Copper Leaf Studios

copper maps ~ custom copper artwork

A Tree Named Stella


Cherry Tree mini art ~ click for info

 
Toward the back of our yard we have a long open strip we’ve nicknamed “the orchard”, despite containing nothing more than grass.  Since fruit trees cost both time and money, it would be years at the earliest before we could stroll along and pluck juicy peaches and plums from flowering branches.  But the potential is there, at least in our imagination.

Stella Cherry Tree

 
To celebrate our first anniversary and our first summer on the farm, I wanted to take one little step toward that orchard dream.  I ordered a small cherry tree and gave our orchard a proper groundbreaking.  The tree is little more than a stick with a few leaves still clinging, but it is the start of something wonderful.
 

Take care, and have a great week :)

Chris

Embrace

Hello all!

I’ve been doing a bit of journaling recently.  During times of transition, I like to channel my reflections into written form, lest they expand to their natural state of anxiety.  I am remarkably good at fretting!  But it isn’t very useful.  Writing keeps me grounded and appreciative.

One day I wrote a list of words and short phrases ~ just little intentions that focused on what is truly important.  May’s art card was inspired by that writing.  The whole phrase was “embrace uncertainty”, a big one for me right now, but I liked “embrace” for this particular piece.  It’s a very powerful word.  It is all in — whole-hearted, without judgment or doubt.  It is appreciative… a deep breath of fresh air that enjoys life as it is, and not just what it will be once the dust has settled.

While working on large-scale pieces, I find it helpful to balance my creative time with smaller pieces.  They are like a palate cleanser ~ a aperitif of a color or texture I’ve been craving.  They have no rules, other than their simplicity — usually only one or two colors, plus a texture — and they must be completed within the day.  This art card was one of those explorations.  I’ll make more eventually, with new words and different colors.  Perhaps my whole list at some point.  For now, I’m happy to customize — if you would like one, email me your word, and whatever top color you would like.  They are $25 for the art card with easel (2.5 x 3.5 inches).

Here is to you, and whatever you embrace — embrace the present, embrace your future, embrace your dreams and ambitions, embrace change and uncertainty, and above all, embrace your mom!
Happy Mother’s Day,

Chris

New Beginnings


pheasant feather mini art with easel

New Beginnings

It has been so long since I have written.  I miss it like a dear friend, anxiously waiting for a quiet moment to catch up and melt the time away.

Life - and art – has been turned upside down in the past few months.  Or perhaps it is right-side up, as it is just as I would have pictured it, had I more imagination.  We are settled into our new house, and I’ve set up a temporary studio.  I hope to break ground on the new barn studio by fall, as the financial, technical, and visual aspects fall into place.  Having a space to work in the interim is affording me the time to carefully plan and reflect.

In the meantime, Alan & I are enjoying our new surroundings.  It has been a hard winter, but there is nothing quite as wonderful as the first warm breeze, or watching the fields slowly melt into green.  We have been greeted by flocks of wild turkeys and pheasants, and song birds and snow geese.  And by our own little flocks, as we are now raising chicks and ducklings.  The chicks are full of spunk and personality, and the ducklings, well, they just may be the cutest things I’ve ever seen.  Above are Pit and Pat, the yellow Pekins, and Ami and Amour, the striped French Rouens.  Their brooder is just outside my studio, so I get to enjoy the sounds of playful peeps and splashing as I work.

 

Embracing Uncertainty

Creatively I am in an exciting, if somewhat intimidating, space.  I resolved this year to challenge myself more artistically.  Larger designs, more ambitious… I don’t yet know precisely what shape it will take.  I do know that when I feel uncertain I tend to plow back into to familiar ground.  But the pieces I’ve been most proud of, those that have been the most worthwhile, are the ones that have pushed me out of my comfort zone.

I’ve been lucky recently to receive several large-scale commissions that will push me to stretch myself artistically, including a wall-sized multi-layered map of Cuyahoga County.  This plus a large Great Lakes map will become part of a collection of artwork in the new Cuyahoga County Administration building, set to open in July.  This is an exciting project for the county, which will be consolidating 60+ properties and some 750 employees into a new headquarters.  The 8-story building will be silver LEED certified, and include a rooftop garden.

Due to their size and scope, these pieces will eat up much of my time for the next eight weeks, so I will be closing shop temporarily while I focus.  But I will be back in touch soon, with stories to tell and pictures to share :)
Until then, take care, and hug your loved ones~

Chris

Last Vestiges

A token snowfall
a sprinkling of powder dust
that soon melts away
and leaves behind
puddles in the sidewalk cracks
A golden brown leaf
forms a spot of color
emerging in the empty space
a last vestige of fall
soon to be forgotten.

Last Vestiges

The above piece was December’s art card, and the last new design crafted in my soon to be empty studio.  My crazy space split between two flights of stairs, where the needed tool somehow always managed to be on the other level.  My dynamic space, surrounded by artwork and inspiration and lists and lists of things to be made and done.  My useful space, with its ever-growing collection of routers and compressors and bits of helpful things.  My space that I’m shutting down for the first time in a dozen years ~ a thought that sends a ping of anxiety bouncing through me.

Moving is a bit daunting.  I like to keep all Helpful Things at arms length — hiding them in boxes goes against my nature.  But I will be back up and running soon enough, and the useful things will find new places to call home… and so will I.  I can’t wait to share the new space with you, and all of the wonderful new pieces that will be created there.

Until then, hugs to everyone this holiday season ~

Chris

Birds in Flight ~ New Work

 

 

Good morning everyone!

I have a few fun new things to share.  Mostly because I’ve been trying to woo a corporate client interested in a large installation.  I can’t talk about it til committee decisions are made, which happens in dog years, but I can show you the sample pieces I did for one of the designs:


Bird Landing, 12×18 inches

Birds in Flight

These are two full-sized pieces I made as samples for a larger multi-panel installation. Two dozen individual pieces would have collectively formed a landscape with birds landing and nesting on the left, and flying off to the right, eventually breaking out of the picture and becoming silhouettes. The full design was ultimately discarded in favor of a piece that more closely connects with the campus.
Artistically speaking, “Bird Landing” (above) is one of the more complex pieces I’ve made. Both the wing and the bird hover above the background, at different levels. The wings have detailed cut lines, and the color and shading is something I hadn’t experimented with before. I’m still deciding when, how, and if I will use the effect again! While I’ll admit I’m a little on the fence — the purist in me believes there’s no sense in using metal to create something that looks like a painting – it has gotten a very strong “WOW!” response from others.

 


Bird in Flight, 12×16 inches

“Bird in Flight” is a much simpler piece, but the one I fell in love with. The silhouette is very striking, and the color has a lot of beautiful subtle variations. The bird hovers just above the background, and the wing tips extend past the edge and darken almost to black.  It’s one of the few pieces that turned out exactly like its mental counterpart, and I love the sense of calm it creates.

An Aside

I caught a snippet on the radio about a pilot program to fund arts education in public schools.  When asked to speculate on the use of the money, the guest quipped “They will use it to do what they were doing five years ago, before all their programs were cut.”  She went on to discuss the value of a creative education vs. “teaching to the test”.  How experts always talk about our ability to innovate as being the key to our strength in a global economy.  But how we fail to realize that after a certain point, as standardized test scores increase, creativity and innovation goes down — in measurable ways (i.e. patents & intellectual property), documented across countries and cultures.

Politics aside, it was a good discussion on finding the balance between creative problem solving and rote learning.  And interesting in light of what I’ve been working on.  I’ve created three site-specific designs for one project that may never come to fruition.  If one is chosen, two are automatically discarded.  Not because they are bad, just because another was slightly better.  Or clicked more with the space.  Or had a different bird on it.  At best, 2/3 of my work will never see the light of day.  But the process helps sharpen and refine my skills, and leads to new ideas like the pieces above.  They say knowledge is never wasted, and I believe the same can be said for creative experiences.

 

Art Card of the Month

May’s mini art was inspired by the piece above, and I made an extra just for you!  I haven’t had a chance to list it in my shop, but if you want to grab it, just email me.  It’s $25 for the 2.5 x 3.5 inch piece, complete with mini easel.

Take care, and have a great weekend!

Chris