aluminum can nailed to a post

aluminum soda can art outside DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun, Tucson, AZ

Tucson Sculpture Festival Photos (February 2013)

"Mortimer" by Charles Spillar (Mixed Media)

I stopped by The Whistle Stop Depot today to check out the 2013 Tucson Sculpture Festival taking place from February 1st - 15th (free).  Wow!  I was really impressed by the quality and diversity of more than 100 different sculptures on display.  Here are a few of my favorites, but there are many more really cool ones on display.  If you are into art and in the Tucson area, I'd really recommend you drop in on the Whistle Stop Depot to check it out (plenty of free parking).

"Singing Dino" by Jorge Vegeli (Metal/Glass)

"Jojo" by Curt Brill (Cast Bronze)

"Trapped" by David Adix (recycled phone & computer cords)

"Open Handed" by Susan Kay Johnson

"Young Poseidon" by Kim Blackhawk

"Tastiest Friend" by Joe Lupiani (bronze/wood)

"Reclining Reader" by Susan Kay Johnson (Epoxy resin)

"The Imp" by Mykl Wells (cardboard / polyurethane)

"Spring Summer Fall Winter" by Linda Chappel (wood)

"Piece of Infinity" by Ralph Prata (hand carved concrete)

"Empire" by Scott Musgrove (cast bronze)

"Wig-O-Rama" by Nick Georgiou (discarded books for cut paper)
"Sierra Wave" by Nickolas Tranmer (Earthenware)

"Screamie" by Kirk McCoy

"Mortimer" by Charles Spillar (mixed media)
note the cool Whistle Stop Depot wall in background made of toilet tank covers

"Gardner" by Anthony Bayne (cast bronze)

untitled by Marcy Miranda Janes (paper mache & cut paper)

"Alice" by Moises Orozco (full figure sculpture, head shown in above picture)

"Agon" by Lois Black (bronze)

Fuller Duck

12/28/2012, Fuller Craft Museum, MA

Raven about those shoes

12/29/2012, deCordova Sculpture Park & Museum, Lincoln, MA

While out for a chilly bird walk before the New Year, I found that the walking birds were also wearing shoes...

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all my blog readers a very Merry Christmas!  I hope you are having a safe, peaceful, and enjoyable holiday.  Thank you for stopping by and visiting my blog over the past year!

tilting at windmills

12/2/2012, Tucson, Arizona

This picture shows two things:

1. A cool looking windmill made out of bicycle fenders at the Whistle Stop Depot
2. That my lowlight handheld camera shake is very questionable 

BICAS Bicycle Art Auction (Dec 2nd 2012)

12/2/12, sculpture by Zach Lihatsh

The annual BICAS Art Silent Auction fundraiser was held at the Whistle Stop Depot last Sunday night.  This is the fourth time I've attended -- always a good time looking at and bidding on such a diverse collection of way cool art made by some incredibly creative artists!

BICAS (Bicycle Inter-Community Art & Salvage) is local non-profit collectively-run community education and recycling center for bicycles that welcomes people of all ages and walks of life.  Among the many positive things they do for our community are: teaching classes on bicycle repair, renting tools/shop space to work on your bike, recycling bicycles into new working bicycles, recycling bicycles into art.  This event is their primary fundraising event of the year.

Friendly faces greeted people at the Whistle Stop Depot in downtown Tucson.  If you were planning on bidding on anything, a quick signup sheet here provide you with a bid number that you could write down on any of the silent auction bidding sheets located next to the art, along with your bid.  This was a nice improvement and made it much easier to bid or update a bid on any of the bid sheets inside.

Early evening, plenty of room to scope out all the cool art and see which ones strike your fancy for possibly bidding on later.

There were hundreds of art objects up for silent auction, designed and made by many different artists.

I really liked the desert scene below, a great example of what can be accomplished with bike parts and an especially creative mind!

12/2/12, Desert Scene by Colin Holmes

 I really liked this lamp below, made out of wheel quick-release levers.  I bid on it several times, but it didn't make it home with me.

12/2/12, Lamp by Erik Bang

12/2/12, lamp by Erik Bang & Monique Laraway

 Ah yes, the Javalina.  You may remember him wandering around in a prior post when I saw him at the Bicycle Swap Meet recently.  A lot of bicycles spokes went into the making of this guy.   Very well done, and very popular at the auction.

12/2/12, Javalina by Troy Neiman

12/2/12, sculpture by Troy Neiman

 Earrings made from bicycle parts

In addition to the art, there was music, a puppet show for the kids, food, drinks, and even cotton candy!

Great turnout for this event -- here is the crowd as it got a little closer to the 9 PM bidding cutoff

12/2/12, sculpture by Emerie Charley

perfect for those "deer in the headlights" moments?

The artists, organizers, and volunteers should all be very proud of the event -- a really outstanding event and fundraiser!  BICAS holds this auction around the end of the year each year, keep your eyes out for it next year and drop by to see and bid on some very cool art supporting a great organization.

Spoken like a Javalina

This beautiful Javalina was wandering around the BICAS booth during Saturday's Community Bicycle swap meet.  Made predominately out of bicycle spokes.  Very well done, I'd say.   My understanding is that it will be one of the items up for silent auction at the upcoming BICAS bicycle art auction/fundraiser in December.

GLOW 2012 at Triangle L Ranch (2 of 2)

 Interactive art was the name of the game in this art piece at last Friday night's GLOW festival in Oracle.  Touching various places on the panel adjusted the colors displayed.  This piece was an eye catcher even from a distance.

 Jellyfish hanging out in the Sonoran desert.  This exhibit also has a hidden voice talking to visitors that was very well done, funny.

Melted bottles were used to form this flat stained glass panel.  Illuminated from the back with christmas lights.

OK when walking the path at GLOW, but not sure I would want to see this if I was out on a real trail!

 This was an overhead projector, catching the shapes and flow of a continuous stream of water running down the plate below the light on the projected.  Very effective in motion.  I'd like to see it with possible a blue gel filter between the light and water panel.

Another one of the night's artist's working with things that glow...   She was making some really nice candle holders out of metal food cans by cutting/melting away parts of the can to make interesting shapes and designs.  They would place a colored glass tea light holder inside of each finished holder which would cast a subtle colored light through the designs.  Nice!

This is one that I purchased, you can see how its got a pretty elaborate design that casts interesting shadows.