Summer Rock Art Projects

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So I got this piece of alabaster from either Utah or Colorado sitting around, about 75 lbs.

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It has some pretty cool colors and patterns.

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And I've always wanted to do a psychedelic painted vehicle -- like the Furthur bus or a hippy VW bug or something similar.

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So I started hacking at it.

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and taking off the outer crust and all soft spots.

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And it started to look like a bus or a truck or a van.

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So I kept going in that direction.

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To be continued...

Although I really wanted to do a school bus, the rock wasn't long enough.

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So Furthur became more of a Truckin

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Carved out a front window, the grill, bumpers and a sideview mirror.

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Kept the spare tire. Added mudflaps. And more windows.

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Cut off the sideboards.

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The visible patterns change as I sand down the sides layer by layer.

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To be continured...

I guess my inspiration now is the Dead's first equipment truck -- a psychedelically painted 1954 Studebaker one-ton pickup.

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An interesting story if you haven't run across it, there's a couple of articles and more pictures out there.

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2012/05/02/a-long-strange-trip-grateful...

Excellent work Alan.

I look forward to seeing the finished product.

Nice work, Alan.  It looks more like an ice cream truck (Cheech & Chong's Nice Dreams?) or the short bus the special ed kids ride in.

Thanks Local. I finally have some shows coming up. I usually rely on regional art galleries, but I'm gearing up for a couple  of local Fall outdoor arts & crafts festivals.

Luckily I have a EZ up tent for camping that I can turn into a vending booth.  I don't plan on selling any of the expensive stuff at these, but I'm psyched to just get some eyes on my stuff after the covid hiatus. You never know who's going to walk by and what connections you can make at these things.

Thanks Dave I totally agree. 

I did a couple things to get away from the short bus thing -- stopped adding windows, kept big fenders (in buses you can see the entire tires), kept the spare tire on the back. But it was tempting.

I can go with Cheech and Chong.

 

Love your work, Alan.

 

Down the alley an ice (nine) wagon flew.

> It looks more like an ice cream truck (Cheech & Chong's Nice Dreams?)

I had the same thought, Dave.

I was also wondering just the other day if you were rocking any new projects, Alan, and I'm curious about what you might ask for a piece like this.

Thank you Lumber. Blue, I have considered other Dead-related names -- someone suggested Alabaster Getaway, but Truckin may have more popular appeal.

Mike, I sorta base prices on the complexity of the piece and the time it took me (relatively speaking, as I make well below minimum wage on every piece.)  My "standard" gallery price is $1700. That reflects the type of touristy galleries I usually exhibit at. Because I made a couple of pieces "fast" this summer from alabaster and soapstone, and I'm eager to sell anything at these first post-covid shows, I might sell for less since I don't have to pay gallery fees at the crafts shows. I charge more for a marble piece than alabaster. 

At a fancy gallery I might price higher, as the art galleries take 30 - 50% right off the top and the artist still has to pay income tax on any sale. So if you see a fancy work of art for a thousand bucks at an art gallery, the artist might make $400-$500 after materials. It depends.

To cover initial costs I will hopefully sell some $20  "carving kits" that I put together for the kids: a rock with a pair of goggles, a mask, a file, a chisel, sandpaper, etc.  And maybe some under 100 stuff like little carved hearts and jewelry. At an arts & crafts show I usually get a crowd watching me carve and hopefully the kids will bug their parents to get something,

This time out, it's mostly for the fun.

What a stunning metamorphosis of color from start to finish. Amazing it's the same stone. Top tier work my man,

I hope you get well paid.

i like it alan 

reminds me more of the current hippie ride....

the honda element 

 

Thanks Raz and TOD.

It gets better -- wait till you see how it ended up. I just put the finishing touches on last week.

Actually, I still may add a tailpipe and a hood ornament, but at a future time.

Looking good Alan, I have never done it, but I think I need to weld shit together, i can hear the junkyard calling me. Did some work at a casting factory in my younger days, and did my share of cutting, grinding and sandblasting.

Fabes - I've always wanted to try casting. I don't mind metal or fire -- or even grinding and sandblasting -- but as I get older I find myself shying away from sharp moving blades (the cutting part). I must have an inborn fear from a previous  life death.

For something like this I did use an angle grinder to run that horizontal channel down the side, then filed and sanded it by hand. The window was chiseled.

Everything's freeform, no jigs or workshop machinery -- which is the wrong way to do it. (I did use the bottom of a flower vase to measure the wheels to get them close to uniform.)

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With multiple windows cut out, it was starting to look a little too much like a kid's toy, so I decided to incorporate some glass I've been schlepping across the country since working with fused glass back in Sonoma County. It should be quite colorful when lit with a spotlight.

 I didn't take the time to do perfectly measured inlays with a dremel, like a gemologist or a jeweler would do. Since the piece is meant to be "playful," I think that will be ok.

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To be continued...

Here's one cool thing I noticed looking down on the roof of the truck:

Alabaster is a vague name for several rocks, but in general it is a sedimentary rock formed from evaporated shallow oceans -- like the ones that once covered Utah and Colorado. So what you are seeing are layers of dried minerals and bacteria piled up on top of each other (a sideview / cross section). It's usually iron that makes the red and yellow tones. i don't know what makes the green.

Note the fault-line and uplifted section of the seabed rock -- that happened eons ago, not when the rock was mined. A little earthquake thrust when the seabeds evolved into mountains. Otherwise the stripes would line up perfectly.

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> My "standard" gallery price is $1700.

That's way out of my price range, and cross-country shipping would make it even moreso, but I love what you're doing here. I've always loved rocks, and I want to reach out and feel the smooth, cool surface of this truck.

The work you've shared on the black screen has a real fun quality to it. I'm also pretty amazed by the coloring. In the first couple of pics, the colors are pretty drab, but in the later pics, they colors really seem to pop. That's just from working it and polishing it?

Mike - at this stage the "bright" colors are just from a pail of water dumped on the rock.

The alabaster is "pressed gypsum," so when dries, it's just a brown / grey / whitish rock (see first pic). However, alabaster is really a semi translucent material. But the micro surface texture and dust obscure all the color of the mineral veins within it.

I have to first sand it down (80 grit to 2,000 grit) to polish the surface. Then oil and wax the sculpture. Then the colors will pop for a while.

Yeah if I was in a DC fine arts gallery I would charge more. If I was in an edgy Baltimore gallery, I might charge less. In Annapolis I have to aim for the tourist rich guy wealthy enough to drop a thousand or two without caring, but not rich enough to dock his yacht elsewhere.  In upstate NY I price things more than when I show in PA or West VA.

 

 

^ We'll get back to the truck, but to illustrate - My other summer project is Copperdome Bodhi.

(I was going to call is China Cat Sunflower, but it probably needs a new name. All suggestions welcome.)

This is two views of a piece of what I think is Brazilian soapstone. Almost bluish. Takes a chisel like a dry clay. Not "good strong solid rock" like marble or limestone.

The original shape alone reminded me of a big cat's head, like a lion or tiger..... Do you see it?

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Once I stated working, it, the colors emerged -- hence the Coppertop Bhodhi  (...drip a silver kimono Like a crazy quilt star gown through a dream night wind)

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Yes the rock agreed with me that it wanted to be a big cat:

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pretty cool, huh?

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Stoned me just like jellyroll 

Thanks for sharing!

Lemme post a bigger version so you can see all the internal colors and feline patterns better.

As you can see, mother nature does all the artistic stuff.

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Sig, thanks. (Did you ever see the kid's Capitan Chesapeake tv show? On UHF channels after school. Mondy was a sea monster).

I don't know if you can see it, but I unearthed some green crystal-like minerals under the chin. I love when that happens.

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^^^Did you ever see the kid's Capitan Chesapeake tv show?

No just the H&R Puffinstuff show (which is a pretty cool name)

Im going to have to YouTube Cpt Chesapeake 

Never know what the hell you'll find as yer whittling that stone down eh ? 

Chip away,,,, chip away at the stone - Aerosmith

Gorgeous chinny chin chin spike crystals,, how you managed to not mutilate any of em goes to prove what a master stone cutter you are Al. Also looks like he's got a nice yellow ecuadorian coke crystal up his nose. Ah the good ol days. Beautiful work,, are you stoning on some ganja as you work on such fine detail ? 

 

Yep the good old days  - 

Sigmund The Sea Monster Intro & Outro
https://youtu.be/soc3jDMQPL0

My personal favorite sea monster as a kid was Cecil The Seasick Sea Serpent. Who could ever forget Beany + Cecil

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I gotta change the litter in the cat boxes, so I'll use the moment to finish up this thread before I start that task. Then pack.

We're going camping at a park with no electricity and it's getting down into the 40s so I gotta dig out the winter gear. I'm gonna need gloves and a hat.  A park with the last remaining stone British fort from French Indian Wars. 

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That;s it. Thanks for attending the virtual exhibit.

Have a great weekend!

^ my Photoshops skills are a little rusty, hence the mild jaggedness of the final photos - the surface is smooth as a baby's bottom. 2500 grit smooth.

 I managed not to crop out the mud flaps. Say what you will about the image or craftsmanship, but this is gotta be one of thee few stone sculptures in the world with mud flaps.

Oh and another last thing -- I weighed them both - - the truck and the lion.

approx 50 lbs each. So that means I knock off about 25 - 30 lbs to make them.