Sometimes you need to just stop and remember what it is to to breathe… when the situations around you dictate your progress for the time being .. it can be easy to loose track of the purest and most basic of the joys, ‘of being’ It is only through ‘being’ that inspiration can be nurtured and created . Experience is a start point … Being ‘you’ This is ME, in a moment of happiness, with Lulu ( who is in dog heaven now )
I am researching ‘time’ as a theme in art.. and ‘time’ has been regularly mentioned in my current discussions about the ‘Insomnius’ series i have created.
As an update on my thoughts it occurred to me that as i cast each set of moulds, i was mixing plaster quickly.., pouring it into the mould quickly.. and settling it.., then after the rush, i began a (non choice) phase of waiting patiently as each batch had its chemical reaction, passing from liquid to solid; and solid enough to be woman handled / released from the ‘mother mould’. I could affect how quickly i mix and pour plaster, but I cannot affect the time it takes to react / set…. Myself releasing a sheep from the ‘mother mould’
I was effectively pushing time one minute, then waiting for it the next minute. Compressing time, then expanding it.. . . .. In engine terms, full throttle to idling.
I was in affect, trying to alter time, when viewed in its commonly regarded chronological linear form.
There being more than one viewpoint on ‘time’ will be investigated further …
I was reading through my notes to locate a comment made by Du Champ that i had remembered, which resonated with my feelings about ‘Insomnius ‘ .
Du Champ’s work entitled ‘The bride stripped bare by her bachelors ‘ was altered when its glass panels were cracked during transit, resulting in a spider web like set of fractures in the glass. Before this happened, he is reported to have been unhappy with the work,not quite knowing why so… The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even 1915-1923, Glass,foil, varnish, oil paint,wire.
His comment upon this happening is some thing to the effect of ” Now it is complete.. ” The work was affected by forces out of his control and changed.. This similarity of feeling/emotion, mirrors how i have felt about the ‘ Insomnius ‘ series.., though it has taken a slightly different journey we have both arrived at the same emotional conclusion . “Now it is complete………..”
Good old Du Champ.. he is one of my irreverential artistic heroes.
To make this artwork translate, i have decided to make a change to my original plan of having one black sheep, firstly i had to go back to the origination of the piece, the inability sometimes of being able to sleep/rest properly.. against your desire to.
I have managed to translate what it feels like to not be able to sleep because of such worrying questioning puzzled thoughts, where you keep coming back to the same questions and answers in your mind,sometimes you know the answers and more frustratingly sometimes you don’t ….. your thoughts go round in a whirl and keep you awake……….
To place one black sheep in amongst the white ones could lead to connotations of being the black sheep of a family group, the odd one out.., and this though apt was not what i was trying to convey.. There is often more than one thought, or someone else’s actions that disturbs your ability to rest at ease, so decision done, i had to make more than one black sheep for the artwork to be relevant.
This decision being made actually helped me realise that now i was content with the artwork and i felt it to be finished.. As i spoke earlier, of it being suggested that it was a a piece of work that maybe did not need to be finished,it has taken some time indeed to work out why it should be….
A major thought had been running around my mind about the way to show my work ‘Insomnius’ so i decided the best way to evaluate the situation was to set out the sheep in every possible orientation, look/view, and then reflect upon… i would instinctively know which felt right..which conveyed the message/feeling behind the origination of the piece.
This, a message/feeling, a message related to emotion, physicality, and ‘time’, how best could it be translated to the viewer, who sees it and yet knows (maybe) little of the originator.
So, several hours later, after setting the sheep in a stand-by area and then placing them out like this… putting them back in holding area…. placing them out like that… putting them back in holding area… putting them out like so…putting them back in holding area…placing them out just like that… I knew which way worked and held the feeling/passed the message of what the piece was speaking about… Instinctually it felt ‘right’
Orientation of sheep decided…. and i am happy
Now i can move onwards to the next and dual choice, what would ‘the black sheep’ do, so i will set them out next, and let instinct/related thought guide me .
To be continued….
