Sans Souci Studios and the PUJA Gods and Monsters Dance Concert

Willow Chang http://www.willowchang.com/ and Passport Productions presented the annual PUJA Gods and Monsters dance concert on June 6 and June 7 at the WCC Paliku Theatre in Kaneohe, HI, which included performances by Anasma from France, Meissoun from Switzerland, Eduardo Rodrigues from Argentina as well as an appearance by Sans Souci Studios' wolf mask "Sneer"! I was just thrilled to pieces to have had my work included in this performance. I think right now I'd consider it a high point in my career!

Check out photographer Joe Marquez' beautiful pictures of my mask in the performance:

http://www.thesmokingcamera.com/puja_dance_concert_2009/h1f5b0887#h1f5b0887

The dancer wearing the mask is Eduardo Rodriguez from Argentina. I am just amazed at how his performance has transformed the mask into something so completely beyond what it was when it left my studio. Eduardo Rodriguez is currently on tour with Cirque du Soleil's Saltimbanco. To learn more about him see these articles: http://latinalista.net/honolulu/2008/10/cirque_du_soleil_honolulu_performance_fe.html and http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/saltimbanco/show/acts.aspx

Revisiting Celluclay with Isabelle

First of all, I just have to get it out of my system... isn't Isabelle cute? She's so much bigger than the last time I posted her pics here.

Anyway. Isabelle has been coveting the new "Scrutinizing Eyes II" masks and has asked me repeatedly for one to paint. They take so long to make I hesitated to give her one, but then I figured it might be a good opportunity to try out some new casting methods I'd been thinking of. So for the first time in about eight years I cast masks with Celluclay, a commercial paper mache pulp.

Celluclay has one significant advantage of traditional glue and paper strip paper mache- it is about a thousand times quicker and easier to use. The glue and paper strip "Scrutinizing Eyes II" masks take 9 to 10 hours to cast and finish, but similar Celluclay masks takes about 3 to 4 hours to cast and finish. Theoretically, anyway, assuming the process results in a viable mask. Which in the past it hasn't.

There's been a number of reasons. First of all, I believed that Celluclay warps more easily than other kinds of paper mache. Now I'm not so sure that's true. Yes, some of the early masks I made with it did warp, but I've since learned things that could have prevented this. Such as, a paper mache mask that is not sealed properly will warp no matter what, and acrylic gesso does not seal anything, while Sculpt and Coat or diluted Weldbond PVA glue does. I've also learned that the shape of a mask will influence how it warps just as much as the materials it's made from, and some shapes just require special handling. (For more about this, see this post here: http://sanssoucistudios.blogspot.com/2007/06/mask-shape-and-warpage.html )

Another issue has been Celluclay's apparent inability to adhere to my detail coat of choice, a mixture made from Weldbond, Polyfilla and cheesecloth. (For more about my detail coats, see this post here: http://sanssoucistudios.blogspot.com/2007/04/yet-more-materials-experiments.html) But then came the big "duh" moment.. I was using actual glue- Weldbond, a kind of Elmer's on steroids- to adhere the paper strips to my detail coat, while I was relying on the dried powdered glue in the Celluclay mix to do the same job. I was comparing apples to oranges! What would happen if I used real glue?

So I cast two test masks. First I cast my detail coat into the mold and let it dry thoroughly. Then I thinned Weldbond with just enough water to make it mixable and added it to Celluclay, which I then used to fill the mold. Then I set it aside to dry, and waited, and waited. Then I remembered that Celluclay packed in thick layers in a rubber mold will NEVER dry. I put the mold under a fan and waited several days, and even then it only dried on the surface. When I finally demolded it, some of the surface of the mask stuck to the mold and pulled off. Paper mache generally doesn't stick to rubber molds, but it sure as heck will stick to a rubber mold better than it will to water! The damage was repairable, but it was still a hassle. Best to be avoided.

So for the next mask, I tried applying a layer of Weldbond over the detail coat, adding a THIN layer of Celluclay over that, letting it dry, and repeating this process about three times. I did not mix the Celluclay with anything other than water, as I didn't think I could handle the thin layers if they were too sticky. The mask dried fine in the mold, and none of it stuck to the rubber, but I did get a curious slight wrinkling effect on the surface. I suspect the Celluclay pulled at the detail coat and wrinkled it up as it dried. I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do about this yet, if I'm going to worry about it at all- it is fairly subtle, and I suspect I could sand a lot of it out if I were motivated.

So in the end the Celluclay did not warp any more than the paper strips did, and ultimately it did adhere well to the detail coat. The biggest downside of Celluclay that I now see is its weight. A Scrutinizing Eyes II mask made with paper strips weighs only one ounce, while a similar Celluclay mask weighs three. Just for comparison's sake, a fairly normal pair of prescription glasses weighs one ounce, while the great big huge honking Coke bottle pair you will never catch me wearing on this blog weighs two. Still, it's possible for certain well-balanced, helmet-type masks that are inclined to stay on of their own accord anyway, that the Celluclay could work quite well.

So the moral of the story is that Celluclay is once again a possibility. Stay tuned!

The Other Resident Maskmaker At Sans Souci Studios

I'll take a minute to show off the work of the other resident maskmaker at Sans Souci Studios, my daughter Isabelle, who is now five and a half. Here goes!



This is a rabbit mask.



And a kitty mask.



This is a scary ghost mask.



And here we have a horse mask. It's been strapped with curling ribbon.



Another kitty mask. Check out those eyelids and eyebrows- aren't they awesome?



And the piece de resistance, Isabelle's scary monster mask!

These do have a certain something to them, don't they? Isabelle often makes these for me when I'm grouchy and I need to cheer up!

The 2009 Sans Souci Studios Open Studio Weekend Mask Giveaway!

I will be giving a mask away again this year for The Vermont Crafts Council Open Studio Weekend! To have a chance at winning a mask, you can either visit in person on Open Studio Weekend and sign the guestbook with your name and address (I have to have a way to contact you if you win!) OR sign up online to either Follow my blog or suscribe to it via Feedburner. Current blog Followers or Feedburner suscribers are already automatically entered! I will draw one name at random on June 15, 2009, and the winner can have thier choice of one of the two masks pictured above (or similar).

Good luck and looking forward to seeing you!

Sans Souci Studios Open During the Vermont Crafts Council Open Studio Weekend

I will again be participating in the Vermont Crafts Council Open Studio Weekend on May 23 and 24, 2009, from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. All are welcome to visit. Come learn about maskmaking methods and see finished masks available for sale!

The Vermont Crafts Council Open Studio Weekend was named one of Vermont's Top Ten Summer Events in a competition held by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce in 1997. Over 285 artists and craftspeople in all imaginable media from across the state participate. The Vermont Crafts Council publishes The Vermont Studio Tour Guide, a free map booklet with directions to over 260 participating sites, which is available at Vermont Information Centers, from individual studios and galleries, and by request. Additional information about Open Studio Weekend can be found online at www.vermontcrafts.com or by calling the Vermont Crafts Council at 802-223-3380.

Hope to see you there!

The First "Scrutinizing Eyes II" Masks

So when I haven't been busy being a full time cat tormented mommy, I have been busily casting and painting the new "Scrutinizing Eyes II" masks. I finally have a few to show here.











So much fun to paint!!

These guys are a major pain to cast. Though the mold is small and there isn't a lot of surface area for me to cover, it takes me a looooong time to get the paper down into all those nooks and crannies and around all those little bends at the edges. It's very slow, meticulous work. It takes me seven to nine hours just to finish a cast and get it ready to paint.

I made one major refinement to my method as I worked on these. I sealed the edges of the masks with... coffee filters. Since the fronts and backs of my masks are made out of two different kinds of material, I had originally been reluctant to seal the edges with anything but glue, as I had thought any material that would match and blend in with one side of the mask would not with the other. But coffee filters are a truly miraculous kind of paper. When coffee filter strips are applied in torn strips and smoothed down with thinned down glue, they just... vanish. If they're applied well, it's almost impossible to tell they're even there, no matter what surface they're applied to.

Thanks Creaturiste for the tip!!

What I Did(n't) Do Over Winter Vacation

I've been so busy with this that and the other thing that I realize March is almost over, and I haven't yet posted my annual "it's winter and I'm not getting a thing done" post yet. So, here it is.

Isabelle's winter vacation is always tough. I'm not able to work in my studio much at all during the day when she's home, so I try to work at night, after she goes to bed. Only problem is, THIS.



THIS being one of our cats, Rumpleteazer, aka The Teaze to her friends. Nighttime is HER time. After Isabelle goes to bed, she's used to sitting on our laps and getting lots of cuddles while we read or watch TV. In her mind, it is SO not cool for us to do anything else at night!



This is one of Teaze's usual bids for attention. Here she is, standing up on her hind legs and clawing my stomach while I try to work. Usually she claws my butt, but I haven't figured out a way to take a picture of that yet.



And here her bids for attention are escalating.







Oh well. I managed to work for a grand total of ONE HOUR while Isabelle was on vacation, and most of it was spent taking cat pictures. I suppose if I can think up some snappy captions, I could at least post them on icanhazcheezburger.com!

Sans Souci Studios, The Movie

OK, the two minute TV clip actually, the one that aired last October. The link has expired at WCAX now, so I'm giving it a more permanent home here. So, for your viewing pleasure, here it is.

Vote for Me in the Etsy Mardi Gras Poll!!!

I just got an email from Etsy this morning saying that one of my masks has been included in their "Carnivalesque How Do You Party?" poll. Please register or log in to Etsy and vote for the "Calico Cat Mask" (pictured above) by Sans Souci Studios! Voting ends 10:00 AM February 23, and winners will be featured in the Etsy blog and gift guides. If I had to look into my crystal ball and guess, I'd bet the rainbow colored beaded brassiere is going to be the winner, but I can always hope otherwise!

Vote here! Thanks!

A Sheep In Wolf's Clothing

I had a mask on display in the world famous Shelburne Museum!

Well, kinda sorta.





This particular mask was purchased by Emmy Robertson to create a "Sheep In Wolf's Clothing" she planned to exhibit during The Green Mountain Rug Hooking Guild's annual show, "Hooked in the Mountains XIII: Expect the Unexpected", November 8 - 16, 2008, in the Round Barn of the Shelburne Museum. I was very disappointed that I couldn't see the show personally, as my daughter spent the night before the one day I could go throwing up all over everything in sight, but Emmy was kind enough to send me these pics so I could see the piece and share with you. Thank you Emmy!

For more information about the "Hooked in the Mountains" show, please visit www.gmrhg.org/site/hooked_8_show.html

The Shelburne Museum is a world famous museum of art and Americana located in Shelburne, VT. For more information please visit http://www.shelburnemuseum.org/.

Sans Souci Studios At Studio Place Arts

It's beginning to feel (a little bit, anyway) like Christmas, which means it's time for the annual Celebrate Studio Place Arts Member Show! The show will run from November 18 through December 31, with the opening reception on Saturday, November 22, from 4PM to 6PM. Several of my masks will be included.

Studio Place Arts (or SPA, as it's known to its friends) — is a community center for the visual arts that has operated in Central Vermont for more than seven years. Located in a building that was once considered a "blight spot" in downtown Barre and nearly torn down, SPA now houses numerous artists' studios, holds eclectic art exhibitions and offers a wide range of arts and crafts classes to the community. For more information about SPA, please visit www.studioplacearts.com

Hours of operation will be:

November 18 through December 6, Tuesday through Friday 10AM to 5PM; Saturday 12PM to 4PM. (Closed for Thanksgiving, November 27)

December 8 through December 23, Tuesday through Friday 10AM to 5PM; Thursday 10AM to 8PM (late hours);Saturday 10AM to 4PM;Sunday 12PM to 4PM.

December 24, Monday, 10AM to 1PM

December 26 through December 31, Friday, 12PM to 4PM, Saturday 12PM to 4PM, Monday and Tuesday 10AM to 5PM, Wednesday 10AM to 1PM.

Hope to see you there!

Halloween At Sans Souci Studios

We geared up our Halloween celebrations this year by going to "The Enchanted Forest" at Hubbard Park in Montpelier, put on by Montpelier Parks and Recreation. This consists of tours guided by costumed characters of different kinds of performances (storytelling, dancing, etc) staged in the woods. One favorite was "The Trolls", pictured above. I really wish I knew who did these masks! Next year, I hope to participate (or rather, volunteer Brian to participate!) as either a masked guide or storyteller. I'm putting it here so you all can hold me to it!



Isabelle's Wall-E costume. Brian made the gloves, Isabelle and I painted the box, and Isabelle did the lettering, made the green buttons, and colored the mask. After being accustomed to spending twenty plus hours on a single mask, it was very strange to make this Wall-E mask in about two seconds. As in, find an image online, enlarge it to the correct size in Corel-Paint, and print it out. Viola!



I wore the unicorn mask and Brian wore his suit and clerical collar from seminary. (Scary!) Isabelle didn't think it was fair that I had a unicorn mask and Brian didn't, so she made him this one. She explained to me that you wear it by holding it up to one side of your face, so that it doesn't cover your eyes and you can see well. Interesting design!





And here we are, just about go door to door! We went with two of Isabelle's friends, Zella (dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz) and Mollie (dressed as a fairy princess) and their parents. Check out the scary graveyard in the background. This must be one of the only pictures in existence of me wearing one of my own masks.

So overall we had a good Halloween. There was the TV show, Halloween mask sales, featured spots on a couple of Etsy blogs and most importantly, fun going from door to door and getting way, way too much candy!

Five Minutes of Fame!

My masks and I were on TV! The video clip can be viewed here:

http://www.wcax.com/Global/category.asp?C=74837&nav=menu183_8/

I've been letting the machine get a lot of my calls these days, thinking they're going to be those automated pre-election surveys or "important messages concerning my credit card account". Imagine my suprise when I found a message from a Channel 3 TV reporter asking to do an interview for a piece he was doing for Halloween! It aired Friday, October 17, as part of their regular "Made in Vermont" series.

The reporter and camera man came the previous Wednesday and stayed for about an hour filming and interviewing. They were very pleasant and easy to talk to, and I only felt like an idiot answering their questions about 30% of the time. It *was* a little wierd having to stick that microphone thingy down my shirt, and the fact the All Fired Up restaurant was busy burning down several blocks away *was* a little surreal. But overall I'm happy with the way the clip came out!

Check it out!

"Scrutinizing Eyes II" Off to the Mold Maker

I have been working on this thing off and on for FIVE YEARS. I am so excited to get it done and have a mold made. I can hardly wait to cast up a bunch and paint them in fun colors!

A long time ago I read Karen Horney's "Neurosis and Human Growth" and brainstormed a series of masks based on the different types of neurosis she proposes. (Which are, for the record, narcissistic, perfectionistic, arrogant-vindicative, self-effacing,and resigned. In case you're interested, perfectionistic is my own particular brand.) From there, I played with the more general idea of anxiety caused by excessive self-examination and concern about the opinions of others. As in, OMG HELP THEY'RE LOOKING AT ME!!! From there, I made a Mardi Gras type mask, substituting the feathers with eyeballs.

I had imagined this to be a series of three masks, "Scrutinizing Eyes" (the mask pictured below for the open studio giveaway) being the first and this being the second. The third exists right now simply as sketches in my sketchbook. Hopefully I'll finish it in less than five years!

Ear Hair

OK.... just for the record......I am so incredibly sick of.....EAR HAIR.





Maybe I should back up a little here. I have decided to try to sculpt and cast some mini-masks. I had been resistant to the idea when I was simply thinking of it as a way to add lower priced pieces to my body of work. Now it has much more appeal since I've been thinking of it as a way to try out ideas on which I may not have wanted to spend the hours and hours necessary to create a larger piece. So I started with these cat character sketches I've had knocking around ever since before I sculpted the large cat mask, "Sophia".

Above is "Nemo" in a early, rough form. The idea was for a stocky, staid British Shorthair sort of cat, one that looks a little like my brother's cat Nemo. When I first thought of this piece five years ago my brother's cat was a thoroughly middle aged sort, but now I'm afraid he's rather elderly! So this sketch began to take on a more grizzled, grandfatherly look, with the mustache, bushy eyebrows, and..... EAR HAIR.

So... I have been doing nothing but sculpting and resculpting ear hair for the past two weeks! It just refuses to cooperate! It's probably not too clear in the pics above, but they illustrate no less than FOUR different takes on ear hair. I've been driving my cats crazy following them around and looking in their ears!!

HELP I THINK I'M LOSING IT!!!!!

Dancing In the Streets

And here we continue with the Sans Souci Studios Summer Reading List Extravaganza!!

I love Barabara Ehrenreich, and when I heard she had written a book about the decline of community festivals (and along with them, much in the way of masking traditions) in Western culture, of course I had to read it. Here are the ideas I found the most interesting.

Ehrenriech implies that there is an inherent contradiction in human society, that it is collective by nature, but as it becomes increasingly successful, it grows larger and larger until by necessity it splits into hierarchies. Then the upper hierarchies try to suppress collectivism in general as it can foment revolution and change. Festivals (especially masked festivals!) were a prime time for people to gather and plan all sorts of mischief, so the powers that be have been trying to regulate or do away with them altogether for time immemorial.

In this context, masks are subversive. They allow anonymity. Masks allow people to step out of their prescribed roles. They allow men to be women, beggars to be kings. Masks, through estatic ritual, possession, and trance (now how are those for scary words!) can afford practitioners direct contact with their gods, as opposed to through "belief" and "faith", or through the indirect mediation of priests. Masks by their very nature can defy the social order.

Now I really want to run off and catch the next performance of Bread and Puppet!

Stay tuned!

Masks Tell Stories

This summer I read a great book about masks, "Masks Tell Stories", by Carol Gelber. It's aimed at older children, but it was thought-provoking for this middle-aged adult, too.

The most interesting thought that occurred to me after reading it was: Masks help make abstract ideas concrete, and bring them a place where they can be physically dealt with. With the aid of masks, ancestor spirits can walk among their people and remind them of the values of their community, and perhaps of the consequences of not being mindful of them. They can teach, protect, and discipline the children of the community. With the aid of masks, benevolent spirits can be cajoled for what a community needs and desires- good luck, good weather, good health, etc and chaotic spirits can be chased away. With the aid of masks, the spirit of the community, the place, or the time itself can become embodied and celebrated, such as we see now with Mardi Gras or Halloween.

However, with the overriding mind-body dualism of this Western culture (mind is good, body is bad) I imagine the idea of making an abstract idea concrete is viewed with much suspicion. Why ruin a perfectly good idea by embodying it? While I'm not advocating (say, for instance) foregoing modern medicine and returning to masked ritual to cure illness and so on, I do often wonder what our culture's dualism has caused us to throw away and lose.

In any case, I sincerely hope I will be able to explore these ideas more thoroughly in future work. Stay posted!

New Sans Souci Studios Etsy Store!

The Etsy store is to replace my eBay store, which I have shut down. The fees on eBay were killing me! My eBay sales were covering the fees and nothing more. The fees on Etsy are much, much more reasonable. Once in a while, however, I may post a mask test or second on eBay, and will mention it here when I do.

Have fun looking around the new store!

Mask Drawing Winner!

Renee Krug is the winner in the Open Studios drawing for the purple eye mask! Renee visited during the Open Studios weekend and signed up for a free suscription to our maskmaking blog. Thank you Renee and enjoy your mask!

Open Studios Mask Giveaway!

We are giving away this mask to celebrate our participation in the Vermont Crafts Council Open Studios Weekend! All you need to do to for a chance to win is sign up for a free Feedburner suscription to our blog. Enter your email address in the Feedburner widget on the left, confirm your suscription in the email Feedburner will send you, and you're good to go! (If you are already a suscriber, you are entered automatically, you need to do nothing more.) We will draw the name of one suscriber at random on Sunday, June 15th, 2008, and send them this mask completely free and postage paid! There are no purchases necessary and you can have your name removed from the suscriber list at any time, just email us with your request. Good luck!