Abstract Feelings
January 27, 2015
Inspirational Art
I realized after the fact that I posted yesterday’s blog about conceptual art without really going into the particulars of what that phrase means. So I thought I’d correct that, only I ended up going down a bit of a rabbit hole as I went ahead, as I do, when I researched the term and how it is used today. So, just to be fair and to stave off counter-explanations about what the term is used for in contemporary art and various art movements (see Wikipedia’s explanations), I’m going to define our use for it based on how we often used it back in my art school days. We may not have been using it correctly by some people’s account, but we did use the term “concept” correctly and talk of “conceptual art” as being created to relay an abstract idea or complex group of ideas.
Here is an example of both a literal representation and a conceptual representation. Girl on a Blustery Day, by Melissa Terlizzi, is a depiction of, well, a windy, blustery day. That is the visual representation of a state of weather. On the other hand, it also depicts the distress and dishevelment of this poor girl, and particular experiences and emotion are abstract. Along with recognizing the concept, we all connect to the feeling of being caught in a bit of a gale and dealing with the surprises Mother Nature tosses our way. Plus, it’s just a fun piece! It’s too bad I didn’t find a “Blizzardy Day” piece so we could all visually commiserate with our Eastern US friends held captive by the crazy weather right now. You all hang in there!
Although I love this wall piece, it is not, in my opinion, the pinnacle of Melissa Terlizzi‘s work. She also creates the most wonderfully detailed sculptures and fabulous miniature food stuffs. Sophistication and adorableness reside side by side on her Flickr photostream, so wander on over for a delightful e-tour.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Exercises in Gray
October 11, 2014
Inspirational Art
After all this talk of gray, I thought it was about time to challenge you with some further ideas about color values so you can see for yourself what understanding value can do for your work.
First of all, take any photo of one of your pieces and put it into a photo manipulation software program, changing the color mode to “Grayscale”. You can usually do this with your camera as well by changing the mode to “Black & White” or “B&W” as you take the photo. Then look at what you have. If you were after a lot of contrast in your piece, you should definitely see a range of darks and lights that easily define the forms, lines, textures and color changes you have in the piece. If you were after a quieter contrast, you should see little variation in the darkness or lightness of the grays.
Here is a beautiful mokume gane pendant by Harriet Smith. The original shot on the left is vibrant and bright, but does have a calm feel too it. And you can see just why that is when you turn it gray. Even with the fiery colors and the many overlapping lines, the energy of the pendant is kept in check by the minimal variation in value. Of course, this piece is quite different without it’s brilliant colors, but the exercise shows why the energy is not quite so high.
You can examine any of your pieces in this manner and will likely find yourself surprised quite often at the actual value range your pieces have. Being aware of value will help you make better decisions about your color choices going forward. And if you want to learn more about value with some polymer centric exercises, take a look at this great little article written by Maggie Maggio, co-author of Polymer Clay Color Inspirations, which also has a lot of value-related information and exercises to keep your color knowledge growing.
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: Values in Silver
October 10, 2014
Inspirational Art
We are really rather lucky to be working in polymer, especially those of us who are so in love with color. There are many other craft mediums that offer primarily monochrome palettes and others have a limited range, especially compared to what we have available. But, this just means that they focus on other elements, which is what this week of gray contemplation is really all about.
In metal work for instance, you have the colors of metal as the main or starting color. Silver work is nothing but grays unless you patina the silver or add other materials to it. So, silversmiths use value, form and texture as the primary methods of expressing their ideas, accenting with other materials when desired.
This composition you see here is actually a set of rings created by an artist that goes by nothing more than Spiralstone. There are minimal layers here, but the form and the texture allow for light to play across the surface and reflect back varying degrees of gray. The colorful cabochon stones look especially brilliant in the landscape of each ring due to the lack of competition with other colors.
I also thought these rings would be great inspiration for polymer rings. The shapes and layering would be a great approach for polymer in grays or in color.
If you like these rings, you should really look at her other work made from 100% recycled metals. Check out the other amazing rings sets and various other jewelry on her Flickr photostream and through the links on her website.
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.
Gray in Six Degrees
October 9, 2014
Inspirational Art
I am traveling today, so I apologize for the brevity here. I was sent this lovely wallpiece by Fran Abrams after she saw what the theme was this week. The piece is called “Six Degrees of Separation”. It’s wall art that is 18″ x 18″ and created using only black clay and white clay mixed in varying proportions.
I simply like that Fran went for a pure study of value here. It created an unusual challenge for the artist and a canvas. The form and contrast are all there working to draw you in. Although it is simple, it keeps drawing the eye back to take one more look or compare a couple more grays between squares. Just imagine being the one creating it. Or maybe, create a study of grays for yourself.
Visit with Fran and her other ‘studies’ on her website.
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.
Studies in Gray
October 6, 2014
Inspirational Art
Gray is not what we may think of as a particularly exciting color palette, but this non-color has quite the design concept to teach us all. I say “non-color”, of course, because gray has no color hue, not as a concept. Many grays we use actually do have a recognizable cool or warm tone due to have a very, very slight hue in the medium we are using, but true grays are simply a position between pure black and pure white. They are, in actuality, measurements of value, which is one aspect of a color.
This is the basis of what grays can teach us in terms of design. If you create in grays, you are creating only with value rather than with color. Variations in value can illustrate emotion and atmosphere based on the level of contrast and the balance of grays to any other color that might be used. If you are working solely or primarily with gray, you are depending on the contrast to help relay the feeling of the piece as a support of the form, image, lines and/or textures you are working with. That makes working in grays a fantastic exercise in the importance of value and contrast. Grays can also make some amazingly striking and emotive work.
These earrings, for example, one pair out of what looks to be a series by Poland’s Tishaia, displays variation in gray in the texture in the leaf vein patterns whose light value contrasts against the black clay which, due to the limitation of the pigment density of the clay is not actually black but a very dark gray. This contrast along with the dominating bold lines, make for a strong, contemporary feel. The lack of other colors make the blue stones really stand out. The mid-range values in the stones also brings a kind of bridge in contrast between the light silver and the black clays in this highly value dependent set.
You can see the interesting forms Tishaia creates in this series on her Deviant Art page and more on her work in her Etsy shop and on her Facebook page.
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.
I realized after the fact that I posted yesterday’s blog about conceptual art without really going into the particulars of what that phrase means. So I thought I’d correct that, only I ended up going down a bit of a rabbit hole as I went ahead, as I do, when I researched the term and how it is used today. So, just to be fair and to stave off counter-explanations about what the term is used for in contemporary art and various art movements (see Wikipedia’s explanations), I’m going to define our use for it based on how we often used it back in my art school days. We may not have been using it correctly by some people’s account, but we did use the term “concept” correctly and talk of “conceptual art” as being created to relay an abstract idea or complex group of ideas.
Here is an example of both a literal representation and a conceptual representation. Girl on a Blustery Day, by Melissa Terlizzi, is a depiction of, well, a windy, blustery day. That is the visual representation of a state of weather. On the other hand, it also depicts the distress and dishevelment of this poor girl, and particular experiences and emotion are abstract. Along with recognizing the concept, we all connect to the feeling of being caught in a bit of a gale and dealing with the surprises Mother Nature tosses our way. Plus, it’s just a fun piece! It’s too bad I didn’t find a “Blizzardy Day” piece so we could all visually commiserate with our Eastern US friends held captive by the crazy weather right now. You all hang in there!
Although I love this wall piece, it is not, in my opinion, the pinnacle of Melissa Terlizzi‘s work. She also creates the most wonderfully detailed sculptures and fabulous miniature food stuffs. Sophistication and adorableness reside side by side on her Flickr photostream, so wander on over for a delightful e-tour.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
After all this talk of gray, I thought it was about time to challenge you with some further ideas about color values so you can see for yourself what understanding value can do for your work.
First of all, take any photo of one of your pieces and put it into a photo manipulation software program, changing the color mode to “Grayscale”. You can usually do this with your camera as well by changing the mode to “Black & White” or “B&W” as you take the photo. Then look at what you have. If you were after a lot of contrast in your piece, you should definitely see a range of darks and lights that easily define the forms, lines, textures and color changes you have in the piece. If you were after a quieter contrast, you should see little variation in the darkness or lightness of the grays.
Here is a beautiful mokume gane pendant by Harriet Smith. The original shot on the left is vibrant and bright, but does have a calm feel too it. And you can see just why that is when you turn it gray. Even with the fiery colors and the many overlapping lines, the energy of the pendant is kept in check by the minimal variation in value. Of course, this piece is quite different without it’s brilliant colors, but the exercise shows why the energy is not quite so high.
You can examine any of your pieces in this manner and will likely find yourself surprised quite often at the actual value range your pieces have. Being aware of value will help you make better decisions about your color choices going forward. And if you want to learn more about value with some polymer centric exercises, take a look at this great little article written by Maggie Maggio, co-author of Polymer Clay Color Inspirations, which also has a lot of value-related information and exercises to keep your color knowledge growing.
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.
We are really rather lucky to be working in polymer, especially those of us who are so in love with color. There are many other craft mediums that offer primarily monochrome palettes and others have a limited range, especially compared to what we have available. But, this just means that they focus on other elements, which is what this week of gray contemplation is really all about.
In metal work for instance, you have the colors of metal as the main or starting color. Silver work is nothing but grays unless you patina the silver or add other materials to it. So, silversmiths use value, form and texture as the primary methods of expressing their ideas, accenting with other materials when desired.
This composition you see here is actually a set of rings created by an artist that goes by nothing more than Spiralstone. There are minimal layers here, but the form and the texture allow for light to play across the surface and reflect back varying degrees of gray. The colorful cabochon stones look especially brilliant in the landscape of each ring due to the lack of competition with other colors.
I also thought these rings would be great inspiration for polymer rings. The shapes and layering would be a great approach for polymer in grays or in color.
If you like these rings, you should really look at her other work made from 100% recycled metals. Check out the other amazing rings sets and various other jewelry on her Flickr photostream and through the links on her website.
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.
I am traveling today, so I apologize for the brevity here. I was sent this lovely wallpiece by Fran Abrams after she saw what the theme was this week. The piece is called “Six Degrees of Separation”. It’s wall art that is 18″ x 18″ and created using only black clay and white clay mixed in varying proportions.
I simply like that Fran went for a pure study of value here. It created an unusual challenge for the artist and a canvas. The form and contrast are all there working to draw you in. Although it is simple, it keeps drawing the eye back to take one more look or compare a couple more grays between squares. Just imagine being the one creating it. Or maybe, create a study of grays for yourself.
Visit with Fran and her other ‘studies’ on her website.
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.
Gray is not what we may think of as a particularly exciting color palette, but this non-color has quite the design concept to teach us all. I say “non-color”, of course, because gray has no color hue, not as a concept. Many grays we use actually do have a recognizable cool or warm tone due to have a very, very slight hue in the medium we are using, but true grays are simply a position between pure black and pure white. They are, in actuality, measurements of value, which is one aspect of a color.
This is the basis of what grays can teach us in terms of design. If you create in grays, you are creating only with value rather than with color. Variations in value can illustrate emotion and atmosphere based on the level of contrast and the balance of grays to any other color that might be used. If you are working solely or primarily with gray, you are depending on the contrast to help relay the feeling of the piece as a support of the form, image, lines and/or textures you are working with. That makes working in grays a fantastic exercise in the importance of value and contrast. Grays can also make some amazingly striking and emotive work.
These earrings, for example, one pair out of what looks to be a series by Poland’s Tishaia, displays variation in gray in the texture in the leaf vein patterns whose light value contrasts against the black clay which, due to the limitation of the pigment density of the clay is not actually black but a very dark gray. This contrast along with the dominating bold lines, make for a strong, contemporary feel. The lack of other colors make the blue stones really stand out. The mid-range values in the stones also brings a kind of bridge in contrast between the light silver and the black clays in this highly value dependent set.
You can see the interesting forms Tishaia creates in this series on her Deviant Art page and more on her work in her Etsy shop and on her Facebook page.
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.
