Many Directions

Fishes in the sea

An abstract floral arrangement

Eggplant garden
Some patterns here keep repeating in other work
I am making. I must think about it more.

Until yesterday when I took a turn in another direction, I had been creating painting in my sketchbook - the 'best of' noted by me and, somewhat more significantly for the short run, commented on by the art historian who visited. (Yes, Helga, she left me a little terrified to get back to work. She saw these three and liked them very much and suggested I frame them. I hadn't thought of it. They are in my sketchbook where each page is painted on both sides with my somewhat careless and always spontaneous application of paint and marks.)

Lynn Krawczyk in her quilting book titled Intentional Printing describes pattern printing that seemed to me to have value for a painter. However, I had a conversation with a printmaker at a printing co-op yesterday and he was pushing at the edges of his 2-D art and, as I listened, I realized that it is exactly how I am feeling lately. Constrained by the 2 dimensional. The paper cones I created a few weeks ago and posted here are a good indicator of that need to stretch outside of flat plane.

So, I searched on Pinterest for fabric sculpture and got hit with a bolt of lightening that it is not quilting, it is not paper or fabric, per se, but it feels like where I want to be. I want to paint and/or print on canvas so I can USE the 2-D surface to form it into a 3-D abstract form. Likely I am inspired by the Dean Nimmer exercise that got me into the paper folding and molding. You led me to the lighting sculptures that I still cannot get out of my head - sculptural forms hanging from a wood or metal structure. You and the art historian visitor led me to taking a fresh look at my own work.




I like your idea of writing about what we are reading and being inspired by. I referred to the quilting book by Krawczyk. It was a recommended book from Amazon probably because I have looked at quilting books you referred me to and at other quilting books that showed designs that inspired me to make with paper and paint.




I also found a book in a stack of my art books that I hadn't remembered I have. Klee, a 1964 introduction to the artist's life and history of his art development. I tend to look at the pictures in my art books and not read so much about the artist (thus, my dramatic lack of knowledge compared to yours, Helga). The author, Norbert Lynton, quotes Klee as saying this about art, "The work of art is above all a process of creation; it is never experienced as a mere product." Lynton notes that Klee "repeatedly stressed the importance of the creative 'process'" believing that it is "ultimately the process which is communicated." And, says Lynton, Klee believed in simplicity. Helga, your photo of the old table you rescued to your studio and photographed in its spare environment and three old bottles is quite stunning and does exactly as Klee - and many other artists - suggests about simplicity. I like that photo better than the other one with the crushed soda cans.  The second one gives us a glimpse of the modern and, in some ways its gaudy colors. You have other photos of the same subject that I found in your collection URL; some of them are quite wonderful in the way you elevate the trash to something abstract and lovely in its color or shape against grassy or watery backdrops. I think that modern trash seems to me to be more at home somehow in those settings. The old table, spare room and unmarked vessels are probably more classic and, to me, more appealing.

Since your post, I've looked at all of the links and I know I have forgotten to remark about some of them in this post. Yet, I want to get this one posted so I can go back and re-read or re-review your links. This is the part I like a lot about having our discussions captured in one place and saved in an ongoing blog. Thanks for getting us started.