Casting and working with Clay

      I am still alive here at Osage and making awesome sculpture but my feeling homesick has increased everyday. Not that I’m crying but I really miss my crew and social interaction. I am in a love hate relationship with myself being alone. I am glad I have my Greyhound Ruckus because he keeps my spirits high and give me a smile and a wagging tail telling me it’s another great day and to get off my ass and give him his walk. So my boy Ruckus keeps me in check. Also I got a phone call from my boy Death. That just made my day! I was just so happy to talk to Death and catch up on things. Death is one guy I can always depend on no matter what the circumstance. He is always an uplifting spirit in my life, someone I look up to when I am in my dark place. He is always my light keeping my darkness from taking over my outlook in life. As we say that which doses not kill us just makes us stronger so we can kill it! (Really, I said that but I’m sure he’s shaking his head at me laughing) Other then feeling homesick I am really getting massive work done here at Osage. Right now I have five installations I have to install, plus get photographed.  I also have to publish this book I’m working on of my artwork and recent installations here at Osage. I only have a month to get this all done so I am starting to feel the pinch of time even though I have a ton of it right now. The studio is casting about three to five bones a day and one wax casting a day. So the studio is very productive and the installations are growing everyday. There are three installations that are very exciting to me because I have been watching them form slowly since I’ve been here at Osage. One is very special to me because I collected the bone here at Osage then made the mold here at and have been casting the mold here at Osage. So everything has been done here. So that installation holds a little more excitement for me to see these installations come to life. The other two installations are walrus bone and the shapes that there making are so beautiful and new I am taking back just because I am so unfamiliar with the shape they are making. I can’t wait to get these installations installed. The next problem is how to make these installations saleable to galleries and make them durable as well. But I guess we will get to that soon enough.

        Also this week I started a hand building class at Krugers Clay studio. I am really excited to be taking a class but I don’t thing they were ready for a six foot two inch man dressing in black with horns on his head and rings all over his face. The teacher greeted me and then silence for about two hours until they found out I rescue Greyhounds, then I was ok to talk to. So getting of to a quiet start but I made my first dish from a slab. I will go to class next week with ideas to work with incorporating bones into the objects. We ended up talking a lot about what I could do with bones and properties of clay. I was really glad just to be talking about art really because there is not much idea sharing here at Osage. So I will be bringing in bones and drawing to class or I will be making soap dishes for Christmas presents. Not my thing but I could always use a soap dish. I am still trying to figure out what soap is used for much less a soap dish but all will come with time. Well until next week when I have more work to share with you and thank you for your ongoing support. Remember to check out my Website WWW.AARONKENT.ORG
Love ya!  

Casting Restocking and Art Shows

      I am still here at Osage and I am loving it. Even though my love and excitement is flowing big here at Osage I am also still having a bit of trouble with all the isolation here. I really don’t know how to explain it but you end up missing what you have when you don’t have it. But on the up note I am getting a lot of work done and getting massive down time from a busy life which I desperately needed. This week I got more casting work done with the molds. I also started a new sculpture for installation on November 1^st. It’s more of a free hanging installation. I hope to have two of these sculptures done and ready for install by the end of this month. So still working in the studio and slowly starting to run out of space. Amazing how we sculptors use space like it’s going out of style. To make matters worse I still have no idea how I am going to get all these bones back to Cincinnati. But I still have a month to think about that. I am also trying to walk around Osage as much as I can try to find places to install the next installation.  I have no idea how I am going to move these hanging installations into the woods as well as hang them? It will be an interesting adventure. I have a feeling I will need to ask for big time help. I also started to run low on supplies this week. So I had to take a trip into St. Louis to get more Hydrastone and other casting supplies like rubber bands, mold release, glue, and pizza. You can never have enough pizza while casting Bones! I ended up at this Clay shop called Krueger. They were really awesome and took good care of me. I think I might take a class there before my residency with Core Clay. Just so I’m not so green working with clay and will actually know a little something. Plus it will be nice to talk with other artist. I think that is worth a ton of bronze for me right now. I am really craving some social artist contact right now. I ended up with two more of bags Hydrastone which restocked my casting studio I hope for the rest of my time here at Osage. So things are going really well and might have some new experiences to look forward to.

      Also this week I got to go to my first art opening here at Osage. It was in this small town called Bland. The show was about 10 photographers being invited to this restored farm and taking pictures of there experience on this farm. The place where it was held was at the same restored old barn on 120 Acers of land. The barn was totally pimped out. Almost like a condo for barns. Let’s just say this is the first time I have ever seen a hot tub on a farm. The gallery was upstairs in the loft area of the barn and was pretty cool but not what I am use to. No white walls all barn wood with fabricated stalls for the art or artists. Very different from what I am use to but still a nice show all together. The barn the land and the photography all fit together very nicely. The show was nice for me because I have been craving any kind of art. Being around art all the time in Cincinnati and then to have no art around is very different and sometimes a little hard. So it was really nice to be around art and the buzz of the art show. It is always funny how you really take for granted what you have until you don’t have it. Well until next week when I have more work to share with you and thank you for your ongoing support. Remember to check out my website WWW.AARONKENT.ORG Love ya!  

Casting and Bone Installations

      Last week here at Osage I have gotten a lot of casting and installation work done. The casting studio is up in full swing. With three new molds in plaster casting rotations and four molds in wax casting things are always busy in the casting studio. I hope to have enough bones cast in plaster by the end of October for some new great installations in November. I might have to go buy some more hydrastone because I am going through it like it’s nothing. So far I have almost used 150 lbs of hydraston and I think I will only need like a bag or two more to finish up casting plaster bones for the new installations. Also last week I got a chance to collect another cow skeleton. This skeleton was like seven plus years old and I got a good amount of bones from the skeleton. But a lot of the bones the earth had taken and really started breaking them down. The skull was pretty much gone and what was left was pretty soft and grown over with roots and plant life so I left it. I also found a turtle shell that was all cleaned out as well so that was also added into my collection. So as of now I have so many bones that I will have to have help in bringing them home. Some will make it back to my apartment and a lot of them will go to my studio for future projects. I will have so much work to do in my studio that my social life will be pretty much be destroyed. But I will be happy making new molds of bones in my studio and getting new work pushed out and into shows and galleries.

      I am also really excited because last week I also got two new installations done as well. Yes two! I was looking for some really cool places here at Osage to place the new installations. I think things tuned out really well with both installations. The first one is a tree installation. I took three trees and connected then with bones. It almost looks like a bone fence growing up both sides of the middle tree. The installation looks awesome but really hard to photograph. A lot of the angles turned out flat and didn’t show the bones relationship with the trees as well as I wanted but the photos still give you a good idea of the installation. Just wish I could bring more people here to see these installations. I would really enjoy some feedback on them. Also the original installation is so awesome pictures just don’t do them justice but it’s the only way I have to share these installations with you. So the other installation is in a creek bed in a rocky area with two rocks almost creating a valley. The bones following that shape and create there owe shape over the rocks as well. This installation is just simply amazing. I had a lot more bones to work with one this one and that always makes the installation grow and demand space. If it rains really big the installation will be washed away but for now it is very beautiful and really has such a nice relationship with its surroundings. I wish I could bring people in to see these installations because they are just simply beautiful. I will have the photos of the two new installations up on Flicker so you can go check them out. Well until next week when I have more work to share thank you for your ongoing support. Love ya!  

Casting and working with Clay

      This week at Osage has been frustrating and productive. I am still casting with the new molds I made from last week and getting about three bones a day from each new mold in plaster. I’m also getting one wax a day from four older molds. I will have four new sculptures to cast in bronze or aluminum when I get back to Cincinnati. I am also working on a sculpture proposal for a sculpture here at Osage. If all goes well with this proposal I will be working on a six foot metal sculpture to install in Osages sculpture garden. But that’s in the future and who know what’s going to happen there. My studio here at Osage is going well in the casting department and getting work done. I am also getting ready to collect another cow skeleton. It’s about seven years old but I am very excited. I Think I’m going to do a print series from this skeleton but that’s just ideas for now. I will be very busy when I get back to Cincinnati. I’m also about ready to pull up the Installations here at Osage and do two more Installations on October fifteenth. So I am really looking forward to that as well in the upcoming weeks here at Osage.
      Now onto my frustration for this week. My friends at Coreclay sent me some clay to start getting ready for my residency with them. I was so excited but little did I know what I was in store for me. Here at Osage there is a manual potter’s wheel and I thought that without know anything about clay I would be able to sit down and create a five pound pot from scratch. Well first I realized I needed water to work with the clay and then I realized I needed to center the clay on the wheel. By the time I got it centered it was already too late. The clay was already to wet and it took my almost six hours of stabbing blindly at something I know nothing about and having no one to answer question or show me what needs to be done. So I came home frustrated and defeated but still determined. I watched three hours of ceramics videos on youtube to help me in what I was about to attempt again tomorrow. Mind you none of the video had a manual wheel all electric. So round two starts and I now have a better feel for clay and I am now able to cone and center my clay on the wheel. I can also make the clay rise and lower on the wheel as well. I actually made about three pots on the manual wheel but I worked each one to much and they would collapse in on themselves. Plus the clay was still to wet from yesterday but I felt a little better about clay and working with it. Now we are on to day three and I was determined to make something out of clay. So I rolled out slabs thinking I should be able to make something out of a familiar form. I did make a small rectangle open top and it seemed it was pretty well together so I put it out in the sun to dry. I came back the next day and it had fallen apart as if it had been pealed apart. I shook my head and laughed out loud! I now know I am in for one hell of a residency with Coreclay when I get back. I hope they can help me with clay because I am not doing so well by myself out here at Osage. So that is my frustration for this week. We will see if I tackle clay again next week. I needed to take a breather so I wouldn’t break and of my bone castings from my frustrations with clay. As always thank you for your ongoing support. Until next week love ya!  

Casting and Bone Installations

This week at Osage has been a good week. As of right now I have completed three new rubber molds. Two new Seal Bones and a Horse leg Bone which at this time all are being cast in hydrastone for new installations in November. I am getting about three casting a day from each mold if the bone casting doesn’t break. This should be enough bone casting for each of the new installations. So October is going to be a crazy casting month for me. I am also casting waxes for bronzes when I get back to Cincinnati. I have four molds right now being cast in wax. I should have enough wax castings to cast some new great sculpture and cast some new work for my upcoming residency at Core Clay studio. The idea for Core Clay is to combine metal castings with a ceramic earth element as well as to cast bones in other materials such as porcelain or slip casting for future installations. But this is all in the future and as far as right now I am casting and installing my but off.

Also this week I got another Bone Installation done. I am really excited about this new work. I found a great place in a creek bed and in the creek bed there was this awesome tree with a great root system. This place had great rocks and had a nice feel to it with the water around this little platform where I placed the Bones. I basically always let the bone and nature decide what goes on. Sometime I start trying to fight the flow of nature and that’s usually when I run into trouble. But this installation went fairly well and with a really great outcome. I have pictures loaded on flicker if you want to see the new installation. It wasn’t easy getting to this place on 165 acres of rural land. Thanks to Osage I got use of a truck to transport my bones to the installation sight. I think I almost got stuck like five times in creek beds and rutted fire roads. The poor truck took a beating and the bones made it all in one piece. Going back was way more fun then transporting sculpture in a 4x4 playground not to mention I only had rear wheel drive. Well that’s about it for this week. As always thank you for your ongoing support. Until next week love ya!