Show and Tell on Saturday

Torches were lit. Cement dust was flying. Wax was melting on the pancake griddle. Glue was drying and screening was bent into shape as seven members of the Pacific Northwest Sculptors Guild demonstrated their work at Evergreen Aviation this last Saturday.

It was a sunny Saturday, a little windy, a little warm, but still good weather for demonstrating. I've done quite a bit of demos over the last two years, so I'm much more comfortable with it than I used to be. Doing my artwork is usually a solitary experience, but doing a demo is part performance, part education and part meet and greet. But it’s a great way to show and tell people about your work, get to know other artists and learn some new techniques, too. The demos were done in conjunction with the PNWS group show at Evergreen Aviation this month.

I bent screening and pushed into copper sheeting to demonstrate my sculptural mask making and copper repousse’ work. Inside the IMAX building, Stephan Seable set up a children’s clay area, where he worked with young visitors introducing them to clay, his favorite sculpture medium.

Carole Murphy worked on her cement sculpture and encouraged visitors to try their hand at sculpting this unique material. Rick Gregg and Lyn Simon shared torches and demonstrated metal welding and creating patinas on steel and copper.
Renee Oberdorf melted different colors of wax on a pancake griddle, and then painted in layers on a wood background demonstrating the sculptural qualities of encaustic. Fortunato Ramirez dipped paper in glue and placed it in layers on large glass circles which he uses as molds for his paper mache’ sculptures.

All in all, it was a nice day to be outside, something you can't always say in the rainy Pacific Northwest. And I really enjoyed meeting new people, showing them what I do and watching their reactions when they tried on my screening masks. Show and tell is still fun even after all these years.