I thought I'd share how a couple of pieces have progressed . . . one was the mandala that I started the first night of Artmaking as Playful Prayer . . . I started working on it, then photographed my own hands, my own lips, and my own vegetables to incorporate into it . . . I also photographed some of my own lipsticks . . . The orange and lemon slices are plastic fruit that I bought and made photocopies of! Anything I can do to build my own library of images . . .
And here's the four-part self-portrait that I started at Traci Bunkers class at Art and Soul . . . I changed up some of the collage, and added a few color washes, and it definitely feels more unified. Can't say I'm crazy about it, but it feels resolved - and I learned a lot from doing it. Incubation is your friend.
And whether a piece is "likable" or not is probably one of the least important things about it.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Loose Ends . . .
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
"And whether a piece is 'likable' or not is probably one of the least important things about it."
yes! i feel like printing this out & framing it. so (in your opinion), if likable isn't important, what is?
The most important thing is what you learn, what you discover, and how you are moved - as the viewer and as the creator.
I remember seeing a piece at the modern art museum the Albright-Knox in Buffalo, NY. It was an enormous sculpture, some of it black, some of it reflective, larger than a jungle gym. It looked a lot like several big pieces of paper put up on end with camouflage-shaped pieces cut out of it.
My first reaction?
"I don't like it." I had to physically restrain myself from rolling my eyes and snorting. It was a snap judgment.
But I was there with friends, friends who were very engaged with exploring it, looking at what was hidden, what was revealed, what was reflected. I began to appreciate certain elements of it. I began to play with my reflection in the surfaces.
I never did "like" it - but that was pretty irrelevant. I let myself explore it anyway.
yes, yes, yes! simply engaging with the piece allows me to slip past my initial aethetic judgment and evaluate its emotional impact, which is always vastly more interesting and possibly even inspiring, regardless if i never like the piece.
Post a Comment