A busy day yesterday.
I started by sanding the Salomé masks, the Freud and, in particular, the Nietzsche mask. Sculptamold remains a great material. It sets rock hard, such that even the roughest of normal sand paper isn't enough, so power tools or really sharp chisels are needed. I used my drill and the drum sander which is an amazingly useful and powerful sanding tool. An even better tool would be an orb of sponge covered in changeable sandpaper, or indeed a cone. Yet, none of those exists, and even this drum sander is no longer available as a tool.
Still it really took a lot off the Nietzsche hand, and it looks much better, the fingers, after that were much more smooth and 'realistic' than the other mask. I use realistic loosely, as these hands are abstract and aim to convey a feeling rather than be too realistic... for a start a real hand would not be able to hold an orb comfortably at that pose, but also, there is an element of 'collage' that can ruin an artwork, when one part looks too realistic compared to a more abstracted other part.
This work took all morning, and all for masks for a performance that will probably be poorly attended and certainly non-paying, not only this, the masks have no use in our show. I designed them, and liked the idea, and have made them as an incidental spectacle. if the show is a huge success, tours the world, is performed one day in great halls, then these masks (and more) will be worn by the chorus, but, for now, they are artworks inspired by our own artwork. It is for the reason that they are made, a permanent feature of the transient performance work.
In the night, I had the idea of a Rilke mask with a hooked nose from which to hand his heart, so I made that from Sculptamold in the morning too.
At 2pm, I gave a piano lesson to Peter, he tried to persuade me to join Crewe Chess Club, which I would if I had time. When I'm old and have nothing better to do, chess would seem like a nice pastime.
After that I applied gesso to the masks, my own recipe of chalk, and a mix of GAC200 acrylic medium and water 1:1. This seems to be a great way to make sculptors gesso, which is far closer to plaster than paint, a thick filler. It dries quickly and is very soft and sandable. It's aim is to fill in the many gaps and pits in these very pitted and lumpy sculptures. I applied about three coats each to each mask. They touch-dry in minutes, but take a few days to dry completely ready for sanding.
Today I continued work on the video projections for Salomé, twelve are needed. I wanted to avoid having any, all of this extra work for this transient performance, but I can't resist making everything the best it can be and including everything possible. This project is and has been so much work. Here is a scan of some wool for the Freud's Lecture piece:
The video places lots of random strands of wool on the screen in rapid succession, sort of a cross between the Len Lye dancing line and the old 'Pipes' screensaver that Windows 95 used to use:
It's relatively easy to do in Argus, a matter of making 12 individual strands and making one appear with random orientation and at a random place every few frames, and having them fade out and fall away. For 'Cosmic Solitude' I made a falling, spiralling tunnel of hearts, using the 3D heart model we've made (which Deb will be performing with):
In other news, I've submitted an old unpublished story (The Hare and the Fox, a circular allegory similar to The Incomprehension of Beauty) to a new magazine project by John Hopper called 100subtexts. John is a supportive friend and one of the few inspirational and arty connections I have on social media. Also in other news I'm contracted to make some new sound effects and am looking forward to that next week.
Tomorrow is the opening of the Stockport Open so I'll be going to the Art Gallery, and it's the opening of the annual Bickerton exhibition too.
I feel tired and pushed to a limit with this consuming Salomé performance. I miss painting, I ache to create more. Salomé has taken so many weeks of work, but every part of it is my art as much as in any other media. Each day I swear to avoid summer performances, to save such things and music for winter when I can't paint. I must make twelve videos today, there is no time to pause.
