I love how when doodling, your conscious brain is turned off and you can be surprised by what you come up with. During a boring unrelated meeting I sketched a bunch of little things that looked like they came from one of my college invertebrate zoology texts. Those sketches were at the back of my mind when I started this giant coil form. I love the way it came out. It is half sea creature, half underwater mine or some other man-made thing.
Here is the progression from drawing to finish. Click on images for enlargement.
Survival Strategies
Ceramic “Beads”
Larger Sculptural Pieces
Lately the size of the forms has been increasing. I am onto this hive/pod sort of thing:
It is always a challenge not to think too hard before I get going on a project. Thinking too much causes me to try to adhere to a theme, or reason, or to make only variations of what I have already done. For easier marketing of an artist’s brand this would be great, or IS great, but for creativity it isn’t great. I prefer to try to work enough that a cohesive body of work comes from quantity but not at the expense of the creativity. Maybe this is why my overall body of work as an artist can seem a little schizophrenic unless you see a lot of it at once, but I dont’t know how else to capitalize on subconscious creative capital.
On another note, I would like to thank my high school art teacher, Mr George Juliano, for his tecnical support. Check out his work at his Etsy shop here
http://www.etsy.com/people/julianopottery
Sculpture Progress
The jewelry-inspired sculptures have continued to morph. A good art conversation with Bob Chase helped inspire me to enlarge the scale of the pieces and to think a little more broadly about them. I have been trying to think enough to expand without thinking enough to let the thinking overpower the inspiration and creativity, which can happen. Looking back at where I’ve been seems to work better for me than planning meanings ahead of time which allows an air of contrivance to sneak in and kill my art buzz.
This one is exciting to me – it looks like something under a microscope:

Jewelry-Inspired Sculpture

Making jewelry feels very sculptural. I don’t enjoy making a piece twice but I do love designing. Though I plan to wear the finished pieces, I often don’t get around to it, and they end up being given away or piling up in my closet where no one gets to see them. And who needs 30 pounds of jewelry, anyway?