2.5D Electronic Hospital

Yes, those are real vital sign monitor contacts that were attached to me and the gauze from my IV. I told them I don't do needle drugs, but they would not listen. CDs, 3.5" floppy disks, a guitar cable, the spiral from a notebook, the guts of a guitar effect pedal, RCA jacks...

Macro Grasshopper

This is a mixed media painting/drawing from a photograph I found online. The wing texture was done with tempera and a sponge. I was getting ready for my display at the local library and realized that I needed more representational images. This includes so many different types of paint and drawing materials that it would be pointless to list them all.

Cut Paper Collage

These were made in the way that children fold and cut snowflakes. I used some abstract papers with paint splatter, wove some together, pasted pieces on top, sprayed some bleach... Anything to make it wild.

Vertical Format Book with Buckle

I planned this as a sketchbook for myself. The covers are made of my primitive form of suminagashi using spray paint and canvas on water. I call this "sue mean a goshy". The inside covers are the same, but paper. Plastic outlet covers cut and painted for corners and a buckle from my old Lip Service straight jacket for closure. The bookmark is made of cheap twines and the filler is brown packing paper, yellow construction paper and expensive white drawing paper. Unfortunately for me, when I got to class the first day, the professor handed out sketchbooks.

Unicorn Book

This book was supposed to go with a bag done with white, purple and blue twine. It's a bolt book with suminagashi cover papers, black denim binding cloth and brads for accents. The filler is printer paper and the cover unicorn was some sponged/dripped abstract paper. The bag suffered from a botched strap. It kept getting shorter as I made it wider.

Elemental Boxes #1&2

These boxes are different shapes and color schemes from the previous entries, but the process is relatively the same. The pyramid got "earthy" colors in abstract patterns. It looks "wetter" and drippier than I intended, but the basic idea was to look as if it had been exposed to outdoor weather for a few thousand years. I tried to make the "water" box rippled by taping hemp twine to it before paper mache, but that didn't work very well. I compensated in the paint by using circular items to stamp bubbles on and put some wave foam around the edges with sponges.

Vase 3?

A 6 sided vase in a different shape from the others.

Boxes with color wheel rock borders

I took the "rock borders" idea from my previous box and vase, but this time I used different colors. I made a set of 4. Each box started with a base coat of a color and each successive layer moved counter-clockwise around the color wheel. For example, the red box has purple dry brushing, blue frames, green dry brushing on them and yellow string hinges.

Paper Mache Guitar Amplifier Cabinets

I had some heads from practice amps and some speakers floating around and decided to make something of them. I made the small one first and then the large. I was going for a late '80s early '90s style with the painting. The small one has drips and splatters of primary colors (red, blue, yellow) and the large is secondary colors (green, orange, purple). Had I thought ahead to doing 2, I would have used one small speaker and one large speaker in each to make a matching set to use in stereo. I would also have glued together double layers of cardboard because the sides of the larger cabinet bent outward and were a pain to get flat again.

Calyx Krater

My friend saw the vases I had made and asked for one for Christmas. I told him that my next would be a calyx krater (ancient Greek) and he said that he wanted his to be "legit". We haggled over hero counts, but the figures were easier to do than expected. He got Theseus vs the Minotaur on one side and Perseus with Pegasus and Medusa (with a bonus Kraken) on the other. There may be some type of copyright issue with my figure designs, but I processed them to look "legit" enough so that should not be a problem. My only real issue with this is that the paper mache became heavy enough to distort the top when it was wet.

Vases 1 & 2

I imagened in my mind a cardboard vase that would look like a surrealist painting. It would be angular and have the shading all going the wrong way. That did not happen. This is what came out instead. The outer surfaces were painted flat and then drybrushed, accentuating the edges and ripples in my paper mache. Splattering them got paint all over my desk, another sculpture and my mirror.

Cemetery Excitement

Over the summer, I was struck by an interest to do a piece based on a photo of this crypt door at the local cemetery. I was still in abstract mode, so it looks way more exciting and inviting than a cemetery should.

Popcorn Sutton

This is from a sketchbook for an art class. I don't think it's that good because I didn't grid and measure. It looks impressionist to me.

Self Portrait in Plaster

The sculpture class at school was doing plaster casts of people's faces and hands. I was unable to do my hands because of how hairy they are, so she told me to do fingers. I was also given some broken hands that were left behind. I had been looking at the chicken wire all semester, wanting to use it and everyone got a board. I had already spent so much time on my electric garden that I just put the stuff together, added some black and red in a few places and called it done. I really like it because the class was appropriately shocked.

Reggae Bag and Book

I had made a custom bag for myself of hemp twine to use at school. It worked so well that I thought other people should use them too. My Jamaican friend was still nearby at the time and I figured that maybe he could talk someone into buying a bag, so I made it reggae-style. It's pretty self-explanatory, but I will list my materials in the labels as always.