Thank you Teresa and Nick!

Thank you Teresa and Nick!

"They Know the Language of the Waves on the Sea" looks perfect in it's new home!

Ice Lace

December 10, 2011:

Can you see the ice?  Through an odd combination of snow, freeze, melt & refreeze last night's snow turned into lacy ice.

This shape concept will surely show up on one of my basket sculptures some day soon!

First Snow

What a beautiful morning!  The first snow of the winter in my part of Michigan fell last night.  We got about 6" which is not insignificant.  Trees are bending deeply due to a thick coat of very heavy wet snow, especially the evergreens which provide wider surfaces where more snow can accumulate.  Wet snowflakes bind together more than dry snow, so even the one inch diameter leafless deciduous tree branches are supporting up to 2" of snow.









Many aspects of the First Snow scenes are inspiring:  the contrast of very white snow against dark tree trunks and branches, the texture of tree bark highlighted by white snow skimming the raised surfaces, the bulbous surface of snow blanketing the wetlands thus changing the shape of the plants it covers, the tracks in the yard from deer and rabbits, the sparkle of ice crystals in the snow as sunlight is refracted through them, the silver-blue color of the unfrozen lake as it reflects sunlight and the silver-gray unfrozen lake when clouds block the sun….  So many things to tantalize the senses!  Even the smell of pristine, fresh air coming south from the arctic.

I want to weave a white winter sculpture.  White upon white, with silver and thin black lines.  Maybe with sky ice blue.
Contact me if you are interested in this piece and we can discuss the possibilities.

From Vacation to Sculpture

It is strange that the best ideas come when I am not pushing for one; when I am not concentrating on anything and not even thinking of anything at all - simply allowing my mind to wander.  Magically a thought, image, feeling, concept or idea just shows up floating in the foggy landscape of my mind.  This is the creative spirit part of what I do. 

To simply go with that first idea is not enough.  The original concept must be developed and matured.  This is the training and experience part of what I do.  I am sure many, many other artists work this way.  It is a major difference between true art and so-called "art" that is just a gimmick.

To continue from the last post in this blog, I was at the beach 'thinking' of literally nothing; just feeling the life of the moment.  I was in such a non-thinking state that I did not realize my hands were sculpting the wet sand.  To the left is what came to be.



The sand shape is nice but not special, in fact it is predictable.  The top part has 5 somewhat equal lobes.  Predictable.  The bottom part tapers to a predictable finish.  The whole thing is nice, but boring. 






Four years after the shape flowed out of my mind, I came across this photo and saw potential.  Not as it was, but as it could be.  I scribbled many different designs based on this shape in the sand, eventually morphing the shape into the finished piece shown below.





             "They Know the Language of the Waves on the Sea" 
                                   measures 6 ft. x 4 ft. x 2 ft.







As the weaving progressed over the next 3 months or so, I felt transported back to that fabulous vacation on that fabulous beach.  I felt I was floating on the soft undulating waves as I wove the undulating shape of the basket.  I felt the aqua sea around Bonaire as I pulled each piece of rattan out of the water it was soaking in.  I could again see the hot sun reflecting off the clear water, turning the sea into a glowing liquid universe.  And I felt the tiny sparkling splashes of the peaceful waves. 

I also thought about ancient south pacific sailers that somehow were able to travel between islands so far apart they could not see land.  According to archeologists, they were able to navigate by 'reading' the boat hull vibrations (caused by the waves) against their bodies,  This was before radar, sextants and even compasses.  Back when humans were more connected to the earth than we are today.

In the end, the piece included the waves, color, sparkling light, undulations, breaking wave splash, even a journey between islands.

Back to This Blog's Mission

ArtPrize 2011 is over.  I did not win a quarter of a million dollars, but I did receive many kudos, some wonderful, wonderful comments and it was fun!  Now it's time to get back to this blog's original mission which is to show how sensory input gets changed into art - at least how it does so in my work.

Several years ago I won an award at the Coconut Grove Arts Festival.  The prize was for 1st place in my media category - fiber.  There was a cash prize and a round trip ticket to Curacao, in the Netherlands Antilles, near Venezuela.  Pretty cool, right?  It sure was!  A friend of mine also won for his media which was wood, but had no intention of using his airline ticket.  So I bought his ticket for my husband and the two of us flew out of Miami the following winter.  We chose to spend a week on the island of Bonaire which is one of the Antilles.  The other two are Curacao and Aruba.


It was a long flight, 4-5 hours.  From Curacao we flew to Bonaire and took a shuttle to the resort.  I had to pay for the flights between Bonaire and Curacao and the week at the resort, of course.  What a trip!






Bonaire is a true desert island.  Very little grows there naturally, because it is almost 100% sand.  I don't know if it was an exaggeration, but we were told that all the plants were imported.









There is no fresh water source.  All the fresh water comes through a de-salination plant.  We were careful to not waste any.

 One of the many 4 ft. iguanas.  We were told not to touch them, because their skin carries salmonella.

Since we had not rented a car we stayed at the resort almost the entire week.   That was certainly not a problem!  Every day we hung out on the beach, read books in the shadow of rustic beach cabanas, swam in the crystal clear warm shallow water or kayaked out 1/4 mile to a docking raft and walked the rest of the way to the reef.

The restaurant served good food, but there was little fresh produce because, we were told, it is very expensive to import.  After a few days another couple that did have a rental car invited us to dinner in town with them where I pigged out on a very expensive, huge salad!

On another day we took the resort shuttle into town for a few hours of sightseeing and shopping where I accidentally found a craft fair!  It seems everywhere I go, some kind of art or craft show magically appears!  We learned this one sets up only on days when a cruise ship docks.









The best day trip took place near the end of our stay, when we hopped on a large catamaran to go snorkeling in the bay.  Talk about gorgeous!  Unfortunately, I did not have an underwater bag for my camera, but I'll never forget the beautiful reef!

      

One day I was hanging out on the beach and absent-mindedly started moving the sand around.  I was in the perfect place: relaxed, full of new sensory input from several luscious days in a completely different place, not thinking about anything and completely happy.  An hour  later, I realized my hands were creating a shape so I just went with it.  After another hour, the shape was finished and I took a photograph.

At the time I had no plans for the design.  Little did I know how important this shape would become ......
                   
       (more about what happened will be in the next post)

Prepared, Fly Fishing, Server Crash

This happy lady is totally prepared to view ArtPrize.  She has her camera, sunglasses, water bottle and bag for artist cards all strapped to her clothing!  A real ArtPrize Fan!!
















Out in the Grand River, 3 fly-fishers cast throughout the afternoon during ArtPrize.  The shot was taken from a window at the GR Public Museum.









The ArtPrize server apparently crashed last night, Tuesday.  I heard stories of it coming back online, then quitting again, but it was still out at 6:30 this morning.  Throughout the day - Wednesday, the last day of Round 1 voting - the system was completely out of commission, for any voting, for info through the website and even registration of more voters!  It was a trying day, and frustrated the artists as well as the voting public.

We got word this evening that all would be back online at 8 pm Wednesday, but as of 10:00 pm it still was not up.  A message on the ArtPrize home page states that the Round 1 voting period has been extended through 4 pm Thursday, but first it has to go live.  Artists are worried about losing all those votes and the public is frustrated they cannot vote yet.  Some are not even registered.   ..... sigh

Sure hope they get it together soon!

A few viewers have written comments on my ArtPrize piece.  Click here to see them. (scroll almost to bottom of page)