OK, we are in my studio and behind the easel is a three way screen frame that has been the object of the last few weeks of creative passion. While driving to the studio one morning the traffic was stand still and something steered me on the off ramp. Before I know it I was driving passed my house and to some remote gas station - good gas prices and to my surprise there was a red light flashing on my dash board. All right, I knew I needed gas but the red light was happening. Any way to the good part. At this point I should let all know Garbage, the right kind, excites me. And, on this trip I stumbled on the three way screen, pulled to the side of the road, opened the trunk, tossed the baby in and was on my way. The red light was still flashing gas next stop.
The old saying, "One woman's garbage is another woman's treasure" although it is very catchy doesn't really apply to how I see and respond to found objects. First each found object, may it be wood picked up on the forest floor or wood collected from a construction site or wood set out for pick up, I believe must be honored in a way. I refinish the surface or connect it with complimentary components or completely dismantle it till it is not recognizable. The most important part is creating a well crafted finished piece of art that pushes the materials to their glory and respects the viewer. So, all that to be said here is how one of the panels of the three way divider progressed.
This is a combination of Rhododendron root copper wirer and one of the panels of the screen. Although this image felt done, when I left the studio something was not sitting well with me. By morning I knew
The root was way to confined. There is a shape and elegance and freedom to the form that pulls on something inside.
A professor of mine, James Kettlewell, from another life long ago, has a website, and in his discussion on "What is Art" he writes this:
ReplyDelete"The whole issue of a definition of art had become confused in the later twentieth century for a number of reasons. Most famously, by gestures like Marcel Duchamp’s, where he attempted to exhibit as art an inverted urinal. Most observers still fail to see that he was showing us that, when he turned the urinal on its back, confusing its identity, we could see how its shape could be considered both beautiful and expressive. Duchamp, half artist, half philosopher, was making a strong defense of the Modern theory of art. If the design is right, anything can be art. Duchamp was also aware of something everyone seems to have forgotten. The urinal would have actually been designed by an industrial designer, who probably spent four years in art school."