Original art may be commissioned in an easy give and take format. The exchanges made between the client and me are a rewarding aspect in the co-creation of the piece.
The Interview
The client and I meet in person, by phone, or e-mail. I ask the client to express in detail the feelings, background, and importance of the proposed piece in their lives. We discuss general details such as size, type of stone (I only work in stone these days, it was a career decision that allows me to give my genius and mastery to each piece), proposed site of installation, and any other intuitive suggestions we may have together. We establish between us the essence of what the piece will be about. This is co-creation at its best.
The Creative Process
After years of practice I have come to see that this "creative stage " is as vital and discernable as the carving stage. After my initial discussion with the client, I enter meditation with the essence of each piece. It is here in meditation that I get in touch with the energies wanting expression through the art form of carved stone. In my artist's notes I write down my experiences in meditation and share these with the client in the on-going co-creation of the piece.
Often the client has been drawn to ask for a piece in their lives, and often these pieces end up being holders of wisdom, teachings, revelations that the client wants in their life. These pieces end up informing and relating to their co-creators for years and years to come.
I return to my studio and create models (maquettes) to suggest a direction. Often these models are guided by the essence itself. Maquettes are starting points and not replicas of what the finished piece will look like though to the untrained eye they will resemble each other greatly.
The Covenant
After the direction of the piece or the maquette is chosen by the client or I am satisfied that I know where the piece is going, I go about the involved process of establishing costs and work up a final price for the piece. If the client is in agreement with the direction and cost of the project, I write up a letter of intention for us both to sign.
Letter of Intention:
~The mutually agreed upon total cost. A 50% downpayment is required at this time with the other 50% due upon receipt of the piece.
~A delivery or installation date will be set. Postage and handling or Delivery and installation fees, if required, are an addition to the set price.
~Artist's notes and photos of the work in progress are promised.
~A bill of sale to document the piece's ownership and cost for insurance purposes.
~Explanation of the rights and copyrights to the piece. Basically the client owns the piece and the artist owns the image.
~If all the terms are mutually acceptable, we both sign the letter of intention and I order the stone and enter the process of carving.
Queries
Questions about commissions or for further information about my art, please e-mail me and I will be happy to respond.
Commissions
Back to Top
process of co-creation; the maquette;stone samples, the work in progress; the finished piece.
The Procedure
Stages of a commission
Commission for a group
UUCF
pictures of a commission, the maquette, the choices of stone, and the finished piece.
Back to Top
The Interview
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Fairfax has commissioned a piece of art for their central speaker's platform. This piece was to contain floral arrangements.
I had just started my new series, Inner Perspectives, and was inspired to show them the concept in our initial interview. They liked the concept of the series. After that the three representatives from the church and I developed the parameters of the piece.
After discussion and measurements were taken, the four of us determined that the piece would be open, versatile in orientation, could stand alone as a sculpture as well as embrace floral arrangements. The piece would be around 14 x 15 x 18 give or take.
The Proposal
The following pictures of the maquette were posted on the website for the committee's approval. They were also invited to the studio to see it in person.
This was the second maquette and is 11" x 8" x12". The first model was a bit larger which would have made the cost of the stone outside of their proposed budget and too heavy to be manipulated by their floral arranging committee.
The maquette is not a refined image. The stone piece will have much more detail and sophistication than the Plasticine model. The effort for this maquette was to define the shape inside and out that will hold the space of the 20" x 20" stand it will reside upon, while stretching for height in one direction, openness in another direction, and dynamic twist in yet another direction.
The maquette was carved at full scale in order to insure the ability of the piece to accept the vases and bowls which will be placed inside of it when floral or other items are a part of its presentation.
The piece will have three orientations with four sides for each orientation...a total of twelve different presentations as a one sided altar piece. Of course if the sculpture is shown by itself in the round it will have the three orientations.
Study One
11"h x 8 " x 12"
Choice of the stone
These stone samples are from the archives of the Neolithic Stone Company , Vancouver, Canada. The stone was purchased from Neolithic and the Wonderstone Woodgrain was chosen for the honey highlights, and the contrasting greens.
Wonderstone Wood grain
The work in progress.
Pictures of the rough stone and the initial rough-in shape follow.
Wonderstone Bright Yellow
This is the 137 pound stone upon arrival.
The rough stone is marked with a crayon to begin shaping the stone.
Several days later the rough edges of the stone have been chiseled away and the stone begins to take its outside shape.
The rough stone is favorably shaped and the dynamics of the original maquette are increased by the shape. I realize I will be able to get a whole other aspect because of the shape.
After working with it another day, I realize that each aspect will also have two orientations.
Picture A can be seen in this aspect, and then when the base is tilted the same aspect turns into Picture B resembling a chalice.
Picture C shows the left hand aspect of Picture A.
Picture A
Picture B
Picture C
Click here to add text.
This next set of interim photos were taken when the piece weighed about 60 pounds. Most of the interior is gone.
To show the grain and the color of the stone, the stone has been wetted down. This stage is still very rough but a final shape has evolved and the refining has begun.
The goal is to reduce it to 35 pounds or less from it's original 137.
The black pen marks indicate where more mass will be taken away or where additional smoothing is needed.
Phase one
Phase two
Phase three
Home Page
Phase four
The sculpture is finished. It was installed at UUCF on Sunday, October 31, 2004 at both services.
Glenna's Angels...studies
Masculine Emerging Essence
Back to Top
Feminine Emerging Essence
After a long winter of introspection, this spring is a true advent of new energies for me as well as for Glenna's Angels.
At the beginning of this project crows congregated in our front meadow and bore witness to the angelic energies as they assembled here at the farm. This winter my first morning home after a six week absence, I was awakened to the call of Raven. A raven some 20 inches long beak to tail sat right outside the living room window. It turned to face me, tapped four times on the window and then took off in a majestic display of power. As amazing as that wake-up call was, the really compelling nature of this phenonmenon is that Raven visits almost everyday....calls to me...and makes its presence known.
As I write this I understand he calls me back to the angelic energies and this on-going project. I understand that I have, since its beginning, been transformed many times in order to work with these energies. I understand that my latest transformation has resulted in a hollowing out and a never before sensation of complete emptiness. I understand that this emptiness is a prerequistie for allowing this powerful understanding of the feminine to be experienced.
Last week I was called to begin this new maquette for the feminine angelic essence. I was inside of this energy for a brief period and felt it's fluid generosity, its massive presence, its witness, its waiting...just waiting for the active presence to ask and out of its womb would produce all of the necessary impulses to deliver a manifestation guided by the active principle. This feminine presence in creation was felt but briefly during my mediation. Once understood, it will be honored and life will change. Aho!
These maquettes are set against a photo NGC 364 Small Magellanic Cloud, HST-ACS/WFC. Our information about our life expands each time we can glimpse those incredible goings-on in universal space. Music, art, consciousness are expanding to these new perspectives.
These angels are that expanded view and as such are set against the vast emptiness of space....which isn't really so empty. These angels are expanded form, expanded information. I feel that we no longer need to personify our angels as they are asking to be given the freedom of the cosmos. Their essence is the creation of new star systems, new galaxies, new waves of cosmic creations..........and they bring us this perspective only to teach us that this cosmic view is within our grasp, this experience of life is ours to live. That within us are worlds, fusion, thought beyond words, the harmoic resonance of creation.
This masculine spiral image portrays the nature of the active masculine principle. The motion of the spiral takes us through a complete cycle of physical life where it starts at the top swirls down and then swings back upon itself seeking the great transformational birthing point at the top. The motion then starts the inward spiritual journey of life circling out and then in to that same transformative birthing point where it swings into the physical once again. There are two spirals representing two forms of life; the physical sojourn and the spiritual sojourn.
This is the fourth evolution of the sculpture. There was a fault which bisected the stone that wouldn't go away. I knew I had to cleave the stone to remedy the percieved weakness. After I cleaved it, a great weight lifted off my shoulders. Then I beheld this magnificent vaulting expression of the healthy vital active male principle. It was as if the previous images were embryonic, and the piece was just waiting for me to understand the true nature of its essence. It literally turned itself upside down in its metamorphosis.
Even though the image has shifted perspective, the meaning has not.
Now that I can pick up the threads of my life, I will return to finish this magnificent piece. .
Click here to add text.
To give you a sense of the scope of this work, the masculine maquette fits inside of the feminine maquette done in the same scale.
While fluid and simple, this change in the feminine shape resonates with the information I am being given at present.
Michael
lifesized
SECOND STUDY
THIRD WORKING STUDY
SECOND WORKING STUDY
EAST ORIENTATION
STAGE ONE OF THE ROUGH IN NOVEMBER,2006
This very early stage is only now beginning to take on the shape of the piece. There is still more mass to cut away from the top and the squared off sides.
STONE ON ARRIVAL
FOURTH WORKING STUDY
Glenna's Angels
the masculine ...a work in progress
FIRST WORKING STUDY
CURRENT WORKING STUDY
