Portland Cement

Touching Art: the Blog has been on summer vacation.
Carla and Touching Art have not! I have been making a lot of artwork, and doing a lot of travel and ceremony. My work has had a deep inner resonance that defied language. Therefore I was quiet most of the time.

I did complete one ambition: I learned to make sculpture using cement. Since last summer I have had the urge to make my MerQueen and Dolphin images larger. They were born as tiny porcelain bowls.
Plaster was suggested, but the material that juiced me was cement. I went online to find instructions and came upon Bo Atkinson's website. Fascinated by his structures, sculpture and passion for sharing concepts and methods, I looked up contact info, and discovered he lives in Montville, less than half hour's drive from my house.

We finally coordinated our schedules in August to spend some time learning the barest of cement forming basics.  I sand cast a 24 inch disc in a rich portland cement mix and modeled the MerQueen and Her Lover motif on its surface, shown below in progress.

I covered all with pure white cement. It needs another coat. Many thanks to Bo for the lessons, advice, and inspiration.

I have purchased bags of white cement and portland cement to make another on my own, but that will wait till I return from my journey. I am busy making small pieces to take out west with me.

I really loved working with cement. I used my hands almost exclusively, gloved for protection. I love forming the material with my hands, unmediated by tools. The scale I usually work tools are required to carve and shape the tiny spaces and textures. I'll have fun with this medium for a long time to come.

Bonus: the portland cement is made locally at Dragon Cement in Thomaston, Maine.

Comments

[Angela]

Carla,

It's beautiful. It's good to see what you've been up to this summer. Your pieces are so evocative and mystical. I just love them. Visit my new blog when you get a minute. Still in progress, but I started posting anyway. And where in the west are you going?

[tammy vitale]

I hadn't visited and look what I find when I come! I'm exploring (theoretically not actually yet) how to get bigger for outside...this looks interesting, but what I want to do is have something I can use for an overcoat - I guess something like winterstone (which is way too expensive). Anyways, this is lovely and thought provoking - thanks for sharing!

[Busby SEO Test]

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