A Happier Woman- A Potter In Winter

"When I do a December show, the mammal in me is furious.
She just wants to rest and hibernate. This year, I got the show up and just let myself do whatever she wanted. It's made me very happy."

Thus spoke my friend, artist Jan Edwards, on self care during the last two week of snow. Two of her ceramic tiles above, Bird in Hand, and Leaf show her love of drawing and design.

......Jan also gave me the classic summation of living as an artist: "Whenever artists live too long by themselves, they turn feral.... And it's very hard to get them back."

How Abstract Can It Get?

After carving the figure for "Still Thoughts", I'm starting work on the large papercut that will eventually be a screen behind him.What's wild is the thought process: Translating intersecting ripples and drops of water, first into a papercut, then into metal. I'm creating a static pattern that evokes the motion of water ripples to symbolize passing thoughts. How abstract can it get?

Only 20% of this design is working. It's too busy, but I need to complete it in order to evaluate it. Then Begin Again. Like any creative process, it needs to go through several iterations. Dorothy Parker on writing: "I hate writing. I love having written." I feel the same way, I love the finished result, just wish it weren't so tedious. There's no way to hurry this process along. Nothing else looks like a good papercut, but man it's a lot of work.

Snow Adds to Sculpture's Bouquet

It's been hard getting to the studio with all the snow. With most of the garden greenery hidden by white, the relief "Bouquet for the City, stands out all the more with a light dusting of snow.

Merry Christmas.

History Lesson

I've got a good library. I've been fortunate to have been given several Japanese Museum catalogs. Can't read Japanese, but I soak up as much as I can from the photos. These Japanese National Treasure (11th Century) carvings seem to be carved in cedar and are from a group of statues of bodhisattvas soaring in the sky over the Pure Land and hovering about Amitabha Tathagata with reverence and admiration. Formerly mounted on the horizontal timber of the Phoenix Hall so that they could surround the larger statue fo Amitabha, they are displayed closer to eye level in individual cases. Of the 52 statues, 28 have their musical instruments. Some of the rest are dancing, while others are attired as priests. Many retain parts of their original polychrome paint. They are in the Hosokan Byodoin Musuem

Looking at the books again wasn't so much searching for inspiration as seeking confirmation that making spiritually inspired art is valid. These lovely Bodhisattvas prove it is. Valid to the point of lasting a thousand years.

Recognition of the Wood

It's down to finishing work, further sanding where the wood has torn, filling some of the checks with beeswax, and deciding what to do with the 1/2 inch wide check all the way down his back. I couldn't wait any longer and put on a wash of oil paint and sealer.
It's a little harder to work the surface but so much easier to see the forms without the distraction of the light and dark rings and the knots.

He's shown with the initial cardboard cutout and the clay model I used to determine size and gesture. You can get a sense of how a sculpture evolves from the initial drawing on flat cardboard to fully dimensional. His robe changed a lot when I realized how perfectly the concentric rings could become the draping of his robe. Working in wood is a structured improvisation between what I envision and what I acknowledge in the material, a recognition of the living wood.

Frozen Pipes

Frozen Pipes in the studio, frozen thoughts in my head. The bus was a crowded example of smelly humanity. The best thing I did yesterday was walk home from the studio. It took 90 minutes in 24 degree weather. By the time I got there my body was as tired as my head. Physical acitivity is the best antidote to frozen thinking. Ready to work again in the studio.

Every sculptor begins as a god, and ends as a slave."

There's a great quote by Michangelo about a sculptor's role:"Every sculptor begins as a god, and ends as a slave." There's the initial great idea, then the excitement of beginning, and then the sheer work of actually making it. That is followed by all the detail work of finishing, smoothing, refining, checking for balance, fullness of form, etc. It's creative in that it's helping the art along but it's not exciting. You just keep showing up and working till everything is resolved.

It's rather like housekeeping.

Here is today's progress