Cooperate

Yo:

Every day I have been making a few little calaveras for the coming Dia de los Muertos celebration.

The climate here in Paso Robles is great for papier mache and dough sculpture--hot day and cool nights and a good drying wind every afternoon, so I am in my element.

Here is a bundle of my finished necklaces---or pendants, if you like:

Most of the masks we carried with us are still unhung (unwept and unlamented too!) but they look sort of cute jumbled into a corner:

Everything seems to go a lot better when people cooperate instead of compete--so I drew a cartoon to illustrate this idea and sent it off to my big brother, Joe, who is family reunioning with his kids and grandkids in Guatemala so  I'll share it with you internet viewers too::

See you again soon.

Toamsito

Pendants

Hello.

Welcome back!

It is SO nice to be blogging again after our long journey south from Eureka!

We are now completely moved in and our Paso Robles apartment is nicht schlecht--as they say.

In fact it is very good!

Today I started my almost annual papier mache project--making little dough calavera pendants for this year's Dia de los Muertos celebration.

I'll show you what I am up to , but first I would like you to see a couple more photos of our new little town--then a couple of shots of us and then the project.

Here is the cool little Andrew Carnegie library in the central park which is now the town history museum presently featuring locally made and historic patchwork quilts:

Next we have this telephoto of "P" Hill,  which is visible from downtown, by Tanya --it was "P.R." Hill a generation ago now half restored by a local old boy.

Here's Tanya posing in a farm tractor we found in an equipment supply parking lot.

And here is me clowning as usual. As you see, I could use a larger size in gnome hats.

Now what you have been waiting for--the calavera pendant project.

Here are pendants from 2008, 9 and 10, and then some of the dough pendants which are now drying in the sun and which I will paint for this year's Dia de los Muertos.

Thanks for stopping by and best wishes for all YOUR projects!

Tomasito and Tanya

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Paso Robles

Tanya and I are movers if not shakers!

We love to live in new places and learn new things and we have moved again--this time to Paso Robles in central California--in fact almost exactly between LA and San Francisco.

Tanya chose the location--I knew El Paso de Robles (Oak Pass) existed because I have driven the 101 freeway north and south in California a lot, but I never stopped to see the town.

Turns out to be a very nice place.

Days are warm, bordering on hot, and nights are naturally cool. Just right for grapes and I love it so much Tanya claims she married a grape and I guess she did.

Here's a view of the countryside:

The little town has everything we need. WalMart, Food 4 Less and, best of all. a very nice, clean apartment.

I have not done and papier mache work here yet, but hope to get started again this week.

Thanks for checking in with this blog and we'll see you soon.

Best wishes, you guys,

Tomasito and Tanya

Ouroboros Bowl

Hello again,

We have finished another papier mache project .


I think I was living in Flagstaff, Arizona in the '70s when I first read about the "Ouroboros " symbol--that  "cosmic snake" or dragon shown in the act of eating it's own tail.

Ouroboros is a very old symbolic representation of "eternity" or perhaps "endless return and repetition", cyclic renewal--or perhaps the ancient idea of samsara.

The snake on the rim this bowl is about to swallow it's own tail

On one side of this large, tipped bowl there is a snaillike figure--a spiraling symnol which may also represent "endless growth and development"--the idea of evolution.

The whole thing is made of recycled materials--newspaper and colored magazine pictures.

 Side View Showing Spiral.

 Top View.

The bowl is pretty large--about 15 inches in circumference by 12 inches in height and it weighs a couple of pounds--a sturdy construction.

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Boogie Dancers

A couple of papier mache projects have been finished over the last few days.

I love good old rock n roll music, of course, since I had a band playing same some years ago in Hawaii--and I am happy to see that an early form of r&r music--boogie woogie, is still very popular both in performing of music and dance.

There are a series of world championship boogie dancing videos on YouTube which I like to watch and which have inspired the creation of a little papier mache boogie dancing statuette and a papier mache mosaic 3-D picture.

 

Boogie woogie Dancer statuette.

Boogie woogie Dancers papier mache mosaic 3-D picture.

I wanted to express in papier mache art the fun and excitement--and the athletic skill--of these wonderful contemporary young dancers moving to the equally great pop music of the mid-twentieth century.

.......!

Redwood Spirit Mask

I have been working slowly (as always with papier mache) on a basic framework for the Redwood Spirit Mask the inspiration for which came during a walk in the redwoods on Easter as mentioned earlier in this blog.

This morning I have started the work on what will appear to the viewer of the dancing mask. (Oh yes, all my masks are "dancing masks".)

I will be pretty large--well, what the heck, the ancient redwood trees are as tall as a football field is long and more and my mask won't be THAT big?

Here is the working drawing for the concept:

As you see, the wearer's head and eyes will look out from the "forehead" of the mask.

A very interesting project, yes?

See you around.

TW

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Sidewalk Chalk

Hello.

It seems that EVERYONE is an artist!

Some neighborhood lids with  sidewalk chalk decorated the sidewalks leading to the apartments in our complex all the way from the parking lot behind the buildings to the street in front.

Here is a good example:

NOW--lets get busy with our own!

Good work to you-all too!

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