CONTENTS
Page One:
Djibril N'Doye's Makes History
Adriano Colangelo Exhibits at Chakras
Page Two:
Abby Levine: Analyzing Freud
Manu Pagola's "Magic Eye" Pyrography
Sue Walters: "Pyrography Workbook"
Chuck Cordero's Peruvian Gourd
Salvatore Polistena's Studio Exhibit
Page Three:
Peni Powell Discovers a "Gibson Girl"
Burning on
Velvet
Maricha Oxley Exhibits near Sydney
Haroldo Ayres Announces New On-Line Group
Update on Cate McCauley
Kathy Jones: Uncommon Wedding Ceremonies
1862 Ball Hughes Wood Panel of Gen.
McClellan Auctioned
|
Interpretation of
Dreams, Detail |
It seems there is nothing and no one the intrepid Abby Levine fears--not even Sigmund Freud! This year--"as a break from politics," she said, referring to another series she was working on in 2004 (see Pyrograffiti 29)--she started an enormous project in the spring that she had conceived in the early part of this year--to read all of Freud's collected works and do a piece about each one.
|
Totem and Taboo |
"The piece Totem and Taboo [above]
came together pretty easily," Abby explained,
"as I abandoned disbelief (the book--more of a
long essay, really--puts forth some pretty whacky
theories) and immersed myself in the idiosyncracies of
Papa Freud (that's him at the bottom of the
piece)."
"I am really into all sorts of mythology,"
Abby explains further, "and it never ceases to
amaze me just how far people will go to explain the
inexplicable."
"Leonardo da Vinci is the subject of another tome
by Freud, and, since he was one of my big time
childhood heroes, I'm looking forward to starting that
piece next."
|
Jardín
Mágico (Magic
Garden) |
Manu Pagola has been hard at work experimenting with
his art. In
recent months, he has created in pyrography a type of
image that is
usually computer-generated for a special effect
"consisting of
seemingly random dots or lines, which, when viewed
properly, coalesce
into a previously unseen three-dimensional
illusion." These are
called Single Image Random Dot Stereograms (SIRDS) and
have commonly
been referred to as "Magic Eye" images
because they were made
popular in the early 1990's by the "Magic
Eye" series of
books.
Hidden in Manu's Magic Garden image above is another
image. Relax your
eyes while contemplating the image and see if you,
too, can find it.
(The name of the hidden image can be found at the
bottom of page 3 of
this Pyrograffiti.)
Manu Pagola, who was
previously known for his
beautiful pyrographs depicting the life of the Basque
people of his
province in northern Spain and other interesting
vignettes from his
travels, has announced that he has decided to sell
those works.
Examples of his earlier work can be viewed in the Manu
Pagola
Salon in the E-Museum of Pyrographic Art and were
also featured in
Pyrograffiti 7 in the July-August 2000 issue
of the WOM. Manu
has his own website: Manu
Pagola:
Pirograbados that is well worth a visit.
|
Pyrography Workbook: |
This year, the long anticipated book of Sue Walters
finally became a beautiful reality. For a long time,
her many
fans had been hoping for just such a book--a book that
would reveal all the secrets of her fantastic
techniques--and that book arrived this year, at long
last! This is definitely the "must have"
book for anyone who wants to learn pyrography
techniques for creating realistic nature themes.
This book, although it does show a handful of her most
famous works (like her koala below) and her platypus,
is not a showcase book, but a down-to-earth workbook
as the title indicates. It spends the first fifty
pages or so focused on explaining all the technical
details necessary for any pyrographer to know: from
safety to tools and nibs to tracing--she covers
everything imagineable. On her most
famous works, she goes into detail about some of the
most unusual techniques she used to create them, and
even adds instructions on relief carving, like what
she used on her fabulous platypus.
|
Koala |
In the second half, the book launches into three
projects that are described in great detail. The
first, of course, is the one for beginners showing
ducks flying over a lake and bulrushes in the
foreground. It contains careful instructions for the
inexperienced to achieve a successful outcome. The
second is the intermediate project. It offers a
golden
eagle--another favorite of the naturalist
pyrographers. Here Sue teaches you how to do
feathers, the
eagle's eye, and much more.
I have already seen two versions done by fans of Sue's
wolf from the cover, which is the advanced project in
the book, and since wolves are the hands-down favorite
subject for all
the nature lovers among pyrographic artists, no wonder
one was chosen for the cover! In that section, Sue
offers pages on how to do the wolf's eyes, nose, and
fur. All the details of the composition, including
foreground and background, are
explained very thoroughly.
|
Panda Pattern |
ln addition to the three projects with their
respective patterns and instructions, Sue's handsome
book contains an ample supply of additional patterns
of various types at the end, one of which is the panda
pattern shown above.
One of my favorite parts is the handy table of
textures on page 52. On the left hand side are myriad
textures arranged in numbered and lettered grids. On
the right hand page is the same grid with the
corresponding nibs and techniques listed in each box
telling which, respectively, were used to create each
texture.
This is Sue Walters' first big publication, and Fox
Chapel Publishing did a fine job on the presentation
and quality of the book itself to showcase her talents
and techniques for the reader. I don't know if you
will become the next Sue Walters reading this book and
following her careful instructions; however, you will
definitely find Sue's book thorough and generous in
the many techniques and most helpful advice she
offers.
Sue's website is www.suewalters.com.
|
Peruvian Gourd, View
1 |
American collector of antique pyrography Chuck Cordero was
at a Colorado Springs Flea Market recently looking for
his next big find when, as luck would have it, he
found a contemporary piece instead--a very large gourd
(shown in two views here). At nearly 14 inches tall,
the stunning gourd portrays hundreds of detailed big
and little animals and according to Chuck was the
center of attention as he carried it back to his car.
The traditional techniques and motifs on Chuck's gourd
are from the South American country of Peru, as
confirmed by expert Jim Widess of The Caning Shop in
Berkeley, California, who is well known in the United
States and beyond for the excellent books he has
written and coauthored on gourds. One entitled
Gourd Pyrography specifically shows the
Peruvian incising, coloring, and burning techniques
and examples of their gourd works across four pages of
a wonderful section in the first part of the book.
|
Peruvian Gourd, View
2 |
Chuck Cordero has quite a substantial collection of
antique works displayed in his home. He says that his
young daughter enjoys the collection, too, so he has
some of his Victorian era children's poker art items
decorating her room.
He was not expecting to come away with a gourd that
day, but when you see something that calls to you...
Now Chuck is thinking about looking at more recent
works in pyrography in addition to the antique works
he enjoys so much. At any rate, he was so affected by
this piece that he wanted to share his find with the
Pyrograffiti readers, and I think you will agree that
his is a particularly fine example of the elaborate,
labor-intensive Peruvian techniques on gourds.
Chuck Cordero has a salon in the Antique
Hall of the E-Museum of Pyrographic Art, where
there is a Ball Hughes portrait of General Grant
listed in the 19th Century section.
|
Studio Exhibit |
In June of this year, Salvatore Polistena opened
his studio to the public with a permanent exhibit of
his work. Located in Pisa, his studio dates from
about the year 1200! The large panel seen at the back
in an ancient archway in the image above is one of a
pair of large panels inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's
technique and is a more recent effort in a new phase
of experimentation that Salvatore has been looking at
this year.
Salvatore always welcomes visitors--both to his studio
in Pisa, where he works for most of the year, and in
Calabria, where he vacations in the summer and
promotes artist get-togethers. Salvatore was
introduced to the WOM in Pyrograffiti
20 in November 2002. Refer back to that article
for more background information.
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Click here to go back to page one
2005, Kathleen M. Garvey Menéndez, all rights reserved.
