* Concrete Ideas

"Concrete Ideas" are just that: ideas literally turned into concrete and cement. 
The one sculpture you see here is the original hand-painted clay figure I made for a series called "Buddha-Babes." She embodies the sassy-sacred nature I have come to know so profoundly through working as a therapist with adolescent girls. She's a true-Vancouverite: an East-meets-West, urbanized, teenaged Kuan Yin who tests us with her naive-bravado yet inspires us with her staggering compassion and depth.

After creating her I found myself entranced by her image; she immediately became my own meditation-piece. I hired a professional caster to make a mold from the original (thanks Rod!) and then I cast her over and over and over. It was fun to arrange the B-Babes in different positions on my studio table; facing each other; facing away from each other; in a circle; in rows. They looked like a concrete-but-nubile army ready to be deployed on a mission. And off they went.

So now there are many little Buddha-Babes all around Vancouver, on the islands, down the coast, and across the continent. I like that. I like to imagine her sitting in someone's garden or looking down from a highrise balcony working her quiet magic. I want to anchor one onto a big rock down at beach here in Vancouver so that she can collect barnacles throughout the year. In fact, it would be great to place her in magical stumbled-upon locations all over the world...

I made a much larger buddha-babe after making the little ones... I felt the desire to bring a more grown up version into the world. Someone I could offer flowers and light candles to, someone I could confide in. So below is an image of what I made. She is one of a kind, handmade with just clay - not cast. She sits out on my balcony now with birds coming to feed on her 

More Concrete Ideas

You can't imagine how heavy my studio-garbage became during the experimental phase of my cement-craze!

The pieces posted here are candle holders from a series I made by pouring cement into retro-style cake-molds then 'icing' them with exotic bits of stones, metals, gems and jewels from my last incarnation as a jeweler. Most of this series was sold privately and through the Museum Shop at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Another creative spin off which developed from experimenting with concrete was the exploration of furniture and tile setting. Thanks to my father's happy and handy cooperation (thanks daddy-o!) we re-made several coffee tables using the same basic design ideas that came from my candle holders.

Here are two images showing one of our tables we made in the past, as well as a zoom-image of a detail from that same table.

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