Like me, you probably receive many email newsletters and material into your inbox every day. Sometimes I sign up for a newsletter and after a couple issues, hit the "unsubscribe" button. Or sometimes the businesses want to capture your email address to send "daily missives" about their sales. And every once in a while I receive newsletters that I look forward to reading thoroughly because I learn something new or exciting or stimulating or even challenging.
One such newsletter is The Marginalian by Maria Popova - a newsletter of "the week's most mind-broadening and heart-lifting reflections spanning art, science, poetry, philosophy, and other tendrils of our search for truth, beauty, meaning, and creative vitality" - from the website: https://www.themarginalian.org
Some articles challenge my thinking, give me pause or invite me to explore further. In particular, I enjoy articles about the wide expanse of creativity. Recently Maria wrote an article about David Bowie and interviews he gave in the year he turned fifty:
I like that bit ... when your feet aren't quite touching the bottom ... what a thrill that is! I think the potential to make my best art is ... when my feet aren't quite touching the bottom.
Last week I presented, via Zoom, a summary of my art explorations during my residency in Crete. I went there with an intention and a plan and then discovered an idea/theme/focus that is just beginning to bubble to the surface and reveal itself.
You can see the presentation here: https://youtu.be/mVElmmv6KKk
And I mentioned some of these nascent ideas a couple of posts back: http://susanpm.blogspot.com/2022/10/art-making-in-lakkos.html
And now I have some time to explore the idea of "vessels" even further. I began by painting some fabrics with Dye Na Flow paints, a fluid but highly pigmented paint. The surface was
wet in areas so the paint flowed over the surface. I used a plastic pipette to apply the paint.
After the different colours dried I went back into the surface with black Sharpie Markers and Posca Markers to outline certain areas.
Next, I traced different "vessel" shapes onto sketch paper and cut them out, traced around them onto the fusible web that I had ironed onto back of the first fabric. Then I cut the shapes out, just the basic fused applique technique.
The photo below is an experiment of how the vessels might be placed. The background is part of a dyed linen tablecloth and I placed rectangles that might be parts of a brick wall...I stil have to figure out what the vessels might "sit" on and its possible that the piece might not be finished as shown. But I do think the vessel fabric works well, I think some patterning on the surface might be an option...perhaps made with Thermofax screens?
All of this is leading me towards exploring the "vessels" as a response to the feminine, considering the female as a vessel of life, fertile, holding the future...so much content that I can explore - masses of research but ideas flooding out in a torrent.
So I write down what I can, sketch a bit and jump up and down with excitement! I can see so many options, especially working in 3D with constructed vessels, big and bigger, maybe the size of the pots I saw in Greece!
Have you considered that an art residency might be for you?
The Artists Deep Dive is for those who:
- want time for focus with guided tips and ideas
- explore that idea that’s been calling to them
- have just touched the surface of what is possible for that idea….
- want to engage with a community of other artists
- build a structure that they can repeat again on your own
- can commit to a month-long focus
I think the potential to make our best art is
... when our feet aren't quite touching the bottom.
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