Building and Installing RoadTiki

In the Spring of 2012, I got a call from John Toki who invited me to show one of my sculptures at the California Shakespeare Festival which takes place annually in Orinda. There were a number of other artists showing at this event as well such as Lisa Reinertson, Wanxin Zhang, Bar Shacterman, Mark Messenger and others. I knew the work of these artists and realized that I would need to have work good enough to stand alongside these fine artists. I had only about seven weeks to complete this new piece, but set about building a life size sculpture. The first problem was that I did not have a kiln large enough to accommodate the components of the figure so I asked my friend and longtime ceramic

potter, Barbara Hoffman if I could use her gas-fired arch kiln for the firing. Barbara was willing to let me use if I also helped her rebuild another gas-fired kiln she had. I agreed and helped bring that second kiln into working order. I built and fired the clay components, glued them together with Magisculpt modeling epoxy and got them ready for transport to Orinda and the Shakespeare theater grounds. John Toki was there along with a couple of strong, young guys to help me with the hardware assembly of the sculpture. It all went very smoothly and my work found itself displayed along with the work of some of the more established artists in the bay area.

Putting cash in the dealmaker's hand

The placement and look of the 100 dollar bills is important to the narration of the sculpture so I wanted to be sure that I had it right. I wanted the figures left hand to hide the fist of cash behind the back while also showing as much of the cash as possible. So I photographed myself holding the stack of cash in various ways until I came up with the final position which I liked the best with the thumb in the crease of the cash. Different

handshaking stances were looked at as well. The finish of the cash surface was done with underglaze color added to the clay before firing. Then after the bisque I prepared and applied a fireable decal to the surface which gave a cepia toned finish to the 100 dollar bill. Then after the final firing I applied a full color surface decal to the cash which gave it a multilayered look to the stack of bills.