Hear ye! Hear ye!

After MUCH confusion, a rather large hullabaloo, a touch of brouhaha, a smidgen of mayhem, and a pinch of pandemonium. . .I finally managed to get a website published again at www.boguckiresins.com

Now, it's not 100% finished yet, *but* I've found a web design program that's easy to use so I won't feel an overwhelming sense of hopeless dread every time I need to update something.

Of course, the reason for this whole headache was that I needed to get a page up for Pipsqueak so I could officially release him and now that I've accomplished that. . . I'm going to bed so I can have nightmares about something other than my website for a change! ;^P

Dammit Jim, I'm a sculptor, not a web designer!

Yes folks I am ALL ready to "officially" release the new resin edition. . .*except* I've now discovered that, as a result of not touching my website since 2007 (I even had to get a new password for my server because my old one was deemed to be lacking in capital letters, numbers, and symbols)  I have completely forgotten how to use the, now defunct, Frontpage 2000 program that the whole thing was created in!  Ack!
So, here I sit, revamping my website and praying that the whole thing uploads smoothly, when the time comes, so I can get on with my life!  ha!

Have I mentioned that I have a problem?

Yes, I have a problem sticking to one project and finishing it before I start another. But, in my defense, I had a good reason to start this little monster before sending the mini Warchant (aka:Pipsqueak) off to the caster.

I've wanted to make a fighting partner for Warchant ever since I did the original, 8 years ago. As you've probably guessed. . . I never got around to doing that.

I couldn't decide on the right pose. I *should* have sculpted Warchant and "friend" at the same time so I could have had more control over the interaction between the two of them. Instead, I sculpted Warchant on his own and, as a result, could never really figure out where another horse would fit into the scenario.

So, now I have a rare opportunity here to play around with ideas without committing to a larger sculpture. Best case scenario is that I get something worthwhile out of the exercise and can execute the larger sculpture I always meant to do. . . at the worst, I could end up with a little herd of angry mustangs and a whole lot of valuable experience in doing small thumbnail studies.

Seems like a win win situation either way.

So, just this once, I don't feel all that bad for letting myself get sidetracked. At least the mini Warchant is all finished! He will be headed to the caster sometime this week, after he's had his publicity photos taken and provided me with enough comparative measurements to be certain that this little bug eyed beastie will be the same size.

Pick. . .pick. . .nit-pickety pick!

Yes, I'm STILL working on this little guy! Epoxy is definitely not the medium for me! I have SUCH a hard time getting myself revved up to sculpt. . .and when I can only sculpt for 15 or 20 minutes at a time, I have to keep starting over at the lowest point on my motivation scale. :^\Silly me was thinking all along that it was the Epoxy slowing me down. Sadly, it's ME slowing me down! Haha!

Any sensible person would keep track of the passage of time and get right back on it after an hour or so had passed and the new epoxy was out of danger of being smushed.

But not me. . .nope, I put the little horse down (frequently someplace I won't be able to remember by the time I think to start working again,) . . . start playing on Facebook. . . answer a few emails . . . check what's on TV. . .watch a movie . . . watch another movie. . . have a snack . . . take a nap. . . snack some more. . . decide it'll be better to just work on the horse more tomorrow because then the epoxy will be nice and hard (It's

already been cured for 5 hours, ya knucklehead!) YAWN!

Yeah, so, I can try to blame the epoxy all I want. . .I know the truth, and it's not very flattering. :^P In spite of all this though, the little guy is actually getting close to being finished. So, I thought I'd put up a few more photos to prove it. ;^P

Back to WORK!!!!

O.K. so, I admit that it takes me awhile to recover from finishing a sculpture. It's obviously more mental than anything else. The life-size things I've assisted Dad with involved actual physical recuperation when we were done, but this small scale stuff, not so much. Regardless, I still have a bad habit of taking long breaks between projects. Something weird happens when you work like a maniac on something and then it's just . . .gone. The recent Saddlebred has been a prime example of this. It's actually been driving me a little buggy that I haven't had a chance to see anything 100% finished yet. Even though my part is done, I feel like it's still a work in progress that I no longer have any control over. I think that when I see a painted one, in plastic and one in resin, I will finally be able to let it go. Hopefully that will be very soon!

In the mean time, I've revisited that wiry fellow from last year. I didn't want to completely lose my sculpting momentum to this post-project depression, so I started up again and was pleasantly surprised at how nicely he came along.

Some of you got a chance to see him in Kentucky last month but for the rest of you, I will simply provide these blurry detail shots. I'm not trying to be annoyingly coy by only showing teaser pics. . .I seriously couldn't take any better photos at the moment. It's 5 am, the flash isn't doing me any favors, and the lighting in here is terrible.

S0, why am I posting any photos at all? Because I'm sitting here with this new post started in my blog and if I wait until I can get better photos, I might not get around to it for another month or so!

In the immortal words of Bob Ross. . ."remember, this is your world, and you decide where the trees go." . . .and, given the context, if that makes any sense to you, then you need sleep even more than I do! ;^P

What in the h*ll is THAT supposed to mean?

There's this *thing* that has happened to me for most of my life. I always figured it would stop eventually, but apparently, I was wrong.
Frequently, when I am introduced to someone, the person making the introduction says something along these lines,

"This is my Daughter/Friend/Sister/Wife/whatever, Kathi, she's an Artist."
(I'm not sure why that needed to be included)

Then the person being introduced does some sort of variation on,

"Ohhhhh, how *interesting.*"
(I think they might have actually rolled their eyes)

At which point, for some completely unknown reason, the person introducing me feels the need to add. . .
"She's VERY creative/talented/artistic/insert some other awkward adjective.

THIS is when the *thing* happens. The other person says something like,

"I can tell!"
(cringe)

O.K., when I was a kid, this wasn't so weird. I usually was sitting nearby actually drawing something. You know, it's cute, a little girl drawing horsies in a notebook. I get that.

Even later, when I was a teenager, trying desperately to "express myself." When they said "I can tell!" It might have had something to do with my unusual fashion sense or possibly the fact that I frequently had spiderwebs or hearts drawn on select areas of my face in black liquid eyeliner. I get that. It makes sense.

But this happened to me AGAIN 2 weeks ago.

"This is Jim's wife, Kathi." Oh please, don't say it. "She's an Artist." Doh!

"Oh reeeeally?" Ugh, let's leave it at that, O.K.?

"She's VERY talented." Seriously, we're gonna do this?

"I can see that!" Aaaaaand , there it is.

It was all I could do to keep myself from grabbing this woman and asking her what in the world THAT was supposed to mean!! I looked like any other slightly plump, middle aged, woman, in Shape-ups, blue jeans, and a standard issue Wisconsin winter coat! What does that mean? It still makes me feel creepy, just writing about it. Granted, that whole brief exchange is weird, so it isn't surprising that it ends on such an awkward note.
It shouldn't bother me. I know that people are proud of me and they want other people to know what I do. I think the heart of the matter stems from the fact that when someone says they're an artist, it evokes a lot of different images. For all they know I could be sitting in the corner of my basement, gluing silk flowers on the cat. Maybe they think I'm one of those "artists" that gets a government grant to spend my days in coffee houses acting moody and my nights rolling around naked on canvasses covered in chocolate pudding. Everyone has a different idea of what an artist is, so I guess I can't blame them for sounding patronizing.
Maybe it's time I got the tattoo I've been wanting for so long. I had originally wanted a nice, discreet, little octopus in an easily covered location, but I could always make the facial cobwebs permanent instead. Then I wouldn't have to wonder any longer what people mean when they say "I can tell." heh!

Back on his own two feet. . .and tail.

Well, thank goodness everything came together the way I hoped it would. He can stand up all on his own without any armature holding him there. *whew* It seems like he'll be nice and stable (yuk yuk) and no more "tipsy" than the average model horse. ;^P

I know it shouldn't have been such a concern. Three points touching isn't a new concept in model horsedom. It's a totally new thing in Kathi Boguckidom though. I've only done two sculptures that didn't have bases (well, four if you want to count the two that are laying down) and both of those had all four on the floor. So, I still had my concerns that it would balance correctly and not go crashing over sideways. . .or worse *forwards!* Anyhow, this one is off to the prepper for that smooth finishing touch. In the mean time, I'm casting one more to become this one's brother from another mother. . .mold. Har har! Sorry about that. . . I'm feeling a wee bit punchy tonight. :^o