Hearts Galore

Many of you have seen a number of different hearts over the past years.  Twisted steel, glass, bike gears, and other recycled steel parts were welded into wonderful sculptures.  I was fortunate to discover a haul of various colors of recycled metal shelving.  Green, red, blue, and orange all in about 10 foot lengths.  What a find!

There's going to be a number of significant changes with my work that you'll see at some of this year's shows.  Many shows will feature the same work that I love to do that many of you have been enjoying for what is now decades, and the fine art shows will feature work similar to the hearts below and other new work that I'll be featuring here over the next few months getting ready for 2012.

This first heart features a three inch side with alternating horizontal green and red slats.  It's approximately 16 inches tall by about 12 inches wide.

The second heart is similar to the one featured above with the metal running vertical.  I like this one a lot.

Number three is my version of what's hanging around inside our hearts.  It's also about three inches thick, and I've created a variety of plumbing interconnected with bicycle gears.  Now that is some pacemaker!  Note the stitching across the front, and it's also all around the outside where the heart front meets the heart's sidewalls.

This is the fourth and last one for tonight! It has some serious plumbing work, and I've added the metal at different levels throughout the heart. Imagine as if the heart's skin is pealed back to reveal its inner workings. 

A lot of things are changing this year with my work.  You can keep up to date by subscribing to my blog for the latest additions.  See you soon!

New Video

I discovered a great stop action film program for my Android, and it's great for making short videos to add to my youtube site.  I've embedded the video that I shot this morning and edited down to about one and a half minutes.  Windows Live Movie Maker on my laptop was used to edit the movie.  It's amazing how easy everything was.




This is going to really speed up the video making and editing process and will allow me to get the latest greatest videos for everyone's enjoyment!  Please let me know what you think.  Joe

Adopted

Our Adopted Page on our website at www.cliftonmetalworks.com/adopted.htm is really starting to fill up.  Thank you everyone for all the great photos that you're emailing in.  Here's the latest addition to our growing family.

Teri's New Friend

William Woods adopted this young lady for his daughter and is in her backyard in Salem, Oregon.  She's really brought new life into what is already an exciting vibrant yard.

 Dr. Dave's Stork

I've created a number of works for Dr. Dave over the past few year's with this fellow being the first.  He commissioned this piece for his office and his staff and clients just love it.  It really breaks the ice when new folks come in!  Currently, I'm working on a new office piece that is being created of medical instruments that he provided last summer to me.  Hmm.  Wonder what they could be???

The Way Back Home

I get tired of driving towards the end of each year after the shows and it's so especially this year.  Two trips back and forth from Florida to Michigan; two trips driving from Florida to Washington; and numerous trips from Washington to California.  Part of the exciting life of being an artist.  Along with all the driving comes the fuel bills, vehicle maintenance, and the unexpected things that can happen on the road.  And, so it went with last Monday.

Around midnight I stopped in Willows, California to catch a few z's before completing my return trip home.  After a few hours, I woke and headed north excited to make it home sometime around noon.  I stopped at the McDonald's just outside of Shasta, California (I actually like their coffee) for a brief rest-over and headed back north.  The weather was starting to turn nasty as I turned north onto Interstate 5.  Everything was going great until about 20 minutes north of Grants Pass, Oregon when a guy pulled up beside me and started waving at me.

It seemed that I lost a wheel about a mile back and never felt a thing.  The other tire blew as the guy was signaling me that I had a challenge.  This is the look beside the tow truck after the driver and I got the trailer loaded.  A few words of advice.  AAA RV Plus.  These guys are terrific and this membership will get your vehicle and trailer towed up to 100 miles for no cost to you other than your annual membership fee.  This has saved my back a few times over the last 20 years.

We headed back south down the freeway towards Les Schwab tires where I had already given them a head's up that we'd be coming in.  It was close to noon when I arrived and about five o'clock when they had me back on the road.  And, it was around 10 PM when I returned home.

The moral of this story is to be prepared and keep a positive attitude.  This is such a small event in the grand scheme of life.

Sunday Morning in San Carlos

San Carlos is our last California show for 2011, and I'm sitting here at 6:00AM with a fresh Starbucks Americano (no run for cream please).  It's kind of like a strong black coffee ( and again, no run for cream please)!  I could write a whole blog post on the number of times I ordered black coffee, and the clerk, barista, whoever was behind the counter asked me that question.

San Carlos is a nice town just south of San Francisco right off highway 101 and slightly below California state highway 92.  This week the show is on Laurel Avenue and runs approximately five blocks south, and then there are two blocks at San Carlos Avenue which intersects Laurel.  It's another town that seems to buck national trends where the downtown section is mostly intact with businesses, and even a large vacant building has a sold sign on it.

The weather is picture perfect California - sunny and low to mid seventies yesterday, and it's supposed to be mostly the same today.  "What's that in my picture"?  Dang aeroplane pulling the Geico gecko sign.  Only at an art faire in California would one see this. 

Yesterday morning started off with a bang with my latest fish going to this fine gentleman.  No, not the good looking guy in the Hawaiian shirt (that's me), it's the happy guy on the right.  As I always tell everyone I wake up better than average, and I'm happy to go to bed in an even better mood.  It's contagious and people really are happy to be around you!

 The sun is still low and I'm going to do some reading for now.  There's still a number of shows to think about over the next few months, and we have to get serious about planning shows for next year.  People are always amazed when they discover the whole process and logistics we artists go about to do the shows.  Most are thankful and often comment that maybe their job isn't so bad.  It takes a certain person to do these  shows and be successful at them.  A lot of persistence and self motivation are the key, but I really believe that anyone can do this.  I've been approached several times to teach a course, but I'm always so busy that it's hard to fit it in my current schedule.

Changes - Think of the David Bowie song while reading this

The last day of summer 2011 was a few days back and it only took one day for the weather to change to the "normal" northwest fall.  Blustery winds, grey skies, and rain.  Oh the normalcy of it all!  It's good to be back in our Vancouver house and see how our yard has changed over the past few years.  It's amazing how quickly things grow.

This red maple in our front yard started out around three feet tall nine years ago and here it is today.

It's also good to be around some old friends.  Last Saturday, our neighbors Dave and Floreen Clark, had a mystery welcome home dinner at their house.  This is a role playing who-done-it murder mystery that includes dinner, mayhem, and wine...of course.  Bill and Jackie Woods, and Shane and Duane Yokum rounded out the group.

Of course there are more changes occurring in our family.  Our oldest son, Nathan, graduated from nursing school last December and accepted a position at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tacoma, Washington (about two hours north of our Vancouver house).  Here Nathan is driving a UHAUL truck with his family's belongings to their new home in Tacoma.

I'm reminded that Changes are always around us and is an important constant in our lives.  Just like the weather, growing things, and the good people around us.

One, Two, Three, and More Art Shows To Go

 It's been roughly a month since we've returned from Florida, and last Thursday night we headed south to California on one of our many art fair excursions.  We stopped just south of Medford, Oregon to spend the night before heading into the Lafayette area for our next show.  I woke up about five AM and rousted Mackie and the schnauzers from bed and off we headed down Interstate 5 in search of our next adventure.

We topped Siskiyou Summit and headed into California.  Yep, that's the thermometer inside our Dodge Pickup reading 39 degrees - I love the fall in the northwest.  Crisp mornings and warm afternoons.  It's tough to beat!  On we go to the California Inspection station.

"Do you have any fresh fruit or plants" asked the state attendant?

"No" I replied.

"What's in the trailer?" she asked.

"Artwork" I replied.

She looked back down to her book and said, "move along".

The California inspection station has always been a mystery to me for over 25 years.  They pay state employees to sit in booths at every entry point that I've ever been on to ask those same questions.  I've never seen them stop someone.

Mackie, my lovely wife next to the truck, our good friend Judy, along with Sophie and Sherman by our truck.  It's all about the parking at any art show, and us professionals are always trying to jockey our rigs around to the closest possible spot to our booth.  The shorter the distance the easier to set up and tear down.  A few days later we were able to move our truck up the street and turn it around during the evening. This probably saved us about 30 minutes during our tear down Sunday evening.

One of my new creations bogarted Mackie's coffee and wouldn't give it back.  The brand shall remain nameless, but the white cup with the green mermaid should give it away!

One more show down and a million more to go.