http://www.phillipscasting.com/recent daily 0.75 2016-12-08 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/t/5849cf55e4fcb59adb801121/1481232139475/ Recent A interior stucco or plaster on stone wall of a ruined building by our beloved Schuykill River that is now exposed to the elements. The layers of paint worn through, or scraped here and there have created an image without thought nor purpose(a form of Wu Wei) . I enjoy seeing what these kinds of images suggest. I am fond of old billboards, newly exposed walls of torn down row homes and factories, peeling paint, micro and macro views of almost anything, reflections and shadows of again ...almost anything. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55351d72e4b06631eaca9b95/55c3e755e4b0832e3029aebc/1481232139475/Wall+by+the+River+1.jpg Recent A interior stucco or plaster on stone wall of a ruined building by our beloved Schuykill River that is now exposed to the elements. The layers of paint worn through, or scraped here and there have created an image without thought nor purpose(a form of Wu Wei) . I enjoy seeing what these kinds of images suggest. I am fond of old billboards, newly exposed walls of torn down row homes and factories, peeling paint, micro and macro views of almost anything, reflections and shadows of again ...almost anything. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55351d72e4b06631eaca9b95/55c3e84ae4b0abe10a7eec26/1438902348006/wissahickon.jpg Recent https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55351d72e4b06631eaca9b95/55c3e9c9e4b05220ab0ef07b/1438902730815/Blossoms.jpg Recent https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55351d72e4b06631eaca9b95/56455dc3e4b07ecc4602941b/1460232583771/IMG_0250+copy.JPG Recent https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55351d72e4b06631eaca9b95/56455ea5e4b0dd8e62e40091/1447386796862/carwasher%2C+Obama+copy.jpg Recent https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55351d72e4b06631eaca9b95/56455ec6e4b02a919c7ea072/1447386822954/OCEAN+DRAWING+no1+copy.jpg Recent https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55351d72e4b06631eaca9b95/566a29f47086d738d2cb5b41/1481232213316/museum_lion+copy.jpg Recent My printer created this image by happily running out of just the right kind and amount of ink at just the right moment of printing. I scanned the 'mistake" and now print it as a work of art in its own right. The original photo is part of my documentation from a restoration project that required making molds on elements of the terra cotta frieze that runs around the top of the PMA.(Philadelp[hia Museum of Art). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55351d72e4b06631eaca9b95/566a2b86a976af216b785366/1471989200561/fish.jpg Recent The sea, the sand, and the shells have conspired to created an image of a fish. What does this mean?...It suggests that "there are more things in heaven and earth ...than are dreampt of in our philosophy". In geologic time, the sand that the tide drew a fish upon was once a chunk of mountain. To understand how our world is formed and changes over time, and the times of the earth itself, take a look at John McPhee's incredibly inspired book; "Annals of the Former World".     https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55351d72e4b06631eaca9b95/57007dca62cd94d3a2abff6c/1461022088155/Obama+Fans.jpg Recent - Yes We Can This photo was created on Oct. 10, 2008 at the corner of Germantown and Chelten Aves., just before presidential candidate Obama arrived in Vernon Park to speak. If anybody doubts the importance of Mr. Obama being elected president, take a good look at these two fathers with their kids. As insane as it may now seem, the other party, for 4 long years, mounted a rabid attack on the character and executive abilities of President Obama. Their plan backfired,literally, and they looked(and still look) for all the world like somebody who had smoked an exploding cigar. As we all know, President Obama was elected for a second term. There was not the same kind of excitement going on. Obama fans had to endure their candidate being incessantly smeared and insulted. Much as President Lincoln was treated, as a matter of fact. Election day I stopped by a voting place on Belfield avenue, and the mostly black voters there on their way to work,(the Takers), seemed kind of glum, in despair yet hoping against hope that their candidate might win against the big money. President Obama won again. His second term is a study in steady, responsible leadership.The president's second term is also the rock upon which the "other party" has broken itself to pieces on, trying to destroy him. As difficult as this chaos of racism, bigotry, and hatred is for all of us, we need to deal with this as we can. And if not now ? When? An excellent starting point, based on my own studies and Nicholas kristof's article : "When Whites Just Don't Get It, Revisited" that appeared in The NY Times, April 3, 2016, is to become aware of the nature of bias as the natural by-product of how our minds work, and not as a force of evil working unknowable to us.Most people, for example, feel more comfortable with friends than strangers. This is a bias. Other factors are our historic conditioning and habit energy. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55351d72e4b06631eaca9b95/57007de43c44d887e790cb5b/1459650029610/pedestrian.jpg Recent https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55351d72e4b06631eaca9b95/57007df962cd94d3a2ac004a/1471989616682/Photosgras.jpg Recent - Thilo and Garth, Portrait Session Here is my buddy Thilo taking a photo of my friend Garth...with Garth's Nikon D-3 with his 14-24 f2-8 zoom, which can give your portrait a lot of nose. I was so envious I had to go out and get that same lens for myself. Actually the lens i bought is a later edition of Garth's lens Notice how close Thilo is holding Garth"s lens to Garth"s face. This is essential for getting good nose, to say nothing of eyes and hair. This can be a dangerous game, however. In Garth's case, he was at the zoo zooming in on an Ostrich when the bird pecked at his lens and knocked out a chunk of its glass. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55351d72e4b06631eaca9b95/57007e0e62cd94d3a2ac00b7/1460944043000/Ross+and+gson.jpg Recent - Ross and grandson This portrait of my neighbor Ross and his grandson was created the same day Obama visited Vernon Park. Its clear to me that Ross and his grandson should be treated with the same kind of respect and consideration I would like to be treated with. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55351d72e4b06631eaca9b95/57007e1f62cd94d3a2ac011a/1459650092158/Young+Ladies.jpg Recent https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55351d72e4b06631eaca9b95/5712b662a3360cab6676ca1e/1461021739379/When+Lilacs+Last+in+Dooryard+Bloomed+copy+2.jpg Recent - Lilacs When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed, And the great star early drooped in the western sky in the night, I mourn'd, and yet shall mourn with ever -returning spring. Ever returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring, Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west, and thought of him I love. from a poem by Walt Whitman Whitman's poem is referring to the assassination of President Lincoln that occurred on April 14, 1865. Mid April is the time many Lilacs bloom here in America. The poem goes on to describe the journey of Lincoln's funeral train through the towns, cities, farmlands, and fields of our country on its way to Springfield, Illinois, his home town where he would be buried.   The Civil war was a time of great suffering in America, both north and south. And while that war ended, the struggle for freedom and equal rights for all of our citizens still rages on, on different battlefields, unabated.   https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55351d72e4b06631eaca9b95/57812a6c197aeaa57b506791/1471989863374/Man+of+the+Island.jpg Recent - Man Of The Island From emptiness Emptiness Nothing Imperceptibility Impossibly Aeons of hesitancy, uncertainty A profound yearning in the rock appeared And only a being with an immense Knowledge of cold Could guess that You were there. Then the earth shaped by Revolutions of Continents Pre Cambrian, Cambrian Viruses, sponges,tribiolites… Slowly you contained the seas And remained(like us) In the path of a river.   Man of the island You"ve seen how we live, seek shelter and kill for our food. You have seen how we die. You were born in rock In fire... When the rock was magma Passionately alive     http://www.phillipscasting.com/small-works daily 0.75 2015-06-24 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b5ed7be4b089bfadbdc494/54b5ee15e4b04c160a1be430/1421209113827/_DSC0192_HDR+-+Version+2.jpg Small Works https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/t/54b5ee19e4b066536b30e081/1435110892925/_DSC0192_HDR+-+Version+2.jpg Small Works https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b5ed7be4b089bfadbdc494/54b5edf1e4b054d28223dccb/1421209075194/_DSC0222_HDR_HDR.jpg Small Works https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b5ed7be4b089bfadbdc494/54b5ee16e4b054d28223dd88/1435112141755/_DSC0246_HDR_HDR+-+Version+2.jpg Small Works - Mu   Joshu's Mu. This dog was found in a sand pile at school, and welded onto a bronze pour splash. What can I say,"Does a dog have Buddha nature?"   https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b5ed7be4b089bfadbdc494/54b5ee22e4b04c160a1be482/1421209124726/_DSC0252_HDR_HDR.jpg Small Works https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b5ed7be4b089bfadbdc494/54b5ee2ce4b054d28223ddf2/1421209138459/_DSC0261_HDR+-+Version+2.jpg Small Works http://www.phillipscasting.com/new-gallery-1 daily 0.75 2017-12-24 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/t/54b5f735e4b06ac274381636/1421211464189/_DSC0009_HDR.jpg Totems https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b309dee4b0b679e12532a6/54eb94dfe4b0bc2e9aa0c8f9/1466559699087/DSC_0054.jpg Totems https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b309dee4b0b679e12532a6/54eb94e0e4b02904f4dc0055/1514088326523/DSC_0057.jpg Totems - Red Barbie Totem This playful open green sand cast silicon bronze composition has an eclectic provenance. Issac Witkin did open sand casting at the Johnson Atelier in the early 80's,when I was an apprentice there. Issac and I had a sand casting party at his Pemberton studio some years later, with my wife Gina, and some other friends. While surfing the net, i was struck by a small stack of Barbie Dolls at a Burning Man event. I started collecting my own Barbies. Renny Molinar offered me a one man show at the Imperfect Gallery here in Germantown in November, 2014. Before starting to work on the show, I went on retreat to Wonderwell Mountain Refuge, to maintain my Ngondro practice. I thought that this might help ground my sculpture. Ginny Naude's suggestion to achieve color in sculpture. I took this to be high color. One problem was I was so fussy, and so used to "dark metal", that it was emotionally difficult for me to try to match the usually high color of the object we had just cast in bronze with a similar high color hot chemical patina on the metal. It took quite a while for me to feel all that color as being OK...and then slowly... more than OK. In 2013, my wife Gina Michaels and i visited India on a meditation retreat. We happened to visit the Ramana's uncle's house, in Madurai, where Ramana achieved enlightenment. Seeing the Meenakahi Temple in Madurai changed my understanding of color and sculpture forever. The second problem was time. This is when it helps to have a good helper. The first helper was Gustavo Actis, and the second was Paige Miller. Both exceptional sculptors, and both good with patinas, among other skills. Another important concept that guided the making of this totem series is called Wu Wei. Also Wu Shin. Both terms are explained at length by Alan Watts. The sculpture here , Red Barbie Totem, weighs about 75 pounds, is 12'' wide, 6' 6' tall, and 3' deep. POR   https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b309dee4b0b679e12532a6/54eb94e3e4b05bee3a08fa62/1466559699068/DSC_0053.jpg Totems https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b309dee4b0b679e12532a6/54eb94e8e4b0bc2e9aa0c945/1466559699101/DSC_0049.jpg Totems https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b309dee4b0b679e12532a6/54eb94e3e4b02904f4dc0083/1466559699189/DSC_0052+copy.jpg Totems https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b309dee4b0b679e12532a6/54b5d770e4b0a14bf3e8f2f9/1514088042299/_DSC0009_HDR.jpg Totems - Toy Tower Totem This 6,' 6" colorfully patinaed, sand cast bronze is a first free standing totem of a series begun in the Spring of 2014. What started me off was Renney Molinar offering me a show in November at his Imperfect Gallery here in Germantown. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b309dee4b0b679e12532a6/54b5e7c9e4b0b2f2e347bd87/1466559699197/_DSC0090_HDR+-+Version+2.jpg Totems https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b309dee4b0b679e12532a6/54b5e7dfe4b0b2f2e347bde7/1466559699244/_DSC0105_HDR+-+Version+2.jpg Totems https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b309dee4b0b679e12532a6/54b5e7f4e4b0b2f2e347be59/1468880004821/_DSC0111_HDR+-+Version+2.jpg Totems - Model Child Play therapy is a well known. How about play sculpture? This sculpture was bought by a wonderful person at The Imperfect Gallery here in Germantown. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b309dee4b0b679e12532a6/54b5e7e0e4b07f864ebaaf89/1466559699303/_DSC0079_HDR+-+Version+2.jpg Totems http://www.phillipscasting.com/archival daily 0.75 2016-09-15 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/t/57d9fe04ebbd1a233e13e8df/1473894441804/ Archival - My Brother Dave Dave with his trusty Voigtlander Bessamatic. He probably got the bug from my father, who was a polaroid land camera nut. Dad would take hundreds of instant photos of his many children, mostly rolling their eyes. The fun part was sealing the prints with that sharp smelling gel liquid you squeeged on with a wiper. I don't recall seeing that many photographs that my brother took. Although Dave was interested in photography and writing, and becoming a lawyer, he became absorbed in his medical career and family. My portrait of Dave was created in 1966 or 67, down the shore, with a Pentax Spotmatic, and a 55mm F1.8 lens. I bought the camera to take photos of my brother's wedding, paying for it with a summer job. In college I learned that writing poetry and short stories, and taking photographs, was much more important to me than becoming anything, even a doctor. Dr. Fox, my freshman year Mod. European History professor, pointed out that pursuing the "life of the Mind" and becoming a doctor were not necessarily the same. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55c52a49e4b0e11ac6c345f1/55c52a91e4b0e11ac6c347e3/1473894441804/Dave.jpg Archival - My Brother Dave Dave with his trusty Voigtlander Bessamatic. He probably got the bug from my father, who was a polaroid land camera nut. Dad would take hundreds of instant photos of his many children, mostly rolling their eyes. The fun part was sealing the prints with that sharp smelling gel liquid you squeeged on with a wiper. I don't recall seeing that many photographs that my brother took. Although Dave was interested in photography and writing, and becoming a lawyer, he became absorbed in his medical career and family. My portrait of Dave was created in 1966 or 67, down the shore, with a Pentax Spotmatic, and a 55mm F1.8 lens. I bought the camera to take photos of my brother's wedding, paying for it with a summer job. In college I learned that writing poetry and short stories, and taking photographs, was much more important to me than becoming anything, even a doctor. Dr. Fox, my freshman year Mod. European History professor, pointed out that pursuing the "life of the Mind" and becoming a doctor were not necessarily the same. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55c52a49e4b0e11ac6c345f1/55c52ab0e4b0156b282a10a7/1473894761805/Lady+in+Black+300+dpi.jpg Archival - Woman in Black She was seated on the back of Robert Kennedy's funeral train as it passed through North Philadelphia station June 8th, 1968. This is a microscopic enlargement, about 30 x, of a section of the color slide that I took that hot day{see the image of the original color slide included on this page). I arrived at the station a few hours before the train, shooting color slides and B&W. Some time after I took these photos, I happened to see an article in a photography magazine about how to adapt your SLR to a microscope to create images. It was an eerie feeling scanning these slides with the microscope, as I could recognize different people in the crowds I had walked through, taking photographs. A lot like the film "Blow Up". Notice the grains of color that form the image, a pointillist effect. Robert Kennedy's funeral recalls the funeral train of President Lincoln, as well as the death of John Kennedy. Which recalls the death of Dr. Martin Luther King jr.. Although the individual circumstances vary, with all four men it was as if someone had turned the lights out in this country with their untimely deaths.. This is why I call this photograph Woman In Black. She mourns them all. This is also why the Woman In Black is on the cover of my first poetry book, Sleeping By the Ocean, which is dedicated to my friend Bob Bird, who died as a result of the Viet Nam war. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55c52a49e4b0e11ac6c345f1/56455fdbe4b06c9193d546d3/1473893824421/Liz+%40beach+1+copy.jpg Archival https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55c52a49e4b0e11ac6c345f1/56456001e4b06c9193d547cd/1473893809227/Museum+Lion+copy+1.jpg Archival https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55c52a49e4b0e11ac6c345f1/5645600ae4b012bd06090948/1456271789135/museum_lion+copy.jpg Archival https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55c52a49e4b0e11ac6c345f1/564560e3e4b059b35bd1c293/1447387365265/Little+girl.jpg Archival https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55c52a49e4b0e11ac6c345f1/56456207e4b0adbf27e7ada1/1447387661794/Island+Woman.jpg Archival https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55c52a49e4b0e11ac6c345f1/5657c26ce4b022a250fb557a/1473904132977/Lady+in+Black+on+back+of+Train.jpg Archival - Robert Kennedy's Funeral Train Here is the back of Robert Kennedy's funeral train as it passed throu North Philadelphia station. Edward Kennedy is standing in the center. To his left is the woman I call Lady In Black, her portrait here being enlarged about 30 times with a microscope. Had Robert Kennedy been elected president, he might well have ended the Viet Nam war much earlier than President Nixon. What seems strange today is that President Johnson launched "The Great Society", and then, God help us, the build-up of the Viet Nam War. As Dr. King noted in his speech of April 4th, 1968, "A Time To Break Silence", the Viet Nam war defunded "The Great Society" of any chance to exist. Some people think that President Johnson was a great president. He wasn't. He might have been a great back room deal maker, but he apparently didn't understand, forgot, or just didn't give a shit about American history. We had no business fighting a colonial war on the wrong side. Or maybe President Johnson was just in over his head. As a result, thousands of young Americans got nailed to their crosses and rolled down that long, terrible hill to their deaths...for nothing. It seems that some societies must war in order to govern themselves, as they lack the skills and courage to wage peace. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55c52a49e4b0e11ac6c345f1/56ccbd47d51cd4885f6837fd/1456258387663/Lifegards%27+Helpers+resized.jpg Archival https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55c52a49e4b0e11ac6c345f1/56ccc560b6aa60b50697695f/1456260464039/Blue+Carsizedtif.jpg Archival https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55c52a49e4b0e11ac6c345f1/57bf6b2f29687fe4f8dd7f1a/1473893757333/Portrait+of+Jimmy+copy.jpg Archival http://www.phillipscasting.com/new-gallery-3 daily 0.75 2020-12-01 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/t/55bfb6d2e4b08922709bd8ca/1438796186345/3_2_05+017Tackle.jpg Restoration https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/55c16245e4b070b48686d710/1438797594277/ Restoration - JNP welding Tackle At veterans stadium A very cold day in January. A helper and I had spent Nov. and Dec. cutting into the Joe Brown Bronze sports sculptures to replace the rusted out steel armatures with Stainless. You see me here, along with another welder from Geo. Young and Co. ,welding steel fins onto the stainless extension tubes of the new armature, and then welding the fins onto the bottom plates. When Willie, the master rigger at Geo. Young at the time, dropped the straps...The Moment of Truth...everything held. And then came the concrete to the level of the shoes, and the granite facing, Photo credit: Ginny Naude, of Norton Art Conservation https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/55c24f60e4b01f95d39b47ba/1438799654113/ Restoration - Nittany Lion It took 6 people 3 weeks to make a mold on this sculpture, by Heinz Warneke. The first guy who tried, failed. The chief difficulty was the undercuts. Carvers rarely give a dam about moldmakers, and so they carve tunnels into the mountains of their stone. Going in is the easy part. Coming back out...you'll need "a ball of string". https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/55c3ffc3e4b0c1eb16132872/1474247146210/Nittany+Lion7.jpg Restoration Plaster plugs, like the one by Dan's (a local Germantowner now an art teacher) right foot, is how we overcame the incredible undercuts of the sculpture, and worked our way out of the caves. If you look closely, you will notice a u shaped wire coming out of another plug under the chin. Just before the large mold wall was "thrown" on this side of the lion, a blob of clay was placed over the 1/8" wire to keep it separate from the large mold wall, to mark its place on the large mold wall so that it could be used to fasten the plug to the large mold wall, which would be turned vertical, during the casting process. The guy with the black beard is Tom McGovern. He showed up at my studio one day, and we just started working on a project together (casting a tree trunk). Tom is a can do kind of sculptor, as well as being a professor of art. He worked at Uarts starting the foundry, then with me a little while,, and then ran the sculpture dept at Penn State. On fine day he called me up and asked if I wanted to make a mold on the Nittany Lion. Why not? He and his wife hosted my crew (Dan and Denise) and I at their home to keep the costs down. We would go up to Penn State monday, work till friday, and then come back home. Denise took many of the photos that I have of this event. It was very difficult, and wonderful.   https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/55c256efe4b0f421f5fe5cae/1474247424113/nittany+lion2.jpg Restoration - Nittany Lion About half way through the rubber mold prosess. Notice the plaster plug above the ear, the mold walls, and the registrations. We are about to throw the large front mold section. There is a lot of design that goes into making a mold. It is critical to understand "draft", "undercuts", and the direction of "the pull". https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/55c3fde6e4b065156c5db969/1442588928967/IMG_1349.JPG Restoration The Great Mother and The Great Doctor, bronze,1955, by Waldemar Raemisch. Here is the Great Doctor group, with my wife Gina, who stands 5'3", to give us some idea of how big the sculptures are. This is the old site of the sculptures, in front of the Youth Study Center on the BF Parkway, which is now the new site of the Barnes Museum Collection. The two sculpture groups were apparently divided and cast as sections themselves to be shipped and installed here, on site. I developed the plan to cut through the welds of the two sculpture groups to reestablish the original smaller sections which George Young & Co. then trucked to the new site(The School Of The Future) in West Phila. By cutting cleanly through the weld beads, they could be used as registration guides to position and reweld the sculptures at the new site. The usual disaster struck half way through the project when it was discovered that the 2" by 2" square steel stiffening rods that had been cast with the bronze were Redoxed into red dust, bronze being the more noble metal. There was some serious wallet anguish going on at this point, which was solved by George Young Co. back filling the bottom plates with anchoring cement, and by little old me creating as invisible as possible attachment points between key sculptures... a difficult job that ended well. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/55c3f673e4b038b6ccd2c4e0/1442583670636/IMG_1636_1.JPG Restoration https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/55c3f748e4b03ca91f24ddc4/1442588502143/IMG_1663.JPG Restoration Welding is the easy part. Getting into position to weld, with all your equipment, and with a good chance of being paid fairly for your work, is not so easy. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/55c3f5bde4b0861fe248c6f1/1438905792670/IMG_1615.JPG Restoration https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/55c3fd3ce4b01499624f1588/1438907712200/IMG_1815.JPG Restoration https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/55c3ff42e4b09490caa58b92/1442583670635/John+%40+Wash+momu+copy.jpg Restoration https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/55c3f62ce4b0145a3c21be5b/1442583058161/IMG_1630.JPG Restoration https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/55c2be5fe4b0bb1423fc7418/1606863096528/ Restoration - JP & Rocky Well I couldn't help myself. I dropped a fork lift tine on my foot while repairing the base of this sculpture and installing a reversible mounting system, breaking my right toe. And so the crutches...which gave me this spectacular reach. Many thanks to my friend Thilo, who first demonstrated the pose for this photo. The bronze Rocky started out as a movie prop sitting atop the PMA's steps mounted on a chunk of concrete with 1/2" steel nuts welded to the inside perimeter of the bronze base. Not what anybody could call a permanent mounting system. Of course the sculptor of Rocky wanted his sculpture placed somewhere permanently somewhere after the movie shoot was over instead of being melted down, but he apparently wasn't interested in supplying his sculpture with a real mounting system. And neither was anybody else.When Rocky was installed at the Spectrum, it was done "down & dirty"...dirt cheap and typically irreversible...which led to the sculpture being damaged when it needed to be moved. At this point I was requested to repair the sculpture and make it safe for public display. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/55fc2c94e4b051db9c8f5f18/1442589846668/IMG_1701.JPG Restoration https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/55fc2ca0e4b092562d293e80/1442589858958/IMG_1702_1.JPG Restoration https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/55fc2ccae4b04ab751b99a14/1474301947319/IMG_1705+copy+copy.JPG Restoration - Yours Trully, with Favorite Hat Here is me sitting in the lap of the Great Doctor with my favorite hat on. I am also wearing my mala beads and red protection string. I will usually wear these under my shirt so as to not unduly alarm people on the street. When I am traveling to retreat, or just want to be, I will sometimes just wear them. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/5615b60be4b0ecd479d28402/1444265611554/Giacometti%27s+Gran+Femme+arrives.jpg Restoration Giacometti's Gran Femme Debout, 1959-60, arriving in our studio here in Germantown in june,2007. Who would believe this?The box fit the sculpture perfectly, including a wedge botton piece in the box to accommodate the bend at the knees. This is correct. The sculpture did not stand upright, but was bent backwards starting at her knees. Gran Femme Debout, one of six, was sold at auction for 13.3 million dollars, and then discovered to be "damaged". This is a long story, and I will write it out as time allows. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/5615b6abe4b0934269f639e5/1474303049966/Gran+Femme+Leaning+backwards.jpg Restoration - Gran Femme Debout Andrew Lins and my wife Gina conferring about Giacometti's sculpture. Andrew is the chief objects conservator of the PMA, and Gina a very educated sculptor with a lot of training in the creative arts. Here you can see the sculpture, mounted on the steel table-tower i designed, leaning backwards. This lean is the result of an unskillful repair, made almost irreversible by a mass of epoxy being poured into the les of the sculpture after 3/4 " stainless steel rods were welded in place at the knee level, where a failure of the sculpture apparently occurred https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/5615b81de4b0b3486ab05939/1444263971281/JP+sizing+GF%27s+mounting+plates.jpg Restoration https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/564162f3e4b0d09cf86f36b5/1447125768892/DSC_0176+copy.JPG Restoration https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/564163a2e4b0de34bd8fb49d/1447125935077/Duck+Tape+capitol+copy.jpg Restoration https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/564163cfe4b07d9ae5c51361/1447126009988/Giacometti11.jpg Restoration https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/56455f39e4b07ecc46029f32/1447386943853/horse+1%2CMitchel+copy.jpg Restoration https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/5658e598e4b0c377c45d504f/1454466046715/mitchel+horses+2+copy.jpg Restoration This is Henry Mitchell's"Running Free" horse sculpture at Drexel. Some wierd delivery truck knocked the tail off one of the horses twice. And then the sculpture had to be moved from one place on Drexel's campus to another. This is how I found the sculpture to bid on refitting the tail, and helping with the re-installation. The massive stainless steel tubes that served as armatures to support and mount the sculpture had been cut flush to the bottom plane of the feet. I have to admit, working on this set-up scared me more than a little. I didn't finish with the installation of this job because the only week i informed the rigging Co. I couldn't be there is the week they chose to do the re-installation. Oh well, nobody is irreplaceable. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55bfb1dde4b0ab0781b5d5df/5658e5f4e4b0e91a03b79e33/1448666615882/Museum+Lion+copy+1.jpg Restoration http://www.phillipscasting.com/new-gallery daily 0.75 2017-01-06 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/t/586fb8e0bf629abf6924e3c1/1483538184016/ Bodh Gaya Self Portrait, 2013, Canon G-9, the entrance to the MahaBodhi Temple, Bodh Gaya, India. On our last day at the temple, we made offerings to the people along the path A little boy kept looking up at me hopefully, but by then I had run out of change. Not to worry. there was a table right there where Nyingma monks were taking donations to build a monastery. I gave a donation to them, and the change to the little boy. In return, to my surprise, the monk gave me a receipt and a red protection string. I began to lasso this around my left wrist in a clumsy fashion when a young Japanese woman offered to help me. After she tied the red protection cord around my wrist, she looked up with her lovely eyes and smiled directly into my heart. As I stumbled away, the little boy pointed to the barber who was waving for me to come over.     https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b3249ee4b0c6c9f7dfd11a/55184418e4b07f1a8494e5eb/1483538184016/ Bodh Gaya Self Portrait, 2013, Canon G-9, the entrance to the MahaBodhi Temple, Bodh Gaya, India. On our last day at the temple, we made offerings to the people along the path A little boy kept looking up at me hopefully, but by then I had run out of change. Not to worry. there was a table right there where Nyingma monks were taking donations to build a monastery. I gave a donation to them, and the change to the little boy. In return, to my surprise, the monk gave me a receipt and a red protection string. I began to lasso this around my left wrist in a clumsy fashion when a young Japanese woman offered to help me. After she tied the red protection cord around my wrist, she looked up with her lovely eyes and smiled directly into my heart. As I stumbled away, the little boy pointed to the barber who was waving for me to come over.     https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b3249ee4b0c6c9f7dfd11a/5553f555e4b091b70a6fc277/1459648932298/Temple+door+ring.jpg Bodh Gaya Temple door ring, Maha Bodhi Temple, Bodh Gaya, India. This looks like lost wax cast metal that has been "chased"to correct any casting defects and sharpen up any loss of form. An amazing realization of craft and artistic imagination. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b3249ee4b0c6c9f7dfd11a/551882d6e4b0ac69ef6cf9b0/1431810095380/ Bodh Gaya https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b3249ee4b0c6c9f7dfd11a/5553f964e4b0df117520bbb7/1483539303863/Maha+Bodhi+Temple%2C+Bodh+Gaya.jpg Bodh Gaya The Mahabodhi Temple seen from the upper most path almost 1/2 way around the temple. A timeless tableau of monks offering prayers and mantras for peace. The Vajrasana throne of the Buddha is under the Pipal tree immediately behind the Temple. Pilgrims and monks from around the world circumambulate the temple, sometimes enveloped in mantras and prayers for peace during the Monlams. A wonderful blessing.   https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b3249ee4b0c6c9f7dfd11a/5553fad8e4b0592118fa180b/1442590352464/Maha+Bodi+Temple%2C+Bodh+Gaya.jpg Bodh Gaya https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b3249ee4b0c6c9f7dfd11a/5557b050e4b0447c46e11e13/1483716832383/IMG_0039+copy+2.JPG Bodh Gaya - Stations of the Buddha In Christan terms, this might be considered a "Station" of the Buddha"s enlightenment that is situated on the third circumambulatory(highest) path of the Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya, India. The inscription reads : "After enlightenment Lord Buddha spent the second week in meditation here gazing unwinking at the Bodhi tree". After reading a modern day Lama's comments to avoid "unblinking" during meditation as that could harm your eyes, I mentioned to a friend that perhaps the unwinking Buddha was in a trance. My friend was greatly offended at my remark, vehemently retorting:"He is seeing the truth". Interestingly, I have no reason to doubt the Buddha's enlightenment. What I was trying to say was that it seemed that someone "added" the "unwinking" bit to the Buddha's story to give it more spiritual authority. I get the same sense when I see the word "Lord" placed before the Buddha's name(or anybody's name). The Buddha himself was a bit of a rebel, and asked his followers to test out the truth of his teachings for themselves, and not take his word for it...hardly the stance of a man who would be called "Lord"or insist that his view was the "Truth". Of course, The Buddha might have in fact been "unwinking" even though that might have been bad for his eyes. We simply have to accept the Buddha's story as it is told, and make what we can of it. The fundamental concern here is the concept of "authority". Since almost all authority, either spiritual , moral, or political, seems to be based on gibberish( "There is no singing school but studying monuments of its own magnificence."), it seems a safe bet to be a relentless iconoclast. The problem with this stance is that whatever your culture, if a genuine spiritual event or teacher appears to you, you will ignore it or destroy it, and so dam yourself to an everlasting hell of meaninglessness.     https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b3249ee4b0c6c9f7dfd11a/5557b062e4b009369bbbcff1/1442591993303/IMG_0035+copy+3.JPG Bodh Gaya The monks, nuns, and lay people here are taking refuge/making prostrations to the Buddha, dharma, sangha, and also perhaps to teachers and dharma protectors. There are offering mandalas of flowers and offering bowls filled with water and flowers everywhere. The sound of prayers and mantra also rose up from the entire temple grounds, especially surrounding the Vajrasana throne, that filled my being with a deep sense of reverence for life impossible to adequately describe. Refuge is an integral part of any meditation practice. The question is...what do you take refuge in? Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist monk, writes extensively about refuge in his book: Turning Confusion into Clarity.   https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b3249ee4b0c6c9f7dfd11a/5557b0b4e4b0d9e3a58c64b1/1431810236815/IMG_0041+copy+3.JPG Bodh Gaya https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b3249ee4b0c6c9f7dfd11a/5557b0e2e4b02de6a6eb094e/1431810283390/IMG_0124+copy+3.JPG Bodh Gaya https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b3249ee4b0c6c9f7dfd11a/55ef8d6de4b0e4ff18205441/1441762689026/IMG_0017+copy.JPG Bodh Gaya https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b3249ee4b0c6c9f7dfd11a/55ef05f2e4b0f95d48ede7b3/1459649604260/VAJRASANA+THRONE++A.jpg Bodh Gaya - The Vajrasana Throne This is the site of the Vajrasana Throne, the Place Of the Buddha's Enlightenment. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b3249ee4b0c6c9f7dfd11a/55ef05dae4b0d2dc65f5f4b9/1459649388701/VAJRASANA+THRONE.jpg Bodh Gaya https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b3249ee4b0c6c9f7dfd11a/55ef8dabe4b02beb8d4f592d/1441762740099/IMG_0051+copy.JPG Bodh Gaya https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b3249ee4b0c6c9f7dfd11a/55ef86f6e4b0a40c417fbf2f/1441761016937/ Bodh Gaya http://www.phillipscasting.com/southern-india daily 0.75 2016-04-02 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/t/5700488e86db4320c43f1b7d/1442613212349/ Southern India https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55fc8712e4b049077ee8513d/55fc87cae4b039f7eac4265d/1442613212349/ Southern India https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55fc8712e4b049077ee8513d/55fc8871e4b0154e8829707c/1459636366052/Devotion+copy.jpg Southern India - Devotion This image is named "Devotion". The woman is bowing to the sacred hill, Arunachala, that rises above the Sri Ramana Ashram in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India. Also pictured here are the steps leading to the temples of the ashram, with the inevitable collection of shoes. Unlike the long and arduous struggle of Siddhartha (who became the Buddha), Ramana came to Self realization as a young man spontaneously, "sitting alone in a room on the first floor of his uncle's house" in Madurai". Anybody who wonders about Enlightenment might consider studying the life and teachings of Ramana Maharshi, as well as the life of the Buddha. There are widely different ideas about what enlightenment is and how it is attained. Some think enlightenment is a constant state of consciousness that takes many lifetimes of purification to achieve . Some claim that we are already fully enlightened, but need to clear our obscurations and karmic faults to realize our true nature which is possible even in this lifetime. The turning point in Siddhartha's quest for enlightenment apparently came when he remembered the bliss he had spontaneously experienced sitting under a rose apple tree as a young boy. Up to this point he had fasted himself almost to death to purify himself somehow, but now realized that the clarification of his own body and mind by meditative absorption would be the path to his enlightenment. "...he would need physical strength and better health to continue..." At this point, Siddhartha also realized his path to awakening was a "middle way" between extremes of self-denial and self-indulgence." He had, in fact, left his palace and gone searching in the jungle for the "Great Awakened Elephant of Enlightenment", and found, in stead, the rather humble "Middle Way". Now you may wonder what all this has to do with devotion? To understand this question fully, it is important to recognize that devotion does not seem to be well understood in two ways. First, devotion is unquestionably one of the most potent of spiritual realities know to our world, and second; that it can not only clear one's path to any heaven in our universe, but just as readily speed the devotee into the realms of hell. The Buddha's accomplishment is that he discovered-created that which is worthy of devotion.       https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55fc8712e4b049077ee8513d/56ccf29a1d07c059679ece41/1456272034885/Por+of+young+man%2C+Madurai.jpg Southern India https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55fc8712e4b049077ee8513d/56ccf2cb22482ed43c62b46d/1456272078888/Karala+Communists+2.jpg Southern India https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55fc8712e4b049077ee8513d/56ccf405f8baf36bf95f238c/1456272401224/IMG_0217+copy.JPG Southern India https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55fc8712e4b049077ee8513d/56ccf47cab48decdb261b045/1456272519881/IMG_0056+copy.JPG Southern India https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/55fc8712e4b049077ee8513d/56ccf493ab48decdb261b0e4/1456272540158/IMG_0033+copy.JPG Southern India http://www.phillipscasting.com/images daily 0.75 2017-01-05 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b30980e4b0daa8c2c00d2b/54b5c70ee4b0ac034b0f3869/1428957549309/_DSC0051_HDR+-+Version+2+%281%29.jpg Busts https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/t/552c296de4b0bfddbb22101a/1429144749002/_DSC0051_HDR+-+Version+2+%281%29.jpg Busts https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b30980e4b0daa8c2c00d2b/54b5cce3e4b0a17414a7e12a/1481231995813/_DSC0171_HDR_HDR+-+Version+2.jpg Busts - SELF PORTRAIT This bronze was created by pressing gobs of low fire water clay, without grog, onto my face...making a kind of fast and furious mold shape that I could place face side up on a table. Next, brush hot(210 to 250F) wax into this mold about 3/16" thick. Push and pull this shape around a little...or a lot, or wharever, till happy. Wash clay off wax, sprue wax portrait, and ceramic shell cast. Patina... liver of sulfur, with ferric nitrate, finished with Butcher's wax. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b30980e4b0daa8c2c00d2b/54b3222ae4b0ac5b7ace88a7/1483583608197/_DSC0078_HDR.jpg Busts This Iron-steel sculpture began as a portrait, in clay, of a man named Chick who was studying to be a priest around 1982. The sittings ended before the portrait was finished, and I made a plaster cast from the unfinished clay at this time. Also in the early 80's, as I carbon-arc cast the Portrait of Earnie in bronze I mistakenly picked up a chunk of steel and blasted that into the bronze cast as well. The small section of steel looked good. So I made a rubber mold,on the plaster cast of Chick, cast a wax on which I cast front and back plaster shells, melted out the waxso as to carbon-arc cast Chick's portrait in iron. This iron cast wasn't strong enough from the first round of blasts and drips of molten iron and the plaster shells of the mold were shot. So. I packed clay around the front the weak iron form, and kept blasting and dripping molten iron onto the back of it. Still not strong enough. So onto a shelf it went to be forgotten. Years later, remembrance! More clay, more blasting and welding steel rod and rebar into the cast. Still no good. Back to the shelf. Later still(2014), Michael Grothusen of Uarts announced an open call to the students and faculty of Uarts for "unfinished" sculpture for a show he dubs "Half Baked". At this moment, I am studying Lama John Makransky's comments on Nyoshul Khenpo Rinpoche's statements on the nature of mind in John's book"Awakening With Love"...and also Salvador Dali's paintings and his "paranoiac-critical method of creating them...specifically 'The Persistence of Memory', 1931. While turning all this over suddenly the unfinished iron portrait of Chick suspended itself on three columns above a vast ,gridded plane in my mind's eye. Wow! So, I welded two steel rods onto the iron(there was already one sticking down at just the right height), darkened and scribed grid lines on a steel plate, drilled three holes, named the new sculpture "Persistence of Awareness" in honor or Dali, and put the now completed sculpture in Michael's show of unfinished sculpture. Later on, as my study of awareness keeps deepening with the help of teachers and friends, I rename the sculpture:" Persistence: Awareness" to note the Tibetan Buddhist view that awareness-emptiness is a primordial quality of the nature of the mind, other qualities being spontaneous creativeness( a kind of cosmic pop corn machine), unimpedeness, a kind of naked honesty or clarity, and just plain flat out indescribable joy, compassion, wisdom, and on and on beyond imagination...a loving of life. Please don't feel bad if you don't see all this talk in the sculpture. For me, this sculpture marks a convergence in my understanding of art and meditation. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b30980e4b0daa8c2c00d2b/54b32216e4b0258f56ed9e05/1471987608357/Screen+Shot+2016-08-23+at+5.12.39+PM.png Busts - JOE 2 X 4 A portrait of a woman factory worker in Chester didn't work out. As I was knocking the clay off the armature with a 2 X 4, an interesting pattern of ridges began to emerge. Round and round I went, sculpting the clay with the 2 x 4. In about 15 minutes the new sculpture, Joe 2 X 4, was finished. Standard procedure at this point is to throw a waste mold on the clay, and cast a plaster...which I did. The plaster cast sat around for some time until Issac Witkin mentioned that I should consider making a bronze of the plaster. This I did also, and took the bronze cast to Issac's studio in Pemberton, NJ , for his help to patina the bronze of Joe 2 X 4. I wanted to try a sodium hydroxide-nitric acid hot patina, which we did although i could only find Liquid Plummer in place of the base. After heating the bronze up and applying the NaOh- HNO3 solution, Issac yelled out"Watch Out, John", as a green gas started sizzling off the metal. We both ran the hell out of his studio. Nice reds and golds, though. Issac said he never saw a red like this. Later on, a conservator friend, Ginny Naude, mentioned that sculpture should have more color. Turning this idea over, I noticed in a supply catalog an optically clear urethane plastic that was available with 3 dyes, red,yellow, and blue. Using Joe 2 x 4's rubber mold, I mixed up small batches of red, yellow, blue, and started to mix small patches of greens, oranges, pinks, purples, etc., and painted these patches into the open mold. When color patches covered the castable surface, I closed the mold and painted the two halves together from the inside. Then, when a kid came in our studio during Post and asked me if this cast was made of bubblegum, Joe 2 x 4 became Joe Bubblegum. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b30980e4b0daa8c2c00d2b/54b5ce87e4b00aad29c27965/1483582989466/_DSC0066_HDR_HDR+-+Version+2.jpg Busts Carbon arc torch cast bronze, 1982. This portrait of my friend Earnie started out as a terra cotta I modeled from life.I fired the clay and then made a rubber mold on the fired clay.Then did a wax, and then did a bronze. Didn't like it. Then did a wax, and then did two plaster shells on the wax, lost the wax, and then blasted blobs of molten bronze into the two separate plaster shells with a carbon arc cutting torch, and welded them together from the inside. If you try this , make sure you dress for the occasion...Great balls of Fire! https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b30980e4b0daa8c2c00d2b/54b5cb89e4b089bfadbd090d/1429310234581/_DSC0153_HDR_HDR+%281%29.jpg Busts Ductile Iron, 1982. Modeled from life with a traditional Al wire armature and low fire clay with no grog. Steve Braff, my 2nd floor neighbor who happened to be a yoga instructor, sat in the full lotus in the middle of his living room floor while I crawled around him modelling away. He needed a cushion for his left knee. There is also a bronze and aluminum cast of this sculpture...which I wrote about in my artist statement. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b30980e4b0daa8c2c00d2b/54b321e4e4b0258f56ed9cea/1471988824190/J+BUBBLE+PRINT.jpg Busts - JOE BUBBLEGUM When Joe 2 X4 was around 2 years, a conservator friend, Ginny Naude of Norton Art Conservation, mentioned that sculpture should have more color. Turning this idea over, I noticed in a casting supply catalog(Polytek Development Corp.) an optically clear urethane plastic that was available with 3 dyes, red, yellow, and blue. Using Joe 2 x 4's rubber mold, I mixed up small batches of red, yellow, blue, and kept mixing... small patches of greens, oranges, pinks, purples, etc., and painted these patches into the open mold. When color patches covered the sculpture's castable surface, I closed the mold and painted the two halves together from the inside. Then, when a kid came in our studio during Post( Philadelphia Open Studio Tours) and asked me if this cast was made of bubblegum, Joe 2 x 4 became,,,Tra La La... Joe Bubblegum. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/54b30980e4b0daa8c2c00d2b/57bcc20115d5db62fcd521a7/1471988989293/DSC_2394.JPG Busts - Joe Night Stand And if you just want to fool around, get yourself a low heat light source of some sort, put it inside Joe Bubblegum, turn out the lights and...Tra La La... Joe Night Stand. http://www.phillipscasting.com/sculpture-making daily 0.75 2020-12-01 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/t/5fc6c4d09dfc2a4045094336/1606862003886/ Sculpture making - The Towers of Meenakshi This is one of the Temple's towers.The number of sculptures, and the color, is beyond grasping. And this is just the outside of one of the Temple Complex's towers. As spectacular as the Meenakshi Temple complex is, our meditation study group did not travel to Madurai, India, in the winter of 2013-14, to visit it. Instead, our goal was to visit Sri Ramana Maharshi's uncle's house, a modest house on a small, busy street, which was the site of Ramana's enlightenment. Young Ventakatataman, as he was known before his enlightenment, went to live there after his father passed away. The house is now a shrine that pilgrims from all over the world visit for inspiration.. A block or so away is the Meenakahi Temple, where the young Venkataraman would go to commune with the Saivite Saints. After his enlightenment, Venkataraman traveled to Arunachala, where he became one of the most revered sages of the modern era. The temple complex, while probably not the principal cause of Venkataraman's enlightenment, certainly helped set the stage… https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/563b708ee4b0c976f0a858ff/5642b4a2e4b08c803b78d71e/1606862003886/IMG_0057+copy.JPG Sculpture making - The Towers of Meenakshi This is one of the Temple's towers.The number of sculptures, and the color, is beyond grasping. And this is just the outside of one of the Temple Complex's towers. As spectacular as the Meenakshi Temple complex is, our meditation study group did not travel to Madurai, India, in the winter of 2013-14, to visit it. Instead, our goal was to visit Sri Ramana Maharshi's uncle's house, a modest house on a small, busy street, which was the site of Ramana's enlightenment. Young Ventakatataman, as he was known before his enlightenment, went to live there after his father passed away. The house is now a shrine that pilgrims from all over the world visit for inspiration.. A block or so away is the Meenakahi Temple, where the young Venkataraman would go to commune with the Saivite Saints. After his enlightenment, Venkataraman traveled to Arunachala, where he became one of the most revered sages of the modern era. The temple complex, while probably not the principal cause of Venkataraman's enlightenment, certainly helped set the stage… https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/563b708ee4b0c976f0a858ff/5642b48fe4b00b392ccb9b7f/1606862028786/IMG_0048+copy+2.JPG Sculpture making - Larry spots the Meenakshi Temple …And speaking of help, the Buddha, like Ramana, received life saving help at critical moments on his spiritual journey. This is to say that there are most likely more instances of enlightenment, spontaneous or otherwise, that occur in all human communities, than anybody is aware of. It seems that to have an enlightenment experience can be the work of a lifetime, or it can happen spontaneously. Either way, to stabilize in this experience can be almost impossible. Ramana, for instance, almost didn't "come back" from it. On the other hand, some may report that their enlightenment was "nothing special", or that they gained not the least little thing from it. After all, what is so special about being yourself? The value of the Buddha and Ramana to me is that they help me comprehend and understand my own spiritual experience. Finally, seeing this particular temple forever changed my sense of color in regard to sculpture and inspired me to express an appreciation of what I had seen. And so, when Renny and Rocio of the Imperfect Gallery here in Germantown offered me a one man show in the spring of 2014 to be installed the following November, I knew I had something to say, and was ready to take a shot at making some colorful, playful sculpture. My first step in this direction was to go on a two week retreat to rest and relax before the big push. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/563b708ee4b0c976f0a858ff/58262df6c534a582d2463044/1479766027424/IMG_0941.jpg Sculpture making - Speedy Melt, pick up tongs, pouring shank, ladle, sand table Your standard speedy melt furnace, which can melt 230 lbs. of bronze in 45 minutes. We do mostly 90 lb pots, and ladle rather than pour the molten metal directly into the shapes we created by pressing objects into the sand, and then removing them. We can also draw or embed objects in the sand that the metal can lock onto. The objects we used for the Toy Tower are toy cars, dice, toy figures, game pieces, and found objects of all sorts. Issac Witkin was pouring bronze directly into open sand in the 80's at the Johnson Atelier, where I was an apprentice. Issac was interested in the flow of the metal. A somewhat less direct technique is to make impressions in clay, cast wax into the impressions, and then cast the wax into bronze via the lost wax process. However you choose to make form, if you cast the forms in silicon bronze, you can weld anything you have cast together with great ease. Silicon bronze is as readily weldable as steel. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/563b708ee4b0c976f0a858ff/58262eb7d1758e9d6198fbd0/1479691829779/IMG_0899.jpg Sculpture making - Sand table A wood table, 88" X 26", with a 2x4 wood frame on top, filled with 2 to 3 hundred lbs. of Olivine sand mixed with a clay body and water. The 3 runs here of silicon bronze have cooled down(about 15 minutes), and are now ready to take out of the sand to be preassured washed. The clean up here is a lot easier than ceramic shell, which generally requires glass bead blasting. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/563b708ee4b0c976f0a858ff/58262f49e6f2e16e929f7f2b/1479692084087/IMG_1232.jpg Sculpture making - unwashed sand cast A bronze run turned over in the sand, prior to being washed. The sand size determines the texture of the cast metal. The finer the face coat of sand, the less pebbly and finer the surface of the cast metal.   https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/563b708ee4b0c976f0a858ff/58262f2c725e25d01198c504/1485272764649/IMG_1005.jpg Sculpture making - The beginning of the Toy Tower Totem Here we go welding the pressure washed runs onto a round silicon bronze plate 5/8" thick. At this point, I am just "tacking" things together to see what works. I had the feeling at this point that this was going to be a lot of work with no guarantees in sight. But one has to start somewhere. Of great concern was that the sides of 4 runs did not meet well, and there was too much empty space all around. The cardboard indicates what is missing. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/563b708ee4b0c976f0a858ff/58262e5fcd0f684ed1f5a9c9/1485274123591/IMG_0995.jpg Sculpture making - Toy Tower Totem under construction Three sides of the Tower are tacked to the bottom plate and to each other. Here you can see the sides don't fit that well together. Too much empty space and not enough sculpture. What to do? One possible solution would be to design the shape of the runs so that they would fit together better. One way of doing this would be to make overall pattern shapes that "fit" like puzzle pieces. If I have time, I will give this a try. The toy tower pictured here was added onto with back pouring. Note the orange cloth clamp up top. At this spot inside the 3 runs is a chunk of wood 4 X 4, which gives the tower its proper shape, when clamped. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/563b708ee4b0c976f0a858ff/58263577725e25d01199283b/1479770028534/IMG_1006.jpg Sculpture making - Toy Tower Totem, under construction Here is what things look like up top. Way too much is missing. What to do? https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/563b708ee4b0c976f0a858ff/563c188ee4b0875372e82ca3/1485274441121/JP+Backpouring+Toy+Tower+Totem.jpg Sculpture making - Backpour Eureka! Backpour is what to do. Press one side of the Tower into the sand as firmly as possible. Create sand berms along the length of the run where necessary to create an edge of the run if there is no edge there to begin with, and then do more pattern work in the sand to fill the empty spaces. Now get yourself a length of angle steel, and weld a handle to it. Then, ladle the molten bronze, using your length of angle steel, to the places the bronze needs to be. If the molten bronze doesn't lock on the already cast metal, it can be welded to it quit easily. I have to say...this is my idea of fun. Photo by Kerry Michaels. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/563b708ee4b0c976f0a858ff/58262b4e9de4bb54a7046906/1485275034530/IMG_0527.jpg Sculpture making - Toy Tower Totem Here we have all 4 runs filled in. Note the hydraulic pump in the left corner of the photo. With a small piston set up placed inside the tower, the sides of the runs can be pressed out where necessary to effect a good alignment. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/563b708ee4b0c976f0a858ff/58262f776a496381343f51aa/1485816090727/IMG_1242+%281%29.jpg Sculpture making - Toy Tower Totem Another view. Notice the over run of metal a foot or so down on the left hand run. I was about to cut this extra off when I noticed that this extra little run might give the sculpture an organic, molting kind of feel. Let's try it! In the backround is my Hobart Cyber Wave 300 Amp, three phase welder equipped with a water cooled TIG torch. This is a gift from George Burpee, my first father in law. Thank you, George. After 35 years, the welder is still going strong, and so is my regard for your generosity. Having a water cooled TIG torch with a 60% duty cycle means you can do a lot of welding in a timely manner(you can weld 6 minutes out of every 10.). When I started out, Bernie Brenner(Vulcan to his friends and students), gave me a little buzz box with a stabilizer unit on top and an air cooled TIG torch. This had a 20% duty cycle, which means 2 minutes of welding for every 8 minutes of letting the torch cool off. Which is OK. A further complication was that I installed this welder in my garage 150 feet distant from my house which had an 100 amp service. Which is fine for a house, but not so good for welding, especially since the further away you go from your circuit box, the less volts you have to weld with. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/563b708ee4b0c976f0a858ff/5642b65ee4b02d0ff7230e04/1485816168609/Paige+Miller+helping+with+patinas.jpg Sculpture making - Paige Working on Patina for Toy Tower Totem Its sometimes helpful to do patina work outside. The two good things about working outside is that you can see what you're doing, and fresh air. Even outside hot chemical patinas create fumes that need to be carefully directed away from the worker. This is not hard to do, but it does need to be done to protect the worker from toxic fumes. Inside, a ventilation set up is necessary. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/563b708ee4b0c976f0a858ff/563b77e3e4b029a1c4420f9b/1478898915857/Toy+tower+on+welding+platform+copy.jpg Sculpture making https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/563b708ee4b0c976f0a858ff/563c1ab7e4b01c3f2fe44a2b/1478898890042/Toy+tower+patina+in+proces+copy.jpg Sculpture making https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/563b708ee4b0c976f0a858ff/5642b6d7e4b014f5dba8bec6/1447212772863/Tapping+Toy+Totem+plate%2C+14-10-29-+copy.jpg Sculpture making https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/563b708ee4b0c976f0a858ff/58262b12f7e0abb6a0dd950b/1478898732684/DSC_3153.jpg Sculpture making https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/563b708ee4b0c976f0a858ff/582636c5ebbd1a0fea52d9dd/1485818511252/IMG_1299.jpg Sculpture making - Paige Paige helped me sand mold, pour, and patina the sculptures of the Totem series, from the summer of 2014 on. While I don't get paid that much to teach, I have the privilege of working with some of the very best students interested in art. Artists in their own right. As my students, I help them with their work. Later on, if things work out. they help me with my work. It is good to pay attention to honest, straight-forward, win- win relationships. So it can be very joyful making sculpture with like minded people who are into it. Thank you, Paige. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/563b708ee4b0c976f0a858ff/58263af7197aea868ac9787f/1478900474359/IMG_1300.jpg Sculpture making https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/563b708ee4b0c976f0a858ff/582cef6dff7c509ea28bde40/1479339891187/IMG_1004.jpg Sculpture making http://www.phillipscasting.com/meditation-studiesnew-gallery daily 0.75 2016-11-21 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/t/58326216cd0f682710962bce/1451350906667/ Meditation Studies My two favorite lamas, Lama Willa Miller and Lama Karma Chotso looking over photos during a teaching break in front of the Tara Shrine at Wonderwell Mountain Refuge in Springfield, New Hampshire. Both women are devoted to the dharma in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and lead retreats, teachings, and discussions on all aspects of Tibetan meditative practices. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/5681a953dc5cb42475c9c8cd/5681a9a357eb8de3966a3d40/1451350906667/Lamas+Willa+Kotsho%3F.jpg Meditation Studies My two favorite lamas, Lama Willa Miller and Lama Karma Chotso looking over photos during a teaching break in front of the Tara Shrine at Wonderwell Mountain Refuge in Springfield, New Hampshire. Both women are devoted to the dharma in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and lead retreats, teachings, and discussions on all aspects of Tibetan meditative practices. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/5681a953dc5cb42475c9c8cd/5681ab7740667aa32849c38c/1454452706321/DSC_1044.jpg Meditation Studies The completed Tara Shrine at Wonderwell Mountqain Refuge. The Tara sculpture was cast in Katmandu for Wonderwell and consecrated this year. In the foreground is the bell, with striker. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/5681a953dc5cb42475c9c8cd/5681af7b2399a38430c01fe7/1479696523458/Lama+Coulter+and+Brendan+Kennedy.jpg Meditation Studies Lama Coulter and Brendan Kennedy celebrating after Brendan leading a meditation retreat here in Philadelphia this past fall(2015). My wife and I were fortunate enough to pilgrimage to India with Brendan Kennedy,Terry Conrad, and a small group of Brendan's students in 2013-4. We visited the Ramana Ashram at the foot of Arunachala, Ramana uncle's house in Madurai(also the site of the Meenakshi Temple...both important places to Ramana's enlightenment), and the Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya, the site of Buddha's enlightenment. See next photo. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/5681a953dc5cb42475c9c8cd/58325faee58c625a73811f2e/1479696918557/Maha+Bodhi+Temple%2C+Bodh+Gaya.jpg Meditation Studies - Maha Bodhi Temple, Bodh Gaya, India The back of the temple seen from the third circumambulatory path. Underneath the bodhi tree at the rear of the temple is the Vajrasana Throne; the the site of the Buddha's enlightenment. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/5681a953dc5cb42475c9c8cd/56b13b5b07eaa0f6f05f185f/1479696353193/Lama+Willa+%26+Anam+Thubtan.jpg Meditation Studies Two revered teachers, Lama Willa and Anam Thubten, during the 5 day retreat they lead at Wonderwell this past January, 2016. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/5681a953dc5cb42475c9c8cd/572e1fd662cd94614015626c/1468632644249/Low+res.jpg Meditation Studies - Buddhas And Bodhisattvas Dwelling Through Out Time And Space This visualization of a refuge prayer was doodled out late one snowy night during a week long retreat at the beginning of the transmission of our ngondro,(preliminary practices), beginning with prostrations to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. The title above is the beginning verse of the prayer, which is said in the manifested presence of the diety associated with your practice. Thanks to Lama Willa Miller for getting us off to a good start, and continuing on with the Margha program of Natural Dharma Fellowship. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/5681a953dc5cb42475c9c8cd/577fe0bfe3df28bc004a6004/1468632565077/IMG_0234+%281%29.jpg Meditation Studies - The Gap This is a photo of the Gap between Ocean City, New Jersey, and Sthathmere. A seagull is walking by, and that is about it. The Gap, besides land masses, refers to the space, or lack of, between thoughts. Beginning meditators, when they first become aware of their thinking mind, often report that their thoughts seem to boil by like a raging waterfall, or the chatterings of an upset monkey. The point of meditation practice is to calm down enoiugh to experience a gap between these thoughts, and be able to rest there. Maybe for a moment or two. Another goal of practice would be to not only rest in the Gap, but then to refrain from filling it up with stuff. Any stuff. In your meditation session, just chill out, and keep noticing what comes up to fill the Gap. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/5681a953dc5cb42475c9c8cd/58325d5e2994ca3ef53c7590/1479695711694/Approach+of+the+Bodhsattva+copy.jpg Meditation Studies http://www.phillipscasting.com/afteron-photography daily 0.75 2017-02-03 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/t/58950c0a440243e9f0a75036/1482359936796/ After,,,On Photography - After...On Photography Susan Sontag's On Photoghaphy starts out in Plato's Cave, with"humankind's lingering unregenerately, still reveling, its age old habit, of mere images of the truth."It is hard to imagine a more ambitious social, pyschological, sexual, or political analysis of photographic history and practices from 1839 to the present. An encyclopedia of pithy observations, snapshots , if you will. Sontag's reference to Plato highlights her profound interest in the nature of reality revealed in the history and practices of photography and its relationships to the other visual arts, and other culture's political orders. While Plato's Cave may be a place of revelry for some, it is also a place of darkness, confusion, and suffering for almost all other humankind. If you ever get tired of "revelry", turn your gaze completely around from the moving shadows on the wall of the cave in front of you, and in your mind's eye, take a good look at the chains of beliefs and pet rants that bind you to the wall at your back... No shadow! Speaking of caves, the photo here is a self portrait "taken" about 1974. This is a bathroom mirror in a 2nd floor apt. on 19th st., between Market and Chestnut in downtown Phila..The street entrance to my Apt. was also the entrance to a porn bookstore off to the side, which was why the rent was so cheap. My interests at the time were poetry, painting, sculpture, one girl friend at a time, and developing a rudimentary zen practice based on my sense of poetry and available readings at the time: Zen and The Art of Archery, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, and The Three Pillars of Zen, etc. Back to my selfie. Its amazing how much a photo can help anchor memories...On my finger is a ring my brother gave me, which I was to loose at the Johnson Atelier about 5 years later. The camera is a Pentax Spotmatic with a F1.8, 55 mm lens that I worked all summer for at Pessano's Pharmacy, in 1968, in Ocean City, New Jersey. Interestingly enough, I just learned there is a contemplation practice developed by Ken Mcleod, where one contemplates one's life every 8 years or so. It is advised to rest in an open awareness meditation(Tilopa) before and after the contemplation session Say 10 minutes meditation, 5 minutes contemplation, 5 minutes meditation. This is to help the practitioner to stabilize what comes up. It is also really helpful to be working with a thearapist and /or be a member of a meditation group, or Sangha if you are interested in working on your "stuff". I plan to work with photos as well as just meditation. Keep you posted. The slr camera, with its pentaprism, seemed to me a wish fulfilling jewel. I bought the camera in time to take photos of my brother's wedding. After that, I carried the camera around where ever I went, taking pictures of everything that caught my eye. Back to Sontag. Her writing creates an incredibly rich context for discussions about photography, photographers, photos, reality, history, and art. Despite her great knowledge, she is hardly the definitive word on any number of the subjects she talks about. The heightened emotional content of her comments on Diane Arbus, for example, implies Sontag's own "shadow" or unconscious material(thank you Robert Bly) projected into her observations. While this is not a crime, neither is it a clear view of a great photographer.     https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/571d32f62eeb814e314b6c53/571d3aa4e707ebff307f729c/1482359936796/Self+Portrait%2C+with+Camera.png After,,,On Photography - After...On Photography Susan Sontag's On Photoghaphy starts out in Plato's Cave, with"humankind's lingering unregenerately, still reveling, its age old habit, of mere images of the truth."It is hard to imagine a more ambitious social, pyschological, sexual, or political analysis of photographic history and practices from 1839 to the present. An encyclopedia of pithy observations, snapshots , if you will. Sontag's reference to Plato highlights her profound interest in the nature of reality revealed in the history and practices of photography and its relationships to the other visual arts, and other culture's political orders. While Plato's Cave may be a place of revelry for some, it is also a place of darkness, confusion, and suffering for almost all other humankind. If you ever get tired of "revelry", turn your gaze completely around from the moving shadows on the wall of the cave in front of you, and in your mind's eye, take a good look at the chains of beliefs and pet rants that bind you to the wall at your back... No shadow! Speaking of caves, the photo here is a self portrait "taken" about 1974. This is a bathroom mirror in a 2nd floor apt. on 19th st., between Market and Chestnut in downtown Phila..The street entrance to my Apt. was also the entrance to a porn bookstore off to the side, which was why the rent was so cheap. My interests at the time were poetry, painting, sculpture, one girl friend at a time, and developing a rudimentary zen practice based on my sense of poetry and available readings at the time: Zen and The Art of Archery, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, and The Three Pillars of Zen, etc. Back to my selfie. Its amazing how much a photo can help anchor memories...On my finger is a ring my brother gave me, which I was to loose at the Johnson Atelier about 5 years later. The camera is a Pentax Spotmatic with a F1.8, 55 mm lens that I worked all summer for at Pessano's Pharmacy, in 1968, in Ocean City, New Jersey. Interestingly enough, I just learned there is a contemplation practice developed by Ken Mcleod, where one contemplates one's life every 8 years or so. It is advised to rest in an open awareness meditation(Tilopa) before and after the contemplation session Say 10 minutes meditation, 5 minutes contemplation, 5 minutes meditation. This is to help the practitioner to stabilize what comes up. It is also really helpful to be working with a thearapist and /or be a member of a meditation group, or Sangha if you are interested in working on your "stuff". I plan to work with photos as well as just meditation. Keep you posted. The slr camera, with its pentaprism, seemed to me a wish fulfilling jewel. I bought the camera in time to take photos of my brother's wedding. After that, I carried the camera around where ever I went, taking pictures of everything that caught my eye. Back to Sontag. Her writing creates an incredibly rich context for discussions about photography, photographers, photos, reality, history, and art. Despite her great knowledge, she is hardly the definitive word on any number of the subjects she talks about. The heightened emotional content of her comments on Diane Arbus, for example, implies Sontag's own "shadow" or unconscious material(thank you Robert Bly) projected into her observations. While this is not a crime, neither is it a clear view of a great photographer.     https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/571d32f62eeb814e314b6c53/574741e409e1c4ead43f026a/1464287576764/Self+Portrait%2C+with+Camera.png After,,,On Photography - After...On Photography Susan Sontag's On Photoghaphy starts out in Plato's Cave, with"humankind's lingering unregenerately, still reveling, its age old habit, of mere images of the truth."It is hard to imagine a more ambitious social, pyschological, sexual, or political analysis of photographic history and practices from 1839 to the present. Sontag's reference to Plato highlights her profound interest in the nature of reality revealed in the history and practices of photography and its relationships to the other visual arts. While Plato's Cave may be a place of revelry for some, it is also a place of darkness, confusion, and unbearable suffering for almost all other humankind. If you ever get tired of "revelry",turn your gaze completely around from the moving shadows on the wall of the cave in front of you, and in your mind's eye, take a good look at the chains of beliefs and pet rants that bind you to the opposite wall at your back... No shadow!     https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/571d32f62eeb814e314b6c53/576355b320099e88525fb033/1479931428549/Screen+Shot+2016-06-16+at+9.40.16+PM+copy.jpg After,,,On Photography - My Brother Dave My brother Dave, around 1968, with his trusty Voightlander Bessamatic. I took this portrait with my Pentax Spotmatic, 55mm f1.8 lens. Growing up, My brother and I were greatly influenced by our father, who was an medical doctor. Not only was he interested in the great classics of literature, optics, coin collecting, and oil painting, he was also a polaroid land camera nut, taking instant photos of his many children, mostly rolling their eyes. He also had a tape recorder the size of a suitcase that he recorded his brothers and everybody else he could get to sing songs into. Mairzy Doats was one of his favorites. My mother's favorite was Shrimp Boats. I played my part by singing Rarf Rarf whenever he paused while singing "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?" So my brother David, who was 3 years older than me, followed in my father's footsteps. He and my brother, as doctors, had their own special medical language they would converse in. While i have a strong science backround, I was not that close with either of them. Fortunately photography, writing, and art gave my father, my brother, and I mutual interests which helped us stay closer than we might have been over the years.     https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/571d32f62eeb814e314b6c53/57dde2c9b8a79bb3c44c6c0e/1484169447733/South+street+.jpg After,,,On Photography - South Street South Street, (2008), 44" X 33" ink jet print. "Taken" with a canon G-9, F-stop and shutter speed unrecorded. POR Here is my homage to Joseph Cornell's boxes, Jeff Walls posed photos, and Marcel Duchamp's Readymades, all in one photo. I happened to walk past this apparently ready made stage setting of what seemed a closed box filled with curios which included the set designer obligingly seated, taking notes, in the middle of her own creation. For sure there is an element of luck in this photo with great depth of field. I've read that Cartier- Bresson would set up his Leica with as much f-stop as available light would allow, and set the focus to middle distance to take whatever came up instantly. Even with more modern, automated cameras, if you haven't read the manual and set the camera up appropriate to ambient conditions, you can end up playing with all those funny buttons as the moment passes you by. Like many photographers, I have been "Walking Around"(as Pablo Neruda might write) taking photos of whatever caught my eye. Although some sights might inevitably catch my eye, I have no real interest in invading anyone's privacy. For this particular photograph, while it seems quiet and private, it is a shop open to the public, and I was taking the photo from the street. Also, while "photography for artistic purposes does not need a signed release.", as Mr. Newton has written, its good to have them. Respect for who is photographed is important because of the toxic atmosphere created by paparazzi and governments hiding in bushes or chasing people about to either harass, embarrass or destroy them with photographs, or rewriting captions on existing photographs to insinuate their own demented versions of reality. Sontag writes in On Photography:" Photography inevitably entails a certain patronizing of reality. From being "out there," the world comes to be "inside" photographs. Our heads are becoming like those magic boxes that Joseph Cornell filled with incongruous small objects whose provenance was a France he never once visited." All the more incongruous, perhaps. I am not sure what Sontag is saying here. Certainly, photography is always "doing business with" or "giving the business" to reality. Photography and reality are inextricably related. The "doing business with" set are the photographers and artists who are in awe of reality. They are constantly on the lookout for "What it is", "As It Is". Few of these artists are inclined to be patronizing. The latter are all those who have somehow come to the conclusion that reality is boring or doesn't tell their side of the story, and needs to be "spruced up". This latter group also includes the skillful workers in Stalin's disappeared persons department of photo retouching, whose very lives probably depended on how well they did their jobs. Talk about "Reality"! https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/571d32f62eeb814e314b6c53/57dde4c7414fb54619599155/1482454782965/Our+Lady+of+the+Forklift.jpg After,,,On Photography - The Industrialization of Desire My dear friend Jaime Ball courageously stretched herself out, (rather uncomfortably)across the tines of my forklift. This is one high contrast version of this series of photos. The idea for this photo came from a photo by Helmut Newton showing an anxious, naked model grasping a fork lift tine with her hands and dangling somewhat precariously, feet off the ground. I must say I was totally impressed by the reality content of the image.. And so I wanted to see what a nude female figure stretched out over the tines of a forklift would look like. Well, here is what a nude female figure stretched out over a forklift's tines looks like. For me this image is less powerful than the figure study, which makes me feel somewhat uneasy. It sums up concentration camps and the cold, relentless, barbaric exploitation of women. Of course, one could say that this image is itself a part of that exploitation. Of the four reactions to both versions of this image, two responses were that this was a "Pieta", the third response was of admiration, and the last of disgust. I like the pieta responses to this image as the most helpful. I have always wondered, as a Christian, why the most erotic images of Christian art centered around the tortured or dead body of a male nude? The answer seems to be that there is a big difference between covert eroticism, and overt eroticism. What is this difference? Covert eroticism is eroticism hidden in plain sight, hidden by means of being a contextual part of a religious story line, whereas overt eroticism is plain old balls to the wall sex without the salad dressing, or, as in the case of Tom Jones, with the salad dressing...a scrumptious feast worthy of a adventurous rogue and a willing woman. God bless them.   https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/571d32f62eeb814e314b6c53/58389e28cd0f680eca910d9a/1484173816603/Our+Lady+of+the+Forklift.jpg After,,,On Photography - Our Lady of the Forklift The title pretty much says what needs to be said. I can't claim credit for this photos inspiration; thank you Jaime Ball and Helmut Newton. Nor for the title. Two artist friends were visiting and I happened to show them a pronto plate of this image and one of burst out softly..."Our Lady of The Forklift". Thank you. Thank you. Helmut Nerwton wrote in his wonderful autobiography: "You never can tell how people will react to a photograph." Well, Helmut is right. Of course, if you don't show your work, nobody can react, nor respond. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/571d32f62eeb814e314b6c53/583607c7e6f2e1fa62b86c85/1484173914082/Portrait+of+Jaime.jpg After,,,On Photography - Portrait of Jaime Jaime's physical presence overwhelms the reductive context of the butcher block here. Her look is direct, without being confrontational.. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/571d32f62eeb814e314b6c53/57e15c1a5016e1464abd7a0c/1484173858933/portraitofjimmy+copy+%281%29.jpg After,,,On Photography https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/571d32f62eeb814e314b6c53/57e15c4a37c581f7ee5a992a/1484173846184/Portrait+of+Jimmy+copy.jpg After,,,On Photography https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/571d32f62eeb814e314b6c53/57e15c5b725e25ec2e62e310/1486162954036/portraitofswaineisler.jpg After,,,On Photography - Portrait of Swain Here is an oil Portrait of my mentor, Eustus Swain. Swain was the full time night man, and I was the part time night man at the Broad Locust Street garage...I don't remember exactly how it happened that Swain agreed to sit for his portrait, but on my off nights I would come in a little after 12pm, set up my canvas in the office, and Swain would sit for me for an hour or so. We always had a lot to talk about. I recall three reactions to Swain's portrait: Brave Boy, or Al (Swain's buddy), the street sweeper who would show up around 2 to 4 in the morning, , said more than a few times that if the police wanted to catch Swain, "all they had to do was look at my portrait of him and they would know what he looked like". " The police would get him for sure". I slowly began to grasp the social reality of Swain's life, in which the police were always a presence, and always a threat, all of the time. An academy trained painter showed me a portrait he had done of a black friend of his. I don't recall if my portrait of Swain inspired him to paint his friend. His portrait was quite good, and more experienced in a "painterly" way than my portrait. Wonderful! What I like about my portrait of Swain is that it was the beginning of an conversation with a person and a culture I had felt drawn to, but was never able to visit. The third response, or reaction, was from a lady who immediately assumed that the portrait of Swain was done from a photograph. This surprised me, and I asked her about it. The sense of "closeness' bothered her. I was too close physically to Swain to have actually been there, in her view. Therefore, I must have painted his portrait from a photograph. And I can understand her uneasiness at the "closeness". Indeed, closeness or distance (engagement), is a subject that always comes up in photography and painting, between subjects and objects, between friends, lovers, and strangers...just how close, or distant, just how real, are you? One of the keys to this painting is the fact that Swain is wearing a beret. Swain was able, and willing to meet me more than half way.   https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/571d32f62eeb814e314b6c53/57e15d36f5e2318fad0fd95b/1474406682054/The+Stranger+copy.jpg After,,,On Photography https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/571d32f62eeb814e314b6c53/585c7ffb8419c2107deaecac/1484173874706/Jaime+14.jpg After,,,On Photography - Portrait of Jaime I'm really http://www.phillipscasting.com/home daily 1.0 2015-04-11 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/t/5498c3a4e4b0e6ee185b85b8/1419297730183/_DSC0261_HDR+-+Version+2.jpg Welcome http://www.phillipscasting.com/contact daily 0.75 2020-12-01 http://www.phillipscasting.com/about daily 0.75 2020-12-01 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54985dfee4b0836691510460/t/5498cb2ee4b07cc94e340f25/1419299711072/_DSC0060_HDR+-+Version+2.jpg About http://www.phillipscasting.com/chemo daily 0.75 2020-12-01 http://www.phillipscasting.com/healing daily 0.75 2020-12-01 http://www.phillipscasting.com/window-light daily 0.75 2020-12-01 http://www.phillipscasting.com/on-meditation daily 0.75 2020-12-01 http://www.phillipscasting.com/talk-to-the-hand daily 0.75 2020-12-01 http://www.phillipscasting.com/the-promised-land-is-not-coordinates-on-a-map daily 0.75 2020-12-01 http://www.phillipscasting.com/yogi-of-loving daily 0.75 2020-12-01 http://www.phillipscasting.com/no-peach daily 0.75 2020-12-01 http://www.phillipscasting.com/space daily 0.75 2020-12-01 http://www.phillipscasting.com/sat-march-28-2015 daily 0.75 2020-12-01