The sandwich speaks for itself:
 
"It's not often a sculpture is forced to plead its own case. Coming out of the Humez studio,  I should have known she'd make me talk. That's just how it is. Once this dame is finished with you, she hangs you out to dry." 

"Before I knew what hit me, I was caught up in the system and now my mug is public.  These guys took away my name and gave me a voting number instead." 

"Gluttony.  That's me.  And  I'm locked up at Summit Artspace Gallery waiting for your vote and a reprieve."

(As it turned out, thanks to all of you who voted in my favor, this work finished 8th out of a field of 125.  Keep your eye peeled to see it soon, for the first time in the Greater Cleveland area.)

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(The process: Read all about it below.)                           

A few years ago I discovered my 93 year old mother-in-law's doll bed in an impossible state of disrepair.  Just between us girls, it seemed callous to toss her precious possession out after she had kept it tucked safely away for so many years.

I was tickled to find that the brass hardware was good as new and the worn wooden wheels turned perfectly. They swiveled 360 degrees on their bases!  Amazing craftsmanship!   I kept them.

Here they are disassembled, freed from a tangle of red doll hair and generations of grime and attached to the bottom slice of bread where they'll add sentimental whimsy and serve to support to the sculpture.  Pretty cute, huh?

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8/11/2013

Can't believe it's been two months since I posted to this blog.  It isn't as if I haven't been working on this project.  I even traveled to Maine with the components and fabricated some of the items while sitting on my porch listening to the ocean and swatting black flies.

Following my road trip,  two (!!) computer crashes  -one involving the obliteration of my hard drive- put a hold on everything. Rebuilding demanded far too much of my attention but now that I've bought a new system, I'm finally up and running.

In the past several weeks the bread slice with wheels has been stacked with 6 inches of goodies made from scratch with my own proprietary mix of paperclay.  I love this stuff.  Each component was formed by hand, sanded and painted before being put it in place. (This is a departure from the norm. Generally I finish a sculpture and then paint, but with this piece there are so many different small components, painting after assembly would have been too tedious.)

Among the ingredients to date are the requisite cooked salami, baloney, a couple of cheeses, pickles, two sorts of olives, lettuce, carrots, a blue fish, hot dogs, dog bones, red dice, white alphabet dice, a cigar, watermelon, marbles, eye glasses, octopus tentacles and bacon which looks good enough to eat. In fact it ALL looks mouthwatering.  I'm  banking on the prospect that you will think so too!  Pic update tomorrow!
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8/12/2013

Here's the first batch of components, assembled. It hope that it gives you a feel for how I intend the work to appear: as the chaotic construction of a copious pig-out or fress - Yiddish (my in-house linguist tells me) meaning something eaten (and perhaps thrown together) with animal abandon.

Perhaps you noticed the black and white striped tentacle wrapped around the scallions...a hint that this playfully surrealistic construct will incorporate my favorite protagonist, the octopus, who will have managed to get himself sandwiched in between lunch meat and layers of improbable edibles.
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Many days later I've created this batch of new components...

Here's an updated photo, below.  The sculpture is about 6.5" tall, which is about half of its proposed finished height.

The dried and sealed components in the photo below will add another 4 inches to the sculpture's height...it's impossible to really know.  I'm shooting for about 14".  Somewhere in the next half of the Dagwood I'll be squeezing in the body of the octopus too. 

Below, is the batch from above, now painted and ready to assemble.

On a whim, I threw in a popsicle and chocolates. Here they are, not yet painted...(I love the background where I wiped my brushes.)

...and below, ready to assemble.

Most of my studio time was spent creating components.  After the first few layers, it became pretty clear that the larger the selection I had to work with, the greater would be my ability to experiment with placement and design.

This whole process was one of simply going with the flow.  No preparatory drawings were  made, although I knew in practice that I'd finish at about 14" in height.  I will admit to moments of indecision: having so many components to work with was a mixed blessing. (Oh, the irony!)  All in all, this project went well after a slow start and turned out to be both as big a challenge and rewarding as it ever gets. 

Let's have a look at the project almost halfway through.

A certain friend who has monthly whiskey and cigar bashes may recognize the cigar band in this shot.  The real difficulty came with the pretzels;  I can't tell you how many times my husband and I reached for the fakes in the foreground.

In the next pic, I've used most of the on hand components and added my signature octopus who's clad in black and white.  We're pretty close to the finish line here.