Sumo toads take their place in the sun...

Manitou Galleries second home in Santa Fe at 225 Canyon Road

Manitou is the gallery in Santa Fe that shows my work.

Recently they snagged a second location in a cul de sac at the bottom of Canyon Road which actually has a wonderful sculpture garden, so it seemed fitting to let my sumo toads out for a romp around in the sun.

Since they are so aggressive by nature, we transported them from the other gallery in separate crates so they wouldn't be able to fight on the way across town, but as soon as we opened the lids they hopped out across the gravel to wrestle over who gets ownership of the large chunk of rock they both decided was so desirable.

They're still at it even now.

They seem to like being out of doors.

If you live around Santa Fe the gallery is having its official opening on Friday June 24 from 5-8pm.
Hop on over and say 'hello'!
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Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

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Show announcements...

Just me tooting my horn for a few show announcements in this post...

'Crossing Over' will be part of the Society of Animal Artists 51st annual show...

My smaller sumo toads have been selected (I'm pleased as Punch and proud to say) for the Western Visions 'Miniatures and More' show in Jackson, WY at the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

'Crossing Over' has been selected for the Society of Animal Artists 51st annual show.
They're both around September time.

I had to write an artist's statement on Crossing Over for the Society of Animal Artists show, so here it is, sandwiched between the next two pics....

Life is a journey.
As much for mice as for us.

Sadly for mice, they usually end up as a tasty snack.
Happily for us, we're more likely to glide up to the other shore in our old age.

Either way life is fleeting.
Might as well enjoy the ride.

I'm also honored to be a part of the Albuquerque Museum's Miniatures and More show, which is closer to the end of the year.

Table top sized 'Sumo Wrestling Toads' will be at Western Visions, Miniatures and More, at the National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, WY

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Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

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Impatience vs Perfectionism...

So you have an idea for a piece.
And you're itching to see it done.
You have some clue of how certain things must look - how good they have to be - in order to make seeing it finished worth while.
If you're anything like me these two opposing forces of impatience and perfectionism pop up as a dialogue time and again when you're working on a piece.

Just like the little devil on one shoulder, and the little angel on the other, lazy Steve and perfectionist Steve perch whispering in my ears...

'Go on, just slap a bunch of clay on there and fill out the shape, you'll get an idea of how it will look finished much sooner that way'

'Don't listen to him, get the proportions right, you'll only have to pull it all off and do it over when you realize the proportions are all wrong'

'Come on, this is taking forever, why don't you just fill out that bit really quickly and see how it looks'

'You know if you don't work out from the skeleton and carefully add the muscles before you concern yourself with the surfaces it'll look like a lifeless blob, then where will you be?

'Don't listen to him, your sketch is lively enough, did you start from inside out with that?'

'You're only going to make it once in clay, it will be around forever in bronze, and it will have your name on it. You want to cringe and wince every time you see it?'

First little clay sketch I did of sumo wrestling toads

Completed clay (table top size)

Sumo wrestling toads large version in bronze

There's lots of other thoughts and feelings swirling around besides these, but  these tugs of war never go away for long!

Although I do take pride and pleasure in the things I've made, as soon as something's done, then there's always the next thing.
But the last thing still has to take on its final appearance in bronze.
And there's always a lot to be done before that happens.

And time itself continues the work where I left off, hopefully revealing depth and character and continuing to tell the story of each work through the changing patina of age.

Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

Sumo wrestling toads will fight it out at ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan

ArtPrize is in its second year.
With over $450,000 in prize money up for grabs it's the biggest art contest I know of, the public decides the winner, and it would be rude not to have a bash!
There's over 1,700 artists entered this year!

Here's a photoshop scramble to show what my piece might look like...

Here's how ArtPrize works...
It's very interestingly run.
Artists sign up to the website with their proposed idea (not necessarily finished).
Venues sign up, announcing they'd like to host some art.
Artists and venues approach each other, and when they'd like to team up, sign a contract.
When a registered artist signs up with a registered venue, you're officially entered!
Any type of venue can take part from museums to tatoo parlors, as can any type of artist (with or without tatoos).
The public sees the art on display all around the city and they vote for their favorites.

There will also be some additional prizes awarded by sponsors instead of voted on by the public, but the $450,000 put up by the organizer is divided up between the top ten winners, publicly voted on, with a top prize of $250,000!

My entry...
My Sumo Wrestling Toads form the centerpiece of my entry, called 'Amphibian Struggle'.
You can see my public profile on the ArtPrize website by clicking HERE.
There'll be a video looping near the bronzes, which includes over 100 cartoon frogs I drew on my iPhone with the brushes app, amongst other things.

It's an expensive proposition- casting, crating and sending bronzes around, so luckily I was able to enlist the help of Peter Wright.
He has been responsible for assuming the financial burden of some of my larger, usually more esoteric pieces.
Once the sculpting is finished, he takes them from my sculpting table to the foundry, and on through the production cycle in exchange for a share of the profits.

I can safely say I wouldn't have enjoyed such an immediate and thorough immersion into the sculpture community had I not been lucky enough to partner up with Peter very early on.
So lucky for me he's paying for the costs incurred to enter, and so if I win any prize money, he's getting half the winnings! There'd be a slight variation if I won first prize...

My pledge...
If I win the $250,000 first prize, since my theme is the struggle amphibians face to survive, I'll be donating $50,000 off the top to Amphibian Ark. Peter and I will have to make do with half each of what's left!
Amphibian Ark are an organization dedicated to saving as many species of amphibians from extinction as possible.
Amphibians are currently facing more threats than they can handle, and while plenty of species have us to thank for their impending doom, ironically we are also their best and only hope for survival.

And that's what Amphibian Ark are dedicated to doing, by providing captive breeding programs for species who can't currently survive in the wild, until whatever threat facing them passes.

$50,000 is their estimated cost to save a single species, so I'll give them that much to throw my lot in with others working to save the yellow legged frog of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

So if you're in Grand Rapids, Michigan, between Sept 23 and Oct 10, why not pop on over to the public museum and check out my entry.
By all means vote for it too, if you'd like!



Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

Sumo toads centerfold (sort of!) and Sprightly mouse in Yosemite!

I get tickled pink every time someone sends me pics of their sculptures in their homes, or other unusual or interesting places!

My friend Mil collected some of my mice a few years ago, right after I made them. He was one of the first handful of people to snatch them up.

Well, he got back from Yosemite with his family recently and sent me these pics!

Thanks Mil!

And, to start the new year off on a nice optimistic note, some neighbors called and dropped by to let me know I was in the Albuquerque Journal's art section!

Or, to be more precise my sumo wrestling toads were.

I'm glad they told me, I had no idea!

WooHoo!

Someone's a happy camper.

And thanks Bob and Joe for the alerts and clippings!

I'll add that to my recent articles in Western Art collector (Nov) and Southwest Art (July) and declare that I've had quite a splendid run of good luck this last year!

It's had its ups and downs, but it sure is nice to just remember the ups!

I think my next few posts might focus on an artist friend who had the biggest impact on my early days in the business of drawing for a living, John Watkiss.

Stay tuned, his stuff is spectacularly good...

My website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
My Etsy store, CritterVille.

Snakes alive (and snakes dead), people's choice and bright shiny things.

People.
Gotta love 'em.
Thanks folks, for voting my Sumo Wrestling Toads the 'People's Choice' during their stay at Brookgreen Gardens as part of the National Sculpture Society's annual show (which is over now).
I am stupendously happy to have got your votes. I think that's a pretty big deal.
Yeah!

Twice in the space of a week I've had to jump out of my car to shoo a coachwhip snake off the road.
On one occasion I was in an awful hurry to get home due to certain biological emergencies that result from a fondness for green chiles on everything, washed down with copious amounts of strong coffee.
I'd been driving us home like a vampire hurtling to his coffin against the quickly rising sun, only with the prospect of a much messier outcome should I lose my race against time.

Almost home... rounding the last corner... what's that across the driveway?
Right in my way, a 4 foot long coachwhip snake dammit! And a beautiful shade of raw salmon pink to boot.

Beeping the horn won't help, they're deaf to airborne sounds.

And for some odd reason, they aren't scared of cars.
But when you hop out and they detect your human form they flail away like a mad thing.
Much like my attempts to get the keys in the door.

Then a few days later I saw another one across the road laying there without a care in the world about a block or two away.
So I hopped out and pranced around it, to see what it would do.
First they try to make a mad dash for the edge of the road, but they thrash so hard against the smooth asphalt that they slip and slide about instead of moving forwards.

So I danced past it and it turned at me and raised it's head with its mouth wide open.
Just until it figured it could zip past me and off through some rabbit bush and away.

Then I spied our 'pet' bull snake in the garden while I was looking for our weed spraying bottle.
He was patrolling among some large flower pots near the bbq grill.

I noticed he had particularly rich reddish brown blotches. Must have recently shed his skin.

He casually nosed around, and took up residence inside the bottom of the grill.


Besides that, I saw another Coachwhip snake right on the road outside our house one evening when we drove home from somewhere or other.
I hopped out, but sadly it was dead.

I was wondering if one of our neighbors might have killed it by running it over. There's only 5 other houses on our cul-de-sac, so it couldn't be too hard to narrow it down.
But it was kind of right on the road where we'd be after we've backed out of the driveway.
So now I'm plagued with the thought that I in-advertantly killed it, after saving it a couple of times.
Could have been some one else, but then again, could have been me.

Will I ever sleep again?

Probably.

Other than that I'm pondering just how super bright and shiny to do the patina on my tree frogs when they get cast.
I fancy taking a leap into the super bright arena for a change, since I think the subject matter could handle it.

No news regarding progress of my pieces, it's all a bit out of my hands for a little while 'till they come back from the foundry for finishing and patina.
But I think I'll be bugging Lee for a progress report this week...

My website, and Etsy store.

Wrestling toads on the road

My sumo wrestling toads are doing a bit of sightseeing on Park Ave in NYC in the Atrium Bldg.
A friend in NY was nice enough to take some pics, as you can see if you have sharp eyes, she saw them being admired by Tony Soprano. Maybe they look like some of his acquaintances.
Here's various other views.




The exhibition is the 76th annual by the National Sculpture Society at the organization’s headquarters in the Park Avenue Atrium at 237 Park Avenue/466 Lexington Avenue, in midtown Manhattan. Opening on Monday, February 16, the juried show features the figurative works of 41 members. At the conclusion of the show in New York City, the exhibition will travel to Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina where it will be on display from June 27 through August 23.

Thanks Diane for taking the pics, she does beautiful flower photos which you can see at duaflower.com

My greatest achievement (and how it helps you!)

Time for another post.
This time it's a two parter.
Part the first involves my recent discovery which will no doubt win me the Nobel prize in thirty years or so (the best ideas always take a while to become generally acknowledged by academia-fortunately the arts are not so lumbering).
You, beloved reader, will however be able to take full advantages of its practical applications more or less immediately.
You won't be disappointed.

Part the second is merely me blowing my own horn once again. So I might as well start with that.
My big (24" tall) sumo wrestling toads (weighing in at a hefty 110 lbs) have been selected for the National Sculpture Society's 76 annual show where they will be on display in New York for a bunch of months, and then Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina. I am of course extremely chuffed at this news.

Now for my life changing discovery. It has the potential to improve human existence the world over, starting with yours right now, so get ready for a raise in your standard of living.
Next time (and after you try it, every time) you take a nice hot bath, fill up a hot water bottle with the same hot water you are running the bath with. This rubber bladder can now be used as a very comfortable cushion behind your head or betwixt blades of shoulder.
Perfect for a bit of extended book reading, but it gets better...
Once you have finished your gripping adventure and returned with a thud to reality, you realize that your bathwater is just about stone cold. Hardly the perfect end to any great story.
Aha, simply retrieve and uncork your water bottle.
The water inside is still nice and piping hot, perfect for a last minute dousing before you emerge from the tub, all shiny, warm and clean.
Life will rarely feel better.
You and me can appreciate this at once, but it will still be 2038 before that Nobel prize shows up on my doorstep.
Where's Winston Churchill when you need him? (he did all his best thinking in the bath, so he'd have sped up the process a bit)
Luckily in the meantime I have little Binky's prizewinning achievements for consolation.

Small Sumo Toads bronze

Here's the all singing and all dancing small Sumo Toads (12.5"tall) for your viewing pleasure.
Big ones (24"tall) are still at the foundry.
They are total monsters compared to these little guys.
www.SteveWorthingtonArt.com