Stacking Up Whimsy
September 3, 2014
Inspirational Art
A good portion of the articles in our new issue are, at least in part, interviews with multiple artists so you get a well-rounded view of the ideas our contributors have brought you. One particularly insightful as well as fun article is the one exploring the idea of humor and whimsy in art. Contributor Sherilyn Dunn interviewed four amazing artists for this–Christi Friesen, Layl McDill, Doreen Kassel and Maureen Carlson. Maureen Carlson was one of the first names in polymer that I knew since her book Family and Friends in Polymer Clay was one of the first polymer books I ever bought. Along with being a talented sculptor, she has very inventive, fun and thought-provoking pieces and I wish we’d had more room to show off her playful yet seriously expressive side.
This doll for instance, is a wonderful example of mixing whimsy with a personal message. This piece is made up of stackable and mobile elements of polymer enhanced with paints and powders as well as the words and ideas you see on it. Play is evident in the movable parts and the toy like construction but there’s a bit of the serious instilled in it. I know at one time she taught this as a workshop as a way to explore personal expression. What a fun workshop that must have been.
Don’t miss the insightful comments and observations in the “Art of Humor and Whimsy” article you’ll find in the Fall 2014 issue of The Polymer Arts. And for more fun and thought-provoking pieces, take a look at Maureen’s gallery.
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.
In So Many Words
September 18, 2013
Inspirational Art
If you read yesterday’s post and took a guess at the two elements of man-made inspiration in the amulets that I was going to talk about, you probably came up with something about the runes. Runes are characters in ancient alphabets, specifically in Germanic-based languages. (English is one, even though we’ve been burdened with arbitrarily applied Latin rules for the last couple centuries. But that is a soap box to get on in another place and time. ) One of the first and truly most unique things we created as a species is writing. Other creatures can create structures and designs; they even have their own versions of language. But no other creature has created writing.
That may be part of why we have such an affinity for any kind of lettering, although we are certainly drawn more to words of our own language. Once you learn to read you can’t help but be drawn to text wherever you find it. Yes, we are overly inundated with the written word in our modern lives and ignore much of it, but it will take more than that kind of overdose to keep us from being drawn to and reading any small set of words we find in a piece of art.
This mosaic by Julie Ann Haas would be difficult not to stop and read, even if it was among dozens of other wall pieces. It has both words and imagery to convey it’s meaning and speaks to a feeling we have probably all had at one time or another (perhaps especially so for us artists).
What did you see first when looking at this? I’m guessing the word ‘cracked’. Well, it is rather large, centered, and a word at that. It’s hard not to just keep returning to it, as it really gets the point across. You can read the rest of it once, but all you need to see after that is this one word. Eventually you probably found yourself looking over the rest of the piece to see what imagery and symbols were inserted to support this statement. If you did, I would think you were smiling by the time you were done examining it. The happy and playful figures along with the words are reassuring for those of us who think of ourselves as cracked all the time!
Julie’s Etsy shop is named Little Altars Everywhere (officially abbreviated to LilAltarsEverywhere.) She says “I am particularly inspired when creating pieces that elevate the human spirit …” and you’ll see as you look through her shop, she’s pretty darn good at doing that.
A good portion of the articles in our new issue are, at least in part, interviews with multiple artists so you get a well-rounded view of the ideas our contributors have brought you. One particularly insightful as well as fun article is the one exploring the idea of humor and whimsy in art. Contributor Sherilyn Dunn interviewed four amazing artists for this–Christi Friesen, Layl McDill, Doreen Kassel and Maureen Carlson. Maureen Carlson was one of the first names in polymer that I knew since her book Family and Friends in Polymer Clay was one of the first polymer books I ever bought. Along with being a talented sculptor, she has very inventive, fun and thought-provoking pieces and I wish we’d had more room to show off her playful yet seriously expressive side.
This doll for instance, is a wonderful example of mixing whimsy with a personal message. This piece is made up of stackable and mobile elements of polymer enhanced with paints and powders as well as the words and ideas you see on it. Play is evident in the movable parts and the toy like construction but there’s a bit of the serious instilled in it. I know at one time she taught this as a workshop as a way to explore personal expression. What a fun workshop that must have been.
Don’t miss the insightful comments and observations in the “Art of Humor and Whimsy” article you’ll find in the Fall 2014 issue of The Polymer Arts. And for more fun and thought-provoking pieces, take a look at Maureen’s gallery.
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.
If you read yesterday’s post and took a guess at the two elements of man-made inspiration in the amulets that I was going to talk about, you probably came up with something about the runes. Runes are characters in ancient alphabets, specifically in Germanic-based languages. (English is one, even though we’ve been burdened with arbitrarily applied Latin rules for the last couple centuries. But that is a soap box to get on in another place and time. ) One of the first and truly most unique things we created as a species is writing. Other creatures can create structures and designs; they even have their own versions of language. But no other creature has created writing.
That may be part of why we have such an affinity for any kind of lettering, although we are certainly drawn more to words of our own language. Once you learn to read you can’t help but be drawn to text wherever you find it. Yes, we are overly inundated with the written word in our modern lives and ignore much of it, but it will take more than that kind of overdose to keep us from being drawn to and reading any small set of words we find in a piece of art.
This mosaic by Julie Ann Haas would be difficult not to stop and read, even if it was among dozens of other wall pieces. It has both words and imagery to convey it’s meaning and speaks to a feeling we have probably all had at one time or another (perhaps especially so for us artists).
What did you see first when looking at this? I’m guessing the word ‘cracked’. Well, it is rather large, centered, and a word at that. It’s hard not to just keep returning to it, as it really gets the point across. You can read the rest of it once, but all you need to see after that is this one word. Eventually you probably found yourself looking over the rest of the piece to see what imagery and symbols were inserted to support this statement. If you did, I would think you were smiling by the time you were done examining it. The happy and playful figures along with the words are reassuring for those of us who think of ourselves as cracked all the time!
Julie’s Etsy shop is named Little Altars Everywhere (officially abbreviated to LilAltarsEverywhere.) She says “I am particularly inspired when creating pieces that elevate the human spirit …” and you’ll see as you look through her shop, she’s pretty darn good at doing that.
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