Mr. Evil Wess Returns!!!!!!!!!

Well it took me a while to put Mr. Wess's last set of pictures up, last post, so you can imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail with his latest creation in progress. Can't imagine the surprise, well..... Lets imagine  that you come home and you open your door and there in front of you is a mad, disheveled, dirty, smelly, maniac, welding the the legs of a beautiful lady in you living room on your brand new white carpet..... and........ the glass of wine that you left is still untouched. Just imagine that the wine is totally untouched and that was a very good year mind you. In fact not are you not only surprised but you are now getting REAL MAD at the insult by this jerk!!!! WHAT MY WINE IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR A MAD, DISHEVeled, dirty, ummmm............. I seem to have lost the train of thought. Very good coffee though.

Sooooooo ummm well I mean that I had to bring these pictures of Mr. Wess's latest creation to you my faithful followers as quickly as I could.Which is now!

I love his creative energy that can see how and where each piece fits to create the form and shape of the whole concept and idea...... more coffee any one?......yes thank you..... that's enough.... sugar or cream.... no thank you I like it black....... of the woman he is manifesting into our reality from the cosmos. Absolutely fantastic. Simple put I am in admiration at what Wess does and how he does it. I love watching his creation develop and come alive.
Keep us posted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The DIVA has begun!

Seems to be a walk with confidence and purpose?

GOT to LOVE IT!!!

Wess loves tall shoes! Really!

Thank you so much for sharing the pic's Wess. We will need to see her up close an personal soon.

The Evil Mr. Wess!

TA DA! This post begins, or not, a new feature! A guest artist! There are artists out there that when I see their work I go " Unbelievable! " Wess is one of those artists. Like me he works at a daytime job and then lives art the rest of the time. He paints totally awesome pictures of vintage air planes and wemon's in stunning high heals, and sculpts in metal. He is also another artists that works with the discards of other people. I first met Wess when Cheri took me to visit him. We arrived out in the flat lands of Marana, read this as not nothing there, Arizona and pull up to a camper with various vehicles and sheds scattered about. I'm cool. An individual that is living life his own way. I'v done that at times myself. BUT THEN!!!! I notice automatic weapons laying around!!!!!! Things are beginning to look not so cool. Have I made my lady friend that mad? What really happened to her ex.'s? What should I say or better yet, NOT SAY! I'm thinking that maybe we should wave, if he see's us, and go home and clean the sink or something. And then there he was. Feet spread apart, hat pulled down to right over his eye's and with the sun at his back! What were my final words going to be? Then he laughed and shouted " Hi Cheri! Good to see you!" Wess it turned out was a great guy with a wild off center sense of humor, as you will see. The automatic weapons that I had eyed so seriously were, upon closer inspection, made from the parts of lawn mowers, washing machines and lord only knows what else.

Girl Friend & guns!

They looked real and the detail work was fantastic. This guy was good! So began my association with Wild Mr. Wess. he refers to him self as "Evil" Wess, not true, "Look at the world differently" Wess, ya. So here is his "girl friend" standing about eight feet tall! Love her. Also notice the guns in the back ground. Machine gun and 50 cal anti air craft gun. You never know about those lights in the sky at night in AZ. Noisy Neighbors? no problem!

Mr. "Evil" Wess and the "Lady that shot me down!"

Just got to love her!

I try to identify all the pieces! Can you?

Notice the high heals!

Thank you! Thank you! Mr. Wess!

But here is the latest wonder of wonders. It is titled "the girl that shot me down". What can I say? I am completely mesmerized by what he has accomplished with what he has used. All of it found then beaten, welded and placed together to form the greatest "don't mess with me lady" in the universe. Here she is enjoy!!!!!!

ANOTHER YEAR !!!!!!!!

Well there goes another year! WOW! I am about to start a regular blog and am pushing to post at least more than........ It all started innocently I was walking along minding my own business when he stepped up to my side. Not unusual you say? Well unusual is about four and a half feet tall. Twisted over and around so I'm looking down as he is looking up. NOT an imps face, but some what miss shapend. You know, the eyes are not in line and spaced a bit far apart. The nose is quite crooked and hooked. Whats left of the eye brows are well a mess! Well anyway. Looking down at this apparition I almost stumbled. In fact it felt like I was  always about to fall over this wildly gesturing and bobbing.... did I mention smelly! Now there is a challenge, describe the smell. Nope can't do it. Oh well you will learn about the smell. Where was I? Oh falling, almost, as I tried to avoid stepping on the animation of peculiar gestures and personal proportions. It croaked! Yes I said croaked it did! " croake, croake, tit, tit, tau, Bit sir, Bland's come eh?"
Now that stopped me quite cold.  Now he was standing in front of me flailing his arms, long and loose jointed. His face contorted into a snarl at first then hope then total fear. All in a flash then " Time oh! oh! tit, toh, slup, be time he want's see hear the winbings"  He grabbed my right arm by the elbow and for just a second all movement stopped and he looked intently into my eye's. Was that stars I saw? Clouds? what shapes are these I see? He blinked and there was nothing but blackness in the orbs most of us call eyes. " You see muck much low. Oh yes he be! Ha! Yow tik, tee!" With that he released me and swirled around and danced a jig, I am sure, Laughed with another croake and puff gone!
I rubbed my arm gingerly it felt as if an electric shock.... NO! ever bump your elbow and it tingles all over an dosen't work right. Thats it! What had I just encontered?  I knew why but what was it they were warning me about? Was it ? No way! Well maybe? You see I was on the expedition. I had better start from the beggining and then you will understand a bit better. You see I have it and it's just about fixed.  

 From an article published in the Air Heart Daily.

The Steam clock of Captain Mortimus B. Bland as recovered from the almost unreachable and precariously positioned wreck site of the air ship Demistictus. This clock was recovered during an expedition to the site where the Air ship Demistictus finally found it’s last mooring. Untimely and as unexpected as it was, it was not a fatal crash, as it probable could have been. The surviving crew‘s accounts of the last excruciatingly dire events all agree it was only with the actions of Captain Bland that the outcome was, well, ok.

Of course, as was reported, Captain Bland was not present to join in the relief of a safe landing. Unfortunately the Demistictus was completely destroyed and the Captain was never found. Which may not be a bad thing or a good thing, I’m not sure which. After all Captain Bland was not a Captain, as we later learned, or a Bland! And there are more than a few questions surrounding the cargo the  Demistictus was carrying on what was to be the last and fateful voyage and what of the extraordinary astronomical calamity that appeared to only be located in the immediate vicinity of…… You see why this artifact is so mysterious. Even the gentleman that supposedly assembled it is quite unavailable for comment.

What exactly was the function of what appears to be an ordinary steam powered clock that however includes many unclock- like features? And what of the eerie glow what emanated from the Captain’s cabin right before the crew heard the Captain bellow “ABANDON SHIP PLEASE!”. Although there was one fellow that swore what was said was “A BACON SANDWICH  PLEASE”. The crew to the last man and woman took the first interpretation to heart and scrambled over the side and dropped unceremoniously to the rough terrain below. Whether or not this course of action precipitated the coming events or if a bacon sandwich could have changed the outcome is still hotly debated. The outcome was really  quite a splendid meeting of airship and a rather large forbidding bit of granite. Splendid, in this case, meaning quite a site to see. Of course I’m sure that Captain Bland might have disagreed.  But we will never know now,  will we?

Here comes Da Saints

There once was a person that told me "paint on anything" and me being one that always does what I am told ( translation "NEVER") and am a total conformist ( translation " NOT EVEN CLOSE") I painted on some old wooden fence slat tops. I mean why be an artist if you are going to be a follower. I guess thats unfair. There are in fact many wonderful artists that do everything by the book and I love their work. My hat is off to you. But alas I am not like that. I'm afraid I am one of "those" artists that have a tend-icy to utilize a popular perception that an artist is some what different. I have sat in some unusual places sketching and never have I been questioned as to why I am there. People look at the sketch pad and walk on by. Some one else without the sketch pad would be asked to move. I once sat on a sidewalk in a very picturest town sketching away completely mindless of the people that were about. My wife was shopping and I was passing the time sketching the buildings and such. I had kind of noticed that the people walked around me giving me a respectful berth. I had also noticed the police car cruising slowly past a time or two or more. It wasn't until my wife showed up and I got up that I noticed that I had been sitting under a NO LOITERING sign. Ah! That explained the police keeping me safe with frequent drive by's. And there was this time in Washington DC when I was sketching the inside of the this big white house, I just wandered in with my sketch pad, and I was having a problem with the light on the person sitting in the chair, in what I believe is called the oval office, and I asked if......... oh wait that was a dream. You weren't believing ANY OF THIS are you? But it could have happened! Well maybe? No? Then you won't believe the one one about sitting in a bar and a fellow walks in with a duck.... MORE COFFEE PLEASE!!!  I'M STARTING TO WANDER HERE!

 

Wo, that was weird. Wait I'm an artist. All is normal. The point is that........ Anyway. I painted these saints on some wooden slats. Simple really. First you obtain the slats, I did not cut the tops off a fence! They were given to me by my neighbor who had them. Then you "age" and "weather" them. Then I sat down with a Dremel and out lined the saints and then painted them. I used oils for the painting part. Great fun really. Kind of like the old religious paintings found out here in the southwest. They then sat around (meaning not many sold) and my beautiful wife found them. This fantastic woman added the nail heads around the outer edges and high lighted the paintings. WOW! Not that's a saint! The point is,(finally a point) by just doing art, art will take you on a journey that you could never plan. Just the experience of the doing and then the joy of the results. How would I ever be able to say no! I rarely do. Here come da Saints.
So here are the Saints. They are gone now to the market and I'm sure that they will all find happy homes.

Ain't No Saint!

I love them all, I hope you do to!

From the Kitchen

Well we have been working like crazy on "products" (translation- extraordinary art objects for the sale to exceptionally gifted people of the arts.) It is always such a joy to be working away and realize that the art object that you have been so diligently working on starts to come together and it's beauty appears. I have heard people at shows make comments like " Oh I can do that!" or " That didn't take a whole lot of time". Both true. My thoughts when I hear this is " yes you can make it, but make 100 or more, day after day" and "This one required 1 hour and countless more to get to this point" " How much is an hour of work worth?". Artists are specialists. We work constantly at improving what we are doing. As I mentioned in an earlier post I have been constantly improving my recycled metal flowers for ten years. WhOOOOOOOOO! Where was that going? We do art because we love it and the payback is that others love it. It is fun. There are some long hours and frustration but all that disappears when you are looking at joyful beauty. All people in all professions go through the same thing. We are all artists!
Back to the "products". I am placing a few more "samples" on this page to boast I mean show what we do. I am very proud of our work. As you can see I do the flowers and Cheri takes them to a new level. I love her work.

Printed Irish

Sun Flower

Rusted Irish

Sun catcher Small Flower

Sun catcher waiting for flower

So there you have it a few more special items.
It's easy to see that all these years and years and .............. we have had a whole lot of fun.
And there is more and more all different and beautiful.
I guess that is what this blog is about. Having fun. It just so happens that it is art that we have fun doing. Very convenient since this is an art blog, don't you think. Well it's back to the kitchen of creation and whip up a new "item"! I can't wait to show you the boxes and there is this one piece that Cheri has done..... I won't spoil the surprise. And speaking of surprises we have this friend, UNBELIEVABLE WORK! Wess you there? I'm really having fun with this.
"Enjoy the day!" the mouse said as he sat in the shade sipping his sweet nectar tee. The mole nodded her head in agreement and slipped under the leaves. " A good day it will be indeed "

Working at Art!

Gem shows over! 8 days of walking and buying and looking at all the beautiful stuff! We are a bit compulsive about the gem show. SOOOOOOO much to see! "Oh this is fantastic! We could use this with the..... Look at this! We have to have one of these! I think we will need way more of this item!" Such is the life of an artist. Love it! We both love the making of art and I love painting. Does it show? However there is a little thing called making a living off of our love. Now thats another thing. there are markets and customers and inventory, tools, ect. So how do we make money you ask? You do not sit and wait for the "Mood to hit you" you work. Long hours at times. My wife has been doing this for many years. Long before I came along she supported herself with a tremendous talent and a work ethic that pushes her to extremes at times. She has a saying that is " no one pays me if I take a break". You don't work you don't get paid. Simple. Jack White is a successful artist that writes articles for the magazine the Professorial Artist. In the latest issue he tells a story about inspiration. " When we receive the bills thats all the inspiration we need to work."
Where am I going with this? Well I'll tell ya. The thing that I have learned is that you do what you have to do to sell what you enjoy making. A majority of our time doing art is building products for sale. Is this "selling out"? I don't think so. You see we totally enjoy the rather twisted path and where it leads. Very exciting. One of my biggest sellers are flowers made from recycled tin cans. I have been making them for 10 years! They started out as a curiosity and have changed constantly and now sell exceptionally well. They have shown me so many amazing and beautiful experiences and I can't describe the excitement of watching a finished flower come forth in all it's beauty. And as a bonus the people that by them are smiling!!!! What more can you ask for. Building beauty joyfully and then selling that beauty and bring joy to some one else. That's what art is all about!

Barbie is a bit foot loose and hands free!

Frames? you betcha!

Love the Jewelry!

Our products are many. The ideas for improvement of the existing products and new products seems to be endless. We constantly talk about what to do and how to do it. Inspiration is every where and we get excited envisioning where the inspiration is leading us. Our secret is simple. Do not stop! Follow the path. My metal flowers were pathetic at first and now they are a popular item. Follow what ever, where ever it leads. Growth starts at the beginning and the fruits of joy only come to you as the tree grows. There would be no fun of discovery if you already knew where you were going!

Still at the Gem Show ... But.....

Well while we are negotiating with China for additional funds to buy MORE & MORE, not really, though that might not be a bad idea, hmmmmmm, here are a few of my lovely wife's creations that went to Wyoming. These are a very popular series of match box shrines. I should say the match box shrines are a popular series. Better you think? Well anyway, she has been making these for years. In fact one of these were one of the first creations I saw of hers. I looked with amazement at the detail and quality of work man ship. Not only are they completely encased on the out side when you open the inside they are also finished. She also places a charm on the inside that goes with the theme of the match box. Vincent Van go has a little silver ear on a chain!  She makes a lot of lotiria card ones, saints of all sorts,themed ones and then there are the " fancy " ones. I love them all but the fancy ones are totally exquisite!!!!!

 

Elvis of course. With all the do-dads of the music industry. Then theres Ms.Monroe with her diamonds and the Mermaid with the treasures of the deep and the icon of all girls in the whole world! The one and only ( Trade marked plastic doll ). Do not want to be sued for using the name or anything. But I believe that you can figure it out Can't you Barbie?

Theres More coming up latter. Ms. Cheri Mossie is forever creating gorgeous works of art! I will post more as time allows. I often tell people, you are people right? I guess I can tell you anyway, I live in a land of wonder where Xmas is every morning. See, she works at night and when I get up she has a beautiful new piece of art for me to see. How great is that!!! I LOVE IT !! ( by the way our Xmas tree is still up ). Till later we are again off to the show, fossils I think, for fun.It's all fun. For you artists sketch one of the above, now thats a way to spend an after noon. Now where is my Indiana Jones hat?