The Artwork

The characters themselves are mixed-media sculptures.  Pinacate, the beetle, is about a foot long and depending on pose, 10" high.  Her joints and head are fully articulated.  Her shape and basic features mimic the majority of Eleodes species that you would find in New Mexico.  These beetles are very black, have a subtle sheen, smooth elytra, and a delightfully mechanical walk.  Paisano, the roadrunner, is actually a 'skin' that covers a multi-purpose four-foot skeleton made of thick electrical cable and padded with wool.  (To see the interior of this sculpture, visit this post on my blog.)  As with all roadrunners, he's quite a guy!  His costume is quite complex; not at all like a shirt and pants.  The components have a wool base layer covered with feathers made of two layers of wool and silk (visit the studio blog for details).  The multi-part skin and skeleton allow for as much movement as your own skin and skeleton. 

When I have a story to tell, or just want to experiment, I set up a white sheet in my studio, pose one figure and take a lot of photographs.  I do not take photos of figures together - this has proven to be difficult for me.  I'm ashamed to say, I don't always use the good camera either. I do pay attention to lighting; the source from the equivalent of a 3:00 PM afternoon.

My work requires high quality scans of landscape and botanical paintings, which are smaller than most people realize, about 8"x10" and 2"x2", respectively. Sections from the paintings are cut and pasted into Photoshop to create the backgrounds for the characters.  I try to keep the number of elements to a minimum.

Images of figures are pasted into Photoshop on top of the background from the watercolors.  I may create a montage of elements, but I do not manipulate each one very much.  I could certainly add layers of effects or filters, but I don't like the look or feel of that type of artwork. My goal here is not to complete a highly polished piece of art, but to visually entice and gently entertain.  I also think it is important to maintain the qualities of the original artworks, be they paintings or sculptures. 

Although the major impetus of this blog is visual, text will accompany many posts.  Occasionally, I will include decorated letters.  I'm a great fan of typography and while browsing through an historical book of alphabets, I discovered the set of letters from the Romant de la Rose of the 16th century.  I was drawn for this type because the flowers/plants were all so spiky.  They reminded me of many of the plants endemic to NM, so I thought I would redesign the letters just for P-y-P.  As I use them in my work, I'll describe a bit about each as they will feature native species you may not know about.  

As for the stories, they are based on whatever I'm thinking about at that point in time.  I've spent most of my life in AZ and NM with lots of Pinacates and lots of Paisanos; I am very fond of them all.  My goal with the stories is to shine some of that special desert light onto their lives, neighbors and habitats.  Nothing political, no deep metaphysical messages, just what they do every day.  I'll be featuring the fantastic plants and animals of NM, and plan to ignore the humans completely.

I hope you enjoy it.