June 30, 2012

We from the Sculpture Resource Center hung our paintings on 4th Avenue spontaneously, at 4th Ave and 5th St, in front of Martin's Comida Chingona.  Tying our paintings to the chain link fence is our reaction the ugly Tucson Modern Street Car construction.

The street corner:

Glenn Hernandez:

Joshua Woodhall:

Me:

Martin Quintanilla:

Gonzalo Espinosa:

Update: The owner of Martin's Comdia Chingona took our paintings down and put them up every day until the fence was removed on July 14th.

The artwork Dinnerware put up on the construction fence on Congress, however, did not fare so well.  They were supposed to have an opening on Saturday, July 14th, but by that time the city took all the artwork down.  Dinnerware responds with a thought provoking statement:

But recent removal of art from the Congress Street fence seems to ask some questions: Does this construction project belong to Tucson, or someone else? Whoever it is, recent events seems to add to feelings of helplessness on top of construction woes.

June 28, 2012

Drawn at The Drawing Studio in Tucson:

June 26, 2012

Gonzalo Espinosa is creating a clay piece in Tucson, at the Sculpture Resource Center, using a Styrofoam mold -- milled in Guadalajara from a 3D digital file -- as a press mold.  This is a continuation of a larger digital process that began as a drawing.

A Confederate soldier standing next to the final ceramic relief at Tucson's 237th birthday party in the Presidio, flanked by two of Gonzalo's paintings (Aug 20):

We actually had a false start earlier this year, trying to do the same thing.

First he coated the mold with Vaseline as a mold release (June 26):

Then he pressed the clay into the mold, piece by piece:

Gonzalo used a layer of the same thickness throughout the whole mold, so that it would dry evenly and not crack in the kiln.  This results in some depressions in the clay, where the relief sculpture is deeper in the mold:

Finished:

Gonzalo covered the clay with plastic, to slow down the drying.  He also clamped the mold to the table, as the Styrofoam had warped in the sun:

We demolded the next day (June 27):

The flaws in the clay surface needed to be repaired:

Gonzalo roughed up the surface imperfections with a fork first:

And then smoothed the surface out with water and a wooden clay tool:

Lastly he sponged the whole surface, to smooth out the texture which the roughly milled Styrofoam left on the clay:

Gonzalo cut the wet clay so that the pieces would fit in in the kiln.  After firing them, he put the ceramic piece back together like a puzzle (July 14):

 

The piece glazed and fired (July 28):