The Attraction of Many

August 11, 2014

helen p on EtsyThere has been an aesthetic concept I have been thinking about ever since I posted Dorothy Siemen’s wall piece, Colony two weeks agoWhy is it that we find beauty, comfort or some kind of attraction to items that have repeated and crowded patterns? They make wonderful, energy-filled compositions, and they are filled with texture and richness by the way they thoroughly fill the space. Let’s contemplate this thoroughness as we enjoy some gorgeous art this week.

This piece, by Greece’s Helen P. of Eleins Kingdom on Etsy, is pretty typical of the look I am talking about. Such an approach can carry a piece with little or no color. It does not need any particular order or structure, and there is no pattern or set of lines to follow. Just the same kind of shapes repeated over and over. Why do we like this?

My initial theory is that it harkens back to very common natural formations like lichen, fungus, barnacles, etc. We recognize something organic and inherently beautiful in the abundance and growth of such formations. Or do we?

Let’s start this week by you telling me what you think. Do you find you have an especially strong attraction to this kind of artwork and/or this kind of thing in the natural world and maybe that is why we are attracted to it? Or do you have another theory? Put your thoughts in the comments at the end of the blog post (if you are getting this by email, click on the header of this post to get to the post page), and I’ll aim to use those thoughts to steer the discussion this week.

See more of this crowded, repeated type of work in Helen’s Etsy shop. This type of approach is her primary thing, so you’ll have a chance to ponder it in quite a few more iterations.

 

 

 

If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.

14-P2 CoverFnl-blog   Blog2 -2014-02Feb-1   marble cane ad

It’s Coming Out of the Walls!

July 28, 2014

I wanted to look at wall sculpture this week. This is actually where my own exploration has been headed. Wall sculpture can utilize just about every technique we have developed in polymer clay. From surface treatments to inclusions, to painting and even, yes, sculpting of all things! They tend to be rather big and time consuming projects, but they are also highly expressive forms in our medium. Even if you are purely a jewelry or miniature artist in polymer, wall sculpture can be an enormously inspiring source of ideas because what is a pendant or bracelet, but the same thing reduced and arranged to hang on the body rather than a wall?

Can’t you see this piece as a pendant if done in miniature? Well, I could, but I am glad it is wall art. It being just for hanging and contemplating is what really separates wall art from jewelry or decor arts. It has no purpose beyond being created to express and to be viewed.

14174429681_cde72379b2_o

 

This intriguing piece was  created by Dorothy Siemens. It is titled “Colony” for what is probably an obvious reason, but the base for each inhabitant  of this colony may not be so obvious. If you sew, you’ll know right away. The forms and colors look like they might be inspired by sea creatures, but perhaps it really just started with the bobbins and grew from there. Dorothy’s work does often make you stop and wonder where these unusual forms came from. What is it that Dorothy sees around her that inspires such unusual shapes? You can check out more of her polymer sculpture as well as her other work in other mediums on her Flickr pages.

 

If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.

14-P2 CoverFnl-blog   Blog2 -2014-02Feb-5   Damask Ad

Coming into One’s Own

January 14, 2013 ,

There comes a point in some artist’s lives when their work veers a comfortable and well traveled path and into something wholly unexpected. Last week, I posted images of Kathleen Dustin’s first translucent beads, which marked the beginning of the direction we all know her so for now. So it makes one wonder, when you see a very different and amazing piece from an artist, something you hadn’t seen from them before, something you wouldn’t have even recognized before, if this is the start of a new and amazing journey for them.

Dorothy Siemens has been working in polymer for several years making nicely finished jewelry and decor using a fairly wide range of, but common set of, techniques and forms. However, just last month she posted some stunning, and quite unique sculptural objects. The images below are of the same piece, top and side view. I would not have at all guessed they were from the same person represented in her collaborative jewelry website.

8264720818_4c8d52a95f

 

8264722112_eff9581792

 

What happened here? I don’t have that story exactly, but Dorothy did admit that she just let her imagination go, which was probably a key approach that allowed her to develop something that looks nothing like any work being done by other polymer artists. But what was it that gave her that sense of freedom or need to just let her imagination go?

We each have a truly personal aesthetic which can remain quite buried when we ‘borrow’ continuously from what we see around us. There is not anything wrong in drawing inspiration from other art but our own true voice should also be allowed to come out. The number one bit of advice I got in writing school was to wake up every morning and, before even getting out of bed, stop and write … not anything specific but just freeform thought. The idea was that if you write just after waking, you are writing with your own true voice, not influenced by any tv show, conversation, news article, email or any other written or verbalized language.  If you would like to work on developing your own personal visual voice, try sketching or getting into the studio first thing in the morning before you’ve looked at any other art form–this means no media of any kind. See what you come up with if you do this for a week or so.

If you don’t have the luxury of getting up and sketching or jumping into the studio right away, try napping then upon wakening, get to work. (The napping trick also works when you find yourself stuck on a piece. It’s amazing what you’ll be able to see after letting your brain rest and reset.)

 

 

The Attraction of Many

August 11, 2014
Posted in

helen p on EtsyThere has been an aesthetic concept I have been thinking about ever since I posted Dorothy Siemen’s wall piece, Colony two weeks agoWhy is it that we find beauty, comfort or some kind of attraction to items that have repeated and crowded patterns? They make wonderful, energy-filled compositions, and they are filled with texture and richness by the way they thoroughly fill the space. Let’s contemplate this thoroughness as we enjoy some gorgeous art this week.

This piece, by Greece’s Helen P. of Eleins Kingdom on Etsy, is pretty typical of the look I am talking about. Such an approach can carry a piece with little or no color. It does not need any particular order or structure, and there is no pattern or set of lines to follow. Just the same kind of shapes repeated over and over. Why do we like this?

My initial theory is that it harkens back to very common natural formations like lichen, fungus, barnacles, etc. We recognize something organic and inherently beautiful in the abundance and growth of such formations. Or do we?

Let’s start this week by you telling me what you think. Do you find you have an especially strong attraction to this kind of artwork and/or this kind of thing in the natural world and maybe that is why we are attracted to it? Or do you have another theory? Put your thoughts in the comments at the end of the blog post (if you are getting this by email, click on the header of this post to get to the post page), and I’ll aim to use those thoughts to steer the discussion this week.

See more of this crowded, repeated type of work in Helen’s Etsy shop. This type of approach is her primary thing, so you’ll have a chance to ponder it in quite a few more iterations.

 

 

 

If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.

14-P2 CoverFnl-blog   Blog2 -2014-02Feb-1   marble cane ad

Read More

It’s Coming Out of the Walls!

July 28, 2014
Posted in

I wanted to look at wall sculpture this week. This is actually where my own exploration has been headed. Wall sculpture can utilize just about every technique we have developed in polymer clay. From surface treatments to inclusions, to painting and even, yes, sculpting of all things! They tend to be rather big and time consuming projects, but they are also highly expressive forms in our medium. Even if you are purely a jewelry or miniature artist in polymer, wall sculpture can be an enormously inspiring source of ideas because what is a pendant or bracelet, but the same thing reduced and arranged to hang on the body rather than a wall?

Can’t you see this piece as a pendant if done in miniature? Well, I could, but I am glad it is wall art. It being just for hanging and contemplating is what really separates wall art from jewelry or decor arts. It has no purpose beyond being created to express and to be viewed.

14174429681_cde72379b2_o

 

This intriguing piece was  created by Dorothy Siemens. It is titled “Colony” for what is probably an obvious reason, but the base for each inhabitant  of this colony may not be so obvious. If you sew, you’ll know right away. The forms and colors look like they might be inspired by sea creatures, but perhaps it really just started with the bobbins and grew from there. Dorothy’s work does often make you stop and wonder where these unusual forms came from. What is it that Dorothy sees around her that inspires such unusual shapes? You can check out more of her polymer sculpture as well as her other work in other mediums on her Flickr pages.

 

If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.

14-P2 CoverFnl-blog   Blog2 -2014-02Feb-5   Damask Ad

Read More

Coming into One’s Own

January 14, 2013
Posted in ,

There comes a point in some artist’s lives when their work veers a comfortable and well traveled path and into something wholly unexpected. Last week, I posted images of Kathleen Dustin’s first translucent beads, which marked the beginning of the direction we all know her so for now. So it makes one wonder, when you see a very different and amazing piece from an artist, something you hadn’t seen from them before, something you wouldn’t have even recognized before, if this is the start of a new and amazing journey for them.

Dorothy Siemens has been working in polymer for several years making nicely finished jewelry and decor using a fairly wide range of, but common set of, techniques and forms. However, just last month she posted some stunning, and quite unique sculptural objects. The images below are of the same piece, top and side view. I would not have at all guessed they were from the same person represented in her collaborative jewelry website.

8264720818_4c8d52a95f

 

8264722112_eff9581792

 

What happened here? I don’t have that story exactly, but Dorothy did admit that she just let her imagination go, which was probably a key approach that allowed her to develop something that looks nothing like any work being done by other polymer artists. But what was it that gave her that sense of freedom or need to just let her imagination go?

We each have a truly personal aesthetic which can remain quite buried when we ‘borrow’ continuously from what we see around us. There is not anything wrong in drawing inspiration from other art but our own true voice should also be allowed to come out. The number one bit of advice I got in writing school was to wake up every morning and, before even getting out of bed, stop and write … not anything specific but just freeform thought. The idea was that if you write just after waking, you are writing with your own true voice, not influenced by any tv show, conversation, news article, email or any other written or verbalized language.  If you would like to work on developing your own personal visual voice, try sketching or getting into the studio first thing in the morning before you’ve looked at any other art form–this means no media of any kind. See what you come up with if you do this for a week or so.

If you don’t have the luxury of getting up and sketching or jumping into the studio right away, try napping then upon wakening, get to work. (The napping trick also works when you find yourself stuck on a piece. It’s amazing what you’ll be able to see after letting your brain rest and reset.)

 

 

Read More
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