"What do you do all day?" is a question I used to find offensive. As a single parent, full time restaurant/office worker, sculptor and homeowner of an unfinished house, I usually wanted to snap "WTF! Here's what I didn't do today: read, nap, play, daydream, watch a movie, take a walk, go to the beach. What I did do: cut grass, plant trees, weed, scrape paint, repair, rebuild, make clay, build armatures, prepare terracottas for firing, load kiln, do laundry, make lunch, wash dishes, clean kitchen and then go to work." My sleep cycle was determined by how late I got home from work and how early the kids woke up: 5 hours was usual.
Now I'm old. The kids I was running around after are all grown up. I can go to sleep when I want to and wake up when I want to. The house that still isn't finished is at least paid off. The housework, yard work, all that - still the same amount of work and after thirty years of it, should look way better than this. I'm still playing my private game of Beat the Clock against myself which I both always win and always lose. But the question "what did you do today" is still just as inapplicable and meaningless. A more sensible question for me would really be, "what did you draw today?" And that would explain it all. Everything starts with a drawing. If I'm in the planning stage of anything, it begins with a thumbnail sketch. If its a halfway good idea at all, at least a post-it size diagram comes next. Then the big paper comes out, the leads get sharpened and the big eraser is handy. Or I may be already deep in drawings, getting ready to start the next big project. On the other hand, if I didn't draw at all, and there's not a single drawing or drawing materials in sight, you'd know I've just had surgery or I'm dealing with some kind of catastrophe - basement flooded, stomach flu, the Holidays.
Ask not, for whom the bell tolls. Ask, what did you draw today?
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Do angels wear underwear?
I just finished another drawing of a Christmas angel, making a trio of musical angels. While I was drawing, I somehow got to worrying about the clothed/unclothed aspect of my angels, whose robes seem to be transparent. I started wondering, "Is this angel nude? Is that OK? Do angels wear underwear? (Charlie's Angels and Victoria's Secret types aside.) Should my angels look more dressed? Can't there be some kind of special underwear for angels?" So, that's what I decided. They're my angels, so I'm saying they wear special angel underwear that covers strategic areas and are therefore not nude. And they wear those light transparent gowns so their flying is not impeded by heavy stuff. Now you know.
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Thursday, November 27, 2014
Happy Thanksgiving
The end of autumn is complicated. Everything seems to happen at once. I try to resist the pull of holiday uproar to focus instead on the real celebration: the harvest of another season of growth. It feels like a natural time for reflection, evaluation, and preparation for the long, slow inner growth of winter, subterranean and outwardly invisible. I'm considering tree roots, growing slowly and inexorably all winter, delving deeply to find nourishment and strength for next year's growth.
This year my crop of terracottas has a lot of sculptures of families. And like everybody else, I think about family especially during the holidays. Mine is great; everybody's doing fine. I will savor this year's family feast with the sweet knowledge that all is well. I hope you and your family are blessed with health and happiness. Happy Thanksgiving!
Saturday, November 22, 2014
21st Century Three Graces
"21st Century Three Graces with Cellphones, Sunglasses, Flip flops and Frisbee"
raku maquette for bronze
I've always been a big fan of Botticelli and I especially love his painting, Primavera. Pondering what those ladies would look like today, I came up with three graces that are overweight and flabby rather than ethereal and willowy. They are distinctly earthbound rather than otherworldly, which led me to give them plenty of worldly trappings: cellphones, sunglasses, bikinis, cans of soda, flip flops. Life's a beach.
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For more information about me and my sculpture, please visit: deborahdendler.com
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