I was thinking about all the workshops and artwork I see on the internet. How it is so much about instant finished work (almost framed and priced as the last bit of tissue or whatever is pasted on). The main thing I notice is how there is no way to tell one person’s work from another. There is no mark of the hand of the maker.
As I was giving a couple a tour of the house last night, they stopped at every artwork and asked about its story. It was nice to have that kind of interest. They noticed that everything had the mark of a particular hand in the finished work. It is what I collect and what I have always strived for in my own pieces. Why would I want to spend time on emulating some other artist’s work when my own mind and hand itch to create my own.
It made me think about what goes into my pieces…the need to bring my own ideas into a visual form that only I can see. Sometimes to get started it only takes getting out the tools we love to work with.
Or combining the spare parts of collected works with other materials.
And putting images together consecutively to form a narrative.
Or the gathering and processing of a medium necessary to finish an artwork.
Like drawing in travel sketchbooks using pigments from the soils of places that matter and mark the page with memory. And then coloring in a woodblock of a favorite tree that you had the good fortune to visit over and over again before knowing you would not see it again….but had this reminder.
And the simply being captivated by something picked up from the ground, brought home to draw over and over until you get it just right.
When you really want to create an imaginary world of Nature, you take more spare parts to make something new.
Then take the time to document with watercolor on gessoed boards as if they were ever so important to some scientific study.
And always there is stitching. Creating an image with thread and layered cloth.
This fox went on to be finished and framed with six other companions of “Night Critters”. They hang behind me as I write this blog. And this particular one reminds me of an offer I had to purchase it but only at half the asking price at the time. Very few of my works were offered for sale, and knowing that this offer was coming from a fellow maker, I decided not only to turn down the offer but to no longer tell anyone something was for sale. Better to simply give the work away to someone who appreciates your efforts or keep it on your wall.
And finally here is a gift from an 86 year old student I taught at Arrowmont many years ago. She worked on it privately away from class time and gave it to me at the end of the week. It hangs in my bathroom so I see it every morning as a reminder to just keep working. Keep putting things together…and then give it away.
I think it is time for a drink. Perhaps a Turmeric Old Fashion.
Til later….