this post is a roll together of images, arising questions and an exciting delivery of materials!
…its a chaotic post because its holidays, the boys are home, my Dad is staying and we have tons to do. It has been noted that in the holidays I burn everything….my mind is elsewhere and things drift….well so what?
..but to important matters such as questions arising:
who else works with this idea of rotation?
who else has made a work that is associated with rotation?
I could go on… and I will but not till the next post!
So I am continuing my research into art works that associate with rotation. Sara MacKillop and Paper Column shown here. I love this piece for its simplicity and its scale. We all have a familiarity with paper but perhaps in a digital age this will become a vintage novelty.
and now to what I made at Ashburnham last week …as soon as I made some bigger maquettes and started playing with them onsite it was clear that they work best rolling on the ground and hopefully drifting around in or preferably on the lake. I will be making 3m size models next using strip of oak, ramping up the scale…
I have just taken delivery of the next level up – the actual material (now oak) in 3m strips…can’t wait till next Tuesday and I can start maquettes in the real material I can test when it breaks, if it needs soaking and how it looks…
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This week I am re focusing on the experimental nature of the project – How, at every stage I still slip invisibly into new ideas and become too fixed on an end product/work defeats me but it happens all the time and if I wasn’t getting regular mentoring support it would continue undetected! So letting go of these sometimes limiting and perhaps unhelpfully fixed ideas and moving on reconnects me to how this is all about being uncomfortable in process not only in making but in logistical issues too. There are many ways this can happen for example using a new material in small scale in this case cane strips, becomes a totally new game when trying to increase scale. My idea of a rotational form is now much looser and breaking away from the starting point which was a drawing. These looser forms are not so easy to make in 3d and thus the problem solving evolves as I draw in 3 dimensions with a material that will work up to a scale of perhaps 30cm. How can I increase this scale to enable me to transition to bigger work?
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I am also experiencing problems with the supplier who originally supplied the exact material I was planning to work with (6m and 10m lengths of finger jointed flat strip chestnut). Basically they can’t and won’t do it. Yes folks this is an opportunity not a threat. I am researching other forms of wood lengths and the project will reflect what I find. I am open to all this and know it will release new work in unexpected ways as well as increase my knowledge and experience as an artist and of the material. It is still annoying and difficult because we all like to have got something sorted without having to go back and remake or research again. So once I have gotten over my stroppy inner teen self I will happily get used to this better way forward, my organised self is just battling with the idea that dates fixed for construction onsite involving other parties will potentially have to be changed.
Wallpaper resonance.
Something else I want to make a note of is re directing my inner narrative to revert to a new setting that is, ‘how does this affect or support my practice’ as a default. You know that waking in the night moment when all things seem amazing and creatively possible? Well instead of getting bogged down with repetitive thoughts of what will I say to the builder next time I see him and when will the bathroom light be fixed ….I am aiming to re calibrate and to continue this into all parts of my life so that the wallpaper in my head resonates and re enforces my practice.
I am having great fun making maquettes out of flat band cane and have just received a delivery of 3 different sizes to make more with.
I am finding drawing/forming with 3d materials involves a balance of decision making and openness, that is not being prescriptive. I often start by making sure there is cane soaked ready to use as I might only have half an hour spare to make. This also focuses the mind and helps me make rather than think. As something works or doesn’t I can amend my starting point next time. So I bend and weave (to secure) the cane and then peg it to hold it while it dries. Then I un peg and assess it the next day. This time lapse is good as it allows ideas to breathe and I can keep a more objective view of the maquette. Making one a day, or as many as I can is a discipline and useful because it calms the pefectionista in me reassuring me that the one I am currently making is just one in a long line of them. They will be interesting to look at all together once I finish this stage.
