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Sculpture

A brand new spine

Yays and boos (which seem to be the new norm with the skeleton’s progress).

It’s been a while since the last post so here’s what has happened: I abandoned the gooseneck tubing and instead found some solid copper wire that slides easily into plastic tubing at the hardware store.  I redesigned the skeleton’s pelvis, ribcage, and vertebrae to accommodate the new tube and ordered the 3D printing.

Yesterday I got the new vertebrae along with the new pelvis and ribcage in the mail.  Yay – they are freakin’ awesome! I went to thread the plastic tubing through them all and Boo – the openings in the parts are too small.  Did I measure wrong? I’ve come to the conclusion that one – I need a digital caliper, and two – I should have measured the 3D parts in the computer after I made them.

The hunt was on yesterday to find a new material for the inner spine support.  I had no desire to redesign all those parts and pay again to have them made. What I finally concluded was that I need sheathed 8 gauge solid core wire.

The hardware store had 14, 12, and 10…but no 8.

I went to an electrical store and they also had no 8.

The internet also seemed to be saying that 8 was hard to come by.  I found one supplier, and their minimum order was 250 feet.  Well shoot – I needed it (I hope it works).

In the meantime, I used the skeleton to help me with some other art.  Now I have always tried to keep my other job separate from my fine art.  My reasoning has been that fine art has always felt respected and held up high, whereas tattoos have a certain stigma and are something frowned upon by many.  And since I have been trying to get some attention and respect for my fine art and my abilities as an artist, I have been desperately keeping Elysian Realm away from my regular job, which is running Underground Tattoo on a daily basis.  What I’m starting to come to terms with is that I can’t hide or separate myself from that part of my life because that is the part that has provided me with a living, the means to raise my son, pay my bills, and also to fund my art.  Elysian Realm so far has provided very little income.

So my point is that I was designing some art for a woman’s tattoo last week and I used the skeleton to help me draw it.

By Cody Deegan

Cody Deegan is a life-long artist versed in drawing, painting, sculpting, and design. He studied filmmaking and character animation at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles as well as figurative oil painting at the Gage Academy of Art in Seattle.

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