sugarpinkrose (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} sugarpinkrose) wrote,@ 2006-02-13 09:11:00 |
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"Pivotal Moment"
When I was in college I took a ceramics classes with Joseph Monk, an artist who has greatly inspired me.
After class one day I was finished with my project and I found myself left with a pile of scrap clay. I was talking with some classmates and as I was talking I began to play with the clay scraps, forming them into a structure that at the time I would not dared to have called sculpture. One by one my classmates drifted away yet I continued to play with the clay,
It was a silly frivolous meaningless piece, I thought. It was not "art". Was it? I almost smashed it. But, for some reason I didn't. I turned it in for firing along with all my "real work".
I was shocked when Mr. Monk not only fired the piece in the kiln along with the others, but he singled me out and praised the piece as interesting and creative.
Really?
Interesting and creative?
It was one of those pivotal moments for me in the artmaking process.
I gave away most of the pieces that I made during that class to family and friends, but I kept that one piece for myself. It represented so many things to me. I think so many people pay crazy amounts of money to colleges every year hoping just for pivotal moments like the one I had.
That piece was made out of fragile earthenware clay. I broke it, accidentally, in the process of moving. When it broke I cannot even explain the sadness or sense of loss that I experienced.
That piece is long gone but the memory of it has lived on to inspire me.
This particular collage was inspired by that sculpture. It is reminiscent of the sculpture in several ways. It is visually similar to the sculpture in both line and coloring (the sculpture was a very linear 3-dimensional form and this collage is also very linear although it is 2-dimensional.) Also, this collage was created from "scraps", although not clay scraps obviously. This collage was constructed from scraps and bits and pieces left over from my other paintings. Lastly, this collage was created in the same playful and frivolous manner- It is not serious "art"- or is it?
When I was in college I took a ceramics classes with Joseph Monk, an artist who has greatly inspired me.
After class one day I was finished with my project and I found myself left with a pile of scrap clay. I was talking with some classmates and as I was talking I began to play with the clay scraps, forming them into a structure that at the time I would not dared to have called sculpture. One by one my classmates drifted away yet I continued to play with the clay,
It was a silly frivolous meaningless piece, I thought. It was not "art". Was it? I almost smashed it. But, for some reason I didn't. I turned it in for firing along with all my "real work".
I was shocked when Mr. Monk not only fired the piece in the kiln along with the others, but he singled me out and praised the piece as interesting and creative.
Really?
Interesting and creative?
It was one of those pivotal moments for me in the artmaking process.
I gave away most of the pieces that I made during that class to family and friends, but I kept that one piece for myself. It represented so many things to me. I think so many people pay crazy amounts of money to colleges every year hoping just for pivotal moments like the one I had.
That piece was made out of fragile earthenware clay. I broke it, accidentally, in the process of moving. When it broke I cannot even explain the sadness or sense of loss that I experienced.
That piece is long gone but the memory of it has lived on to inspire me.
This particular collage was inspired by that sculpture. It is reminiscent of the sculpture in several ways. It is visually similar to the sculpture in both line and coloring (the sculpture was a very linear 3-dimensional form and this collage is also very linear although it is 2-dimensional.) Also, this collage was created from "scraps", although not clay scraps obviously. This collage was constructed from scraps and bits and pieces left over from my other paintings. Lastly, this collage was created in the same playful and frivolous manner- It is not serious "art"- or is it?
