An Artist Without A Muse

Grasping for a muse is something that all of us artists do. What happens when you can't find one? Worse- What happens when you know what your muse is but you don't have access to it?

I've fallen for a man and it's come so suddenly. In amongst months of turmoil, sickeness, death and drama... I came to contact with something amazing...

Yes, this is Amanda Day saying that romance has struck her life like a lightening bolt... and go figure... nothing is getting done haha.
You see, it's a long distance relationship that I've been holding on to. When he's here, suddenly I get completely fullfilled... all my sorrows and worries disappear and creativity and emotion spill out into art. When he's gone.... my goodness....
What do you do when you don't have access to your muse? Does life slow down? Does the world stop spinning? It's so absurd... yet it seems to keep happening. Oh Im such a softy aren't I? How could I not be... this guy has been holding me up, acting like a tower for me emotionally, physically, spiritually.... I owe him so much.

So this is my note for him... for all to see... thank you for everything you've been doing for me... and Im looking forward to when you come back to Queensland. I have to get my sculptures done at some point right? haha. Just kidding sweety :)

Unforeseen Occurrences Befall Us All

It's been a long time since I wrote.... so much has happened...

On the 20^th January 2009 my beloved Grandmother passed away. This dear old lady I was very close to, and even lived with for a time.

The events that day were terrible. My mother was visiting my grandmother when she started complaining of slight chest pains and exhaustion. My mother decided to take her to the hospital as she was getting on in age and didn’t want to take any chances.

“She appears to have a leak in the aorta. We’ll get her prepped for surgery and stitch her up, everything will be fine”. This is what the doctors kept saying.

A few of my family members were there just before they put her to sleep, ready for the scans and operation. My Grandmother was alert, asking my uncle how his roommate was doing. I decided to stay at home, I’ve been extremely sick in the past and had too many experiences with death and sickness recently, I didn’t think I could handle another hospital visit. They said she would be fine to go home the next day so I figured I would wait. I was at home with my friend Natalie when I got a phone call from my family. “How is she?” I asked. My heart sank when I heard the words “Amanda… she’s not good…she’s not good Amanda”. I hung up the phone and collapsed to the floor in a wailing cry. I new my family doesn’t ever say bad new over the phone, so those words were all it took for me to realize she wasn’t going to make it. Natalie ran over to me and held me. She offered to drive me to the hospital straight away. So she did.

I arrived in her hospital room and she was sound asleep. But everyone was crying. “What’s happening??” I said fearful of the response. They explained to me that her aorta didn’t have a leak, it had completely worn away. There was nothing to stitch back together. They had put her to sleep before realizing the seriousness of the situation and decided it was best to keep her asleep, so she was more comfortable.

“I suggest you try to get all your family over here, as she’s only got a few hours left” the Doctor said solemnly.

“Are they going to wake her?? I need to talk to her!” I cried. But they refused. They said at this point it would be too painful for her to be awake.

My grandmother believed that after death, she would be resurrected to a paradise on Earth. I remember her saying to me that she would have a nice house with a beautiful big garden with lots of flowers and trees. She said she wanted her own pet Wombat and a baby Elephant. Watching her sleeping I got down close to her ear and whispered, “You’re going to get your wombat Nonna”. She mumbled back, and smiled for a moment.

My Grandmother passed away in her sleep that night. I’ll never forget her, and I hope to see her again some day, somehow.

I love you Nonna, sleep tight.

Rose Veneziano

10^th Feb 1934 – 20^th Jan 2009

Lions and Tigers and Bears, OH MY!

There I was, trudging through steaming hot sand, with nothing but a drink bottle in one hand and a blanket in the other. I was wondering how I was going to survive..... So I went back to the car and got the rest of my stuff.

Went camping over these holidays and boy was it an experience. Some friends and I all thought we'd be a bit risky and try camping on the beach. The most I'd ever roughed it was a Hotel in Noosa so this was definitely a wild thing for me to do. My friend Diana and I had just finished driving 3 1/2 hours away from home to a very secluded camping spot. The only civilisation around was a very small "tourist" town about 20 minutes away from the campsite. I look back on the trip now and wonder if perhaps we should've camped closer to a hospital LOL.

We arrived there and most of our group were already there with their tents up. Thank goodness, because we needed help pitching our tent. I never thought it would be so difficult to put up a 2 man tent, but there you go. I put that to my lack of experience and not stupidity :P

So Diana and I are looking at this tiny little tent, wondering how we were going to live in it for so long. We decided to leave most of the stuff in the car. Speaking of which, we had to park about 600 metres away as the sand got way too deep. We managed to bog our car in the first 5 minutes of arriving. Lovely start to the holiday.

It wasn't until after we had set up that we realised there were no facilities there. No toilet, shower, drinking water... heck, there weren't even any taps with water that we could boil. We were literally in the middle of no where. So me and Diana did some friendship bonding when we were having our baths together out of a bucket in an old shower cubicle closer to town. Yeah go figure, there used to be a shower there but it had been blocked off. Convenient.

After a very humid night sleeping in the tent, I woke up to the noise of Cicadas at about 4:00am. So I got up, put on some make up (hey, I wanted to feel half civilised) and walked out onto the beach. It was beautiful. The sunrise over the water with pinky coloured clouds is an image I don't think I've ever seen. I don't even think I've ever been awake for the sunrise! haha. I whipped out my video camera so I could capture this beauty.... and partly so I could prove to my family I actually did get up at sunrise.

Eating toasted marshmallows cooked over a fire, gas stove meals, board games and the like made for a very lovely holiday. We all grew a little closer. But the holiday did have its catches...

Exploring the area, one of my friends bumped into a dingo. It was on it's own and wasn't agressive, but man, this just enforced the idea that despite the heat, I was zipping up my tent. Not too long we were introduced to the mangrove's mosquito's and sand flies. The bugs attracted the Goannas which had to be at least a metre long. We thought that was all intimidating enough until we stumbled across a Crocodile warning sign. Damn, we were really out in the wildnerness! But we stayed positive. Although when we recieved a nearby hailstorm warning we got a bit nervous.

All in all, it was a very educational trip, I got a wicked sun tan, the scenary was beautiful and I came to a realisation that even though I might be a bit spoilt with all the mod-cons at home... I can still look after myself where everything is lacking.

Commonly Asked Questions

Since I am without a lot of my multimedia programs after my big computer fatality, I don't have much to show you at the moment. So instead I thought I grace you with the answers to some of questions I've been getting.


Q: How do I stop dirt and debris from getting stuck in my clay while I work?

A: Pain in the butt isn't it? First of all your work surface needs to be spotless. I use a desk with a hard top. I do have a desk with a "leather-look" vinyl on it, but I don't use it to sculpt. I find it just doesn't wipe as clean as a hard top desk does. If you don’t have a surface like that to work on and don't want to buy a desk, I suggest getting your hands on a plane of glass. Put masking tape around the edges and put that on top of any surface you have available.
Also you need to keep your hands REALLY clean. Trust me, it's important, and my personal hygiene has never been better :P Continually wipe your hands with cleansing baby wipes or something similar. If you touch your cat, food, drink, hair, face, supplies drawer... whatever... wipe your hands again before touching your sculpt. I know your hands may look visibly clean, but trust me, if you're not obsessive with it you will get grey smudges building up on the clay.
Wearing pale clothes helps too. That way if any fibres and fluff come off your clothes and onto your sculpture, it's not as noticeable. Try to wear cotton and fabrics that don't shed.. wool is a major no no. I don't care if its in the minus degrees, you want a nice looking sculpt you buy a heater.



Q. What clay should I use?

A. I get this one too often. Check out the videos I made:
Part One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryOvvJy4zFo
Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByJujoTL0z4&feature=related
Part Three: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS-P-HJiFjw
And if for some reason your computer survived the extinction of the dinosaurs and cannot play youtube movies, the short answer is use a polymer clay called PROSCULPT. It's not the most durable clay out there, but its easy on hands (especially if you're not used to using clay) and has the least amount of troubles with blending and baking. However, if you are a little more experienced I suggest trying out some other kinds of clays. Experiment.



Q. Where can I buy the clay?

A. If your local hobby stores or art and craft stores don't stock Polymer clay, then eBay is a good place. I get most of my clay from there. I know on www.eBay.com (the American eBay) has a lot of my main ones for cheap. Prosculpt, Puppen Fimo and Cernit are all at reasonable prices.

Q. Can I use Styrofoam to bulk out my figure before adding clay?

A. Nope. Not if you intend on baking it. It's fine for air dry clay, but with polymer clay it doesn't bode well for your sculpture when you put it in the oven..... all sorts of funky stuff starts happening....
Magic Sculpt, an epoxy resin, is a good product to bulk your sculpture out. It also sets rock hard which will make your sculpture sooooo much stronger. It's the way I go now. However, it can be a bit pricey, so if you're sculpting on a budget just bulk out with aluminum foil. I've heard some people say not to use it. Pfft. I've never had a problem with it. The only thing I ever noticed was the clay does not stick to the foil very well, but this can be remedied by wrapping the foil in florist tape or heavy duty masking tape before adding the clay.

Q. How to I post my sculpture without it breaking?

A. Errrm... lots and lots of bubble wrap? Seriously, go far out. Wrap delicate features with cotton wool (not too tightly), lightly cover the rest in tissue, then wrap the whole thing in bubble wrap. Place in a box surrounded with foam pellets and be sure not to put anything else that is fairly heavy in the box with it. You want to be sure the box doesn’t get crushed on it's travels, grab the box with the sculpture in it and put it in a larger box with foam pellets in it. You can't go wrong! I've shipped all over the world with Australia Post, which I might had has no system for Fragile mail. That's right, everything pretty much gets kicked from here to where it needs to go. So if you've packed it like this and your customer says its arrived in a million pieces, ask for a photo of the damage, because chances are they just told a porker.

I'll write some more when I can think of it. Getting past my bedtime here. Hope this helped ;)