I'm a 60 year old artist in Memphis, Tennessee. I spend my life trying to catch stories, give them form, color and light, then send back out into the world.
I am continuing work on my seeing-eye dragon for A Somewhat Secret Place exhibit. I decided fabric was just too soft for the spikes so I made them out of Creative Paperclay. I found a perfect shade of gold paint and an iridescent glaze.
spikes
I sculpted them over coat-hanger wires that would anchor them in the body. I put little holes in the bottom to stitch them down — I thought that would look neat. I painted and glazed them. But when I attached them, they just looked wrong — like she’s wearing a series of party hats.
Not quite the look I was after
It’s funny how what you see in your head is rarely what you can recreate in with your hands. I got the Paperclay back out and used the spikes to create a more integrated looking spine. It’ll take a day or so to dry then I can repaint it.
clay smoothes things out
While I was working I decided to name her Aurora. I think that’s a good dignified name for a dragon who is serving as someone’s vision and is a source of power.
She has a little attitude, too
Next I’ll make the wings, paint the spine then add any needed ornamentation demanded by a well presented dragon.
I’ve already cut out her companion, Iris — and found the prism beads for her eyes.
I think I’ve created a pretty good design for my dragon. The hardest part was the head and it went through several manifestations before I got one that seemed powerful but friendly. This is a Seeing Eye Dragon who will accompany a visually impaired woman in a fabric sculpture I’m creating called “Shared Vision.”
It’s for the show A Somewhat Secret Place: Art and Disability. The show will open on July 7th at PRESENTspace at 939 NW Glisan here in Portland, Oregon. There is still an active Kickstarter campaign going on to help with expenses and to produce a new kind of book that will make the exhibit accessible to visually impaired art lovers. The curator and visionary behind the show is a visually impaired artist and I think her work on this exhibit has the capacity to influence how art shows are put together in the future. But it’s a pretty expensive process and the deadline is closing in, so we need all the help we can get. Check out the Kickstarter campaign here:
I will have three pieces in the show. My art is almost always about the physical challenges and transformations of life. I’m very excited about the Shared Vision piece, which I am creating specifically for this exhibit. While making it, I sometimes take off my glasses and just work in the blur. I want to make this a very touchable piece. I plan to do the title for the piece in “braille” done in french knots.
I wanted to make the service animal a dragon because it symbolizes a mythic sense of power. I want this piece to be about the power of symbiotic relationships and how our vision is shaped not only by what we see but how we see it.
Like all my dolls and cloth sculptures, I’m starting with an idea and figuring out how to put it together. I’ve researched how stuffed animals are made and even made a pretty awful alligator from a a pattern. I didn’t even photograph it and I blame the pattern. But here, at last, is a pretty good “draft” or prototype of the dragon. This is without wings or spikes and I’ll probably fatten it up and lengthen the tail, but this is the basic pattern. It’s going to be a combination of a Western and Eastern dragon, as well as having some canine attributes.
Enter the Draft Dragon
Her face is detailed with markers here but the visionary dragon will have beaded and embroidered eyes and a painted mouth.
Dragon Head
And these are the main fabrics I’ll be using — a pearlized gold with green contrasts.
Dragon fabric
This visionary dragon will take approximately 40 hours to construct and I’ll try to post it at various stages over the next week. Then I’ll build her visually challenged companion.
Meanwhile, here’s the website of another artist who will be participating in the show. I love the work of Pat Krishnamurthy who has a wonderful range of styles. I love that she uses quilts as an inspiration and blends together fragments into singular pieces. She has a great sense of color and story and her Archetypes for Aging series is vibrant and compelling.
I spent today constructing the wings. They started out like this:
And after wrestling with wire, threads, batting and beads wound up like this:
She now stands at 16″ tall and 38″ long. That tail will be curled up a bit around her blind partner, Iris. I’ll begin constructing her next.
joy murray art~stories~life 