{"id":10779,"date":"2015-07-13T11:00:53","date_gmt":"2015-07-13T17:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/daveonline.net\/thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/?p=10779"},"modified":"2015-07-13T08:22:51","modified_gmt":"2015-07-13T14:22:51","slug":"dots-and-bits-and-close-quarters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/dots-and-bits-and-close-quarters\/","title":{"rendered":"Dots and Bits and Limiting Labels"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"46419e59fe11c8290cfac3fb1d51c115\"Today, let\u2019s ponder a broad combination of\u00a0themes from French artist,\u00a0Ouedd<\/a>. Here, lines of white dots play the part of contrast to densely gathered leaf forms with rich, graduated colors applied in a polymer embroidery-type manner. I also thought this might be called a type of mosaic, but do dense patterns of parts alone define a mosaic?<\/p>\n

Merriam-Webster says mosaics are \u201ca surface decoration made by inlaying small pieces of variously colored material to form pictures or patterns.\u201d This would be a mosaic then, right? But, Google\u2019s dictionary says, \u201cA picture or design made from small pieces of colored tile, glass, or other material set in mortar.\u201d\u00a0Oh, well, it is not really set in a mortar.\u00a0So, maybe it’s not mosaic.<\/p>\n

I just think it is best to say it is a richly colored pendant whose erratic primary texture has been thoughtfully broken up by orderly white lines.<\/p>\n

Of course, it really doesn\u2019t matter what the type of work here is called. When we label something it is, in our mind and in the mind of anyone that ascribes to that application of the label, limited by that label. Take\u00a0\u201cpolymer artist\u201d as an example. If you consider yourself a polymer artist, do you forever limit your creative endeavors to polymer work only?<\/p>\n

I do very much appreciate that we need labels in order to help us organize, in our minds, all the information that comes to us and all the people we meet, but it just seems like we could move beyond them with individuals we know, especially ourselves and, as an extension, the work we do. For instance, do you realize that, usually, when someone we just met asks \u201cWhat you do?\u201d, we usually say \u201cI am \u2026\u201d tacking on the label that our work or career gives us. That is not what we \u2018do\u2019; that is what we \u2018are\u2019, or more precisely, what we label ourselves as. You could say \u201cI\u2019m a polymer artist\u201d, but is\u00a0that all you are? Maybe you could say, \u201cI create polymer art \u2026 among other things.\u201d Then you are this vast, complex, person of endless possibilities and action. Doesn\u2019t that sound\u00a0like a truer way of presenting ourselves? And without the label you are free to create whatever you like with whatever you like without worrying that you are falling outside of some boundaries.<\/p>\n

I bring this up because I’ve had two conversations recently\u00a0with\u00a0people apologizing for not fitting a\u00a0label they think the rest of the world may have put them under. My thoughts … it doesn’t matter. Do what you need to do and throw the labels out.<\/p>\n

\n

To see an example of art that shows off the endless possibilities of polymer and of artists who play with the medium, take a peek at Oeudd\u2019s Flickr pages<\/a>\u00a0and her\u00a0interesting array of work. Then there is Ouedd\u2019s blog<\/a> that is fun and a bit silly, especially if you don\u2019t speak French and use the Google translator<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine<\/a>, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.<\/em><\/div>\n
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Today, let\u2019s ponder a broad combination of\u00a0themes from French artist,\u00a0Ouedd. Here, lines of white dots play the part of contrast to densely gathered leaf forms with rich, graduated colors applied in a polymer embroidery-type manner. I also thought this might be called a type of mosaic, but do dense patterns of parts alone define a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[451,4285,4284,4282,4283,4281,1911,4280,12,713,11,835,4286],"class_list":["post-10779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspirational-art","tag-artists","tag-describing-who-we-are","tag-giving-ourselves-labels","tag-labeling-our-art","tag-labeling-ourselves","tag-labels","tag-mosaics","tag-ouedd","tag-polymer-art","tag-polymer-artists","tag-polymer-clay","tag-polymer-embroidery","tag-polymer-mosaics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2O0Lm-2NR","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10779\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepolymerarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}