Jewelry Relationships
September 30, 2013
Inspirational Art
I am on the road this week and have been for several days previous, so my researching time is limited for this week’s theme. Instead of a more direct theme, I thought I would share my thoughts on things from my Pinterest boards, those poor but extraordinary pieces that I have not yet found a theme for. They must get out, I say!
So for our first pull from the polymer board, let’s look at this piece from Tory Hughes. I adore the work Tory does, in part because she makes me feel better about my constant experimentation in my own work. I like to explore and Tory’s body of work, from the very beginning, has been so obviously focused on discovery and asking the “what if” question. This piece is one of my absolute favorites. I can’t find it on her gallery, but my pin says I got it there. Either way, here we have it.
Now why do I like this so much, with all the rich, intricate texture and designs she has created through her decades of work? Well, let me ask you … are you drawn to it? Are you finding yourself spending a lot of time looking over it’s many pieces? If so, why do you think that is?
I see this piece being about relationships. We have the same shape treated in multiple ways. Even some interior shapes within the shapes reflect the basic tile form or work with it. The symbol of the state of New Mexico (where Tory resides and where I also once lived) and the “+” sign are both the same essential shape of the tiles if you reduce it to a shape with an extension on all four sides. Having lived in New Mexico, I can see the obvious relationship to the materials, textures, and colors so prevalent in what is deemed native art work in the area. The black one with the white graphic markings ended up drawing me in the most, not just because it’s so different, but because it feels personal. It makes me wonder what her relationship is to this particular tile. I have no real guesses, but I do feel like I might be glimpsing a bit of her in that one bead.
Tory Hughes is easily one of our community’s most important artists due not only to the quality of her work, but to her innovations both in the early days and now, the philosophies behind them, and the generous sharing of her techniques and ideas. If you’ve never done so, do spend some time on her website as well as in her galleries to get a better glimpse of this masterful artist and what she does.
Resource for Inquiring Minds
September 29, 2013
Tips and Tricks
I know I usually give you a few words of wisdom from great minds on Sundays, but we were short a day to honor our guys, so I thought today I would bring up a gentleman who was very influential for me. If you’ve seen Garie Sim’s work, you’ve probably seen his miniatures … his really teeny, tiny miniatures. Here is the world’s smallest minion!
Although I love his little mini sculptures, this is not why Garie influenced me so much. It was his crazy experiments. Well, some weren’t so crazy, but they were all quite thorough. His was the first strength test of clay brands I saw. He is also the first person I’ve seen who has tried microwaving polymer, frying it in oil, and cooking it in a pot. He’s worked out numerous ways to rejuvenate old clay (based on age, actual condition, and sometimes brand), distilled how to use a variety of glues with polymer, and has worked with and documented a multitude of ways to work with and cure liquid polymer. His crazy and varied experiments really pushed me to go ahead and try the many crazy things that came to mind, because if some guy in Singapore is willing to pan fry polymer, what could I possibly do that would be wackier?
Are you intrigued? Take a look at all his wild “what if?” experiments, tips, tricks, and, of course, his teeny, tiny creatures and food. Mind you, you might get lost on this very dense site, but it’s quite a fun and very informative trip.
Guys Do Play with Dolls
September 28, 2013
Inspirational Art
Today we’re going to visit with Chris Bivins, another artist that chooses his medium based on what fits best with what he wants to create. Chris is an illustrator as well as a craft artist who works in pottery and makes polymer figures. He will also unashamedly refer to his figures as dolls. Yes, he’s a guy who clays (and plays) with dolls.
Why dolls? Well, in his words: “I’ve always been intrigued with dolls. They have a decidedly eerie quality that stems from the fact that they are really tiny recreations of ourselves or, at least, some part of ourselves.” I couldn’t agree more. So if this piece, Crow’s Gift, is a tiny recreation of Chris, one might wonder about the guy just a tad.
Actually, Chris seems to have a particularly keen sense of humor, so even when his work tends toward a darker aesthetic, I think he is just having fun and enjoying letting out his child self.
Go and enjoy more of his work yourself on his website here.
And thanks to Lynette Yore for reminding me of Chris and his fabulous figures.
Math Art
September 27, 2013
Inspirational Art
Torolf Sauermann is an artist and a mathematician. It would be very difficult to say if he was more one than the other, but either way I do think he may be quite obsessed with what he does. Torolof creates math art–artwork that is formed by playing with mathematics. He is not the only person out there creating math art, but from the sampling I saw, no one does anything quite as intricate or nearly so much of it.
So what is math art? It is art created in mathematically based software programs using things I won’t pretend to understand like topological mesh modeling, parametric equations, and isosurfaces. In essence, these programs (to the best of my understanding) are used to manipulate mathematical models in visual forms. Torolf then has them printed using a 3D printer which, using extremely thin layers of plastic resin, builds the models from the ground up so they can then exist out in the world. One might imagine a piece developed through math might be rigid, but that is not always the case. Just look at this intriguing piece–it appears extremely organic.
I brought Torlof up today not only because he’s an artist and a guy to go with our theme this week, but because he was introduced to our community for the first time through one of our polymer guys, Dan Cormier, at Synergy 2 a few years back. And his work, which you can check out here on his website, also sometimes looks like Daniel Torres‘ hollow polymer forms. I’m sure it’s wholly coincidental, but it is kind of cool to see two very analytical guys coming up with similar forms.
Speaking of Dan Cormier and the things he brings our attention to … over at The Cutting Edge, Dan and Tracy are giving away signed copies of the issues of Ornament and The Polymer Arts that featured articles on The Broken Telephone Project. If you want to get in on that drawing, send them an EMAIL, FORWARD this news to a friend, COMMENT on our Facebook page, or SHARE their Facebook post with others.
Remembering Gwen Gibson
September 26, 2013
Inspirational Art
I interrupt this week’s theme to acknowledge the passing of one of our more influential artists, Gwen Gibson. She passed away peacefully just this past Tuesday.
Some of you may not find her name familiar. She had been focusing on painting and mixed media wall art in recent years so was not front and center in the polymer limelight but her influence has been wide ranging nonetheless.
Gwen started working with polymer in the late 80s and developed ways of working with polymer yet unseen. In her words, “Partly because I didn’t know anyone else working in polymer clay, and partly because I had spent time painting, my work took its own direction from the beginning. My main departure was the use of paint for surface effects rather than the color of the clay.”
Her paint and silk screening work in polymer pushed many artists to move past creating effects with polymer alone and try integrating paint and then other materials into their polymer work. Her philosophy about creativity influenced the direction and ability of many artists to grow their own style and find their own artistic voice. It was also her vision that made La Cascade, the workshop center in France, a reality.
We were lucky enough to have some of her thoughts and influences described and acknowledged in our last issue of The Polymer Arts. The simple but rather moving words i our Fall 2013 issue, written by Ronna Sarvas Weltman for our Muse’s Corner section (the back page) garnered quite a few comments and notes of appreciation from our readers, some who had the pleasure of meeting Gwen and expressed just how much she touched them with her gentle ways and simple but profound philosophies about creating art.
Gwen Gibson with her 3 wall pieces in the MIPCES exhibition, 199.7 (Image and the above quote from Polymer Art Archive–click image to read the associated article.)
I’d like to suggest we all take a moment to look through Gwen’s gallery, to appreciate what she brought to our medium and because her work, especially if you haven’t seen much of it yet, is still inspiring and beautiful as is the work of any great artist.
Choosing Polymer
September 25, 2013
Inspirational Art
David Vanover is not a polymer artist. He is a jewelry artist. Sometimes he uses polymer. Sometimes he does not. The thing is, when he uses polymer, he uses it well and when it is needed. Although he has worked in more complex pieces in years past, I find his more recent and simpler pieces use a well-balanced restraint that is really to be admired. Pieces like this brooch, with just enough complexity in the polymer inlay to keep your attention yet an open silver shine to pull you out without distracting you from the focus, would be hard to improve upon.
I bring David into the theme this week because bringing up his work gives me a chance to touch on the role of our medium in what we do. Many of us are so enamored with the medium of polymer that we have no desire to work with anything else. Still others find themselves in a purist mindset, where branching out and using other mediums makes us feel like we’re cheating on our first love. For many others, we have limitations in our lives that make polymer the only reasonable choice. All of these reasons are restrictions though and some are not necessary. I only want to put out there that if you feel your vision could be better expressed with the aid of, or wholly through, another medium, you should allow yourself to explore those options–when real world restrictions won’t stop you, of course.
The bottom line is, we make art. What we make it from is not important except when it comes to the material being able to support our ability to express ourselves. After four decades of exploring a myriad of ways and materials through which to express myself, the only thing I have found that is constantly true is that it is the ability to create that matters most at the end of the day, not the material and sometimes not even what was made.
So, does David Vanover belong in a week dedicated to men working in polymer? I think so. He does certainly belong in a week about men who create art and appreciate this one particular medium that has grabbed and held the imagination of so very many of us.
David’s art jewelry can be admired on his Flickr page and in his Etsy shop.
A Perfect Finish
September 24, 2013
Inspirational Art
Seth Savarick kind of comes and goes in the polymer spotlight, and I think he could use more web presence. (Just saying, Seth. Some of us would like to see more of your work!) But recently, between his Synergy 3 seminars and his participation in the collaborative project of the year and its resulting book, Polymer Clay Master Class, he is getting re-introduced to many of us.
The most noticeable thing about Seth’s work, I think, is the absolutely flawless execution and finish. He works in both very contemporary designs and designs with the influence of ancient Japanese cultures, such as this inro.
Right now, if you want to check out more of Seth’s work, your best bet is to get the above mentioned book (which you will want for more than a view of Seth’s work) and check out his biography and images on the IPCA pages from this year’s Synergy 3. In truth, he does have a website under construction here. Let’s all give him some more encouragement to get that up and done!
The Guys Have It
September 23, 2013
Inspirational Art
I’ve had several conversations recently about the ratio of men to women working in polymer. I’m not sure I’m really the authority on the subject, but we do know it’s small. I seem to recall that Cynthia Tinnapple and Judy Belcher pulled up a statistic at Synergy 3 but I can’t recall the exact number, only that we are an overwhelmingly female-dominated art form. That poor handful of guys!
So this week, I thought I’d highlight a handful of our guys, trying to stick with the ones that don’t get seen around quite so much.
First, for your pattern- and color-viewing pleasure, we have Adam Thomas Rees. His work is similar to that of Jon Anderson, who we have featured on here and in the magazine; but for the most part he works on a larger scale and the focus is more on color rather than controlled patterns.
I can’t say if Adam was influenced by Jon or if they individually came to work in cane-covered animal forms separately, but I think I see some influence by other men in polymer here. At the very least, there are some canes that look quite a bit like the the mica-shift canes of Dan Cormier. Maybe its just that these guys are all sticking together!
If you know of any guys in polymer (or are one of them!) that aren’t getting the attention you think they deserve, write me at sbray(a)thepolymerarts.com with a link to their work, and let’s see about getting them highlighted this week!
Humans Elevating Nature
September 22, 2013
Ponderings
When I started researching the theme for this past week, I jumped over to the online thesaurus and was surprised to find that the synonyms for “man-made” were all things like “fake”, “counterfeit,” and “false”. There was no synonym that celebrated the genius of human creation, that referred to things made by man as positive. How silly is that? Man-made is not a bad thing, not when done with care and awareness.
So here is a quote to counter that negative sense of man-made:
Today we visit Spain. This is one area of Western Europe that truly does revel in heavily saturated color, and tends towards more contemporary design. Miryam Garcia is not an exception to this impression I have. She’s done a lot of exploring over the last few years, not unlike the first two artists we looked at this week. She goes back and forth on the color palettes, working in naturally-inspired muted tones or limited palettes for a time, then suddenly bursting into color. I think her color sense, especially when she pushes the brightness, really shines. This recent brooch is a great example.
Contrast is a consistent and well-used theme here. With blue backing both its tertiary yellow and complementary orange, rough and uneven crackle interrupted by smooth domes, and large, squarish shapes giving up the focal interest to the round accents, we have quite a bit to draw our eye and hold our interest.
Miryam has created a few pieces that tend towards this very thorough design but I think this is definitely her best work yet. If you are interested in looking through the visual history of yet another interesting and exploratory artist this week, take a look at both her Flickr stream and her blog.
Much of the lore surrounding the mythical beings of the forest that we are familiar with today, such as faeries and elves, comes to us from Western Europe. The German lore is particularly colorful, influencing many accomplished artists and writers in Europe through the ages and certainly today. You may not presently believe in faeries and elves; but perhaps after peeking in on the work of Germany’s Tatjana Raum, you will wonder if she didn’t find inspiration and models for her pieces in some secret part of a deep Germanic forest. The amazing detail and wonderful expressions on these two creatures made me halt when I saw it. These are so realistic-looking for beings that are not supposed to exist.
Expressive faces are Tatjana’s specialty. Besides her figures and art dolls, she has these amazing pieces where she blends a face into a piece of old wood, as if she magically coaxed the spirit of the wood to emerge and reveal itself. Although this piece is less about the expression than the connection the artist is making between the wood and the personification of its spirit, it’s still quite emotive and definitely inspires wonder.
Take yourself off into another realm with a little visit to Tatjana’s gallery pages.
Here is another artist who, like our gal from yesterday, looks to be working out her own artistic voice through a lot of varied exploration. The progress seen in her photos on Flickr does show both a natural affinity for the material as well as the kind of growth that, at this point, hints at some of the directions she might take.
This ring, one of her latest postings, looks like the work of a long-time polymer artist. It is very well finished, and combines contrasting textures with a simple but effective color palette of subdued blues and gold accents.
In her notes on this photo, Lillian says “This is not what I had in mind when I sat down at my clay table. Needs further experimentation.” I found this statement a little surprising, since I would be immensely proud of this myself. But of course, not creating as intended means you are looking at something that falls short of your expectations in that regard. However, the unexpected is often times a good indication of where your creativity wants to flow, and it’s probably worth exploring.
You can see more of Lillian’s experimentation and progress on her Flickr page.
This week, I thought we’d counter the theme we did on Eastern Europe a number of weeks ago by doing a sampling of Western Europe. To get a sense of this region’s tendencies, we’ll be visiting European artists from this other side of the continent, all of whom I have not yet talked about on the blog.
The Western side of the continent has a dominant edginess and a lot of experimentation with form. There wasn’t nearly so much of the floral and dominance of bright color that we saw in Eastern Europe; instead, rather subdued or limited color combinations and stylized organic or graphic forms and textures were more common in the work I sampled. I couldn’t begin to answer why this might be, but I find it interesting that although we are a very global community, certain characteristics can be found dominant in given regions.
So this week we’ll start in France with artist Sonya Girodon, a relative newcomer to polymer but an absolute natural with it. In her prior work, you could see the strong influence of other polymer artists; but the work posted most recently is really quite unique. She does credit Christine Dumont’s “Ways to Wow” course conducted on Voila for her breakthrough and Donna Greenberg’s work as her design inspiration, but the end result is all Sonya’s own.
I so love what she says in her profile text on Flickr that I decided to quote it whole here:
“My new Hobby started in November 2011 with a set of Fimo bought for my daughter. I quickly realized that polymer clay is the medium I’ve always dreamt of. What a feeling when the brain shuts down and inspiration overflows into the fingers, hours fly by in seconds, and wonder is created out of nothing.”
Very poetic. And so very, very familiar: a sense of letting go, of letting the process of creation guide the work. That state is what I always think of as the goal when getting into the studio. Not so much the making of a particular thing, but getting to that point where you are working in a flow state and the clay translates who you are and what you want to say as you work. For me, the works that comes out of those kinds of sessions are the most satisfying and true to who I am.
If you are interested on reading more about getting into that very creative state of mind, we touch on that in the Flow article in last year’s Fall 2012 issue of The Polymer Arts magazine. I also recommend a book called Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. But in the meantime, do explore more of Sonya’s work on her Flickr pages. She’s only been at this a couple years, but she has had amazing growth in her work during that time. I find it fascinating to see the progress of someone’s growing artistry and you can definitely see Sonya’s here, going from her older photos to the above piece, her latest work. It looks like she has really come into her own this past summer. She is definitely someone to watch.
Since this was a week of curiosities, I thought instead of a quote to get you pondering on this fine Sunday, I’d share a bit of science I find rather interesting. This is not as useful for an artist as one might hope, but it is about color, and a highly favored one at that. And its just fascinating, the way the mind and eye work.
(Click here if you do not see the video above)
Crazy, right? Well, pink is still there for us to create with. It just now holds a bit of a special place in my mind, especially now that I know it’s all in my head!
This was actually the first piece I found that made me go “Oh wow! I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like this in polymer!” Well, it’s not all polymer, but I still thought it was a wonderful piece by a primarily polymer artist with a composition worth talking about. This container was created by the ingenious Fabiola Perez Ajates, simply known to most people as Fabi.
The body of this piece is actually paper-paper streamers, to be exact. Many streamers, rolled up tightly into a disc, then pressed from the center to expand into tapered shapes like this one here. What I enjoy so much about this piece is that it is a container, but on top these random red balls are emerging and escaping down the side of a vessel made for holding things. It’s a nice ironic juxtaposition between the function of the objects and the imagery. The top of the paper lid, indented and tilted as well as being inherently striped, also makes it feel like the balls were spinning in the concavity before being spilled out, so there is quite the sense of moment with these very simple additions to the paper shape.
Fabi is another explorer-type artist. She has quite the collection and variety of work on her blog and Flicker pages.
Steven Kolodny is one of my favorite jewelry artists, not just because his work is mind-blowing and gorgeous, but because his compositions almost always give me pause. Granted, I analyze composition constantly (thanks in large part to a very persistent art teacher that required 5 compositionally aware quick sketches for EVERY day of the two semesters I had class with him,) but even if you don’t, there is so much going on in his little beauties that you’re bound to spend time with his work if you have any appreciation for jewelry art at all.
This piece is a masterful. Pendants, because they hang at the bottom of a chain or cord, usually give some sense of downward movement. This piece, however, definitely imparts a sense of floating upwards, which seems odd if you look at the individual elements. Can you identify how these components work together to give that sense of upward movement?
Normally, anything that is arrow-like would push the eye and visual movement in the direction the arrow shapes are pointing. We have four dominant arrow shapes–the two stones, the bail, and the V shaped base–as well as a structure that is heavier towards the bottom; but still, the visual movement is up. There are a few reasons for this. First, the curvy lines with the diamond tips are like steam or reaching vines and are also somewhat arrow-like, so they counter the larger arrows a bit. Then the stones, attached to the center line only by a small point or single sidee, do not sit on the bottom of the structure or even touch the base V shape on any side. It’s as if they detached from its confines, and are rising out of the cup like space. Finally, the V shape has opposing arrow shapes in its long,tapered sides, redirecting us upward as well. So even though there is an overall sense of upward movement, the visual cues should have your eye wandering down and up, covering the entire pendant. You see and take in every element in the piece. What a great composition.
There is a ton of eye candy to see on his site today. Be sure you don’t have a lot to do in the very near future, as you might get lost for a while in Steven’s work. However, I could not find my favorite pieces of his online, but they are in print. So if you do not already own the book through which I was first introduced to Steven’s work, put Art Jewelry Today on your wish list. (There are three and they aren’t cheap so if you are going to get just one, go with the first one–lots of Steven Kolodny work in that one!) This book contains stunning work and fantastic discussions about the history of various materials, as well as how they are being used today. And yes, they include polymer!
Read MoreTo say that Céline Charuau’s work is unique seems like an understatement. Her work can look rather threatening in form while other times is has a light ethereal beauty. So this piece I thought was quite different, not just for polymer art but for Céline as well; this reminds me of a child’s toy in color and shape, orderly but a little less serious than I usually associate with her work.
It’s not that Celine doesn’t do fun pieces, but the ‘fun’ pieces are either more contemporary or off-kilter . However, the stylized floral shape and the additions reaching out from the base form are pure Celine.
If you are not familiar with her work, it’s about time you were. I’d say. I think you will be surprised by what you’ll find–here is her website and Flickr page to investigate. And yes, the work you’ll see is all polymer with metal and wire–nothing more that I am aware of. She has a bit of crazy artistic genius if you ask me and I think it’s just wonderful.
Read MoreEvery time I visit Cornelia Brockstedt’s website, I just get lost. Her work holds a kind of mysterious curiosity for me. Where did these images come from? Just how does she view the world that she comes up with these unexpected compositions? She has a series called “Street Life” which I find particularly fascinating. There is a mix of organic and man-made in most of it–very much reminiscent of a city street with its asphalt, concrete, and pipes, but among these intentional and planned structures, nature is moving back in to reclaim what once was its territory.
This brooch is easily the most curious of the series. The texture of the emerging vegetation is in all the pieces of this series; but this one, due to the rather aquatic formations, seems more alive and even a little alien. It’s eerie and beautifully fascinating, don’t you think?
And because I can’t resist, here is the other end of the spectrum on her Street Life series. This pendant’s imagery is a bit more easily recognizable–grass growing in between paving stones–which may sound like a rather mundane subject matter; but as you can see, it’s not in the least bit mundane in this presentation.
The other thing about Cornelia’s work is that it shows that she really knows how to take inspiration from other artists and make it her own. She has quite a few pieces listed with credit given to other artists that she learned from; but even though the technique of these other artists is (more or less) apparent, the work is usually quite different from the work of her teachers.
In The Polymer Arts, I decided from the start to focus on technique rather than project tutorials or how-to type articles. These are supposed to give readers new skills and techniques that they can then take to the studio and morph or blend into their own original pieces. Sometimes it is hard to separate the technique from the design when what you learn is taught as a specific project. Well, if you want some excellent examples of how that is done, take a good long look through Cornelia’s website. Some transformations of techniques are more detached from the master artist’s usual designs than others, but they all look to be developed in a way that still reflects something of Cornelia’s aesthetic. And that is precisely what should be done with skills learned in any workshop or from any book.
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