Time Marching

It's strange how quickly time passes...in large clumps almost. Sometimes, if I hold my breath, I can almost count the hours passing. It used to be only minutes before...LOL.

Photography

Sarah Jane Semrad, the curator of my art show in Dallas did a show where she photographed artists with their work. Here's my "portrait."

Pondering a New Body of Work

It's that once a year urge to create a large body of new work that I feel rumbling inside me lately. But, the idea, the concept for it has been working it's way up to the surface for some time now.

I started to think about the five planes of a square room (i.e. the ceiling, floor and four walls) and how a linear object might navigate itself through the planes. I want to explore those intersections.

Here's a couple of preliminary sketches.

Process, Intent and Art

In my work, process has always been about learning the tools to make art. By tools, I mean the skills to work the materials and the way to achieve certain visual goals. A lot of artists get waylaid by process because it's easy to get caught up in its complexities. In ceramics the complex glaze formulations or the temperature that a piece needs to be fired to achieve a certain finish. Art-making is a vulnerable process and artists often focus on the less frightening discussions of how to make art rather than actually making art.

The other pitfall artists fall into is one that an art educations often creates. It's the insecurity that one's art might be labeled as being insubstantial or meaningless. Art teachers are always asking, "what was your intent?" However, this question is only valid in the context where it shows what you were trying to do, and if you actually tried hard enough to achieve it. It's more of an exercise in trying to elucidate just how much work you did to get there, not whether your work has artistic merit (though that's entirely subjective as well).

I've encountered art without rational or articulate intent that was explosively brilliant. What I mean by that is, when you ask the artist what they were thinking, what their rationale was when they were making the piece, you can't get a definite answer from them. And, even if you did, you might realize that the explorations and decisions they made as they were making the art was not driven by a conscious, linear thought process but a reactive one. Sometimes, you discover that they were simply seduced by forms and color. Intent doesn't have to be mind-blowing. Simple ideas are often profound.

Forms that captivate me are sensuous, voluptuous, erotic and express tensions - between curves and hard edges. Holes, divisions, intersections. I like objects that could be several different things at the same time - that ambiguous line between; the liminal space. I'm fascinated by the temporal aspect of objects in that each represents a snapshot of a moment in time. I often do work in triptychs to exemplify an idea or to capture a time range.

A caveat to intent is that - if too belaboured - becomes a restraint. In my process, often a form exploration starts off as a sketch. Sometimes I'll wake up in the morning and a shape pops into my head. I sleepily put it down. And, eventually, begin to explore what it might look like from all sides. But, when I actually start working on the idea in clay, the form evolves on it's own. It changes and begins to define itself - often quite differently from where it started from. Intent is subject to intuition.

I'm not a political artist or someone trying to express the pain in the world. I don't want someone to "place" me within the continuum of artmaking as a "post modern" artist. Meaning for me, has more to do with how people respond - viscerally - to my pieces and whether my ideas - however simple they are - find resolution and connection.

Show

The show looked great. I had an incredible response from people who really seemed to get what I was trying to do. Of course, I'm completely wiped out and weary from it. They say pictures speak a thousand words, and since I can't garner enough strength to write about it, here's pictures to speak for me.

The Kiln Goddess

Up atop the gas kiln at the ceramics co-op is a voluptuous Venus or Gaia Earth Mother statuette. She's actually the kiln goddess who reigns over all firings. In the end, the success of a firing is akin to whether we've adequately appeased the goddess - full of uncertainty. This is because the ways in which clay fires varies so much that only a scientist (or someone about as anal) could regulate it at all - and certainly with any success. My stuff (the objects in the earlier photos) are being fired today. I encourage all to offer up their firstborn for the success of my firing...

Cold Nights

It feels like things are winding down - that feeling you get as the year draws to a close. It's also the coolness in the air and how unexpected it is when it encroaches on you - the fact that weather can be oppressive is such a surprise in Southern California. We're so pampered that we cry foul when it gets just a bit too hot or cold.

I pulled out my down comforter from storage a few nights ago. It had that smell of stale air. I ran around all summer without a care - getting myself into trouble all over the place; like a kid sticking fingers into many pies; too busy to be bothered. But, as the weather suddenly got colder, I sensed the noticeable absence of another body - the nightly ritual of shedding my clothes and crawling into a cold bed - a stark reminder of something I'd rather not think about.

Being discerning has it's drawbacks. But, that's probably just more a result of getting older than anything else - the wisdom that age and experience brings. I used to just wish for any warm body, but I'd rather sleep alone than be with someone I can't respect, even if I can love them. There is a qualified difference. Once you start sliding down that slippery slope of losing respect for someone, even love can't hold it together. Finding someone I can truly respect - that limits the choices considerably.