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The Scientific method

With the push from the quote in the last post I began.

A mock up of an idea. I remember making stuffed paper doves for christmas with my mom and siblings. I remember loving their fresh white bodies, and that's probably why I am so borderline obsessed with birds.

100% handstitched. I have to change the shape of his body and the length of his tail a bit, and the placement of the embroidered pattern and different embroidery tricks, but this is the idea and I would love to make a flock of them. Plus sitting and sewing can be done on the laziest of days so I love having a project like this to jump on after exhausting days. 

I've been sketching and thinking about this other project for awhile now, but it's still very much in the science fair stage.

 The Goal:  To use the thousands of baskets that end up at thrift stores or discarded as a medium. 

The Question: How can we make baskets malleable enough to alter their shape and reconstruct them into other forms?

 The experiment process. 1. Soak the baskets in hot water for a few hours and cut them apart. 

I've selected a handful of different woven materials and different sizes to see what works best. Based on the results from this first experiment I can hopefully begin collecting  basket types that lend themselves better to this process and begin playing with forms.  

New Discoveries: Baskets float in an interesting way and look really pretty suspended in water.

Cheers to the creative process!

The war of Art

The Magic 0f Making a Start pg 122

Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, the providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would not have otherwise occurred. A whole stream of events issue from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man would have dreamed would come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets: "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it. Begin it now."

W.H. Murray, The Scottish Milayan Expedition

January

I'm fighting a cold this week. I took two days off of work to just stay in bed and watch movies. The truth is I go from working insanely hard to hardly working and my body is finally letting go of the anxiety, stress, responsibility, pressure, expectations, organizing load via headaches, sweats, runny nose, tired eyes. Yoga, fresh squeezed orange juice, sketchbook noodling, reading,  napping with kittens and movies.

We have started house hunting. The big move. Portland Oregon, City of Roses. We are set to move in May, well really late April.  2 br, 3 br, frplace,hrdwd flrs, twnhouse, 2b1ba, pet friendly. you get it.

It feels like a giant gift too. Quitting my job and moving to a new city of my choosing to make art full time. After graduating college I was able to pull it off for awhile, working only as needed, but making art as much as possible. It went really well. I had lots of time to make work and whenever someone offered me a last minute show I just scooped up whatever was around. Most importantly the momentum was steady and in the times when I did have to push harder than usual for new works it felt like I was on the crest of a giant wave, seeing what my work would look like through a time machine into the future, or what it would look like if I could let go and just let the work come out of me.

I'm very excited to get back to that place, but right now it feels very far away. I took jobs and relationships and made all kinds of  getting-by-plans that distracted and pulled me away. It's like right now I'm in the part of the hunt where you see smudges of tracks and fuzz on branches; you're not quite sure what it is you are hunting yet but you are very very hungry.

This move has made me very sentimental about California. Just in time I happen to be finding things that are only available locally.  I finally found a cassette case of Yogi Shalom's 8 tape sessions, Yogi Shalom is a fresno local and introduced me to the inverted posture in college. I would never have been able to find this set anywhere else and it's as valuable as any good warriors armor. Also, I came across an old ceramic bowl my uncle made, at a thrift store. I recognized it as soon as I saw it, even though it was not his signature glaze, and sure enough. S.Vaughn scrawled on the bottom. I have a small collection of his pieces, but one more won't hurt my homesickness when it comes.

yoga corner

Winter

This is the final version of a commissioned piece I had the pleasure of working on before Christmas.  For Jennifer Emerling from Auroralady, it felt like a valentine more than a christmas present.

Not sure why, but I've been collecting images of old houses lately, photocopies, torn pages from books, books with old black and white images of cabins and early american barns. Something about the structures and the space they occupy and maybe the fairytale quality. I want to draw them all.

Two years ago Zach and I were passing through Portland and stopped into the craft museum. Ai Weiwei just happened to be exhibiting a small mound of his sunflower seeds. I had just started to catch images of them in various places and Ai Weiwei wasn't yet on everyone's minds. Of all the works the seeds fascinated me the most; hand-painted, porcelain, exquisite.

2012. I'm thinking about processes, 1,000 hours, and how the simple act of making is invigorating and yet sometimes one of the hardest things to get myself to do. I know I want to make art everyday for the next five years straight and just see what it does, how will it change my life? What will it bring? Where will it take me?