Cody Goodin - The artistic and spiritual journey of Cody Goodin

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...

Howdy out there in blog land.  I have to apologize for the lack of posts of late.  But, as some of you may be able to relate.  I have been going through a period of low motivation.  Not much work to show for it as a result.  But, I am gearing back up and preparing for a few classes I am teaching in Columbus Ohio in the next few weeks ahead.  This has been a tough winter creatively but, I am ready to tackle the thousands of ideas flying around in my head.  The Essex Studios open house was a great success and it really got the energy moving. So, for this weeks post I thought I'd post a bit of my roots in the doll making realm.  Today is my 52nd year of life and I wanted to pay homage to the creative journey I began some twenty one years ago.  I started off making cloth dolls created for healing purposes.  What a great way to begin any creative journey, helping others find their hearts and health.  So, this first doll was a...

Well, it seems like it's been forever since I posted.  I have been seriously unmotivated to make art this past month.  It could be the winter blues, SAD or just plain bummed.  A cycle I am extremely familiar with  as I tend to do this every couple of years.  It is a signal that I am wanting to try something different.  But, before I embark on unexplored territory I have a little sculpt I made to try and get me out of the slumpville I am in.  It is something I dub the house goblin.  We all probably have one of these little rascals running around playing tricks on us.  I know I do, in my studio and at home. He is polymer clay on canvas and has blue glass eyes.  He holds the key to your house.  This little guy measures 5x5 inches.  I am showing him off at the studio open house next weekend at the Essex Studios here in Cincinnati. You can click on the name and go to the web page that has just been newly updated. ...

Howdy out there in blog land.  I have been busy at work on a challenge piece for the RiverCity Figurative Artists Guild here in Cincinnati.  It was a challenge set forth at our Christmas luncheon this past December.  Each member in attendance was given a fat quarter of batik style fabric.  Mine was a beautiful magenta colored fabric.  The idea or challenge was to use this fabric to create a figurative art piece.  There weren't many rules, just that we had to use the fabric in some way. So, here is what I came up with for the challenge. I call this one "Color Does the Cha Cha".  It is a fabric body mounted onto a wooden base.  The body is then stuffed, I used shredded recycled paper for most of the stuffing.  The challenge fabric was torn into strips and then applied using gel medium to the body.  I incorporated pieces of decorative papers as well.  The body was then painted with bits of gold mica gel and sealed with a...