Images of a Mobile

Each block is carved and then dipped in beeswax.  Each block is then hung individually from its own clear string so that each carving may sway in a different way depending on air currents from passerby.

A Mobile

An Artist Statement for a Mobile:

From the beginning we learn to self soothe.  We look up at the ceiling from our cribs and watch our mobile make shadows dance. Through the creation of an aromatic and tactile mobile my hope is to re-create the feeling we once had as kids when we first learned that we could survive being alone.

Suspended Figures: Artist Statement

From the beginning we learn to self soothe. 

As infants we cry ourselves to sleep, as toddlers we pick ourselves up when we fall.  Often through the touch and smell of a blanket we are taught to remain calm when alone.  We are coached until we have thicker skin in hopes that when we are alone it won’t feel as if the sky is about to fall.  Through the creation of an aromatic and tactile figure my hope is to re-create the feeling we once had as kids when we first learned that we could suspend the falling sky by squeezing our blanket tight.

Dipping Carvings

I originally wanted to test a wood stain on my carvings so that the carved grooves looked deeper when covered with the beeswax.  I have recently learned that staining the carvings with wood stain gives the carving a poor texture for the beeswax to adhere to.  The result is a sloppy looking mush block.  Stain also replaces the smell of the wood and beeswax with the chemical smell of wood stain.



However, if the blocks are simply dipped the result is that the carving appear darker, resulting in the viewer being able to see the tree rings of the wood better.  The smell in combination with the amber color is exciting to me!

Reviewing Others

Critiquing other artists and being critiqued myself has always been enjoyable for me.  I like learning how I can improve and assisting others and their growth.  I am going to be writing reviews about my fellow artists, most of who are also in my capstone.  Those in portfolio will anonymously review those in thesis.  I am nervous and excited for this!  Being critiqued is like putting your heart on stage, watching it perform, and seeing how it is received.  It is tough and comes often with a lot of anguish. So why do it?  It helps us become more informed artists.  It is all too easy to get too close to a piece of art and not see what others, with fresh eyes, eyes of the public, will see.

There are other difficulties in getting and receiving critique.  Ego and feelings aside I find it difficult to review works made by a maker I know intensely well.  I can worry about being perceived as harsh or un-knowledgeable, especially when it comes to painting.  Despite this I am excited though to see my fellow artists work and give them feedback.

Figure

I have realized a lot of what is driving my work is driven by figures.  A mother figure, connections between people, familial dynamics.  I have decided to put aside the beeswax cup idea for now.  I am going to make shadows with my carvings that are suggestive of humans but not completely representative of such.   The carving will be dipped in beeswax, a skin of sorts, and then hung with eye hooks and clear fishing line.  The sizes and shapes of the completed figures will vary, as the size and shapes of humans vary.  However, the result will be a figurative abstracted floating sculpture.  I will make as many of these figures as I can.  The negative space between these figures I hope will cast wonderful shadows on the back white wall.

Carvings

(Carving prior to the addition of beeswax.)




I wanted to combine my carvings and my work with beeswax together.  At first I tried painting the wax on the carvings.

Unfortunately a lot of the depth I had achieved when carving the piece was filled in by the beeswax.  I then tried to dip my carvings.

The result was much more intriguing.  This is a good solution to having the carvings not give anyone splinters.  They are smooth, and waxy, with a bit of tooth.  The result is fascinating.  As some of the depth of the marks are still lost I will try and test how putting a light wood stain on the carving prior to dipping them in beeswax to see if the depth can be heightened even further.

My Art Philosophy

[Questions provided by Ron Mills]

1. INSPIRATION/MOTIVATION: Is making art urgent for you?  Do you wake up thinking about it? What motivates you to spend time in the studio?

Contemplating art does not stem from a particular time of day, but rather a state of being.  For example, if I have an emotion that is bursting out of me, I create.  This is why making art is such an urgent necessity.  I create as a therapeutic practice, a meditative mood stabilizer.  I also spend time in the studio when I am inspired.  I am inspired primarily by moral and emotional dilemmas.  Regardless of the originating cause for my being in the studio, when I feel I get an urge to make art my head spins with ideas.  The ideas flash by in bursts that I cannot stop until I create.

2. CELEBRITY: Is it important to you, or do you fantasize about being a famous artist…or a successful gallery artist being seen by many and selling lots of work…being an art celebrity, being in the history books?  Showing in “important” galleries and being in museum collections? Being written about by critics?   If so, what are you presently doing toward that goal?  If not, what role to you vie for as you develop?

I do not have aspirations of becoming a celebrity artist.   As I am human and frequently change my mind I'd worry that with celebrity status I would not be able to contradict myself.  I'd only want to be in well-respected galleries being critiqued by famous art critics if I was very sure in both my emotional and mental state of being.  I hope to develop a role as an artistic mentor.  I love to create and inspire or provoke thought through my creations but I am sensitive at this stage in my life, and currently could not handle the scrutiny.

3. AUDIENCE: Do you want to communicate anything specific with others through your work? Do you want your art to be relevant, even important to others or is it primarily self-therapy?  What are you doing in your current work toward that or another position regarding you role vis-a-vis others?

I want to communicate that we are alone as human beings.  People will leave us by choice, by emotional closeness, by geographical proximity, by death.  It is much more soothing to accept being alone.  The continuous disappointment of not being part of a crowd, or feeling alone in a crowd is unsettling.  I'd rather be able to self soothe rather than rely on others.  Though my work is an act of self-therapy I still believe it to be relevant to others. I believe humans can save themselves a lot of distress by accepting that we are alone.

4. IDENTITY: Do you see yourself as a genius, gadfly, agent provocateur, a hero, healer or an antagonist, perhaps a philosopher, an art priest, a sage?  Do you feature your {gender, race, culture, identity, handicaps, traumas} in your art?  Do you introduce yourself as an artist?  Explain.  If none of the above, how do you define your self-image.

I see myself as an art philosopher.  I feature my identity, as well as my handicaps and traumas in my work.  I tend to introduce myself as an artist to my work as I find it difficult, if not impossible, to separate my bias and perspective from the work at hand.

5. TONE: Is {sincerity and/or irony, humor, beauty, craft, acuity of perception, rawness, poetic grace, spirituality, high concept, primal emotion} important to you as an artist?  What are you currently doing in your work to demonstrate and promote one or more of these of other unnamed traits?

My work has a tone of poetic grace.  My work is based in raw emotions, such as fear.  Due to that and the fact that I utilize natural materials I would need to achieve a certain poetic quality in order to do the materials justice.

6. ASPIRATIONS: Do you hope to make the world a better place through your art, to address and/or critique social/political/gender/racial/cultural issues?  Provide social commentary?  Critique the art world and its institutions?  What are you currently doing in your work to further a cause or raise awareness about any of that?

I hope to provide a social observation, which in turn could bring about a sense of inner comfort and solace. I am working with the human form to raise awareness to the error in thinking: that we need to be with others to be happy, fulfilled etc.

7. MOTIVATION: What motivates you to spend time in the studio? Do you derive self-satisfaction from the process of working or are you more interested in the product?

I need art as a healthy outlet to process feelings I am not yet ready to understand, or examine.  I am interested mostly in the process.  The product of my installations is incredibly satisfying, but the process is where I learn the most.  To me, learning is more satisfying than stepping back and looking at something I already created.