Adrift. . .

I'm feeling a little lost lately. Spiritually, artistically, geographically. I was productive this week in that I got a lot of paperwork done, made two big trips to the post office, took down my show and accomplished a lot in the little time I did spend in the studio. But I did manage to screw up the third enamel in a row I'm making for a brooch. And I'm not nearly finished with all the paperwork/mailing/thank you notes I need to do. Also, I'm putting off something I really need to do, because I don't want to do it, because I'm afraid. I'm more afraid that it will work out, than I am of it not working out. Which is the far more likely scenario.

Most of my friends are at SNAG this weekend. Or Penland. Or abroad. I'm desparately missing Italy these days, but I'm really ready to go anywhere. I've never been so ready to leave a place, yet so sad about how much I'll miss it. I love North Carolina, but Greenville is no longer a good place for me to be, and hasn't been for some time. It'll be good to get away for a while, I'm just afraid I won't make it back.

But I'm headed to Arrowmont shortly. I finally got my classes a few weeks ago and after some mixed feelings (What the heck am I going to do in a plastics class? Monotypes, ok, guess I have to take my printmaking stuff. YES!!! The Enameled Image with Jessica Caulderwood!!! Awesome!) I decided that I'm ready for it all. Ready to suck up what ever experience I can. I've even got some ideas, which I'll blog about later.

I did a travel journal/sketchbook in Italy last summer that I'm really proud of. And I realized that there's no reason why I can't do a similar thing this summer at Arrowmont. It won't be exactly the same, but why not approach it with that kind of single mindedness of capturing EVERYTHING?

I never do well in these "in between times". I'm better if I have a focus and a goal and a routine. But I think my only goal for today may be to go enjoy the Aurora Fossil Festival.

Happy weekend, where ever you are.

Process Shots of the Week

Sorry for the irratic posting and short absence this week. It just got away from me. Looking back, I can't even tell you what I did, other than teach, go to class and work on stuff for an up coming crit.
I also applied to and was rejected from Rebel, a annual local publication/show. All the work that got accepted (at least in Metals) is all very traditional, and all but one weren't jewelry. Which got me thinking about traditional vs. non-traditional or avant-garde work. Most of the student work here is very traditional and very representational. I have some jumbled thoughts on why certain work gets into certain shows, and why other work doesn't, what defines a piece as good. Mostly I'm begining to wonder how my work holds up on a larger stage, as opposed to the narrow niche of this particular university.

"I Am, I Make, I Believe"

So I kinda stole this idea from brookefuller on Etsy. She's using this idea to promote other Etsy shops on her blog, but I decided to do it just for me, just to get me thinking about what I am, what I make and what I believe in. I tweeked the "make" section, just a bit.

I am: a maker, a student, a lover, a wanna be fighter, a good time, a could have been, an amature ornithologist, a part time printmaker, a helper, and just a person.

I make: rocks, sketches, jewelry, prints, vessels, cards, work, things with string, messes, arrangements of objects.

I believe: in karma, in hard work, in being patient (although it's hard), that everything happens for a reason, in looking and learning, in spirituality, in giving, in making making making, in tasty treats for good pets, in Santa Claus.

So what are you? What do you make? What do you believe in?

Thoughts

I know, I know, you're probably waiting for some process shots of the multitude of things I'm working on, but I'd like to blog about some thoughts I have concerning my work. In seminar yesterday we discussed issues of wearability/non-wearability and what that meant for our own individual work. Here's some thing that I've figured out:

- Jewelry can be wearable, unwearable or wearable but impractical

- My jewelry has always tended to be impractical (I was always aware of my wearability issues, I just now have a better term for it.)

- My current work is wearable, but impractical.

- In order to wear my work, one has to think about what they're wearing with it, where they're wearing it to, and what they will be doing as they wear it. It takes a little bit of thought to wear these pieces, which I like.

- People want to wear my current work.

- I want to be able to make the work I want to make, and have the work look like I want it to look without having to worry about the same wearability issues that have to be considered when designing a production line.

- If the string breaks, it can simply be re-knotted, which ties into not only bad puns, but the concepts of time and change and a recording of time (knot calenders). Also, if the enamel chips, cracks, flakes, that also can relate to issues of time, change and erosion.

-Materials to investigate: kevlar thread, and abrasive cords

Further thoughts. . .

Relationships! It's all about relationships! (Isn't all art about some relationship or another? Our relationship to nature, our relationship to food, our relationship to technology, to each other, to the social organism, to anything, everything?)

Thoughts. . .

Oolitic Limestone (look familiar?)
History/ Determining the past/Inferring the past
Identity/Identification
Time/Geologic Time
Weathering/Erosion = Passage of Time
Relationship of mineral grains indicates formation of rock
Relationship of chemical elements determines mineral type
Our (human) relationship to the earth? To time? To adorment? To the things we wear (dare I say fashion?!)
Collection. Collecting as means to identify/investigate
Collecting as human nature
Stability/Near permanent
The beginning of everything, the end of everything
More later. . . .