices were heard in the line: "is this what artists have to do to get their art seen?"

Inside...

Are there words...the good, the bad and the ugly...

This is a floor only show.  There was some work that I actually thought was beautiful, original, creative, funny...but it was a challenge to see it.  Some exhibitors were, I felt, really rude, by taking up inordinate amounts of floor space (not a very cooperative spirit).

In the end, I decided not to install my piece.  The gallery didn't provide any insurance, and the risk for a ceramic piece was just too great.  Aside from the fact that the line was still 3 hours long, I had no water or sunscreen, and most importantly, the space was already full!  BUT,  I got tremendous value from the experience.

I would encourage you to go see the show and join the hundreds of artists and their family and friends, if you can find a parking spot.  It's quite an experience.   More art than you could ever see at one time together, ever!

Opening Reception: Saturday, July 23, 6 - 8 pm, the show is up until about August 25