My latest work is a gold trident with a textured surface. The piece is 11 x 14 inches and is entitled: Neptune’s Trident.

I started off with a free hand sketch of a 3 pronged shape. Using a ruler to outline the sections, my aim was to ensure a shape that was as “un-lopsided” as possible. Without a symbol to trace, or a rough draft on graph paper it was tricky to conceptualize this shape.

Once the shape was sketched on the canvas, I furthered my experimentation with texture by shaping a thin outline along the edges of the trident. I used a technique similar to the one used for decorating cookies with royal icing. Stiff and dry texturizing compound along the border wall, to contain a more watery texturized mix that was flooded into the body of the shape. You can see that this approach has its drawbacks since the relief of the borders seems to be much higher than the inner body. The higher relief along the border contributes to an unevenness generally.

One of the the things I learned from creating this piece was the need for neatness and order! As you can see, each tip of the trident should be much more “pointed”, yet they are uniquely different. This is because of my sketch that was lacking a cleanly drawn plan for where to apply texture on the canvas.

The result leans farther towards the abstract than I would have hoped for. This current study of work is based on dream-like apparitions of images, and symbols coming out of the darkness like an echo. I think that “Neptune’s Trident” is a perfect example of what I am trying to achieve. I am excited to begin working on my next project in this series.

Thank you (as always) for stopping by.

-S