Friday, April 26, 2013


The valuable little sketchbook

Nothing is worse than opening up a bag of clay, grabbing a hunk, and being completely clueless about what you’re going to do with it. I constantly had this problem every Wednesday night when I first started at Sculptors Workshop, until I discovered the solution to this conundrum. Bring my sketchbook! Although the sketches were originally made for paintings or linocuts, I found that any of my drawings could be the inspiration of a sculpture.
My sketchbook is a valuable little tool that I occasionally refer to when I’m stuck. Anything from a good song lyric to a crow flying overhead can send me scrambling to record a fleeting image before it escapes. A lot of my scribbling can be awful, or just plain odd (what was I thinking???), but I’m not trying to impress anyone, and they basically are just inspirational notes.
Sometimes it can be quite difficult to transform a quick gestural sketch that I love into a sculpture. I gradually realized that the best method for me is sculpting solid (as opposed to slabs or coil building), and then hollowing the piece out. Other times the sketch can be a reference point, and the sculpture can head in a strange new direction.
Working out the problems of a big complex sculpture on paper is a great way to avoid headaches. The “Ship of Fools” sketch page shows how the idea evolved, the details, and even how the sculpture will be cut into pieces and hollowed out. But as you can see from the finished piece, I added the head of a mysterious being, and I decided to change the position of the guy with the telescope on top of the world. Sketchbooks-don’t leave home without ‘em!

Monday, April 8, 2013

From Cardboard Spaceships to Cheetalopes


Blog by Mike O'Day. 
ARTspot is proud to represent Mike's work at our store in Edmonds, WA.
How does a kid who loves to draw and make things out of cardboard with mom’s steak knives, eventually buy a kiln and try to scratch out a living making Cheetalopes?
Fast forward to college, where the art students were separated into two groups: Commercial Artists that were prepared to sell their souls creating ads for banks (I actually got to draw an occasional illustration!), and Real Artists that painted nudes and were prepared to live perpetually in mom and dad’s basement.
After 4-5 years of selling my soul (but not living in the basement), my wife Chris and I headed from St. Louis to LA, where, on a lark, I answered an ad to draw caricatures on historic Olvera Street. This is a tourist destination, so I spent two years honing my skills drawing thousands of people from all over the planet. I also learned that school kids on field trips would gladly pay $1 for a kinko’s copy of Bo Jackson, M.C. Hammer, and Vanilla Ice.
When son #1 was born, I quit the carefree life of a caricature artist and began the role of stay-at-home dad/freelance illustrator/home improvement guy. Changing diapers, creating humorous illustrations of Michael Jordan for Inside Sports, and hanging sheetrock became my full-time job. After son #2 was born and they both started school, I began teaching art at the local co-op where I met a potter named Julie Perrine.
Julie invited me to check out Sculptors Workshop which was ruled by our benevolent dictator Rose Morgan. Two years later, my sculpture “Red Plant Man” won best in show at the Edmonds Arts Festival. Unfortunately, my streak abruptly ended the next year. After purchasing a fellow members kiln, and setting up shop at home, the rest is history.
I still like to occasionally make stuff out of cardboard now and again.

You can always find Mikes ceramic sculpture at ARTspot. 
From Mike O'Day Blog originally published April 6th, 2013
See Mikes work at his website: http://odayart.com/wordpress/about/