Today was a profitable day, as I sold 5 plaster heads and Some Handsome Hands to Geoff, the owner of the Art Explosion.  I also sold an El Camino etching to David, the boyfriend of Cricket, one of the artists in the studio.  It’s nice to free up some wall space for my current work, and of course, nice to find loving homes for the pieces.

I also finally finished the gas mask!  After trying several different ways of suspending the pennies behind the eyes (one was using a spring which didn’t work in this piece but will appear in another one), I came up with the idea of using wire mesh.  I wanted something eye catching when distorted by the magnifying glass, and the mesh has a fishnet stocking effect (gee, where have I seen that before?).  It also is evocative of prison bars, which adds an extra little Abu Ghraib to the piece.  Here are some photos:

This is the “you are on” eye, though it’s hard to read in the photo. See how the mesh distorts? Cool, huh?  As you walk around, it appears to undulate.

Here you can see the text of the “the wrong side” eye. This photo is taken from slightly further away, so the penny fills the eye.

This is a piece which started out as an idea – a gas mask with “you are on/the wrong side” behind the eyes, and wound up evolving into a much more complex and visually interesting object. I’m quite pleased with the result, and may revisit the idea once I finish with the current series.  I learned some interesting techniques making it and would like to explore the possibilities on more pieces.

I also assembled the Magritte pipes, though am having trouble gluing them all together in a satisfactory manner.  It should be done tomorrow.