"It all starts with a pile of junk"

 replied Chad Glashoff, the wonderful creator of my new garden sculpture, when I asked him about his process.  Process. I feel so arty.

I’ve been a fan of his work and his father Philip’s for years, and after spending Saturday afternoon at their open house in Fairfield, CA, finally bought a sculpture of my own.  Here is my Peace Lady, who will be the centerpiece to the new garden makeover I still haven’t gotten to, due to my previously posted attempts to build my media empire.

Philip and Chad delivered the sculpture personally this afternoon, and Chad shared that this piece was inspired by a concept his mother came up with – so he brought her idea to life as a Mother’s Day present.  Now why does the cute card I gave my mom seem a little inadequate all of a sudden?  He went on to say that Peace Lady has become the first in a series of other pieces incorporating symbols,  but at this point I got distracted by the giant check I was writing him and did not catch what the symbols were.  Chad, if you’re reading, feel free to comment and enlighten us.

and a close up so you can see the crazy detail

Beautiful though she is, my Peace Lady is quite modest in scale compared to many of the larger than life sculptures on display at the open house.  I asked, and these do get sold, generally to shopping malls and places like that, but I get the impression it can take some time. 

 

well, this one probably won't get sold

 

One hip Santa

 

For you garden bloggers who post pictures of the birds at your feeders during the winter, one of these 10' tall babies will really up your game

 

Nick liked this one, but it was clearly too big for our garden. (Thank you, powers that be)

Other artists were there as well, and my friend Mary Lu bought this very cool mosaic cowboy hat from Tina Parish to create a new fountain with in her blue garden.

 

I’m thrilled with my new sculpture and am now thoroughly inspired to get going on my garden project and make a place worthy of this charming piece. (And for those of you who are curious, as I certainly would be, the sculpture was actually quite reasonably priced at $595.  As we spend almost all fair weather evenings in our garden, I think I got a bargain.)

Comments

[Laura Livengood Schaub (InterLeafer)]

LOVE her...kind of twiggy meets pippi longstocking! Can't wait to see in in 'person'

Did she live up to your expectations during your visit today? I enjoyed your comment about her, ahem, Madonna-like anatomy!

[Carolyn]

I love Peace Lady! Beautiful eyelashes. How tall is she?

She's about 5' tall. I was worried she might be too tall, as my garden is quite small, but once I get her new home all spiffed up, I think she'll turn out to be just about right.

[Shirley Bovshow "Edenmaker"]

What a humorous and colorful piece of art. Love it. Makes me smile and she looks great in the garden.
Shirley Bovshow

Exactly! She makes me smile, too.

[Rob(ourfrenchgarden)]

She looks great in the garden.

I'm laughing because you told the price. Of course i wasn't interested at all in how much you paid, honest.

Rob

Did you get out your dollars to euro calculator to figure it out, LOL? I debated whether to include that info but decided I didn't want to discourage someone from considering a Glashoff sculpture because I'd give the impression it was really expensive (although they are certainly more expensive now than a few years ago when I first started coveting one, so I guess the moral is, next time I'll go for instant gratification.)

[Susan Cohan]

Junk? I think not.

Three words that say it all.

[Lynn]

Oh, she is lovely! What a sweet expression on her face. Great post....Thank you.
Hi Lynn. Thanks! She's an interesting cross between funky and sweet.

[Michelle]

Love your Peace Lady! She really complements your garden. My husband and I have been lusting after the work of an artist who does similar work converting junk into art. Patrick Amiot's work is rather more "in you face" though.
I'll have to check him out. One of the things Nick and I talked about was making sure we got something that we would enjoy looking at every day for a long time, which is much harder.

[Patsi]

They look like The 'Jetsins' bird houses. I think that's right...ya know the old cartoon.
Very cool art.

Good insight! That might be how I got my husband to agree to this purchase. Have you noticed men never seem to outgrow a love of cartoons?

[VW]

While I wouldn't place her in my trying-to-be-polished-someday garden, I bet your new tenant will look really artsy and sophisticated in yours. Susan, I appreciate how you introduce me to plants & etc. that wouldn't normally catch my notice! Though I'm totally in agreement with your love of Walker's Low nepeta. The 3 I planted last year are large and showy already - but they seem to be reseeding?! Oh well, I have a bunch of friends that I'd love to share WLN with.

I feel the same way about bloggers introducing me to new plants! I haven't seen an issue with reseeding, but in my own garden they are so tightly packed there isn't really anywhere for them to go. Have had a few clients who have nixed catmint or been unhappy after the fact but that has generally been because of the bees or the fear of attracting neighborhood cats. (although I like the sight of a cat lounging in my driveway with bees buzzing around)

[Indiana Annie]

Thank you for entertaining me with these wonderful pictures. I waiver between deploring lawn & garden ornamentation and being utterly fascinated when an artist can mold junk into a wacky something... that's irresistably pleasing to me. Hats off to the Peace Lady's artist!

Hi Annie! The fact that the art is made out of recycled junk adds a whole other element, doesn't it? In fact, the price of admission to the open house was a piece of rusty metal, and I don't think that was a gimick; it really gets used. Thanks for visiting!

[cindy]

so whimsical...stuff that would otherwise would be trash, what says peace to the earth more than that? oh your art!

Thanks Cindy! I can hardly wait to get my renovation going so I can create a backdrop that really lets Peace Lady shine!

[lostlandscape]

Peace Lady's great--I especially love her hair. It's nice how her various parts function in the sculpture, but you can make out what many of them started out life as. The birdhouses are cool too. Reminds me of some of the 1980s designs of Ettore Sottsass, one of my favorite industrial designers.

I agree, figuring out the origin of some of her anatomy is fun. Oxygen tanks are a popular item in the Glashoff's pieces. On some of their culinary themed pieces, they make the hair out of kitchen utensils like can openers and spatulas, but I have a feeling they just purchase them the old fashioned way. I had not heard the term industrial designer before, will have to follow up.