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?

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 "

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?

11 Degrees of ?

Well the Gem show has started and we are running like crazy. More on that later.

The buyer came by and loved our stuff. The store is in Jackson Hole Wyo. Beautiful art in a beautiful place! We are going up there in the spring. Big trip! First ever for us! I'm not much on vacations and things. I enjoy working. A very " you get things done if you do them " mantra leads me through life's paths. We do take Sunday afternoons off to explore the desert and fossil hunt and of course fish.

Following is a series that I did some time ago. I decided that a portrait that was composed with the angle of the head at 11 degrees of tilt was absolutely perfik' (spelling from a BBC show, Loved that show) So I made this series and I as you can see I was so totally successful. They were all done with the under painting and then layers or washes on top. Bunches and bunches of washes. Well to make a long story short ( wife waiting to go spend the national debt at the gem show ) the lady from Jackson Hole loved them and wants to put them in her gallery. So they must be framed and sent out into the big world. They are all excited about this. When I did shows they, meaning the paintings , would all clamor for the best spot in the tent. That's why I did shows. It was because the paintings wanted to get all fancied up and show off. ( loose translation not much sales but great fun ) My art has been described by a gentleman at one of these shows as " the artist has some serious mental problems". He said this to me not knowing I was the artist. He was also a shrink. You should have seen the backpedalling on that one when I said ' I'm the artist"! I grinned for days!!!! I do what I want because I want to do it. I do not paint to fulfill some unknown expectation. I have done that and was always very miserable trying to reach the constantly moving bar.  But any way I'm Off to the gem show to find treasures of wonder and joy.

Love you all and you all love life! OK? OK!

Arizona Dreams

Indian Feathers

Past, Present and Future

Loosing her marbles

Vampire # 3

About a year or so ago, before the great flood of my studio and subsequent repairs, I had started the "Vampire Girl" I posted the beginnings in several earlier posts. Well the studio is back up and running and there was this day that.... I mean well..... anyway I pulled out the old picture and she said " it's time " and so it was. The last post showed the background and the base color for her face. I used blue to model the face. This sitting I worked over that color with more blue then burnt sienna and raw sienna. The darker areas was painted with a combination black. In this picture I combined blue, burnt sienna and crimson. After modeling the face I then started over this with a series of washes that were made of various amounts of yellow, red, white and raw sierra. Presto! Face. On top of all this there is a clear coat with a very light blue tint and gold glitter. Just a hint. The last coat shows up when the light is just right. OOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! Coming along nicely I think.
She still has more to be done but I'm not sure when that will be. THE GEM SHOW IS COMING !!!
And this year we have a buyer that Cheri is selling to that wants to stop by and see what else we do. And that means I have to get busy putting together samples. Feel the pressure!!!! Ya right. I do a recycled tin flower ornament that people love and sells rather well and I have only once had them ready for the Christmas season. They do sell all year though. There are actually quite a few different styles and sizes of the recycled tin flowers. A big seller is a rusted series that I do. Now try getting something to rust in Arizona! There is no humidity at all. I make it work though. And then there is multitudes of other things that need to be touched up and readied. I feel really good about working on art again.
 I have a day job that pays the bills and helps us build what we need for the day art will be 24/7. I have taken off for a year or more several different times to do nothing but art. I learned a hell of a lot about the "art" business in those times. I decided that I needed to be prepared to do art full time on my terms and that I needed to become properly set up. So I work. Making a living doing art, as Cheri has done most her life, requires dedication, self discipline and a health dose of reality. Learn to love the art you do for sales! Learn to work as never before to produce those items that sell. I came to the realization that right now I was not going to be an instant, overnight world wide art sensation. Kind of like a rock star. There are very few of the rock star types but mostly there are a hole lot of garage bands. I may never be a "rock star" but I will be a damn good garage band. After all it is the small good bands that bring untold millions joy and a good time. I like that. After all to me it is all about the good times and passing it on to others. Rich is good, famous not so good, being who I am not terribly bad.
So off to the art mines to work work and laugh!