 Cardboard letters | I recently completed a sculpture for the upcoming "Dog Days of Summer" show at the Saltwater Artists Gallery in New Harbor. I spotted some 3-dimensional 7" tall cardboard letters some time ago at the Artists and Craftsman store in Portland that I knew I wanted to incorporate into a sculpture at some point...and this show seemed to fit the bill. I brought home the letters "D", "O", and "G" and, after considering various structural possibilities, proceeded to figure out how to stack and attach the letters on top of each other. Before epoxying the letters in position, I needed to add a short button head bolt to the bottom of the "G" so that the piece could be attached to a base. I epoxied a washer to the bolt head to to give it additional width. After making a hole and a slit in the bottom of the "G", I slid the |
bolt head in with some epoxy and then epoxied a piece of tagboard over the bottom of the "G" to seal the split. Next I tackled the challenge of assembly.
 Button head bolt |  Apoxie Clay "chinking" |  Gessoed |  Painted, lettered, sealed |
I epoxied one letter on top of another, making each one at a slightly different angle from the one below it. In order to make the junctures more secure and stable, I used Apoxie Clay to "chink" the undercuts between each letter. I coated the entire piece with gesso and then gave it a coat of off-white latex paint. The next step involved using rubber lettering stamps and a sepia colored stamp pad to print dog related words, names, and sounds on each letter form...doggie, pooch, mutt, Spike, Spot, woof, grrrr, etc. Finally, I sealed the form with a coat of clear matt acrylic, and was ready to attach the piece to its base.
 Wooden "book" base |  Dogs attached to painted Apoxie clay bases |
For the scuIptures base I decided use a "book-shaped" cutting board that I had put aside a number of years ago. I drilled a hole in the center with a recessed larger opening on the back side so that the bolt could be attached with a nut. I used my letter stamps and some of the off-white paint to print a title ("Dog Tales") on the "binding" edge of the board and then sealed the whole thing with satin polyurethane. I attached the letter form to the base with both epoxy and the bolt. The final step to completing the piece was to add 8 small plastic dogs that I had purchased at a local toy store. I made thin Apoxie clay bases for each dog, painted them a deep green, and attached the dogs to them with epoxy. Four of the dogs were epoxied around bottom letter on the wooden base and each of the other four were epoxied to various levels on the letters. Woof woof! Ready for the show!
 |  "Dog Tales" |  |
DOG DAYS OF SUMMER at SWAG opens with a reception on Aug. 18th (3-5PM) and runs though Labor Day!
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