I didn’t listen to much music while in the woods, but just before I left, I was listening to Maria Teriaeva. Here’s a link to some of her stuff on Soundcloud.
As I write this, I’m listening to a number entitled Paris Texas.
I brought this one with me on the south Vancouver Island camping tour. This photo taken in Goldstream Park. Armatures for human figure and dogAt this point I’m thinking that I don’t like the body language for this piece, especially the arms. But I know I’ll leave them like this and focus on the crossed legs and the “scarf”. Every piece feels like something I’m learning through. Eventually, I think, I’ll make something very beautiful. From the back, this rounded bum will flatten as the figure sits on the picnic table (Juan de Fuca park, China Beach campground)The dog gets a base. As I work on the piece, I start to “see” what needs to be added, subtracted, what’s wrong, and what’s right. I never let myself get distracted for very long by the imperfections. I just keep going because I’m curious to see what will happen next. As I worked up the dog’s body, I could see (too late) that the body is WAAAAY too long. Still, I like the doggo. It’ll stay as is.I imagine horns for the human figure, and I see that the neck is too short on the dog (not to mention all the other disproportions). But what can I do, I ask myself, to partially correct this disproportion, because I know it will bug me.So, I decide to cut the lower wire of the dog’s neck and tilt dog’s head back. At Heather campground, on the far (west) end of Lake Cowichan, the human figure gets wound wire hands and feet, and the antlers become more like feelers. You can barely see the faint teal wires joining the hands to the feet. Later, I’ll add some wound wire on the figure’s lap, with pieces joining one hand and one “horn”.The dog gets a teal-coloured “aura”, to match the teal wiring around the human figure.Here’s a better view of the dog’s right ear, which is slightly askew. Yes, proportions are all wrong, so I tell myself that this is a mixed breed dog, a rescue. Rescued from the depths of my imagination.
I read somewhere that there’s a lantern making event in the Comox Valley, so I decide that my next figure will be “lantern-like”. I don’t have a plan for the figure other than to get away from making legs and try a different type of armature.
At the end of each arm is a twisted wire “hand”. I chose black because that was in my travel kit.The head gets black wire bits added to it; I’m thinking of an eventual spiky look for this piece. Black spikes, like coarse hairs or something vague like that. Vertical wire reinforcements so that the figure doesn’t collapse when I finally decide how to finish it. Elk on the main road through Youbou, early morning on the way back home. It’s smokey from all the fires to the south and the east of Vancouver Island. Back home on the workbench, and the human figure gets some paint. Not content with this colour, so I wonder what will happen next. The dog gets a coat of silver paint. “Friends” Both pieces arrive at a natural resting place. I can put them aside for now, watch them to see how they change in front of my eyes, listen to hear what they ask of me.This is a favourite photo, as it shows the cracks, the silver that has been put in the cracks, and the mess of wire on the figure’s lap. Really, my favourite place for these pieces, sitting on the wooden crates as silhouettes against the sky. This is where and when the wire lines do their best magic. I also prefer to have the dog facing away from the human figure so that they both face outward together. I need to adjust the figure at far right as they were displaced by the wooden crate. So. That feels better. The figure hanging in the upper right is a Barbie doll covered in plaster bandage with shards of broken mirror glued to her hands and her back (kind of like wings). She’s a remnant of 2015, I think, when I started with assemblage in the depths of the barn. Ugh. I started to cover this figure with tissue paper, but didn’t like it, so pulled it all off again. I found the figure “Time” hanging onto “Sensate”, and off in a corner out of the way. “Time” needed to be moved into the centre of things, so it was added over two other hanging figures.“Sensate” has been relegated to a corner of the studio. “Time” is just hanging around, now.
Inspirational artist of the week:
Sophie Kahn. My friend Elaine Smith (elainesspace.com) sent me a link to Sophie Kahn’s work. I am especially enamoured of the “externalized” armatures. Well, that’s what they look like to me.
Spätblühendes Künstlertagebuch 