Tag Archives: finding beauty

Finished pieces

A Second Relic

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relic 2

This is the second of three objects that make up the piece I got accepted into the Working Together show. I’d done the previous one first and working with the tomatillo husks got me thinking about turning husks into precious objects.

That made me think of cicada shells that you find on tree trunks, which made me wish I’d collected some. No worries, right? The cicadas were emerging and I’d find one with no problem. Except they’re one of those things that you always run across–until you want one.

Finally one turned up on one of my apple trees so I could experiment with a different kind of husk. Other materials in this piece are a vintage powder puff, beads, cast off silk thread, old jewelry bits, and a gold-leafed button.

Finished pieces

Photography

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Dusty

My parents first gave me a camera when I was four or five. Prior to that, I remember running around making a fake viewfinder with my hands and “taking pictures” with it. Dad developed some of my first photos in his amateur basement darkroom. I have never studied photography, but have learned from excellent photographers especially Calvin Kimbrough who documented life at Patchwork for decades.

Over the last fifteen years I have worked in many different community arts programs in which photographs have provided both a record of the learning that takes place and a compelling reason for people to become involved. I also enjoy using the camera as a way to interact with people. It’s an opportunity for me to observe the children and what they’re doing and to get to know them and their unique characters in the process.

So, have I somewhat inadvertently added photographer to my list of artistic endeavors?

Materials

A Collection of Collections

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Jane and I collect lots of really interesting things–well, things that we think are really interesting. Corn cobs, seed pods, a piece of paper from the street, fake flowers from the cemetery trash, cat hair, Barbie doll accessories found in the street, twist ties, twisted metal from the street, game pieces, pantyhose, unusual branches, bent eyeglasses, tire tread.

Some makes it into our art. Some waits to become art. Some is perfect just the way it is.

For our current show, Jane and I had fun bringing our collections together to fill 90 display boxes of intriguing and interesting items. It left us excited and dreaming about future projects and shows.

Finished pieces

Things to Remember

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Five Things I Want to Remember

Here’s a piece that will be part of my upcoming art show. I thought I’d call it Five Things I Want to Remember. It’s made with fabric trim that was given to me in a giant container of cast off odds and ends, wooden spools of thread that came in other big bins of cast offs, beads, and gold leaf.

A couple years ago, I got a whole bunch of gold leaf as part of yet another big box of cast off art supplies. I’ve enjoyed incorporating the gold into my found object art since then. I like the visual metaphor of gold leafed trash. I like thinking of the layer of gold like the layers of meaning that we all give everyday objects. They’re unremarkable objects, yet we handle them and they become precious to us. This can be good and bad.

The gold leaf can also suggest the practice of searching for joy and beauty in the everyday things around us. The gold adds significance and calls attention to details such as the way that thread wraps itself around the spool or the subtle undulations of a roll of trim as it unrolls itself.

Found Objects, Materials

Fresh Starts in 2013

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Bead Collection

There’s nothing like an upcoming deadline to help me be productive. Jane Case Vickers and I have a show coming up in April at the Krempp Gallery at the Jasper Arts Center in Jasper, Indiana.

This weekend I’m working to make art out of my sister’s bead collection. I had one, too. When we were in elementary school or junior high, we discovered a store in Toledo, Ohio that sold nothing but beads. Our bead collections are the result of hours spent searching through all the glittering cups of beads. We would sort them, string them, resort them, and restring them.

I’m working to find a way to highlight the beauty and value that my sister and I gave to these things of little real value, and through that, broader themes of collecting, saving, creating value, and creating beauty.