collage

Dreams and Visions

Over the past few years I have made several collages using articles, ads and so forth which I thought would tell a sort of historic story--tell not a word narrative, but show an image which could be interpreted many ways.

I thought I would E-publish one of them on my blog today. Click on the picture if you want to enlarge it to make details clearer.

TW

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papier mache masks

One of Thomas Wold's Turtle Bay Dancing Masks.

Turtle Bay Exploration Park Papier Mache Artist

Exhibits at Redding Library

Papier mache artist Thomas Wold , who will teach some of the basics of the medium at Turtle Bay Exploration Park in his “Mask Making Theater Workshop” on Sunday, September 21 and 28 at noon and then use the students with their masks in performance at the Redding Downtown “Art Hop”, will have an exhibition of fifteen of his own hand-made masks at The Redding Library, 1100 Parkview Avenue, Redding from August 13 to September 30, 2008.

Mr. Wold, who learned his craft in teacher's art courses at Sonoma State University and practiced it in various theater productions in Hawaii and at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, has a BA from UH and an MA degree in English from NAU.

Mr. Wold has taught classes from kindergarten to post-graduate level and from mountain villages in the Andes to Vladivostok, Russia and, with his wife Tanya, has made his home here in Redding since last November.

Working with scrap newspaper, cardboard and cast-off materials, simple wheat paste and acrylic colors, Wold demonstrates how unique artistic creations may be produced at practically no cost—he is convinced that papier mache is a great medium for such things as masks and theatrical needs.

Thomas is very interested in folk art and dance festivals—the wearing of animal and plant masks for seasonal celebrations and believes that Redding and Turtle Bay's most unusual sundial bridge is the perfect location for a six-month series of seasonal celebrations starting with the Winter solstice and ending with the summer solstice annually.

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Mask Making Class Reminder

REMINDER

I will teach the

"MASK MAKING WORKSHOP"

at the

TURTLE BAY MUSEUM

Sunday 21 and September 28 from Noon to 3p.m.--as the first two meetings of three-part mask-making workshop.

The third meeting will be as a performance part of Redding's new "ART HOP" downtown.

"This is a great opportunity for families and older children to have an artful experience together. Ages 12 and up."

Call 242-3108 to register.

Members $55, Nonmembers $70. At the Turtle Bay Museum, Redding, CA.

See you there! Thomas Wold

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papier mache masks

Krampus in Turtle Bay Park.

The weather here in Redding California has been VERY hot for the last few weeks--even including one record-breaking day when it was 110 degrees.

It is VERY hot! But for papier mache it is just right! (Always look at the bright side!)

Papier mache takes time to dry--the artist puts layers of paste-soaked paper onto the maquet and must wait--but with this extreme heat--if one puts the wet work outside in the sun it is baked before you know it!

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papier mache masks

Tanya Frog in Scotch Broom

One of the nicest things about my current exhibit of papier mache masks and other papier mache art is that Tanya and I simply brought the masks to the Foundation Reading Room of the newish Redding Public Library.

There librarian Elizabeth Kelly and her team of young artists and library aides took charge and arranged the work into a VERY effective display!

I had to do nothing and IT WAS DONE just like with magic!

Thanks, Elizabeth and team and all the people who have dreamed, planned, financed and developed this very unusual and good PUBLIC LIBRARY!

TW

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papier mache masks

Papier mache is a great art medium! As long as there is newsprint around--and any old newspaper will do--and you have a couple of handfuls of flour, water, a pan and a stove to cook the paste on--you have a very good fairly plastic medium for sculpting interesting forms.

Mix the paste with flour and water until it is about the texture of heavy cream--bring it to a boil and then cool.

Tear the newspaper in strips--all newsprint has a "grain" which can be easily torn--against the grain is difficult--strips about an inch across and the length of the folded newspaper I have found convenient--and you are ready to go.

For mask making it is very easy and good to start with a paper grocery bag stuffed with wadded up newspaper--tape on the features you want--cardboard noses, ears and so forth and then cover the whole "maquet" with newspaper strips dipped in paste.

Four to eight layers of paper strips will make a good, solid mask--if you want it to last for wall decoration or heavy theatrical use, twelve or fifteen layers is not too many--this will give the finished mask the hardness of light wood.

I have found that acrylic water-based paints give the mask very good color and a clear acrylic medium finish gives the mask a fine glossy appearance. (These colors and finish are the only pricy thing in mask-making!

heat wave

Tanya Angel

Pranic Healing: "If more people knew and practiced it--this would be a different world."

Tanya

Today was advertised in the weather news as a record breaker even before the sun came up.

The heat has been fierce all summer and over a hundred degrees every day for the last week--so we are not exactly looking forward to the new record--which will have to be over a hundred and ten degrees---BUT (and that's a big but!) my back, which has been giving me the most excruciating pain for more than a month is MUCH BETTER.

And THAT is GOOD!!!!

Like anyone without medical insurance or extra money (and pooh! on the greed of doctors and the entire "health" industry!)I have been doing everything I could think of to get better and my dear wife Tanya did it with her new knowledge of "pranic healing"--which, for us, and to my surprise, worked.

I can face the blast of heat of this prize-winning day without a pain in my back!!!