Vote Niris Studio : Wynn Newhouse Awards

Recommend an Artist

If you know an artist of exceptional merit with a disability and would like to submit his/her name for consideration for the Wynn Newhouse Award, please fill out and submit the information below.

To be eligible for nomination, a candidate must be a US resident and a fine artist of professional standing with a disability as recognized by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

If the artist is selected for consideration, we will contact the artist directly to submit a complete application package.

Recommendations DEADLINE: September 1, 2009

Please vote for Niris Studio at this link:

http://www.wnewhouseawards.com/Pages/Recommendations.html

Here is the information needed for your convenience:

Artist's name: Nancy Iris

Artist's email: nirisstudio@hotmail.com

Artist's phone: 904-372-4877

Additional info/website: http://nirisstudio.com

Art and the Art of Secrets in Art

When one thinks about taboo subjects in art one usually thinks about sex. Sex is a great subject and I’ll write about it someday. I may even write about it in the context of art since this is an art column. So, is there a subject more taboo than sex you ask ”? Oh, yeah...like, way…

I’m talking about the secret life of the artist…behind the scenes, the stuff we all keep our mouths closed about. Yeah, baby I’m talking about the real dirt...artists’ dirty little secrets (fetishes aside and trust me I’ve got a few). Artists crack me up. They even try to hide their secrets from one another. That’s just silly. It can’t be done. We’re already onto “it”. We all do “it”. I think artists should drink lots of beer and have boisterous conversations about how we made our art come to life! Let’s spit it out already…

I’m speaking about the unspeakable. Ready? Artists use “tricks. Or, as David Hockney calls it in his glorious book dedicated to the subject, ” SECRET KNOWLEDGE.” Mr. Hockney writes about seemingly dry topic and makes it vivid and alive. It’s worth the read if you want history and “proof”. Artists use the knowledge of others. We use devices of all kinds: lens, scanners, projectors, transfer processes, grid and tracing papers, digital and electronic devices galore, disappearing ink, tiny pins, clear drying glues, 2-sided tape, power tools, apprentices, mirrors, copying the masters and using others work for inspiration. Oh, the list is endless.

My painting of Einstein (www.nirisstudio.com) was done directly from an old photo I found in a book at the library. The Beaches Branch Library to be exact. (I LOVE the Beaches Branch Library.) Well, he’s freekin dead so how else could I do his portrait? Gimme a break!


Once I created a fabulous painting inspired from a piece of scrap advertising I found in a trashcan at a store. I liked the subject matter a lot but it was photo shopped. How could I tell? It was the same picture done in many colors flipped from side to side. Duh. I thought the art was kinda flimsy but felt I could paint something fabulous if I did my own version of it. Oh, and fabulous it is if I do say so myself. It took an entire year and five renditions to finish. I’d show it to you but cannot because some wacko wanna be human being tried to blackmail me with the work I found in the trashcan. It’s actually in writing no less. Uh-huh, for real! (You just wouldn’t believe some of the high drama that goes on in the art world.) What did I do after the attempted blackmail? I researched the work and was surprised to find out that the advertising was a reproduction of someone’s painting. Then I contacted the artist who happens to be alive and living in another state. I sent him a photo of me holding my painting and a long letter explaining how the picture had inspired me. He wrote me back a couple of times but never answered my letter asking if he had objections to my reproducing my piece. So I gave it to someone as a gift and never sold any reproductions. Too much drama for me!

Where do I personally draw the line__________? (Yuk, yuk). When people paint over an image and call it an original. Am I speaking about manipulating an image in Photoshop or by hand? No. Hand tinting or the use of enhancement of all kinds? NO! I am talking about taking a picture digitally, with film (or taking a reproduction found from a store etc.) and painting right over it. This process is done exactly like paint by numbers… color by color, line by line, stroke by stroke. Then the person frames the “art ”, signs their name and calls it their own and sells it to YOU as an original. Hey, it’s my column and my opinion.

Art and the Art of Hand Finishing Stone and Wood Sculpture

My hands look like a man’s…a small old man. I’ve been sanding pieces like a maniac for weeks so whaddya expect? (It’s a great comfort to me that my feet still look very feminine.) My hands are shredded, cuticles mangled and my nails are sanded down into weird angles. Awesome! That means I’m ready to finish a few pieces.
A long time ago, I thought finishing a sculpture meant rubbing some junk on a piece to make it shiny. Right. Finishing a sculpture presents all sorts of dilemmas. There are things to consider such as techniques, toxicity, liquids, waxes, compounds, respiratory gear, and gloves. I experience ecstatic highs and the lowest of lows. (That sounds like a Motown song). I must also exercise extreme patience.

Soapstone is the softest stone and is said to be like “cutting butter”. Frankly I never felt like killing myself while cutting butter. I just have to look at the stuff and there are forty new scratches on it. I run crying like a little girl when I see soapstone and I think I deserve many awards and gift certificates for completing a piece. If you are gonna carve it just polish it with floor wax and a soft cloth, then go into rehab. My last piece may have cured me for life but she is incredible. She is called “The Activist”. And speaking of being an activist I am going to picket myself next time I even entertain the thought of working with soapstone.

Alabaster is a different story. Oh, I love me thum alabaster, baby! Can’t get enough of that funky stuff. It works with me. It is softer than marble, can take a reasonable amount of detail and handles the sanding process beautifully. Depending on the kind of alabaster I use there are a few choices I stick with for finishing. On occasion I use floor wax but it doesn’t provide the high sheen I am looking for. Sometimes it clouds and dulls the piece. Sometimes I use show car waxes, which can be hand rubbed but again, I don’t always get the gloss. Italian waxes work the best but, in my experience, are very tricky to pull off. If I apply it and hand rub it then sheen rarely gets truly glassy. If I use a polishing wheel with a power tool (variable speed grinder or drill) I risk ...THE BURN !!!! No, no, no….not the burn. Ahhhhhhh! If the friction is not just right (excuse me for living) the wax draws in the heat from the rotation of the tool and it burns deep into the stone. This is when I pick up the phone, call my son and say “ You need to come over and just kill me now, OK?” He, knowing me well, will usually just retort, “Well, maybe tomorrow”. After I beg him a few more times I go back and deal with my problem, which is SERIOUS. Serious, serious, serious. The burn is IN the stone like a big fat bruise. The only way to get it out is to re-carve the area, which changes the composition and ta-da…I am re-creating the entire thing. It used to be an oval and now it’s a triangle. At times this is a happy accident but mostly it’s a lot of unexpected work and I need a beer. Wood, on the other hand is much more forgiving. My friendly pieces are happy to drink gallons of teak oil and shine after days of hand buffing. A scratch is fairly easy to repair.

If things do not go well…meaning I missed sanding a few spots on the stone, every single flaw presents itself. I have to re-sand the entire piece and wax it again. Can it get worse? Oh, yes it can. It an get SCRATCHED. I once had a friend who said, “I’d rather throw a piece away than have it get scratched. I know just what he means. Unlike wood, if a piece of stone is deeply scratched the entire piece must be re-surfaced. It’s, like, a drag, man.

If all goes well the piece comes to life! Every vein, nuance of color, mineral deposit, light and shadow takes my breath away. The bells ring, the heavens open up, the surprises reveal themselves and I know I have experienced something worth living for. If you go to my website (below) and click on sculpture you can take a look at “The Orb” and get a tiny taste of it’s magnificent throbbing presence. Better yet, come in the late afternoon and watch the sunshine through the translucent glassy stone and behold another reality.

Art and the Art of Hand Sanding Sculpture

Carving season at Niris Studio is exciting, happily anticipated, and tons of grunt work… artistic grunt work. Creating sculpture is both exhilarating and very labor-intensive. Stone and wood sculpture made by hand is a journey. I gear up for the long haul or as it is called in my world…hand sanding.

Carving stone or wood is no hit and run proposition. It is tedious and demanding work. Unlike modeling clay, which is an additive process, stone and wood must be carved. Once a piece of material is subtracted (pounded, sawed, chiseled, rasped or smacked against a wall while sweating and screaming) a commitment to the composition is made. Doesn’t that sound artsy? Let’s just say art has begun to take shape. Informative, huh? (And no, pieces shouldn’t be glued back on. C’mon.)

Ok, so now the piece has a personality. It has a self-impression. It knows what is it. I know what it is! It is the rough unpolished version of a piece of art. Yay! What a relief. But uh-oh… I know what THAT means. It means months of work, bloody fingers, sore wrists, ripped cuticles, backaches, excitement, boredom, patience, deadlines and interrupted artistic vision.

After the piece is roughed out, sanding starts at about 60 grit which, to be informative, is pretty rough. The numbers generally go like this… 60, 80, 120, 220, 320,400,600,800,1200, and 2000. These grits may come in the form of, grinding wheels, diamond finishing tools, sanding blocks, sanding pads etc. You catch my drift. My favorite is good old wet/dry sandpaper with a Popsicle stick for added pressure in small or stubborn places. I use lots of water to make a slurry or the piece will just scratch. Live and learn.

Oh why must I make life so hard you ask? (Don’t lie, I HEARD you!) I’m not trying to make it harder. I am no art martyr! I’m a tired artist who wants to go the beach and take a nap. But pieces don’t finish themselves ya know, so it’s sand or never finish.

The seasons dictate when things happen and so does my studio space. I work outside most of the time because of the mess. It’s cold in the winter although I do rough out pieces anyway. The summer in Florida is broiling so cold weather is good for the rough work. I work large and have to use my entire body. The summer heat drives me indoors to paint but sometimes I sand stone in the ocean. It's AWESOME!

If the piece is large, sanding can take many hours, weeks or months to finish. Trying to skip grit numbers is a waste of time. There is no crying in baseball and no cheating in sanding. Just go with me on this one. I use both hands because even though I am right-handed I am delighted to discover my left every few minutes! My goal is to get a piece ready to be polished. Occasionally a rough or matt finish is desired and the finish time is greatly reduced. (Yeah, right…that ought to happen when I start dating again.)

Art and the art of hand tools

It's carving season at Niris Studio. The weather is perfect and the outdoor studio waiting is for me until the days are too hot to work. When I step outside and there they are...the stone and wood pieces that become my family as I bring them to life. The figures and torsos come alive as each day of work passes. (It's a good thing I don't feel the need to carve a puppet....yikes!)

Wood and stone are very messy especially when working on large pieces. I pull out the hand tools I have been using for over twenty years and suddenly IT happens.........ahhhhhhh.......I come upon an area of the piece that is so hard it won't yield to my touch. I have to pull out a power tool. There goes the magical, artistic, quiet ringing of the hammer and chisel against stone. All sound from the CD player or wind is drowned out in a moment. The artist's studio becomes a construction site. Work becomes louder, harder, faster, messier and sometimes dangerous. On goes the gear....masks, ear and eye protection.....and don't forget to cover the hair! The hair! Leave stone dust on it long enough and it'll break that sucker off. Hey, I'm a girly girl.

Then it's over. The difficult spot softened and pliable so I may return to my beloved hand tools. Many carvers LOVE their power tools. I appreciate them. I love what they can help me accomplish. Many carvers use pneumatic tools. I respect that. I choose to use simple small power tools only when necessary. Some artists love to pound out the pieces and produce quickly. I love to nurture them along quietly like any loving relationship. Hand tools create fluidity that shows in my work.This is because there is no consistancy in each strike of the chisel when powered by hand. Power tools create the same motion repetitively and produce a machined look. Hand tools bring the piece to life and transfer energy from the artist to the piece. It is an amazing experience.

It's quiet this foggy morning at the studio. I am off to pick up my hand tools, put on my favorite music and work on my four- foot sculpture called "The Leader of the Seers". She is expecting me. We look at one another, eye to eye , as the sound of the wind blows all around us.

Art and the Art of Original Art

Submitted by Nancy Iris on Thu, 02/26/2009 - 10:54.

Yesterday I was picking out new frames for nine pieces of original artwork. This process is time consuming and demands a very close look at the work. The frame is an extension of the piece. Clothes make the man and clothes make the painting.

As I took in every detail of my original work I realized,once again, how different original work looks in person than in photographs. There are smudges, spills, scratches, drips, drawing lines and a miriad of other defining marks that show up on the real thing.( Brush strokes seem to be acceptable for the most part). This is what makes art original. Many times reproductions are cleaned up because the "marks" don't tranlate well.They can look sloppy or dirty.

How many times have I a "lost" a sale because a customer wants the original to be cleaner and pristine? Too many. They seem disappointed and at times even frightened. What if the piece is somehow..well, not "right"? The smudge might show in the dining room. IT WILL SHOW! It is an essential part of the completed piece.

Most lovers of art fall in love with a piece because of these lovely details. A viewer gets to live inside the artist and see part of the creative process . It's exciting! That is one of the significant reasons why we love looking at art. When people buy a piece of my art they are buying the adventure of creating it. It connects us in rich ways.

I am a firm believer that nobody should buy art they don't love for any reason. If it's at a store that has Mart in it's name that's fine too. As long as they love it. And hey, they can always pick up a Playdough extruder there as well.

The Art of Indentations

The cool season is the sculpture season here at Niris Studio. Stone carving is messy which is fine with me. Stone is also very heavy so I work on it outside in the beautiful weather and bring it into the studio upon completion.

My last completed piece of stone sculpture doesn't have a title yet. It is the first sculpture in a very large series called "YOU GOTTA HAVE BALLZ " (Trust me.You do.) So anywho, about the piece. There has been a lot of discussion about it lately. The piece is a fairly large abstract vessel carved with large sphere shapes. It was a lot of work.....about 1 1/2 years. As I entered the finishing stages it happened.........OH NO........it need lots of round intendations to be "right". I tried to leave it alone. After all, no one but me would know the intentations "should" be there. Right? PHOOEY! WHO AM I KIDDING ?! I MUST ADD THE DREADED INTENTATIONS. AHHHHH. What did/does that mean? About an extra 40 hours of work. That's all. Each intentation (which I now lovingly call balls ) had to be hand sanded starting with 60 grit and finishing with 1200 grit. Sheez. There are about 55 of them, small and placed over the entire piece. Right where I knew they would go from the beginning.DRAT.

So now everyone loves the piece including me. The indentations are cause for much discussion. (Well, I guess you have to be here.....) The indentations are also a source of great pleasure for me to look at knowing I was willing to put in the time needed. It's all about the details at my studio. Ya gotta have ballz to put in the extra hours when you want it to be FINISHED ALREADY....... in any worthwhile endeavor.