Color and Joy
December 7, 2015
Inspirational Art
I’m just going to share some fun and amazing pieces this week. Polymer can certainly create some gorgeous images and stunning effects, but it can also amuse and impart a bit of joy into our lives as viewers, buyers, and creators.
As I sit here trying to work thought some back pain from an as-yet-unknown cause, I find I am certainly drawn to happy, cheerful imagery. These seahorses from the always cheerful, colorful, and joyful work of Mary Anne Loveless just makes me smile.
In a group or by themselves, these magnets/pins would bring a splash of color and a sense of playfulness to the adorned person or major appliance. I’ve decided I want one in my car. My long road trips could do with a bit of fun color! And my poor family … I don’t have a thing on my Christmas list (because no one is stocking ‘more hours in a day’) so this should help.
Mary Anne has a variety of seahorses in her Etsy shop right now. As of this post, all she had were seahorses, but she makes all kinds of wonderfully colorful pieces as you can see on her Flickr photostream and her blog.
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Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:
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The Broken Internet Project
May 3, 2014
Inspirational Art, Polymer community news
No, this post is not a rant about the vagaries of the world-wide web, problematic wifi connections, or website issues but rather, of all things, polymer art! If you recall from Synergy last year or from the blog posts or article about it, there was a rather groundbreaking experiment known as The Broken Telephone Project conceived and directed by Dan Cormier. He sent a pin he created to an artist who created a pin inspired by his who then sent their inspired pin onto another artist who then did the same thing until 8 pins were created based on another artist’s work.
It was such a successful and insightful experience, that Dan decided to expand on the project for this year’s EuroSynergy. He made it a primarily European project, enlisting artists from the UK to Russia but instead of the artist sending pins onto the next person, he sent them all a pin he had made and each of them created a wonderfully different piece from that same inspiration. These artists didn’t know that they were all working off just Dan’s pin so it was a bit of a surprise as he presented the final pins in today’s presentation in Malta. Here is the pin that started what Dan is calling a radial project.
Are you curious to see what the other pins look like? Well, I am trying to get Dan’s okay to publish more than just his pin but I haven’t gotten my permission list yet. I’ll be running down to the final gala dinner and see what else we can share in the coming days. Perhaps next week we’ll have a lot of very, very new art in the form of pins to share with you. Let’s see what I can sweet talk him into, just for you, my dear readers.
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.
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?
I’m just going to share some fun and amazing pieces this week. Polymer can certainly create some gorgeous images and stunning effects, but it can also amuse and impart a bit of joy into our lives as viewers, buyers, and creators.
As I sit here trying to work thought some back pain from an as-yet-unknown cause, I find I am certainly drawn to happy, cheerful imagery. These seahorses from the always cheerful, colorful, and joyful work of Mary Anne Loveless just makes me smile.
In a group or by themselves, these magnets/pins would bring a splash of color and a sense of playfulness to the adorned person or major appliance. I’ve decided I want one in my car. My long road trips could do with a bit of fun color! And my poor family … I don’t have a thing on my Christmas list (because no one is stocking ‘more hours in a day’) so this should help.
Mary Anne has a variety of seahorses in her Etsy shop right now. As of this post, all she had were seahorses, but she makes all kinds of wonderfully colorful pieces as you can see on her Flickr photostream and her blog.
___________________________________________
Like this blog? Lend your support with a purchase of The Polymer Arts magazine and visit our partners:
___________________________________________
Read MoreNo, this post is not a rant about the vagaries of the world-wide web, problematic wifi connections, or website issues but rather, of all things, polymer art! If you recall from Synergy last year or from the blog posts or article about it, there was a rather groundbreaking experiment known as The Broken Telephone Project conceived and directed by Dan Cormier. He sent a pin he created to an artist who created a pin inspired by his who then sent their inspired pin onto another artist who then did the same thing until 8 pins were created based on another artist’s work.
It was such a successful and insightful experience, that Dan decided to expand on the project for this year’s EuroSynergy. He made it a primarily European project, enlisting artists from the UK to Russia but instead of the artist sending pins onto the next person, he sent them all a pin he had made and each of them created a wonderfully different piece from that same inspiration. These artists didn’t know that they were all working off just Dan’s pin so it was a bit of a surprise as he presented the final pins in today’s presentation in Malta. Here is the pin that started what Dan is calling a radial project.
Are you curious to see what the other pins look like? Well, I am trying to get Dan’s okay to publish more than just his pin but I haven’t gotten my permission list yet. I’ll be running down to the final gala dinner and see what else we can share in the coming days. Perhaps next week we’ll have a lot of very, very new art in the form of pins to share with you. Let’s see what I can sweet talk him into, just for you, my dear readers.
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.
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 More