Cody Goodin - The artistic and spiritual journey of Cody Goodin

My goblin of good cheer and the sneaky wine thief would like to wish you all out there the happiest of New Year from all of us here in Codyland. May 2012 be the best year yet despite all the doom and gloom predictions out there.  I personally believe it will be the year of enlightenment.  I am planning on bigger and better things in my life and creative endeavors.  I wish the same for all of you including good health prosperity and abundance.  May the world see more peace than war.  Dance, sing make art and prosper and live long as the Vulcans say.  My love to you all and a BIG sincere thank you for following along on my adventure.  Until next year, Cio.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Festive Kwanzaa and light filled Yule.  May your new year to come be the best ever.  Thank you to all my followers for keeping me inspired and informed.  I love you all.

I wanted to share something a bit different than my usual art fare.  Here is a shot of the finished commission piece I have been working on for a friend.  He wanted me to paint something to represent the sign of Pisces.  The main element is the ruling planet Neptune.  I was asked to create a somewhat accurate portrayal of the planet.  Also the symbols where included as was the constellation of pieces.  I was painted in acrylics and a little mixed media too.  I really like how it turned out.  The big test is whether he will like it. Another piece is for a company gift exchange tomorrow.  My secret person I am giving to doesn't really appreciate the creatures I create.  So, I decided to do something a little more artsy.  I love doing these little sculpted pieces.  I made this one into a magnet.  It measures about 3x3 inches.  I used my sculpting technique using acryl...

Well, with much pulling of hair and gnashing of teeth, I finally completed my ornament for this years exchange.  It was for the RiveCity Figurative Artists Guild that I am a member of and our Christmas Brunch tradition  This years theme was to be based on some art form or ism.  Our luncheon is being held in the Cincinnati Art Museums cafe this year.  So, I thought this theme was appropriate.  At the last minute I finally decided to honor our ancient traditions and do a piece loosely based on a variety of petroglyphs.  It is kind of simple but, I really like the way it turned out.  It is very totem like in the way it looks. It's been a busy fall season and I have been one of the lucky artists who have sold a nice amount of work.  At both of the Essex Studios art walks I received a lot of great feedback.  Nothing inspires an artist more than that.  So, I am really inspired to get going on some new things and yes, even a new...

First let me apologize for such a poor photo.  It is slightly out of focus.  Not too bad, but I am doing this quickly before it gets too dark.  I just finished Oak Man and had to share the outcome.  A bit late but, that seems the way life is of late.  Anyway, here he is and you can get am idea of how it looks.  I will be taking better pictures of him later in the month when I can get to the studio. I used some of the same techniques that were used in the tree spirit piece in the last post.  Many layers of paint and glaze.  I love this process and will probably keep exploring this technique a bit further now that I have several under my belt so to speak.  Truthfully this is the one thing that has sustained me the last few weeks.  I go to such a happy place when I am working on my art.  There are so many ideas I can't seem to get them all going.  Thank goodness for sketch books and journals. Oh, I am thinking of ...

The Plaza Artists Materials Cincinnati Clifton branch is the host of our employee mediums challenge.  It is the art retail supply store where I work.  We employees have taken it upon ourselves to work with a variety of mediums each month.  The medium is chosen for each month and this latest installment is all about acrylic paint mediums.  In my last post I showed you some in progress pictures of the pieces I was working.  Well I finished the wood nymph and she is now residing at the store for a month before she travels to the Essex Studios for Decembers art walk.  Unless of course a customer at work falls in love with her and wants to buy her.  Her companion Oak Man is not finished but, I will be working on him this weekend.  So without further ado here is Wood Nymph an experiment in acrylic mediums and mixed media. Wood Nymph is 12x16 inches mounted on a stretched canvas for structural support. I used a variety of mediums and p...

Happiest of Halloween to you all out there in cyberspace.  I hope your week will be off to a spook-tac-u-lar start.  As you may have noticed, I have started to try a few things in the studio.  This process isn't exactly new to me.  But, I haven't sculpted a relief style figure this big as of yet.  So, I have decided to try this format out for a bit.  Unfortunately I have hit the imaginary brick wall in regards to my big project on my mythic journey.  I am struggling with the format and time issues.  You know I am not the most patient of people.  So, this process of planning and trying to create the characters with so many other ideas flying at me and having to work a real job.  Take their toll on my ability to devote tons of time on anything really.  Instead I break it up into little fragments and nothing really gets accomplished it seems.  This seems to be the story of my life of late.  At least the big anxiety wave ha...

It's been a bit since I have posted a completed art piece.  I have been working behind the scenes on a number of things.  My mythic journey is coming along.  Here is a glimpse of the first completed character, one of the chorus figures.  He is the prototype for the rest of the characters' costumes and hair treatments. This is the full view from the front of the character.  His costume is made of handmade papers.  The hair is from a sheep pelt of a New Zealand sheep. Here is a closer view of his head.  Each of these characters seven in all are different sizes and are in different poses. This is a side view of the character.  I have enjoyed using the paper for constructing the costumes so far.  Ask me when I reach the seventh character.  The paper is a bit easier to manipulate.  There is virtually no sewing required. Now I just have to finish the six remaining and move on to the other characters for the first scene. ...

Hi out there in blog land.  I have been busy the last few weeks with work and getting ready for the Essex Studios October art walk that took place this past weekend.  I have to say it was one of the best shows ever for me and my studio.  Jared Christopher Queen is the marketing and PR person for the studios and he has done a superb job generating excitement and buzz about the studios. OK so you probably want to see some pics of the studio.  These were taken on Friday just before we opened up for the evening. This is outside the entrance to our studio.  My partner Buck shares it with me.  Our studio is located in the middle of the main second floor hallway.  It's considered prime realistate int he building. This is a shot of the magnet display.  Most of these were gone by the end of Saturday evening. Here is part of one of the display walls. Further down the same wall you can see more of my wall pieces. Ha...

Hi there out in blog land.  I hope all of you who are visiting me are doing well.  It is Autumn here in the Rivercity and one of my favorite times of the year.  It also signals the back to school season at the University near where I work at Plaza Artist Materials.  So, this past week has bee full of chaos, new faces and some non work related disappointments.  But, in the midst of all that I did manage a wee bit of work in the studio. This is a character I am working on for my visual theater series.  He is tentatively called Old Goat.  But, that might change.  I will wait until he is completed to give you the whole idea of who is and how he relates to the story.  His head and hands are sculpted from super sculpey.  His body is an aluminum alloy wire armature and then wrapped with many layers of cotton batting to fill out his form.  I created shoe forms for his feet as they will be covered anyway.  It makes the shoe creatio...

Greetings my blog friends.  I hope this Friday finds you doing well.  I have managed to get the Gesso coating on the chorus characters of my little mythic journey theater project.  Finally, I feel like my old creative self again.  I suppose it eas that process of refilling the well.  The fog has lifted, there's an anticipation in the air around me.  So, needless to say I am taking full advantage of this energy. Here is a group photo of the chorus.  They have their first coat of Gesso painted on them.  The next step is painting the heads and hands and getting that detailed.  Once I can get past that stage, I plan on painting a light layer of pearl white onto the Gesso-ed surface.  This will serve as the under garment. Once the under garment layer is dry, I will be applying the handmade paper to create the final costume.  This is a new process for me and I absolutely love it.  Building up the armatures ...

Good Monday morning to all of my followers and visitors out there in cyberspace.  I hope you are enjoying the beginning of this bright new week.  I managed to get some physical work done on my big project this past weekend.  I think my little down funk is waning.  So, I managed to get the first set of characters  for the first scene in my visual theater project well underway and are about halfway completed.  They are going to be a chorus, aka Greek version.  I applied the brown paper covering over the base armature to create the foundation for the garment. There are seven characters so far.  I think I may keep it at this number as it is a significant number symbolically for me too.  The next steps are painting the head and hands the final skin color and detailing these, base coat of gesso on the garment before applying the final layer of handmade paper to create the gown or robe effect. Here is another fun...

Well, I have not fallen off the end of the earth.  Even though it must seem like it.  This has been a rather odd summer for me.  But, rest assured I have been keeping busy, just not with the actual making of art yet.  I have been plotting and planning a big project that I am finally starting to work on.  But, in the meantime, I have done some baking. As my Clementine Cheesecake is a testament to that.  I made this for a party I am attending today. Secondly is a coiled vessel I made as a result of a class given by Robbie Porter, a member of the RiverCity Figurative Artists Guild here in Cincinnati.  It was a class to learn the technique of coiled baskets in hopes of incorporating the technique into a more figurative shape. This was the result.  I call it an coral vessel.  So, kiddies that's what I have been up to so far.  Thank you for keeping up with my adventure so far.  Have a great week ahead....

Hi out there in blog land.  I know it has been a bit since I last posted.  Please know I am not ignoring you all out there.  But, as I may have hinted at in earlier posts.  My work is undergoing a big change in direction right now.  I am still sculpting, but I am venturing into a different mode of presenting my creations.  I will give you a hint.  What do sculpted characters, lights, settings, backdrops and special effects have in common?  Yes, I am trying something totally different for me.  It is time that I merged a number of creative interests to present my story.  Last winter I taught an online class called Artspell, The Alchemy of M.E.  The ME stood for my experience.  It was a class meant to teach us how to discover our own mythic journey.  How can we tell the story of who we are to the world.  Little did I know this would open a rather big door.  So, my friends I have decided to step through this door ...

Hello my wonderful blog friends out there.  Sorry for the long silence.  I have been really struggling to get work done this summer.  There is always an excuse of one sort or another.  But, in the interim. I have decided to show some pics of my playing around with images of my little characters.  These are some of my early art dolls that I took digital pictures of and then imported them into Photoshop and had fun just playing around with them.  My original intent was to make ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) with the images. When I get some of my current works in progress complete I am planning on using them in some digital picture storytelling experiments.  Yes, I need a new distraction. All three of these figures were made using the stump doll style of body.  The heads and hands are mixed media.  Back in the day I used molds and then would alter them to create more unique features.  It's a lot of fun actually. ...

So, what's on my work table.  Well, layers of projects in various stages of completion or not.  My last post was talking about the Thinking Cap series.  That is still moving forward all be it slowly.  I am taking my time with that one.  It is slowly evolving into a very personal exploration into the power of words and how they shape our lives in subtle ways.  Kind of like labels or powerful spells that hit our psyches.  So, I am taking my time in exploring that idea.  At first I thought I would do pieces playing with the idea of four letter words. But,, quickly found myself looking at my choices of the words I had intended on using.  Starting thinking about why I chose particular words.  That morphed into words that I realized had some impact on my life whether it was positive or negative.  Anyway that is where that series is at this point in my art drama.  But, above is a shot of some heads I am working on for a var...

Hi my wonderful peeps out there in blog land.  I thought I'd do a quick post to let you see I am still working.  I have really started to think about my work in a different way.  So, I am embarking on a rather large series of pieces that all relate to one another.  I guess that is why it is a series.  Duh!  Anyway, In my previous post I showed you the beginnings of a new series.  At that point it was supposed to be just six pieces in a three part grouping.  But, for some reason the muses have decided otherwise.  In response to my plea to the universe to improve my process and get back into the fun of artistic exploration, this new series was presented to me in a flash of inspiration.  Don't you just sit back at times and think to yourself.  Where in the heck did that come from?  Well, that's kind of what happened here. Which leads me to the above picture.  Here are the first six figures in stage two ...

Hello out there my friends in blog land.  I hope you are out enjoying the weekend holiday.  I also wanted to take this time  to remember those who have suffered loss of any sort.  My thoughts are with you. Now for some works in progress.  You ever have one of those experiences where you see something that sort of inspires you?  Then without you really knowing it, it grabs you by the collar and shake the living art stuff out of ya?  Well, I think that has happened to me of late.  Recently I viewed a little documentary about an artist named John Frame .  He has a show in California. Anyway, as I was watching his little bio it struck me that this artist is living my dream life.  Wow!  What an awe inspiring thing for me.  It is hard to put into words.  But, it seemed to validate my dream in a way that was hard for me to convince myself of before.  Again, it is hard to put into words.  Needless to say I am really ja...

Wow!  I can not believe how much time flies by each month.  It seems like yesterday I had gone to Artistic Figures In Cloth in Columbus and now it is racing to the end of the month.  I wanted to post a project I did for the joint meeting of the Circle City Dollmakers of Indianapolis Indiana and the Rivercity Figurative Artists Guild. We usually meet halfway between the two cities.  This year we met at the Sherman House in Batesville Indiana.  It is a fun little German themed restaurant and Inn. Each year one of the clubs hosts a challenge for us all to make a figure based upon.  This years challenge was to create a doll based on the western zodiac signs.  My figure is based upon my rising sign of Aries. His head is polymer clay with antique glass cab eyes.  He sports a red fur mohawk.  His hands are poly clay as well.  His body is a cloth and wire armature construction.  His legs are made of willow branches and mounte...

Howdy to everyone out there in blog land.  I am back from my trip to Columbus to attend the Artistic Figures In Cloth art doll conference.  It was a blast and I really did learn some great new techniques from Susie McMahon who was my teacher.  She hails fro Tasmania Australia.  The class was a three day sculpting workshop and I learned how to use paper clay in a more efficient way.  Needless to say it was well worth it to me.  I am tired, but energized too.  Here is the figure I created. She is tentatively called "Petitioning Nature for Mercy" and is a paper clay head over stuffed armatured body built on top of a brick.  She has real twigs and decorative papers applied to create her skin and hair.  Then painted with acrylic paints and mediums.  I am trying to decide if I am going to offer this for the upcoming bricks along the journey auction or make another.  It may be hard to give this one up. Well, I am really...

Hello all of my friends out there in blog land.  I have finally broken through the creative dessert and found a small oasis of art doings.  Before I head off to AFIC (Artistic Figures In Cloth) later today, I wanted to post the finished figure.  This was made for a special exhibit challenging the participants to create a doll without a traditional means of support i.e. doll stand.  So, I created "It Came From Planet Claire". If you remember in my last post I gave you a sneak peek.  This piece was a true mixed media fantasy for me.  I started off with a polymer clay head I had made last fall.  I was in this mood to make a block head for some reason.  Well, now that I am interested in including a mid century sci fi theme in my work at this point I thought it made a great start.  I have a small collection of old vacuum tubes, so one of these was used for the top.  The body is a wrapped wire armature mounted so that I ...

Top of the morning to you all out there in blog land.  Sorry for the longish absence from posting.  It's been a busy April and no sign of slowing down until the middle of May.  So, to peak your curiosity hopefully, I am showing you a few snippets of what is on my work table right now. This first snap is of a few fun little projects for the upcoming studio art walk at the Essex Studios, where my home away from home is located.  The open house tour is May 6th and 7th from 6-11pm for those of you in the Cincinnati Ohio area. Here you can kind of see two figures from a series I call Personal Mojo's.  They are almost finished.  Just needs the final layers and embellishments.  Also, you can see a few little panels sculpts I am working on.  Those are still not done.  The last bits on this table are some little art doll pins I am making just for those little quickie sales.  They are based on a pin project my local doll did a year or so...

A slow uphill course but, I am still moving forward.  Yes, I am trying to get my creative mojo back.  Yet, I am making little discoveries along the way.  One is that I have a deep seated desire to work with fiber and textiles again.  So, I asked a dear friend of mine who is an outstanding art quilter and teacher, David Walker if he would tutor me on his method of making art quilts.  I am not interested in the traditional.  I never really do anything traditional.  But, I need a foundation on which to launch myself into the stratosphere of art again. I believe a lot of my ideas, imagery and stories will translate well into the art quilt medium.  Hopefully you all can follow me along on my journey.  So, many ideas, so little time to get them down.  But, I will pick one and start there.  Stay tuned for that. On another note, I have here a picture of some of the small works I have in progress. These are fun little things I like to...

Wow!  I can't believe it's been so long since I have posted new work.  But, honestly I haven't really created anything new up until this last week.  As I have told many of my artist friends.  I am going through what I call my mid life crisis in creativity.  As an artist, I have undergone many changes in direction and mediums throughout my artist career.  Once I even went a whole year without making art.  Cycles are a fickle thing sometimes.  Part of this is probably due to the fact that I produce lots of work when I am in the zone.  Suffice it to say, I am going through a creative and emotional house cleaning of sorts.  This can all be traced back, at least in my mind, to the battle with cancer last year.  One tends to go through a period where you question everything and realize you want to make everything count in some way. What I have been doing is teaching a little.  Last weekend I taught a class for the Gi...