I was approached by my dear friend Amelia and asked to make this sun as a gift for her wonderful parents. Her family has put on an event once a year for roughly 30 years called the boogie.

Amelia describes it as a yearly weekend gathering of music, fun, food, support, love, family and friendship. And I have been lucky enough to attend the last few and it has been a sublime experience. I hope to continue to go for many years to come.  A while back artist Robin Frey painted a smiling sun for the boogie and it has hung at the event every year since. Amelia sent me an image of it and asked me to recreate it out of metal and this is what I came up with.

This project was a fun challenge as it essentially required me to draw with a tiny pencil grinder. I started by coloring the face blue and then grinding everything off but the irises of the eyes. Then I colored the entire thing purple and ground off everything but the purple details. I then colored it gold and finally came back and ground the whites of the eyes and a few highlights in the face. I have done little grind details before but never drawn with it before. I was surprised by how well it worked and am excited to continue to explore this technique!

This smiling metal sun sculpture is wall hanging, made entirely out of stainless steel, is colored using heat patinas and is completely safe to be kept outdoors!

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