Because of another snowy morning I ended up with the day off today and looked forward to starting some new pieces. I am eager to start the dogs playing poker piece but decided to first start with a piece that was commissioned a sculpture of a co-workers dog. Its a little terrier mix that was wiry hair and I thought making a specific breed would be good practice for the upcoming larger dog sculpture.
What I found today was what I thought to be failure. I didn't end up getting into the studio until 4 and probably should have just let myself rest. Instead I was chose to work and I was already tired and was easily frustrated trying to make things like dog hair. Nothing I did looked like his hair, I made three dog bodies and tried what felt like 1 million tools and nothing worked.(Anyone have any suggestions?!) Out of sheer frustration with the last body I rolled up the entire sculpture and started to pull on the clay. As I pulled on it I saw a different shape and let the clay go the way it wanted. What I ended up with is a cool miniature tree looking sculpture with gargoyle faces. Its not the best piece I ever made but it came from what I thought was a total failure. It will make an excellent tester for some upcoming surface finishes I want to try and a fun piece for me to keep. Next time I will come back to the dog sculpture with a better attitude and try to realize no matter what I make its art and even when I think its a horrible failure it may not be!
I also took my friend Vicki's advice (http://vmwstudios.blogspot.com/2010/02/feedback-and-motivation.html) and complimented someones work who I don't know but I admired. In this new Clay Times I also checked out the gallery section and found a piece called "Unfurled Twice" by Lenore Lampi, its a sculpture of two birch trees and its beautiful. I went to her website to look at more of her work and wasn't surprised to see shes a fairly accomplished artist. At first I thought not to email her as her accomplishments speak to her talent but I decided to anyways. Her work really moved me and it made my day to see it. I was happy to see she emailed me back today and laughed that she didnt even know her photo was in gallery section! I am not known for being one who likes to listen to much less take advice but I hope with age comes wisdom and I am hoping I am finally learning to listen to other people, be it someone I know like Vicki or strangers like those who contribute to Clay Times.
Sweet I have my own tag :] Good job on emailing that artist-- doing something we normally wouldn't often opens up new chances and experience!
ReplyDeleteFor the dog, perhaps you are thinking too concretely about the fur? What if you just roughed up the body (with say a simple wooden tool) a bit to evoke fur instead of trying to pick out individual hairs with a tool?
Also, remember Ian Gregory's class? It will look like a terrier if the movement and gesture look like a terrier... it doesn't all depend on the fur, and you may not need that as much as you think. Hope one of those helps! Keep going, I have realized that I often need 5 failures (esp lately while learning design) to figure out what works! In fact I am starting to look at "failures" as just steps in a path, can't improve without stepping there first!
lol yes you have a tag though you are one of 4 readers I have and I suppose you kind find posts that relate to you! How do you that cool click here and theres the link thing? Yes I am gald I emailed her shes very nice and super talented, check out her work. I think you would like it.
ReplyDeleteI know I am over thinking this dog. What I am going to do I think is roll out like 4 slabs and try different things on that rather than wasting the time making the dog body, thats what was making me so mad was spending all this time making these bodies then not using them. That is great advice about Ian Gregory's class, I am going to try and keep that in mind hwen I start again.
Sigh I think failure is a part of art the realy growth happens when we learn to accept it and not write off what we believe to be failures so quickly. I should have time to work on all of that this weekend with the 17 feet of snow predicted!
You do the link thing by typing the text (say "My website" or "www.monsterhollowstudios.com") and then up at the top of the text window there is a button that says Link or something, you click it and then you can insert the http address ("http://www.monsterhollowstudios.com").
ReplyDeleteGood luck this weekend! Stay warm and don't leave Shippo in the snow too long... :]
Oh I forgot to mention that after you type the text you want as a link, you have to select it with the mouse and then go make it a link.
ReplyDeletehmmm that sounds complicated but I am sure I can figure it out, the first dreaded flurry has hit the ground we will shall see what this pans out to be, we thought about leaving Shippo outside to use a marker to measure snow and change our minds;) Have fun this weekend and be safe in the crazy weather!
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