Faux is Fun … unless it’s You
May 19, 2013
Ponderings
Just a little faux-ish quote to end our faux week. I can’t say I try to be normal too often. It’s reaaaally hard to maintain!
Outside Inspiration: Where we can take Faux Enamel
May 17, 2013
Inspirational Art
So, as mentioned in yesterday’s post, I want to introduce you to an enamel artist who did work that could inspire you to try something a little different with your own work.
Marilyn Druin (1941-2001) was an enamel artist of unusual vision, enthusiasm and drive. She constantly pushed her medium, ultimately creating the beautiful but time-consuming and strenuous processes that put her on a level far beyond the majority of her colleagues. The reason I wanted to share her work is partly to inspire those of you who work with faux enamel to look at possible variations. The other reason is to hopefully inspire you to push your work, challenge yourself and realize the huge rewards that Marilyn’s kind of commitment to her craft can bring you … rewards in finding an unexpected beauty you can truly, uniquely create.
Take a look at these two pins below. Marilyn did a lot more than just pins … cups, necklaces, sculpture … but these have some great, easy to see examples of her unusual enamel texture. I have no idea how she did some of this in enamel but I do have some very exciting ideas about how to do it in polymer.
I see combining textured opaque and layered translucent clays with liquid polymer glazes to get effects like some of these. I have not seen a lot of people do things that looks quite like this in polymer but its seems like a rather obvious direction for faux enamel … layering polymer in shimmering, translucent colors with texture underneath or just aiming to emulate enamel with clay instead of liquid.
I think sometimes our influence from all that we see of other people’s polymer art may actually limit our ability to think beyond what is already being done … perhaps that is the reason for the dominance of faux enamel created in single swathes of colored liquid polymer.
When I first started working with polymer, I didn’t see hardly any work. I was self-taught from sites like Glass Attic and a couple books so my exposure was limited. I did some pretty different things back then and would often be asked at shows where my ideas came from. “The ether,” I would say. But now I find my designs are often reflective of the kind of work I’ve been looking at … and I look at a ton these days. I’ve been feeling overly influenced by the immersion necessary to do this blog and the magazine. It can’t be helped. But I do find I am not happy with my designs because of it. So recently, I have been consciously forcing myself to break past or even erase/remove portions of my designs that I know are from other polymer artists’ work. I am much happier with the results when I do so. I find my mind starts wandering back into that ignorant, child-like portion of my imagination that lets me create work that feels much more my own. It can be hard to stay there though.
My point is, it can be so very advantageous to push your work beyond what you see other people doing. Combine techniques and approaches. And look at other forms of art. Because we can’t, usually, directly copy art made from other materials, we have to translate and filter it through ourselves. That should influence your work to go in directions that others aren’t going in and bring out your own voice. And that is a wonderful, beautiful thing.
In the meantime, treat yourself to a few minutes (or more!) looking through Marilyn’s gallery of work. Even if you don’t do faux enamel, her textures and colors are just stunning–they could inspire any kind of artist, dont’ you think?
A Recognizable Voice
May 2, 2013
Inspirational Art
Today I would like to ask for your input. I want to talk about creating an unique artistic voice and I think the best way to define it is to have you, the readers, break it down together. Are you up for it?
The primary question is, what does it mean to have an artistic voice? I think the answer is in understanding what sets the well defined and easily recognized style of one artist apart from all others? Sometimes it’s the choice of form or imagery, maybe even a standard set of colors. But what if that artist does a wide range of things. Is their particular voice going to stand out if they jump from one thing to another. I think, if they are following their true selves, that voice inside that directs the inquiry and steers the fascination that motivates the artist to create can be apparent in a wide variety of work from the same person.
Take a look at the piece below. Even if you have never seen this type of work from this artist, you may be able to guess who this is. I did pick a fairly easy person to recognize.
Did you guess? You can click on the image to take you to the artist’s website if you like. But we’re going to chat a bit more about this before answering. So … this piece is not one of the more popular, widely seen pieces from this artist and is not one of her more well-known styles (perhaps … it’s hard to say that any of the phases or styles of this artist aren’t fairly well-known) but how quickly did you come to recognize the artist? I’m guessing for most of you it took almost no time. And why is that? Why, when this artist is known primarily for her translucent techniques, her imagery, her purses, do we still recognize a vegetable sculpture by her so readily?
Some of the reasons are pretty simple but they do matter … like the fact that she’s widely shown. But what else? What is is about her work, no matter what form, technique or imagery she uses, that allows us to recognize her? Are there other artists that come to mind that you know you’ll recognize right away? Why?
I would love to have as many of you chime in as possible. If you are getting this via the email delivery, you can click on the title of the post in the email to go to the blog and comment at the bottom of the post. If you need, you can reply with an email and I can post it for you. But do get in on the conversation if you have anything to add. I can have my say about why I think Kathleen Dustin here is so readily recognizable but its just my view. We are a large community with many, many different views. Let’s hear what you think.
Covering the Original Artistic Voice
April 30, 2013
Inspirational Art
Since there seems to be a lot of conversation about originality lately, I thought we’d focus on that idea for a bit this week (which is a great excuse to just bring the most stunning work I can find to post for you!) Finding your own original voice versus copying or following trends has been a point of discussion since Synergy 3 with the widely shared talk, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly in the Age of the Internet given by Harriete Berman, to comments and links here, to other articles and posts making the rounds like this one regarding copying posted by Ronna Sarvas Weltman on her Facebook page over the weekend. Originality is a very hard thing to teach. But awareness of what it is may be the first step in finding your own original artistic voice.
Covering objects with cane slices is in no way an original idea. But if someone did it for the first time today and for weeks after other people started doing it, would they be copying this innovative artist? Not necessarily. It is not the process or the skill that makes a piece unoriginal but the ability for a person to make what they see or learn their own personal expression (see Sunday’s post for the more in depth philosophical discussion on this). There are techniques, concepts and approaches to making art with your material of choice. Learned well, they become a skill. This will not make one an artist. It is what you do with it, how you make it your own, let it express what you see and care about. So … how can covering with cane slices be wholly original?
This frog is a Jon Anderson piece (see the Spring 2012 issue of The Polymer Arts for a gallery of his work and bio based on the only interview he has ever given.) It is completely covered with cane slices. However, every slice has been placed with purpose and as a way to express what Jon wants to portray about this creature and the colors and patterns he has been inspired by throughout his life.
Jon chooses the patterns on his slices, the colors and the way he lays them out to emphasize the form of the frog as well to embody his sense of what is beautiful. He also embeds symbols such as the moth on the frog’s head that give you reason to pause and wonder what else this is about besides the frog. There are a few other artists that use the same patterned approach to covering forms with cane slices but I have never seen any of their pieces that could be mistaken for Jon Anderson’s. His approach is a reflection of himself, the individual, the original person that his life and experience has formed.
Who would you consider the most original artist that works in the forms, techniques and/or approaches that you do? (And it’s okay if you think it’s you. It may very well be!)
Speaking
April 28, 2013
Ponderings
Earlier this week I received an email from one of our readers, Dara Meunier who came across an article and quote by Luann Udell that she thought we all might enjoy …
“Take what speaks TO you; tranform it into what speaks OF you.”
I had to wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment. Whether we are cognizant of it or not, our art is a translation of the things we see and experience in this world, things we found that spoke to us in some way. Udell’s article is about this translation in the context of looking at other people’s art work. We see other artists doing something we really like and find ourselves inclined to want to either create the same work or do something quite similar. Of course, that pushes us towards the deep, dark realm of copying but not only that, it influences our own personal voice, the source of originality we could be instilling in our work.
I think looking at other polymer artists is important to expand our view of what is possible and as a means to inspire and motivate us. On the other hand, I do agree that we may let what we see influence us too greatly or more precisely, too directly. The art we find we would like to try our hand at should not be translated through just our skill set–that’s not really translating but more copying within the limitations of what we are presently capable of–rather we should filter inspiring work through who we are, our spirit and our particular view of the world. Let what you do “speak OF you”. Otherwise it is not art, as art by definition is personal expression; recreating someone else’s object of expression is just fabrication, nothing more, and certainly nothing that is uniquely you. And showing the unique you is where the true beauty of a piece will come from.
Jump over to Luann Udell’s very honest and down to earth article about these ideas.
Thanks, Dara, for sharing this with us.
Gather Your Flowers
March 26, 2013
Inspirational Art, Technique tutorials
My mother is a horticulturist so although I have never been heavily drawn to flowery things, I learned through her to fully appreciate the beauty of a well-formed bloom. Polymer artists, as a whole, do like their flowers likely because so many of our ladies are drawn to their inherent beauty, but also because the complexity of a flower can easily be achieved through the repetition of relatively simple petals. But the petals of a real flower are, in reality, quiet complex, each petal with its own curls and waves and way of enfolding the flower’s center. To properly reproduce this complexity, each petal needs to be given a little individuality. That is what I enjoyed so much about finding these little beauties by Taisa Chernyak.
It might take a bit longer to give each petal its own form but don’t you think the individuality of each gives the whole a much more convincing and natural beauty? Take a look at her tutorial on how she produces these life-like blooms.
The idea of each individual providing the character that creates the true beauty in the bigger picture is true on so many levels. Even as individual artists, bringing our own personality and uniqueness to the artwork we produce creates a more splendid picture of polymer art overall. Repeating what has already been done will add very little to the art world, but your own unique art adds much, much more.
Finding Our Authentic Voice
March 23, 2013
Inspirational Art, Tips and Tricks
One of the big discussions at Synergy (Are you tired of hearing about that show yet!? Sorry … it was just such a treasure box full of ideas and I want you all to benefit from it too) was about finding our voice as artists. I was not the only one that came away with this concept eating away at me. Linda Garbe jumped right on it with a new video discussing texture and materials in the context of finding personal creative expression. Her Box of Color, as seen below, showed up in the video and I just had to get a closer view. Linda kindly sent photos so we could all get a good look at the details. Talk about an authentic voice!
Linda Garbe’s Box of Color, top view
… and a view of the bamboo and fungi sides.
Linda says she created the box as a result of doing the exercises in Lindly Haunani and Maggie Maggio’s book Polymer Clay Color Inspirations.
“While it took great discipline to do each and every exercise in order, it was well worth it. I learned a lot about color. The last exercise is to cover a box using what you have learned about color. I visited the Chicago Botanical Gardens during the time I was doing the color exercises. They have a Heritage Garden which show how early gardens featured one type of plant in each area. They did not mix plants together in the same flower bed as we do today. This garden became the inspiration for design of the box. Each side features one type of plant: bamboo, fungi, Queen Ann’s Lace, and ferns. The top is a fantasy garden created in my mind.”
This box and more of Linda’s explanation about its creation come in at about 3:10 on Linda’s video. The video starts out with thoughts on cultivating our own unique approach to creativity but the majority of it actually focuses on texturing and using everyday objects as tools. A lot of good ideas here so if you have a few minutes, sit back and soak up a little inspiration this weekend.
Just a little faux-ish quote to end our faux week. I can’t say I try to be normal too often. It’s reaaaally hard to maintain!
Read More
So, as mentioned in yesterday’s post, I want to introduce you to an enamel artist who did work that could inspire you to try something a little different with your own work.
Marilyn Druin (1941-2001) was an enamel artist of unusual vision, enthusiasm and drive. She constantly pushed her medium, ultimately creating the beautiful but time-consuming and strenuous processes that put her on a level far beyond the majority of her colleagues. The reason I wanted to share her work is partly to inspire those of you who work with faux enamel to look at possible variations. The other reason is to hopefully inspire you to push your work, challenge yourself and realize the huge rewards that Marilyn’s kind of commitment to her craft can bring you … rewards in finding an unexpected beauty you can truly, uniquely create.
Take a look at these two pins below. Marilyn did a lot more than just pins … cups, necklaces, sculpture … but these have some great, easy to see examples of her unusual enamel texture. I have no idea how she did some of this in enamel but I do have some very exciting ideas about how to do it in polymer.
I see combining textured opaque and layered translucent clays with liquid polymer glazes to get effects like some of these. I have not seen a lot of people do things that looks quite like this in polymer but its seems like a rather obvious direction for faux enamel … layering polymer in shimmering, translucent colors with texture underneath or just aiming to emulate enamel with clay instead of liquid.
I think sometimes our influence from all that we see of other people’s polymer art may actually limit our ability to think beyond what is already being done … perhaps that is the reason for the dominance of faux enamel created in single swathes of colored liquid polymer.
When I first started working with polymer, I didn’t see hardly any work. I was self-taught from sites like Glass Attic and a couple books so my exposure was limited. I did some pretty different things back then and would often be asked at shows where my ideas came from. “The ether,” I would say. But now I find my designs are often reflective of the kind of work I’ve been looking at … and I look at a ton these days. I’ve been feeling overly influenced by the immersion necessary to do this blog and the magazine. It can’t be helped. But I do find I am not happy with my designs because of it. So recently, I have been consciously forcing myself to break past or even erase/remove portions of my designs that I know are from other polymer artists’ work. I am much happier with the results when I do so. I find my mind starts wandering back into that ignorant, child-like portion of my imagination that lets me create work that feels much more my own. It can be hard to stay there though.
My point is, it can be so very advantageous to push your work beyond what you see other people doing. Combine techniques and approaches. And look at other forms of art. Because we can’t, usually, directly copy art made from other materials, we have to translate and filter it through ourselves. That should influence your work to go in directions that others aren’t going in and bring out your own voice. And that is a wonderful, beautiful thing.
In the meantime, treat yourself to a few minutes (or more!) looking through Marilyn’s gallery of work. Even if you don’t do faux enamel, her textures and colors are just stunning–they could inspire any kind of artist, dont’ you think?
Read MoreToday I would like to ask for your input. I want to talk about creating an unique artistic voice and I think the best way to define it is to have you, the readers, break it down together. Are you up for it?
The primary question is, what does it mean to have an artistic voice? I think the answer is in understanding what sets the well defined and easily recognized style of one artist apart from all others? Sometimes it’s the choice of form or imagery, maybe even a standard set of colors. But what if that artist does a wide range of things. Is their particular voice going to stand out if they jump from one thing to another. I think, if they are following their true selves, that voice inside that directs the inquiry and steers the fascination that motivates the artist to create can be apparent in a wide variety of work from the same person.
Take a look at the piece below. Even if you have never seen this type of work from this artist, you may be able to guess who this is. I did pick a fairly easy person to recognize.
Did you guess? You can click on the image to take you to the artist’s website if you like. But we’re going to chat a bit more about this before answering. So … this piece is not one of the more popular, widely seen pieces from this artist and is not one of her more well-known styles (perhaps … it’s hard to say that any of the phases or styles of this artist aren’t fairly well-known) but how quickly did you come to recognize the artist? I’m guessing for most of you it took almost no time. And why is that? Why, when this artist is known primarily for her translucent techniques, her imagery, her purses, do we still recognize a vegetable sculpture by her so readily?
Some of the reasons are pretty simple but they do matter … like the fact that she’s widely shown. But what else? What is is about her work, no matter what form, technique or imagery she uses, that allows us to recognize her? Are there other artists that come to mind that you know you’ll recognize right away? Why?
I would love to have as many of you chime in as possible. If you are getting this via the email delivery, you can click on the title of the post in the email to go to the blog and comment at the bottom of the post. If you need, you can reply with an email and I can post it for you. But do get in on the conversation if you have anything to add. I can have my say about why I think Kathleen Dustin here is so readily recognizable but its just my view. We are a large community with many, many different views. Let’s hear what you think.
Read MoreSince there seems to be a lot of conversation about originality lately, I thought we’d focus on that idea for a bit this week (which is a great excuse to just bring the most stunning work I can find to post for you!) Finding your own original voice versus copying or following trends has been a point of discussion since Synergy 3 with the widely shared talk, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly in the Age of the Internet given by Harriete Berman, to comments and links here, to other articles and posts making the rounds like this one regarding copying posted by Ronna Sarvas Weltman on her Facebook page over the weekend. Originality is a very hard thing to teach. But awareness of what it is may be the first step in finding your own original artistic voice.
Covering objects with cane slices is in no way an original idea. But if someone did it for the first time today and for weeks after other people started doing it, would they be copying this innovative artist? Not necessarily. It is not the process or the skill that makes a piece unoriginal but the ability for a person to make what they see or learn their own personal expression (see Sunday’s post for the more in depth philosophical discussion on this). There are techniques, concepts and approaches to making art with your material of choice. Learned well, they become a skill. This will not make one an artist. It is what you do with it, how you make it your own, let it express what you see and care about. So … how can covering with cane slices be wholly original?
This frog is a Jon Anderson piece (see the Spring 2012 issue of The Polymer Arts for a gallery of his work and bio based on the only interview he has ever given.) It is completely covered with cane slices. However, every slice has been placed with purpose and as a way to express what Jon wants to portray about this creature and the colors and patterns he has been inspired by throughout his life.
Jon chooses the patterns on his slices, the colors and the way he lays them out to emphasize the form of the frog as well to embody his sense of what is beautiful. He also embeds symbols such as the moth on the frog’s head that give you reason to pause and wonder what else this is about besides the frog. There are a few other artists that use the same patterned approach to covering forms with cane slices but I have never seen any of their pieces that could be mistaken for Jon Anderson’s. His approach is a reflection of himself, the individual, the original person that his life and experience has formed.
Who would you consider the most original artist that works in the forms, techniques and/or approaches that you do? (And it’s okay if you think it’s you. It may very well be!)
Read MoreEarlier this week I received an email from one of our readers, Dara Meunier who came across an article and quote by Luann Udell that she thought we all might enjoy …
“Take what speaks TO you; tranform it into what speaks OF you.”
I had to wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment. Whether we are cognizant of it or not, our art is a translation of the things we see and experience in this world, things we found that spoke to us in some way. Udell’s article is about this translation in the context of looking at other people’s art work. We see other artists doing something we really like and find ourselves inclined to want to either create the same work or do something quite similar. Of course, that pushes us towards the deep, dark realm of copying but not only that, it influences our own personal voice, the source of originality we could be instilling in our work.
I think looking at other polymer artists is important to expand our view of what is possible and as a means to inspire and motivate us. On the other hand, I do agree that we may let what we see influence us too greatly or more precisely, too directly. The art we find we would like to try our hand at should not be translated through just our skill set–that’s not really translating but more copying within the limitations of what we are presently capable of–rather we should filter inspiring work through who we are, our spirit and our particular view of the world. Let what you do “speak OF you”. Otherwise it is not art, as art by definition is personal expression; recreating someone else’s object of expression is just fabrication, nothing more, and certainly nothing that is uniquely you. And showing the unique you is where the true beauty of a piece will come from.
Jump over to Luann Udell’s very honest and down to earth article about these ideas.
Thanks, Dara, for sharing this with us.
Read More
My mother is a horticulturist so although I have never been heavily drawn to flowery things, I learned through her to fully appreciate the beauty of a well-formed bloom. Polymer artists, as a whole, do like their flowers likely because so many of our ladies are drawn to their inherent beauty, but also because the complexity of a flower can easily be achieved through the repetition of relatively simple petals. But the petals of a real flower are, in reality, quiet complex, each petal with its own curls and waves and way of enfolding the flower’s center. To properly reproduce this complexity, each petal needs to be given a little individuality. That is what I enjoyed so much about finding these little beauties by Taisa Chernyak.
It might take a bit longer to give each petal its own form but don’t you think the individuality of each gives the whole a much more convincing and natural beauty? Take a look at her tutorial on how she produces these life-like blooms.
The idea of each individual providing the character that creates the true beauty in the bigger picture is true on so many levels. Even as individual artists, bringing our own personality and uniqueness to the artwork we produce creates a more splendid picture of polymer art overall. Repeating what has already been done will add very little to the art world, but your own unique art adds much, much more.
Read MoreOne of the big discussions at Synergy (Are you tired of hearing about that show yet!? Sorry … it was just such a treasure box full of ideas and I want you all to benefit from it too) was about finding our voice as artists. I was not the only one that came away with this concept eating away at me. Linda Garbe jumped right on it with a new video discussing texture and materials in the context of finding personal creative expression. Her Box of Color, as seen below, showed up in the video and I just had to get a closer view. Linda kindly sent photos so we could all get a good look at the details. Talk about an authentic voice!
Linda Garbe’s Box of Color, top view
… and a view of the bamboo and fungi sides.
Linda says she created the box as a result of doing the exercises in Lindly Haunani and Maggie Maggio’s book Polymer Clay Color Inspirations.
“While it took great discipline to do each and every exercise in order, it was well worth it. I learned a lot about color. The last exercise is to cover a box using what you have learned about color. I visited the Chicago Botanical Gardens during the time I was doing the color exercises. They have a Heritage Garden which show how early gardens featured one type of plant in each area. They did not mix plants together in the same flower bed as we do today. This garden became the inspiration for design of the box. Each side features one type of plant: bamboo, fungi, Queen Ann’s Lace, and ferns. The top is a fantasy garden created in my mind.”
This box and more of Linda’s explanation about its creation come in at about 3:10 on Linda’s video. The video starts out with thoughts on cultivating our own unique approach to creativity but the majority of it actually focuses on texturing and using everyday objects as tools. A lot of good ideas here so if you have a few minutes, sit back and soak up a little inspiration this weekend.
Read More
