Giakara – The Gatekeeper

On planets throughout the multiverse, Amazar Gatekeepers possessing sacred medallions monitor portals accessing the realms. They have witnessed the evolution of all sentient beings, watching the rise and fall of civilizations great and small. As guardians of the gate they stand in anticipation, ready to serve and offer guidance. Pulsing streams of consciousness, magnified by the Heartstone on Giakara’s chest, he stands ready to activate, by taps from his mighty beaks, the codes to summon portals within and between realms. On Earth, he’s been chosen as Gatekeeper to unlock portals to paths and passages in time and space. Through them, Amazar Avians and their ambassadors work to spread knowledge and calls to action impacting the planets future.

Birthing Giakara – I’m please to share my thoughts on the development of an amazing sculpture in progress.

In March of 2020, I searched my stash of found objects for components to use in creating and developing my next extraordinary Amazar Avian.

I created an armature using the broken discarded body of a vintage wood duck decoy. Wanting a stately figure with a commanding presence. I gathered together large used wood handle barbeque forks, old wooden thread spools, recycled wire, a pair of used wood serving trays, a belt buckle made for me 50 yrs. ago by an artist friend and polished boar tusks found while trekking through a northern Thailand native village. Over the next 4 months it underwent numerous changes, reshaping it’s form, designing mechanisms that would allow it’s head to turn, wings to flap, incorporating more than a thousand feathers rendered from countless segments of deconstructed vintage leathers.

In late August it finally developed consciousness, communicating with me in flashes, stirring visions that gained in detail and attitude that would shape its identity and form its tale.

Giakara then called out to depths of the planet and asked that I create a landscape filled with sacred crystal blooms. The base was expanded with segments of small wood bowls and the vision began to take form. Cultivating leather Forever Gardens is a special form of landscape architecture. Once seed of a vision has been planted it is slowly massaged to life. Selecting groups of small rainbow and quartz crystals from a treasure trove of gemstones gathered over the years they were bound to armatures of recycled wire rod and lengths thin stranded copper. Hundreds of stems, petals and leaves, rendered from a leather remnant hoard sprout from fingertips. Nurtured, they grow and spread over the surface of the workbench till ready for harvest and transplanting. Each variety placed in its idea eco-climate of light and shade, feeding off mystic energy flowing forth from geodes and sacred crystals.

Giakara now stands at the gate of a sacred Earth portal helping guide others on their mission.

Artist’s note: I do not condone the taking of an animals’ life for commercial use. Yet, like many who believe in animal rights, I see no honor given to the sacrifice made by discarding the animal hide when it is no longer desired for use in it’s current form.

In recycling leather I pay homage to that life and the animal’s spirit by gifting it renewed purpose as a piece of art.

My one-of-a-kind creations are crafted from recycled vintage leather garments, old leather furnishings, assorted found and manipulated objects. Scuptures are assembled using a variety of industrial low-e adhesives. Embodied in piece is the desire to celebrate the raw, natural, organic nature of my materials.

To achieve imaging, the leather has been cut, skived, manipulated or fabricated to enhance the texture, grains shapes, colors and contrasts inherent in the leather, the original tanning/dyeing process and daily wear experienced during the leathers previous existence.

There is an aspect of sustainability and recycling that forms the foundation for my creations. The leathers I use are found objects, regects from garage and estate sales, discards from the racks of resale shops, remnants and sections of damaged furniture, or articles of colorful leather clothing traded or gifted to me from clients.

All my materials are unbound from their original use. Hence the name of my art studio “Unbound Leathers”.

The leathers I use are not re-dyed, not wishing to contribute to the polluting of the environment and to embrace as well my interaction with the leather and its prior use and wear. Consequently my visual pallet is limited to whatever colored leather I can find. When that segment of deconstructed vintage leather clothing is used up it can never be recreated.

And, I must admit, as an artist working with found objects, there is a certain pleasure derived during my quest for leathers of certain texture, thickness, color or hue.

Your purchase and support helps sustain my efforts to operate an ecological crafts studio in the Colorado Mountains.

Thank You

Ron

In May of 2019 an Amazar hatchling was conceived.

It began on an armature of old industrial wire threaded through carved segments of recycled Styrofoam packing material. A damaged turned wood bowl served well as a temporary perch. IA magnificent beak fashioned from sacred healing crystals foretold a promising future.

Conferring often with my existing flock of Amazar Avians, I spent weeks pondering the destiny of the emerging form. A challenge came forth. Create a Crystal Beak that offered dramatic visual contrast to its colorful cousins. Celebrate the beauty of remnants deconstructed from vintage black leather jackets once proudly worn by those making bold statements about living wild and free. During Summer Solstice the hatchings contours had evolved.

Ravenkara’s metamorphosis from conception to completion advanced through many stages and alterations during a nine-month birthing process. Standing in a crystal Forever Garden in February of 2020, with a wingspan of over 32” it was finally ready to take flight.

A wide variety of found objects and scapes of leather are modified and manipulated to form the armatures of the Avians.

I’ll often start with choosing the beaks from my collection of old vintage beads, crystals and stones. The beaks serve to help define the different species of Amazar Avians and their attributes.

Next come choosing various found object body parts and cobbling together sections of old wood tools, utensils, fondue forks for legs, bits of old metal rods and such.

My intent is to bring a variety of components together in way that gives the concept form, helps develop an Avian’s body language, attitude and general characteristics through altering its shape and the positioning of the neck, head and beaks.

I’ll often create a series or group of Avian armatures (the underlying frameworks of a sculpture) and live with them for a while to get a sense of who they might become before choosing one to bring to life.

A sixth sense guides my hand to manipulate their form. Their personalities evolve over hours and days as the process of creation continues.

Atop the armatures, seqments of leather chosen for their color and texture are layered around of sections of repuposed wire to help form bendable wings, tail feathers and other body parts.

Tufts of carefully cut and torn leather are bonded to the form and each other using industrial adhesives to create layers of feathers that fan out and beg to be caressed.

Eye sockets, eyes, lashes and plumes fashioned from bits of leather, stone, glass, beads, buttons or other oddities are added to complement their emerging personalities.

And from out of a pile of cast away components something that never existed before is brought to life.

As a sculptor of small objects, the sculptures evolve and take form in numerous stages on my cluttered work bench where they are continually refined and modified

Avians are not ready to leave the nest until the colors, textures, shapes and forms are visually interesting and appealing from all views.

After weeks of living with them, hints of their personalities come across as you view them and they are finally ready to take on a name or be released for adoption.

Throughout the year I bring together a gathering of my artwork at shows and festivals for release into the world.

Contact me for a list of upcoming events.