For the Fun of It - Plasticine Pig Paradise

sculpting now and then

When I'm talking to kids, I often get the question "When did you start drawing?". Surprisingly, I didn't start drawing until I was a teenager. But there were hints that I was going to be an artist along the way, even if I didn't discover drawing and painting until later. For example, my plasticine pig paradise.

This happened in the 4th grade, I think. It was the first time we were given our own desk and space, and encouraged to make it our own. We each had a plastic bin for our things. I'd also gotten a chunk of plasticine clay at the start of the year, and I became obsessed with making plasticine pigs.

I made many of them- I think into the dozens. I also started filling out the areas that my pigs lived in. I didn't make other animals though (I had my pigs down pat- using a mechanical pencil to carefully etch in the nostrils).

I was lucky enough to have a space next to the window ledge, so, after a while, my pig empire needed to expand.

I made an upper level at first, and declared it was pig heaven. I made little halos and wings for some of my pigs and moved them up there. It was a lot harder to keep the white clouds clean (remember how much plasticine picks up dirt?) but still looked really cool. My friends helped too- we added trees and even more pigs (I made a bunch of tiny ones, and even little teensy barely visible ones).

Finally, towards the end of the year, I added a piggy hell, with devil pigs (complete with horns and tails). My empire was pretty sprawling now (I honestly can't believe the teacher ever had me clean it up- maybe she was impressed by the scale of my madness?).

It lasted til almost the end of the year, when two boys were wrestling and one fell on it, squishing a lot of my pigs. Good things can’t last forever.

Recently, I grabbed some Sculpey (polymer clay) to keep my hands busy. I've been feeling burnout creep around the edges lately- not from doing much work, but from the fear of making mistakes.

So I went to return to the plasticine pigs. And at least these can't get squishd when someone sits on them. (After you bake them)). It’s weird how the muscle memory of making them is still in my bones.

This week’s substack of the week is

Austin Kleon

! You might know his work from “Steal Like an Artist”. His free substack tier sends his “10 things worth sharing”! Check it out :)

I was getting lunch with my friend Katie when we stopped at Skylight. I picked up these two books.

“Moomin Mail” by Amanda Li and Filippa Widlund (based on Tove Jansson’s Moomin books) is of course a favorite- I did a list of letter-based books ages ago, and this one fits right in!

”I Want To Be Spaghetti!” by Kiera Wright-Ruiz and Claudia Lam jumped out at me. This ramen book is SO joyous- the art gives me fuzzy happy vibes, and it's SO funny! Highly rec.

ok love u bye