Redwood Coast Creative Arts

Wild Caught Faerie I

She is the first in the Wild Caught Faeries series
She is trapped in our realm and quite distressed and disgruntled to be here. 
She has the key to the faerie realm but she can’t find the door.  She is certain that I know where it is.  She is always asking the other Mystical Beings to help her find the door and escape back to Faerie Land.

She is a Wild Forest Faerie and prefers to dance naked in the trees rather than being all dressed up in fancy finery.  She absolutely would not allow me to fix her wild mass of hair.  I was afraid that she might bite me so I just let her be! 


One of a kind, Hand sculpted polymer, hand painted , natural fiber hair, wire armature, Leather corset, silk and synthetic fabric

Lil’ Miss Moss Bit- Wee Wild Caught Faerie

At just 1.5” Lil’ Miss Moss Bit is the Teeny Weeniest  of all of the Wild Caught faeries in the series.

She is a Spring Sprout Faerie who sprouted out of a patch of moss that was growing around the roots of a tree.  Her home is in the forest in a made of rotten redwoods and mushrooms. She has a pet honey bee and feeds on honeycomb and lichen. She says that all of the trees look the same and can’t find her way back to Faerie Realm!

She is trapped in our mortal realm and lives in a little cage.  Don’t worry she can get out.  The bars are no match for her faerie magic!  She can come and go in and out of the cage as she pleases.  The bars are only symbolic of her being lost and then captured in our mortal realm!

One of a kind, Hand sculpted polymer, hand painted, wire armature, Knit fabric, faux fur hair


 

Tierra- The Earth Fae

One of the Elemental Faeries. She works with the gnomes, tending the soil. She loves nothing better than munching on fallen foliage and playing garden games with her friends, the Earthworms and snails.



In the Winter time she hibernates in an underground burrow that she digs out with her spade-foot toad feet.  Her hair is lichen and moss and wings are new Spring growth! They will sprout and grow as the seasons change. They may even bloom and bear fruit.  She will shed them before going into hibernation. She is made of fresh fertile Earth and is a host to all sorts of seeds, fungus, and flora that germinate on and inside of her body. When she emerges from her hibernation you never know what might be growing from her, or where it might sprout from. Once she had a lily growing right out of the top of her head! Silly Lily!




One of a kind, Hand sculpted polymer, wire armature, hand felted fabric, faux fur hair

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The Making of a Royal Garden Gnome

mother earth.madre tierra

Su Quisiera aka SuQui (pronounced Sookie) -The Wind Fae

SuQui is one of the Elemental Faeries .  She is very peaceful in a powerful, strong and silent kind of way. If you hear her roar it's because she's either pissed off or partying! She is the singer of all of the elements. She whistles and howls, and whispers in our ears.

All of the other Elemental Faeries look to her for guidance. She moves them and sometimes stirs them up if that is what is needed. 

Next time you hear the wind singing, whispering in your ear, or blowing through your hair you can think of her.  Make a wish and blow her a few kisses, toss flowers in the air, and twirl around in her breeze. She loves when we do that!

One of a kind, Hand sculpted polymer, natural fiber hair, wire armature, silk and synthetic fabric

I waited forever for someone else to present an all polymer art showcase in Northern California but, it never happened so, I did it myself!

  Adriana Ayala

 

 This is the truth!  I thought it would be the coolest thing if there was an all polymer art showcase that I could participate in.  HaHaHa, fat chance waiting around for that to ever happen!  The truth is that polymer art hardly ever gets featured in local galleries period!  No one knows what it is! 

Sometimes, I think that is one of the really cool things about polymer.  Because if people don't know about then there aren't very many rules around it.  If they don't know what it is they have no preconceived notions of what it should look like or what I should be doing with it!

So anyway, back to my high hopes for an all polymer exhibit at a local venue.  If you're thinking that it never happened and I had to hold my breath forever then you're partially right.  I waited around, just hoping it would happen, for a lot of years.

A few months back I took on the task of Outreach Chairperson for Clayville California (No. CA. Polymer Art Guild).  So now it is my responsibility to reach out to the community, to educate the masses about all things polymer and to encourage other members to do the same.  Great!  Now what?  How am I going to do that?  I'd love to teach more workshops but, to whom?  Through what venue, what forum?  Why am I doing this anyway?  Why do I even care?  Why can't I just sit back, twiddling my thumbs, waiting for someone else to do the work? 

The answer to that is, "I don't know"!  I don't know why I care, but I definitely do.  Why can't I just sit back and twiddle?  I don't know that either.  It's just not my way. 

So you know what I did?  I made the committment to have a polymer art exibit at Vox .  I invited Clayville California and a few other California polymer artists to submit work in this very versatile medium. 

It was really nerve wracking not knowing what would be submitted.  I wasn't sure if Id be able to fill the space until just a few days before the show.  I'll do that differently next time!  That's for sure.  However, after all is said and done I am very pleased with the end results.  The gallery space at Vox Sac looks great.  I do plan on doing this again.  I hope to make it an annual event, perhaps a traveling event!  Delusions of grandeur?  Perhaps!  But someone once said," If your dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough"!  Brilliant!

I would like to thank all of our exhibiting artists: Mary Fassler, Jacqueline Dodd, Michael J. Marx, Amy Fort, LaLa Ortiz, Marie Segal, Jennifer Erin, Mary Lu Ellliott, Maureen Thomas, Diane Redman, Rita Seale, Melody Steeples, Rachel Young, Yoli Rodriguez Manzo, Anita Sterling Winthrop, and Adriana Ayala of ClayCatShop.

Thank you to Vox Sacramento for hosting our exhibit!

OK, enough blah, blah, blah!  Here are a few pic's from the show...........         


Amy Fort

Mary Fassler

Jacqueline Dodd

Maureen Thomas


Michael J. Marx

 

Jennifer Erin

Yoli Manzo

Rachel Young


Rachel Young

 

 Adriana Ayala


Marie Segal and LaLa Ortiz


Clayville California Members; Melody Steeples, MaryLy Elliott, Maureen Thomas, Rita Seale

LaLa Ortiz

More photos will be posted soon.  So, come back!  Let me know what you think about our presentation. 

Me and Brisa at Vox 2nd Saturday

Forgotten Flowers III- Final

I always incorporate symbols of hope. Even in my artwork that depicts the darkest subject matter. This piece features the bluebirds of happiness and the rainbow of hope lifting the faded and forgotten, old lace, away to a better place.

New artwork, trio of Forgotten Flowers hanging at Mondo Bizarro - January 2012

Spoken Word, Music, & Art - Joining voices to raise awareness about human trafficking

Hosted by My Sister's House and WEAVE. Funded by the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

What's on my workbench???

I have been working on this guy all week.  I've had to take more breaks, eat more chocolate (dark of course), and drink more rum than you could possibly imagine!  This guy has been stressing me out!!!  He refused to give me his name or his story.  Possibly due to the fact that I gave him plastic eyes.  They are hollow and do not posses the life or soul of hand painted eyes.  Anyway, I came across some eyes and thought that I should put them to use.  Well, never again!  I have never known a creature to be able to hide it's entire identity and persona to me for so long.  I began to feel rejected.  My feelings of rejection caused me to retreat further into my anti-social reclusive ways.  My only companions were the rum and chocolate.  I gave him the silent treatment yesterday and apparently, it worked.  Today out of the blue he decided to tell me a bit of his story.  He is a garden gnome.  Not just any garden gnome mind you.  Oh no!  He is a royal garden gnome.  His clothing is made of the finest spider silk and golden lace and he wears a look of nobility on his gnomie little face.

The Wandering Gypsy Faerie

I was very fortunate to make it through the snow storm in the Sierras to take a cable mechanised puppetry workshop with Toby Froud in Reno, Nevada this past weekend. 

My usual 1-1/2 hour commute dragged out into a 6 hour adventure.  Not a very exciting, fast action adventure but a stuck on the road, in the mountains, in a snow storm, at a dead stop type of adventure!  Will I make it over the Summit tonight?  Will I get to sleep in a bed at the hotel or will I be stuck in the car for the night?  Will I make it to the workshop on time?  Will I be so burnt out from the journey that I am just not into the project?????  So, that was my adventure.  Not bad at all since I am the odd type of person that likes to push on through the uncertainty.  I get a kick out of it!!!

It all turned out just fine.  I made it to Reno by 10 PM, had a baked potato for dinner and headed off to bed.

Here is a pic of the head that I sculpted the first day of our workshop:

At this point she is a raw head of clay sculpted over a ball of aluminum foil.  At this stage she had not yet told me her story but I knew that she was a wise and wordly woman, of a certain age, and not a young pippy still green and wet behind the ears.

Even at this very "fresh" stage she held her head high and gazed upon the horizon of unlimited possibility...............................................................................................................

 

Here she is fully cured.  She found a body and got a little bit of sun.

Her close up

She hasn't told me her name yet but, I know that she travels and follows the whispers of the wind.  Perhaps once her eyes come through she will be able and willing to give me her name.

 

Orris Ruth- a Wild Caught Faerie

Here she is, Miss Orris Ruth (pronounced in Spanish Root, the "H" is silent).  Another member of  The Wild Caught Faerie Clan. 

Orris is the botanical name for Iris.  Miss Orris was formed from the root as it was curing in preparation for distillation for perfume.  The orris root is used in perfumes after drying and curing for up to five years.  It has a woody, violet like scent.  I use it in my natural hand made soaps.  It is also used in Morrocan cooking.  It has a raspberry-like flavor. 

She is the 4th in my Wild Caught Faerie series.  Although she appears to be locked up in her cage you should know that I would never be so cruel.  Those cage bars are no match for her faerie magic.  She could escape the cage at any time.  The bars are more symbolic of her trapped status.  You see, Miss Orris Ruth came out to play while her flower was in full bloom but neglected to get back into the bulb before the blossom faded and so, she is trapped, stuck here in our realm until her flower comes into bloom again next year.  

Orris Ruth is 2 3/4" tall when seated.  She is hand scuplted of polymer clay over a wire armature.  He tulle gown is hand sewn directly to her body.  Her hair is hand, dyed, Tibetan mohair which I applied directly to her scalp, her feather wings were also hand dyed to match her hair and the blossom from which she sprung from. 

The cage is manufactured but I distressed and patinaed it to give it a bit of old world charm.  She can be removed from her cage.  her arms can be repositioned.  The rest of her body is sculpted in a fixed pose.