There is no Pink!
September 8, 2013 Ponderings
Since this was a week of curiosities, I thought instead of a quote to get you pondering on this fine Sunday, I’d share a bit of science I find rather interesting. This is not as useful for an artist as one might hope, but it is about color, and a highly favored one at that. And its just fascinating, the way the mind and eye work.
(Click here if you do not see the video above)
Crazy, right? Well, pink is still there for us to create with. It just now holds a bit of a special place in my mind, especially now that I know it’s all in my head!
Concept in Composition
September 7, 2013 Inspirational Art
This was actually the first piece I found that made me go “Oh wow! I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like this in polymer!” Well, it’s not all polymer, but I still thought it was a wonderful piece by a primarily polymer artist with a composition worth talking about. This container was created by the ingenious Fabiola Perez Ajates, simply known to most people as Fabi.
The body of this piece is actually paper-paper streamers, to be exact. Many streamers, rolled up tightly into a disc, then pressed from the center to expand into tapered shapes like this one here. What I enjoy so much about this piece is that it is a container, but on top these random red balls are emerging and escaping down the side of a vessel made for holding things. It’s a nice ironic juxtaposition between the function of the objects and the imagery. The top of the paper lid, indented and tilted as well as being inherently striped, also makes it feel like the balls were spinning in the concavity before being spilled out, so there is quite the sense of moment with these very simple additions to the paper shape.
Fabi is another explorer-type artist. She has quite the collection and variety of work on her blog and Flicker pages.
Out on the Street
September 4, 2013 Inspirational Art
Every time I visit Cornelia Brockstedt’s website, I just get lost. Her work holds a kind of mysterious curiosity for me. Where did these images come from? Just how does she view the world that she comes up with these unexpected compositions? She has a series called “Street Life” which I find particularly fascinating. There is a mix of organic and man-made in most of it–very much reminiscent of a city street with its asphalt, concrete, and pipes, but among these intentional and planned structures, nature is moving back in to reclaim what once was its territory.
This brooch is easily the most curious of the series. The texture of the emerging vegetation is in all the pieces of this series; but this one, due to the rather aquatic formations, seems more alive and even a little alien. It’s eerie and beautifully fascinating, don’t you think?
And because I can’t resist, here is the other end of the spectrum on her Street Life series. This pendant’s imagery is a bit more easily recognizable–grass growing in between paving stones–which may sound like a rather mundane subject matter; but as you can see, it’s not in the least bit mundane in this presentation.
The other thing about Cornelia’s work is that it shows that she really knows how to take inspiration from other artists and make it her own. She has quite a few pieces listed with credit given to other artists that she learned from; but even though the technique of these other artists is (more or less) apparent, the work is usually quite different from the work of her teachers.
In The Polymer Arts, I decided from the start to focus on technique rather than project tutorials or how-to type articles. These are supposed to give readers new skills and techniques that they can then take to the studio and morph or blend into their own original pieces. Sometimes it is hard to separate the technique from the design when what you learn is taught as a specific project. Well, if you want some excellent examples of how that is done, take a good long look through Cornelia’s website. Some transformations of techniques are more detached from the master artist’s usual designs than others, but they all look to be developed in a way that still reflects something of Cornelia’s aesthetic. And that is precisely what should be done with skills learned in any workshop or from any book.
Exploring Texture Variation
September 3, 2013 Inspirational Art
Did you see yesterday’s post? I mentioned that you could possibly take some of that artist’s textures and apply them to other kinds of work. Well, here is a bracelet that has a couple of those textures, using crowded polyp-like pieces and point-impressed dots of clay, along with (I think) canes. It’s quite an inviting undulation of texture moving organically across the cuff bracelet, don’t you think?
This is the work of Ukraine’s Asya Kuzahmetova. Quite a different piece for her, but I think it’s a great direction that she started exploring late last year. Asya does a lot of exploring, taking classes with master polymer artists and continuously working on different forms and applications with varying degrees of success; but the important thing is, she does explore, and lets herself go to see what comes of it. In the process, she hones her skills and her finishing work. I think she’s definitely someone to keep an eye on. See more of her work on her Flickr page and her online shop.
Since this was a week of curiosities, I thought instead of a quote to get you pondering on this fine Sunday, I’d share a bit of science I find rather interesting. This is not as useful for an artist as one might hope, but it is about color, and a highly favored one at that. And its just fascinating, the way the mind and eye work.
(Click here if you do not see the video above)
Crazy, right? Well, pink is still there for us to create with. It just now holds a bit of a special place in my mind, especially now that I know it’s all in my head!
Read More
This was actually the first piece I found that made me go “Oh wow! I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like this in polymer!” Well, it’s not all polymer, but I still thought it was a wonderful piece by a primarily polymer artist with a composition worth talking about. This container was created by the ingenious Fabiola Perez Ajates, simply known to most people as Fabi.
The body of this piece is actually paper-paper streamers, to be exact. Many streamers, rolled up tightly into a disc, then pressed from the center to expand into tapered shapes like this one here. What I enjoy so much about this piece is that it is a container, but on top these random red balls are emerging and escaping down the side of a vessel made for holding things. It’s a nice ironic juxtaposition between the function of the objects and the imagery. The top of the paper lid, indented and tilted as well as being inherently striped, also makes it feel like the balls were spinning in the concavity before being spilled out, so there is quite the sense of moment with these very simple additions to the paper shape.
Fabi is another explorer-type artist. She has quite the collection and variety of work on her blog and Flicker pages.
Read More
Every time I visit Cornelia Brockstedt’s website, I just get lost. Her work holds a kind of mysterious curiosity for me. Where did these images come from? Just how does she view the world that she comes up with these unexpected compositions? She has a series called “Street Life” which I find particularly fascinating. There is a mix of organic and man-made in most of it–very much reminiscent of a city street with its asphalt, concrete, and pipes, but among these intentional and planned structures, nature is moving back in to reclaim what once was its territory.
This brooch is easily the most curious of the series. The texture of the emerging vegetation is in all the pieces of this series; but this one, due to the rather aquatic formations, seems more alive and even a little alien. It’s eerie and beautifully fascinating, don’t you think?
And because I can’t resist, here is the other end of the spectrum on her Street Life series. This pendant’s imagery is a bit more easily recognizable–grass growing in between paving stones–which may sound like a rather mundane subject matter; but as you can see, it’s not in the least bit mundane in this presentation.
The other thing about Cornelia’s work is that it shows that she really knows how to take inspiration from other artists and make it her own. She has quite a few pieces listed with credit given to other artists that she learned from; but even though the technique of these other artists is (more or less) apparent, the work is usually quite different from the work of her teachers.
In The Polymer Arts, I decided from the start to focus on technique rather than project tutorials or how-to type articles. These are supposed to give readers new skills and techniques that they can then take to the studio and morph or blend into their own original pieces. Sometimes it is hard to separate the technique from the design when what you learn is taught as a specific project. Well, if you want some excellent examples of how that is done, take a good long look through Cornelia’s website. Some transformations of techniques are more detached from the master artist’s usual designs than others, but they all look to be developed in a way that still reflects something of Cornelia’s aesthetic. And that is precisely what should be done with skills learned in any workshop or from any book.
Read MoreDid you see yesterday’s post? I mentioned that you could possibly take some of that artist’s textures and apply them to other kinds of work. Well, here is a bracelet that has a couple of those textures, using crowded polyp-like pieces and point-impressed dots of clay, along with (I think) canes. It’s quite an inviting undulation of texture moving organically across the cuff bracelet, don’t you think?
This is the work of Ukraine’s Asya Kuzahmetova. Quite a different piece for her, but I think it’s a great direction that she started exploring late last year. Asya does a lot of exploring, taking classes with master polymer artists and continuously working on different forms and applications with varying degrees of success; but the important thing is, she does explore, and lets herself go to see what comes of it. In the process, she hones her skills and her finishing work. I think she’s definitely someone to keep an eye on. See more of her work on her Flickr page and her online shop.
Read More