Zoobilee tiger

was finally finished in mid-December. A great opportunity, but much too much detail to get done quickly (as I’d originally planned). Grad school work suffered, but then again, the stipend earned helped pay for this spring semester’s courses. So I can’t complain.

See the tiger’s progression here, plus further information about the event, dates, sponsors…. Coming soon to the Henry Vilas Zoo this summer! More info about the Zoobilee. A few pics:

1.) Worldly Cat features a world map of the current populations of big cats (on the left side of the tiger’s body). The final tiger, lifesize, face modeled after Cyber, the Siberian tiger at the Henry Vilas Zoo. The actual tiger (Cyber) at the zoo is well worth the trip–he’s a real cutie and just gorgeous.

2.) With the littles for scale (ah who am I kidding? I just love posing them):

3.) Right side features a map of Madison, WI with some popular points of interest…

Fiberglass form is from Cowpainters in Chicago. They make the greatest forms!! (my cow and pig, from other shows, also came from there)

Wanna see where Worldly Cat is these days? This month (January) he is at Hilldale. Then the tentative schedule: The tiger will be moving to the Monona Terrace for the month of February and then the plan is to move to the Dane County Airport at the end of February through March. They hope to bring it to the Zoo in April. This is the schedule as of now.

See more painted forms…

Some suggestions from Fred…

So, the work for grad school continues. Fred Stonehouse, an incredible artist and prof in the UW-Madison art department, offered some great suggestions when I was totally whining about wanting to do big stuff, but that the woodcuts were taking too long (for completion of a body of work by the time my M.A. show comes around). Remember, we’re dealing with a different time frame here–grad school, which sort of condenses everything into 1 yr. increments, and each year should be a good, completely new body of work. Plus, full load of classes, day job…. Woodcuts take some time, especially big ones.

So, the dilemma was, how to make big stuff quickly and not get all picky over details like my bigger murals… I wanted to get away from the worry over detail and just be more expressive. If it worked, perhaps I could then take any good ones and make woodcuts out of them. Speaking of which, I am still making woodcuts, but I can’t physically make enough big ones to fill a show in one year, so it’ll be smaller woodcuts and big paintings/mixed media. Anyway, Fred had some great suggestions (use big, juicy brushes, and don’t worry about drips, etc)….

I think this 1st one is heading in the right direction. So far, good feedback. The most important thing is that it was a release–really just fun to do and how painting directly and with energy should feel….

The littles are here for scale. Paper is about 8ft tall…