Grass Skirt Serenade / ukulele sculpture

 barn timber, leather skirt, vintage trophy,
mallet handle, goblet  

Grass Skirt Serenade 
is # 6  in my series of 
stringless instruments.

This ukulele's body was cut long ago, but sat waiting for me to choose which of its painted vintage sides to use. I also needed my muse, the neck piece. 
The burgundy-red side of the barn timber won out after I sifted through leather for the grass skirt edging design. 
An old croquet mallet's turquoise- striped handle swam perfectly with the sarong-wrapped, garland-carrying trophy winner to cap it off.  
A tarnished goblet was twisted off its stem to take center stage and toast the special ceremony. 
Memories of a Hawaiian vacation and my niece's bohemian wedding serenaded me as I collaged the array of hardware on the uke's body. 
This assemblage took awhile to come to fruition, but then some love songs do.

*Dedicated to baby Kawika.

Design Week 2014

Please join us for a reception at 60nobscot as we celebrate the art and design community of Sudbury.  Come tip a glass, and meet the people responsible for some of the most diverse, high energy and creative work emanating west of Boston. Pieces from Kolman Artisan Glass, Walker-Cunningham Gallery, Cathleen Bradley, James Heroux, Jaeok Lee and 60nobscot's Ray Bachand, among others will be on display.

We are a group of artists and designers working within the confines of Sudbury, a small town West of Boston. We hope you will join with us early on a spring Saturday evening as we celebrate the creativity, imagination, inspiration, and fancy that bonds this diverse, loose knit group of like minds together. Our "wares" will be on display at the opening reception as well as during the entire period of Design Week. We also hope that a glass or two of wine, delectables from our own Bullfinchs Restaurant, the viewing of our works, and some thought-provoking conversation will motivate you into the rest of your Saturday night activities.

Leather On The Walls

My thing for circles continues. Wassily Kandinsky's study of color in squares probably did it for me.

So much time is put into creating my vibrant leather table runners that I thought it appropriate to create something for vertical viewing.

These can be viewed in person and purchased during Design Week in Sudbury.
The event reception celebrating art and design is March 22, 4:30 -7:30, 60 Nobscot Road.

leather wall or table runner

55 x 34"/ leather and stitching

Scarlet Scandalvarius

11" x 23"

                                                                                       

Stringless instrument #4.
                                                     
The recent discovery of a 299 year old
Stradivarius violin (stolen and found stashed in an
attic) coincided with the construction of my            scandal-less scarlet sculpture.

As I work in my studio, I often listen to NPR broadcasts.  It was oddly inspirational to work on Scarlet as I caught this timely news-story last month. That news chatter then inspired me to view the older film, The Red Violin. Now there's some scandal!
                                                                                     

 Materials include vintage red tabletop, baseball threading, shoehorn

... piano hammers, snap findings and more.

Where there's a scandal, there's jeopardy!

Banjo / In memory of Pete Seeger

Oh Susannah. (found object assemblage / 2014 )

Riffing on the games we play ... the chase to win.

WINNER came from salvaged ribbon medal found in cigar box