Then I woke up in Paris!
When I first started sculpting, I walked into a conversation about me at a snarky actor party and heard someone say "What's the big deal? He makes a face and he puts a thing on top of it's head!"
I really couldn't argue with that, although I felt like there was more to it and I should be insulted by the observation. But it was just an observation...
... and it was true.
But I guess the difference was the way I would see the thing I was sticking on top of the head and the story it would start to tell me when I stuck it there.Tonight's piece is another person who put on the rhinestone cat's eye glasses... and look what happened to her!
Then I Woke Up In Paris! is available in my Etsy store.
Observation is one thing, merit is another. One could observe the waves crashing on the shore and say it beats rocks to sand. Its valid but has no merit for the insight it lacks about a system that has so much else in it. Your heart and mind goe into your art. That is also an observation however it also has merit. Here's another observation, depth of insight depends on the depth of the observer.
ReplyDeleteFrom the processes you have been describing for various pieces, it seems that maybe the blank head comes first, but the expression and uniqueness of the face come from what the thing on top of the head says to you. A playing with shape and form that takes you somewhere, passes through you and back into shaping the clay.
ReplyDeleteYears ago, a "friend" berated an artistic mentor of mine as "a mere craftsman." It got me thinking seriously about the difference between artists and craftspeople. Both have expertise with their respective media. I think that the difference is that a craftsperson (and this is not a slight on anyone; I would call myself a craftsperson in some media) excels more at techniques and materials, where the artist excels more at channeling a spark or vision. It may bring them to new materials with which he or she has little experience, but the spark drives them to learn and realize that vision.
I see that spark or vision in your work. For me, that is the "big deal" about any artist.