Beauty in the Dark
October 27, 2019
Uncategorized
When you think of Halloween themed art, do you think fun and goofy or maybe dark and gothic? Do you ever think of it as beautiful? Of course, we all know that there is beauty in all kinds of art but holiday and seasonal pieces tend to be more lighthearted and lean towards fulfilling the need for family fun and entertainment or tasteful but not overly obtrusive décor. Halloween, however, is not about being unobtrusive, and although we see a lot of fun and silly things, there is always the underlying theme and the reason for the season … the observance of our connection to the dead.
Halloween, and the root of the name, comes from the Christian observance of the eve of All Saints (aka Hallows, as in hallowed people) Day which occurs on the 1st of November. In Scotland, the word for “the eve of” something is ‘even’, commonly contracted to e’en. And so the name, Halloween, is a mash up of Hallow and e’en.
Although Halloween is the day before a Christian day of observance, it was actually built upon a pagan observance, Samhain, representing the last day of they pagan calendar because, being a calendar focused on the seasonal and agricultural cycles, it was approximately the last day of harvesting, and the bounty of the year’s harvest would be celebrated. Being this was the time of year that folks turned to face the coming Winter, there was a lot of superstition surrounding the day and many came to believe it was the time when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead was thinnest and so it made sense to consider one’s loved ones who had passed on at this time. I bring this all up to show that the origins of Halloween was one of celebration and love for family and friends lost and not born of a fear of evil or the devil as some might assume.
Halloween is definitely my favorite holiday. For one, I like that we take a day to address and symbolically stand up to our innate fear of death and darkness. Death is a part of our cycle of life and without it, how well would we appreciate the days we have? We are physiologically wired to avoid and dread death, of course, otherwise we’d not likely have survived very long as a species. (As it is, we have dummies taking ridiculous risks for selfies and adrenaline junkies just taunting the grim reaper. What we be doing if we had no fear of our demise?) But it awaits us all so why not face its existence and embrace that it makes our every moment more precious? Sorry I got a bit heavy there! Moving on …
Another reason I like Halloween is that people get so dang creative. From home decorating to lawn displays to costumes to self-adornment, this feels like the holiday that most everybody has tried their hand at creating something of their own. Craft stores, fabric stores and thrift stores are mobbed and people get excited about making their ideas a reality. I love that energy.
Another huge reason for my love of this holiday is that we see a lot more of the dark side of beauty circulating through art, fashion, and décor. There is beauty in all facets of this world of ours and the dark side is no exception. So, in the spirit of this season, let me show you some of the beauty being created on the darker side.
The Dark and Lovely Arts
When you opened this post, did you cringe or think “ew” at the sight of the skull adorned journal cover, or did you react with appreciation and a desire to take a closer look? Skulls are creepy, I’ll give you that, but it’s mostly because of what they represent. You can find similar lines and forms in plants and geological formations and those we think are amazing because they don’t remind us of our final days. I think you have to do something a bit different with a skull to get people to look beyond the symbolism so they can gain appreciation for what it actually is—the formation of bone that is the base for the human faces we know and love.
Poland’s Alexandra ClayMaiden chose a difficult, but much more interesting angle, than the standard skull, to create her bas relief sculpture on the journal cover that opens this post. The three-quarter view allows Alexandra to create flowing lines and elegant forms not usually associated with skulls as well as more of a sense of movement with it being tilted. Straight on or profile skulls look both still and, well, dead. There is a liveliness here that makes these rose adorned bones take on a marvelous splendor.
As morose as the death’s-head hawkmoth appears, the beauty of the colors and, in particular, the textures, especially in this piece by Julia Galisina, are easy to see if you ignore the skull pattern. If it weren’t for the symbolism, the look of this work would be simply a gritty beauty all about the innate color sense of mother nature as interpreted by Julia. But with the skull on the back of these moths, and one exaggerated by the artist here, this moth carries a symbol of our dreaded end, which may be hard to get past. I think the lovely detail and colors do, however pull us past that symbolism to focus on the beauty of this work. I am grateful when an artist can show us that something is more than what it symbolizes.
And of course the Raven, with it’s black plumage and scavenging ways has long been a bird people have been wary of but this time of year, it gets to share a spotlight. Edgar Allen Poe didn’t help their image, being referred to so prominently in his famous poem. Melissa Terlizzi, however, does them proud with this beautifully textured, sculptural rendition complete with a ruffled and unkempt look one often sees in wild ravens. Although head feathers are not usually so ruffled, I really like the artistic choice to make them more dimensional and heavily textured, bringing your eye to its head and onto the eye of the raven in the process.
Ok, this next artist’s work completely creeps me out but I also can’t stop looking at it. Skink Chen creates some of the most beautifully disturbing sculptures, mixing human forms with and insect and reptilian components into create highly unusual creatures that would be easily fit in any otherworldly nightmare. However, the graceful lines and delicacy in the details makes them things of beauty. They just feel like they are going to be dangerous.
Isn’t it interesting that something most people will find utterly creepy, like tentacles, especially those wrapped around your neck, can end up looking like an elegant kind of lace, simply by changing the colors to pure white? This necklace, as best as I have been able to gather, is actually part of a wedding jewelry line. Chelsea Komschlies just thought it would be popular since beach themes are so prevalent in weddings these days. I was thinking HP Lovecraft and other fantasy fans would jump on something like this for their fan based weddings, which are also popular these days. But mostly I picked this for you just to consider what one single design change–color in this case–can do to take something from purely creepy to disturbingly beautiful. Or just beautiful, for those who have a keen appreciation for sophisticated cephalopods.
Ok, so, we’re not going to get through this holiday with out at least one good laugh. Mr. Barghest takes creepy to hilarious heights with these pieces (I think they’re magnets). There is a lot of funny and even cute Halloween themed work out there but having a refined style like this brings the imagery alive. The uneven placement of teeth, the slight cross of the eyes and the antiqued texture carries the goofiness in designs that are well balanced and skillfully sculpted.
Preparing for the Hallows
So I am just back from traveling for nearly 4 weeks, which was weird because I was originally only going to be gone just over 2 weeks. It was supposed to attend 2 weddings and do some visiting with family and friends with a couple days dropping in on the house I rent out to friends there in Colorado to make a couple small repairs. But, you know … best laid plans don’t hold. The house needed a lot more than a faucet replaced plus things got slowed down when my assistant became ill so I was doing a lot more business work than expected, hence the delay in returning home. But I am here now, still without an assistant (seems to be the year of taking breaks to attend to one’s health, which is a good, if difficult thing) but getting back into the rhythm of things. I still have that darn backsplash to finish so that is on tap this week. Plus I should have a real update on the magazine and some cool news on new projects we have decided to get going on in the very near future. Still ironing a few things out so give me a couple more weeks and thank you so so much for your incredible patience with me!
While I was in Colorado, I got to hang with a couple of my favorite polymer people. Here is Christi Friesen, Debbie Crothers, and I creating our own little red hat society in one of our runs through a Denver thrift store.
The next day we saw Christi off to Tennessee then Debbie and I wandered around an area in northwest Denver dubbed RiNo (River North) and saw all this incredible stuff and more!
Oh, the beauty and laughs you can find just getting out and about!
Well, I hope you all have time to enjoy and admire a little beauty on the dark side and more than a few laughs this Halloween week. I’m off to enjoy some overdue California family time carving pumpkins and watching old holiday appropriate movies with some of the nephews before heading out to check out the creatively, and sometimes insanely, decorated haunted homes of a few of our like-minded friends. I wish you all treats and no tricks this week and tons of creative time!
A Bit on Art and Craft
October 20, 2019
Uncategorized
My apologies that there was not a blog this Sunday morning. A confluence of unfortunate circumstances got in the way. Working while traveling is a bit of gamble but at the end of this trip, I have found that I am short an assistant for the time being and I have had some unexpected family issues to attend to among a lot of little bits of craziness. But … I head back tomorrow! Phew! Looking forward to getting back to a normal-ish schedule and get back to working on some new projects that I will share with you shortly.
In the meantime, since so many of you seem to love the little historical bits I bring up on occasion, here is a great Ted Talk about how and why our society differentiates art from craft and why painting and sculpture are thought of as fine art while jewelry and quilts and the like are called craft. Its rather interesting and, really, kind of silly. Let’s see what you think.
Sunday Serendipity
October 13, 2019
Uncategorized
Are you, like me, one of those folks that just wants everybody to share your joy in creating art and especially your favorite medium? I think my family is pretty tired of hearing about the many wonders of polymer although no one objects to the handmade Christmas gifts. I have, however, gotten one niece and one step-grandchild into it so all my talk has had, at least in part, a desired effect! I just want everyone to experience that same kind of joy that I find in creating with a fascinating medium like polymer.
During this break I’ve been taking from production, I’ve been thinking really hard about how I can best share this joy as well as consider what this community needs and how we can help spread the word about polymer and the benefits of having a creative outlet in general. It wouldn’t really matter to me whether people work in polymer or some other medium, as long as they have the chance to discover how creativity, in whatever form it takes, can enrich their lives. But, since I am so integrated into this community and would like to see it stay vibrant, I’ve been pondering ways to increase our reach and bring in some new blood or at least get other artists interested in using polymer in addition to their primary medium.
To that end, I have been researching and talking to various non-polymer specific outlets to see how we might be able to increase polymer’s exposure. My first successful foray this round was with the Craft Industry Alliance with an article I wrote on the possibilities of polymer clay, their first on the medium, published on their website early this week. You can see it at the link here.
I’m excited about this because polymer has such a potential to add truly unique and inexpensive additions and accents to so many other types of art forms. And you just know that some of those people will be complete converts before all is said and done. I was a sporadic fiber and found objects artist before polymer was put into my hand. Actually, come to think of it, that happened in the very room I’m sitting in right now in Aurora, Colorado, almost exactly 13 years ago. My polymer centric path was nothing I could have envisioned back then, but then, oftentimes, the best things we end up with in our life were not planned.
That’s why I like to encourage serendipity as often as possible. Magazines are a serendipitous source of information in that, although you know you have an interest in the subject, you don’t know what you’re going to get out of that publication until you open it up and flip through. The opening image of this post is of a bracelet by Jill Palumbo who, some 8 years ago, opened The Polymer Arts Winter 2011–Education issue and found my article on a wax impression texturing technique, shown here with the wax and polymer clay impression made from it. She fell in love with it. The bracelet shown above is from 2018 using the same basic technique although she has taken it much farther than I have and has made it her signature technique. And that happened by just opening a magazine with no expectations.
Same goes with this blog. You don’t know what I’m going to talk about each week but I hope, on a somewhat regular basis, you find something that gets you thinking and helps nudge you onto a path where you find more and more joy and fulfillment in what you do and create.
Inviting Serendipity
To that end, while I am here in Colorado, embroiled in the fun and frenetic event that is my baby sister’s wedding while visiting with family and friends including the coincidentally present Debbie Crothers and Christi Friesen, all on the one weekend, (and thus my time for research and pulling and prepping photos and all that has been severely limited) I am going to suggest that you consider pushing your creative boundaries a little this coming week by going out and finding serendipitous inspiration around you. Here are a few suggestions on how to do that:
- Play with the medium that you’ve never worked with before. Take a stroll through a local craft store (because that’s always a fun thing anyways) and pick up something unfamiliar that catches your eye and see what you can do with it.
- Go to your local bookstore or newsstand and find a book or magazine on a craft or art form you haven’t worked in and flip through it. If something really catches your eye, buy it and try it.
- If you don’t have time to try a new thing, at least try to photo hunt. Photo hunting requires nothing but looking around for things that you find interesting and taking pictures of them with your phone camera. Aim to take at least three photos a day (although more would be better!) and then when you are next in the studio take a look at the pictures and see if you can integrate textures, forms, lines, colors, or whatever caught your eye, into a practice piece or even into your present work.
- Write about your work. This doesn’t have to be poetic or sound like a museum catalog, just write about how it makes you feel or the concepts behind where your ideas come from. Working visually often means working instinctively and so you may not be identifying what you are doing with your artwork. By writing about it, you can really define and illuminate your approach and why you’re doing it which can give you more focus and success as you move from one project to the next. If you find this helpful, spend 5-10 minutes every day before you sit down to your studio table writing down your thoughts about your artwork as well as what you want to accomplish that day.
- Collaborate! What other artists do you know and admire? Sit down to tea or coffee or have a Skype call with them and see if you can’t come up with something that you both get jazzed about. The conversation should be enlightening and invigorating even if a collaborative project is not the result.
Serendipity … It’s Up to You Now
So, again, my apologies that this post is a bit spare on images but hopefully these suggestions fill your mind with ideas. You can start right now. Turnaround and take a picture of something near you or walk outside and find something to photograph. Call up an artist friend for that cup of coffee and talk of collaboration or head on over to the craft store to find a new and invigorating publication. These are small things, but they could end up changing your entire life. A random discussion with a friend is what brought me to polymer. What moment or event brought you to polymer? There may be another great discovery for you out there—just open the door to your own bit of serendipity.
Today I’m off to spend time with family and friends and then show off my previously adopted state to Debbie Crothers. I will take lots of pictures! Maybe serendipity will drop something amazing into my lap while I’m at it!
Creative Courage (and Survey results!)
October 6, 2019
Inspirational Art
Do you consider yourself an artist, an artisan, or a hobbyist when it comes to your creative work? You might remember a similar question being asked on the recent survey we sent out (and for the curious, I’ll reveal some of the results at the end of this post.) Does the question make you stop and consider how you see yourself or maybe what those terms actually mean? Or did you answer that question without hesitation? Personally, I really dislike labels, but they are necessary for us to group and categorize the many people we meet and learn about. Our brains simply can’t file everybody in their own little space in our heads. It would be like throwing all your beads in a bucket and then hoping you can find the one you want when you need it. So, we have labels for others as well as ourselves. The label for ourselves gives us a way to identify our “tribe” – those people that approach their life or work in a similar fashion or think or see the world in a similar way.
Of course, to group ourselves with others we have to have a common definition, but definitions related to creative and skilled practices can be so extremely vague and wide ranging. This is, in part, due to the history of the concept of art and artists themselves. Did you know that the idea of an artist as a respected individual with skill and expressive intention was not a solidified concept until the early 19th century? Early on, among the ancient Greeks for instance, people who created in what we now think of as the fine arts, such as sculpture and painting, were often thought of as lowly craftspeople, not much better than slaves. The word “artist” didn’t even exist.
Even after the word “artist” came into use in various parts of the world (circa 1507), it only helped to define those crafters that were highly skilled. That which was called art was not produced as a product of self-expression but was largely created in the service of organized religion or government, quite frequently as a kind of propaganda. Art as a form of expression, an extension of the creator’s unique view of the world, and created for its own sake, was not a well-formed concept until early in the 19th century. That’s a mere 200 years ago! How crazy is that?
Nowadays, we play with the idea about what makes one an artist. I am all for including the requirement that it is an act of unique and intentional personal expression but, as most people proclaim, it’s really up to the individual as to whether they want to call himself an artist or not. However, I don’t think one has to have a certain level of skill or experience, they don’t have to sell their work, or have the value of what they do be confirmed by others. When it comes down to it, I think the only thing that matters is that an artist is willing to put a bit of themselves out into the world, bare their soul some, and share themselves with others.
Because art involves a bit of personal vulnerability, it does take an immense amount of bravery to keep producing, growing, and discovering. Even if you don’t show your work to others, isn’t it a tiny bit scary to sit down and work on something new, not knowing if you’ll create something you find successful? We don’t like to fail, even when we are the only ones judging it, but trying (and failing sometimes, maybe a lot of the time) is the only way we can get to the point of creating something truly satisfying and accomplished.
But even then, even when we create the most magnificent thing we can imagine, we will want to keep at it, to try something new even if just to tweak our best successes, and that takes more brave exploration. I think that being an artist is, in large part, about constantly striving, and regularly failing, but calling up the courage to keep trying regardless.
Why do we put ourselves through such torture though? Because when we create something wonderful, that is uniquely our own, there is just no better feeling in all the world. And you know, those times you don’t succeed are really what makes the successes so intensely satisfying. We just can’t fully appreciate the highs without experiencing the lows. It’s the contrast between them that makes it feel so good when we get it right!
So, this week I wanted to share with you the work of just a few people who are really putting themselves out there, looking honestly at themselves and their work, even though it’s scary. Being brave doesn’t mean that you’re not afraid. Being brave means you do it even though you are afraid.
Brave Artistic Souls
There are several Facebook groups that invite and encourage crafters and artists to share their work and ask questions. It was in one of these groups that I saw this beaded pendant from Amy Jamroz posted with a note about this being part of her quest to create work that she really enjoys making. She was very honest about her fear of moving forward with these new changes. It’s hard enough to try pushing yourself in a new direction but it has to be more nerve-wracking to share it.
First, I want to applaud Amy for posting in the “Polymer Clay Success” group about her journey and her fears. Just that inclination shows a tremendous amount of dedication to her work and herself as an artist. You can definitely see the joy and confidence in what she’s doing now in the color choices and the skills she’s gained with her dedicated focus.
Israel’s Yudit Yitzhaki was one of those brave folks who sent me links of her work directly. I do get this a lot but, to be honest, most of the time, it is from people quite new to the material, people who really need to invest in their work a bit more by putting time into honing their skills and finding their own beautiful and unique voice. It can be quite a long and bumpy road, and I do know how enthusiastic one can be when the polymer addiction first sets it, but we all need to take the time and invest in our creative self before putting new work out there. Remember … the internet never forgets so you want what you post, or ask others to share, to be something you believe you will be happy to have others see a decade from now. Don’t rush it. The thing is, once someone’s skill and voice have come into their own, chances are that others, upon recognizing a unique and passionate voice, will do the sharing and promoting of the work for them.
The work Yudit sent me was obviously already there but I think coming from a non-English speaking country, it was harder to break into the very active English sector of our community. So, sending her work to me and others was a good idea. She has such brave and bright sense of color and her obvious love of the world around her where she lives in Israel, just jumps from the work.
Back before EvaMarie Törnström made such a tremendous breakthrough in her art, I had an email conversation with her about her Malta horse, seen below, which I also blogged about in January of 2015. My then assistant, Paula Gilbert, championed her work for consideration for the magazine but I was hesitant to do so, not because I didn’t think it had merit but because I felt like her previous work was not quite there but the Malta horse was amazing and I wanted to hold out a bit and see where she was going with that.
I wrote her to express my thoughts and yes, she was thinking about heading in a new and exciting direction and within a year she came out with some of the most expressive animals sculptures I’d ever seen. I could tell from our email conversation that she had been a little uncertain about the new direction although I wasn’t sure why, but she did the work and really let her own voice shine and the response to her new sculptures was so very enthusiastic. I am so glad that I listened to my gut and waited to feature her a year later when we could show her very emotive horse sculptures, like the piece this post opened up with, that she is so well known for now.
Now, is there something you have been hesitant to try or a new direction in your work you’ve wanted to explore or maybe a change in your art business that gets you excited? If so, why haven’t you started down that road?
Sometimes we are fearful for good reason and that emotion always warrants a bit of consideration before jumping in but if you feel driven to do it, don’t let the fear hold you back. We have to take some risks to make progress. I find it helps to ask, “What is the worse that can happen?” Usually the worst thing that can happen is that you temporarily fail but can readily get up and try again. You’ll learn more through your failures than through your successes so be open to the learning and go for it!
Thanks for the Survey!
Thank you to everyone that completed our Reader’s surveys. I LOVE to hear what you have to say. Nearly 400 people responded, and a lot of you left custom suggestions which I am still going through, so I’ll need more time for that. However, there were a few interesting results. So, here is a rundown for those of you who are into statistics or are curious about your fellow readers here.
I have had the sneaking suspicion for a while that my readership was no longer just polymer artists and sure enough, 1 out of every 4 readers that answered the survey did NOT identify polymer as their primary medium and half of those folks didn’t even consider polymer as their second medium. That was a surprise but a happy one for me as I do hope what I write, here especially, appeals to a broad range of crafters.
Also surprising was that only 7% of survey respondents said they work exclusively with polymer while the majority worked in a mix of polymer plus another medium, most commonly beads, mixed media, and metal. And the most surprising statistic, for me, was that only 58% identified jewelry as their primary art form. I thought it’d be a lot more! Tons of readers said they worked primarily in home décor, wall art, and sculpture. So, okay … I seem to be speaking to a wide range of artists and crafters here and I am sure glad to do so.
Remember the opening question of this post …. Well, 55% of survey respondents identified as artists, either part-time or professional, which I was glad to see since I think in terms of what artists would want or need when I write these blogs. The vast majority of the other 45% said they were avid hobbyists and much of the design and aesthetic talk is good for those folks as well!
When it came to content, I was rather surprised but encouraged that only about 1/3 of the survey folks thought project tutorials were a must have in what I post and publish. That has not been the case in past surveys where half the respondents were clamoring for them. Is there a shift in the community or in my readership? It’s hard to say.
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I push for people to find their own voice and although project tutorials are a fabulous way to hone one’s skills, it really looks like you all are clamoring to learn more about design, with a good 40% saying that’s a “Must Have”, another 40% saying they looked forward to that kind of thing and absolutely no one saying they didn’t want that kind of information. That was the only category of content preferences that didn’t have anyone say they weren’t interested in it and it had the highest level of interest although learning about other mediums came in a close second. I just love where your focus is, all you beautiful readers!
The only other thing I thought was of particular interest was how many people pay for digital media such as blogs, Patreon accounts, and membership sites. It looks like almost ¼ of you do, even with all the free stuff out there. That is wonderfully supportive of your fellow artists who put together digital online content. It looks like that goes up to about half if you if we include downloadable PDFs and videos. Of course, the majority of people put their money into books and magazines. After all, this is the readership of Tenth Muse publishing but it good to know a lot of you are open to other options that can monetarily support what I do!
I doubt it would be a surprise to you all to hear that over 85% of the folks on the survey access publications and online sources primarily to improve their skills. So, no matter what I do, I will endeavor to help you do that, but I am really going to have to think on what these results mean and how I can help you all get the content you need and want.
As for the drawing winner … Congrats to Judy Santini who is $50 richer! And tons of people are richer in information for taking advantage of the 15% off coupon! If you answered the survey but didn’t get to use that discount yet, give me a few days to get a mailing list together to resend you the code and a reminder.
On the Road
On that note, I need to ask for a pardon as next week’s blog will not be quite the same as I have been doing. Getting internet access during all this traveling, as well as free time while visiting family and taking care of other business, has been trying. I will get you something next week but as you see in this one, there’s not as many examples and I don’t know what I will be able to pull off this coming week as I help my sister get ready for her wedding. On top of that, Christi Friesen and Debbie Crothers will drop into Denver in the midst of that so free moments will be spent sneaking off to commune with my like minding polymer pals. But if you are in Denver next weekend, look into the classes Debbie is teaching at the Great Create. I will try and drop by on Saturday to say hello there as well and maybe I can at least share some photos with you next weekend.
Ok, my design minded, skill honing, courageous creatives. Go forth and conquers those fears and create bravely this week!
When you think of Halloween themed art, do you think fun and goofy or maybe dark and gothic? Do you ever think of it as beautiful? Of course, we all know that there is beauty in all kinds of art but holiday and seasonal pieces tend to be more lighthearted and lean towards fulfilling the need for family fun and entertainment or tasteful but not overly obtrusive décor. Halloween, however, is not about being unobtrusive, and although we see a lot of fun and silly things, there is always the underlying theme and the reason for the season … the observance of our connection to the dead.
Halloween, and the root of the name, comes from the Christian observance of the eve of All Saints (aka Hallows, as in hallowed people) Day which occurs on the 1st of November. In Scotland, the word for “the eve of” something is ‘even’, commonly contracted to e’en. And so the name, Halloween, is a mash up of Hallow and e’en.
Although Halloween is the day before a Christian day of observance, it was actually built upon a pagan observance, Samhain, representing the last day of they pagan calendar because, being a calendar focused on the seasonal and agricultural cycles, it was approximately the last day of harvesting, and the bounty of the year’s harvest would be celebrated. Being this was the time of year that folks turned to face the coming Winter, there was a lot of superstition surrounding the day and many came to believe it was the time when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead was thinnest and so it made sense to consider one’s loved ones who had passed on at this time. I bring this all up to show that the origins of Halloween was one of celebration and love for family and friends lost and not born of a fear of evil or the devil as some might assume.
Halloween is definitely my favorite holiday. For one, I like that we take a day to address and symbolically stand up to our innate fear of death and darkness. Death is a part of our cycle of life and without it, how well would we appreciate the days we have? We are physiologically wired to avoid and dread death, of course, otherwise we’d not likely have survived very long as a species. (As it is, we have dummies taking ridiculous risks for selfies and adrenaline junkies just taunting the grim reaper. What we be doing if we had no fear of our demise?) But it awaits us all so why not face its existence and embrace that it makes our every moment more precious? Sorry I got a bit heavy there! Moving on …
Another reason I like Halloween is that people get so dang creative. From home decorating to lawn displays to costumes to self-adornment, this feels like the holiday that most everybody has tried their hand at creating something of their own. Craft stores, fabric stores and thrift stores are mobbed and people get excited about making their ideas a reality. I love that energy.
Another huge reason for my love of this holiday is that we see a lot more of the dark side of beauty circulating through art, fashion, and décor. There is beauty in all facets of this world of ours and the dark side is no exception. So, in the spirit of this season, let me show you some of the beauty being created on the darker side.
The Dark and Lovely Arts
When you opened this post, did you cringe or think “ew” at the sight of the skull adorned journal cover, or did you react with appreciation and a desire to take a closer look? Skulls are creepy, I’ll give you that, but it’s mostly because of what they represent. You can find similar lines and forms in plants and geological formations and those we think are amazing because they don’t remind us of our final days. I think you have to do something a bit different with a skull to get people to look beyond the symbolism so they can gain appreciation for what it actually is—the formation of bone that is the base for the human faces we know and love.
Poland’s Alexandra ClayMaiden chose a difficult, but much more interesting angle, than the standard skull, to create her bas relief sculpture on the journal cover that opens this post. The three-quarter view allows Alexandra to create flowing lines and elegant forms not usually associated with skulls as well as more of a sense of movement with it being tilted. Straight on or profile skulls look both still and, well, dead. There is a liveliness here that makes these rose adorned bones take on a marvelous splendor.
As morose as the death’s-head hawkmoth appears, the beauty of the colors and, in particular, the textures, especially in this piece by Julia Galisina, are easy to see if you ignore the skull pattern. If it weren’t for the symbolism, the look of this work would be simply a gritty beauty all about the innate color sense of mother nature as interpreted by Julia. But with the skull on the back of these moths, and one exaggerated by the artist here, this moth carries a symbol of our dreaded end, which may be hard to get past. I think the lovely detail and colors do, however pull us past that symbolism to focus on the beauty of this work. I am grateful when an artist can show us that something is more than what it symbolizes.
And of course the Raven, with it’s black plumage and scavenging ways has long been a bird people have been wary of but this time of year, it gets to share a spotlight. Edgar Allen Poe didn’t help their image, being referred to so prominently in his famous poem. Melissa Terlizzi, however, does them proud with this beautifully textured, sculptural rendition complete with a ruffled and unkempt look one often sees in wild ravens. Although head feathers are not usually so ruffled, I really like the artistic choice to make them more dimensional and heavily textured, bringing your eye to its head and onto the eye of the raven in the process.
Ok, this next artist’s work completely creeps me out but I also can’t stop looking at it. Skink Chen creates some of the most beautifully disturbing sculptures, mixing human forms with and insect and reptilian components into create highly unusual creatures that would be easily fit in any otherworldly nightmare. However, the graceful lines and delicacy in the details makes them things of beauty. They just feel like they are going to be dangerous.
Isn’t it interesting that something most people will find utterly creepy, like tentacles, especially those wrapped around your neck, can end up looking like an elegant kind of lace, simply by changing the colors to pure white? This necklace, as best as I have been able to gather, is actually part of a wedding jewelry line. Chelsea Komschlies just thought it would be popular since beach themes are so prevalent in weddings these days. I was thinking HP Lovecraft and other fantasy fans would jump on something like this for their fan based weddings, which are also popular these days. But mostly I picked this for you just to consider what one single design change–color in this case–can do to take something from purely creepy to disturbingly beautiful. Or just beautiful, for those who have a keen appreciation for sophisticated cephalopods.
Ok, so, we’re not going to get through this holiday with out at least one good laugh. Mr. Barghest takes creepy to hilarious heights with these pieces (I think they’re magnets). There is a lot of funny and even cute Halloween themed work out there but having a refined style like this brings the imagery alive. The uneven placement of teeth, the slight cross of the eyes and the antiqued texture carries the goofiness in designs that are well balanced and skillfully sculpted.
Preparing for the Hallows
So I am just back from traveling for nearly 4 weeks, which was weird because I was originally only going to be gone just over 2 weeks. It was supposed to attend 2 weddings and do some visiting with family and friends with a couple days dropping in on the house I rent out to friends there in Colorado to make a couple small repairs. But, you know … best laid plans don’t hold. The house needed a lot more than a faucet replaced plus things got slowed down when my assistant became ill so I was doing a lot more business work than expected, hence the delay in returning home. But I am here now, still without an assistant (seems to be the year of taking breaks to attend to one’s health, which is a good, if difficult thing) but getting back into the rhythm of things. I still have that darn backsplash to finish so that is on tap this week. Plus I should have a real update on the magazine and some cool news on new projects we have decided to get going on in the very near future. Still ironing a few things out so give me a couple more weeks and thank you so so much for your incredible patience with me!
While I was in Colorado, I got to hang with a couple of my favorite polymer people. Here is Christi Friesen, Debbie Crothers, and I creating our own little red hat society in one of our runs through a Denver thrift store.
The next day we saw Christi off to Tennessee then Debbie and I wandered around an area in northwest Denver dubbed RiNo (River North) and saw all this incredible stuff and more!
Oh, the beauty and laughs you can find just getting out and about!
Well, I hope you all have time to enjoy and admire a little beauty on the dark side and more than a few laughs this Halloween week. I’m off to enjoy some overdue California family time carving pumpkins and watching old holiday appropriate movies with some of the nephews before heading out to check out the creatively, and sometimes insanely, decorated haunted homes of a few of our like-minded friends. I wish you all treats and no tricks this week and tons of creative time!
Read MoreMy apologies that there was not a blog this Sunday morning. A confluence of unfortunate circumstances got in the way. Working while traveling is a bit of gamble but at the end of this trip, I have found that I am short an assistant for the time being and I have had some unexpected family issues to attend to among a lot of little bits of craziness. But … I head back tomorrow! Phew! Looking forward to getting back to a normal-ish schedule and get back to working on some new projects that I will share with you shortly.
In the meantime, since so many of you seem to love the little historical bits I bring up on occasion, here is a great Ted Talk about how and why our society differentiates art from craft and why painting and sculpture are thought of as fine art while jewelry and quilts and the like are called craft. Its rather interesting and, really, kind of silly. Let’s see what you think.
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Are you, like me, one of those folks that just wants everybody to share your joy in creating art and especially your favorite medium? I think my family is pretty tired of hearing about the many wonders of polymer although no one objects to the handmade Christmas gifts. I have, however, gotten one niece and one step-grandchild into it so all my talk has had, at least in part, a desired effect! I just want everyone to experience that same kind of joy that I find in creating with a fascinating medium like polymer.
During this break I’ve been taking from production, I’ve been thinking really hard about how I can best share this joy as well as consider what this community needs and how we can help spread the word about polymer and the benefits of having a creative outlet in general. It wouldn’t really matter to me whether people work in polymer or some other medium, as long as they have the chance to discover how creativity, in whatever form it takes, can enrich their lives. But, since I am so integrated into this community and would like to see it stay vibrant, I’ve been pondering ways to increase our reach and bring in some new blood or at least get other artists interested in using polymer in addition to their primary medium.
To that end, I have been researching and talking to various non-polymer specific outlets to see how we might be able to increase polymer’s exposure. My first successful foray this round was with the Craft Industry Alliance with an article I wrote on the possibilities of polymer clay, their first on the medium, published on their website early this week. You can see it at the link here.
I’m excited about this because polymer has such a potential to add truly unique and inexpensive additions and accents to so many other types of art forms. And you just know that some of those people will be complete converts before all is said and done. I was a sporadic fiber and found objects artist before polymer was put into my hand. Actually, come to think of it, that happened in the very room I’m sitting in right now in Aurora, Colorado, almost exactly 13 years ago. My polymer centric path was nothing I could have envisioned back then, but then, oftentimes, the best things we end up with in our life were not planned.
That’s why I like to encourage serendipity as often as possible. Magazines are a serendipitous source of information in that, although you know you have an interest in the subject, you don’t know what you’re going to get out of that publication until you open it up and flip through. The opening image of this post is of a bracelet by Jill Palumbo who, some 8 years ago, opened The Polymer Arts Winter 2011–Education issue and found my article on a wax impression texturing technique, shown here with the wax and polymer clay impression made from it. She fell in love with it. The bracelet shown above is from 2018 using the same basic technique although she has taken it much farther than I have and has made it her signature technique. And that happened by just opening a magazine with no expectations.
Same goes with this blog. You don’t know what I’m going to talk about each week but I hope, on a somewhat regular basis, you find something that gets you thinking and helps nudge you onto a path where you find more and more joy and fulfillment in what you do and create.
Inviting Serendipity
To that end, while I am here in Colorado, embroiled in the fun and frenetic event that is my baby sister’s wedding while visiting with family and friends including the coincidentally present Debbie Crothers and Christi Friesen, all on the one weekend, (and thus my time for research and pulling and prepping photos and all that has been severely limited) I am going to suggest that you consider pushing your creative boundaries a little this coming week by going out and finding serendipitous inspiration around you. Here are a few suggestions on how to do that:
- Play with the medium that you’ve never worked with before. Take a stroll through a local craft store (because that’s always a fun thing anyways) and pick up something unfamiliar that catches your eye and see what you can do with it.
- Go to your local bookstore or newsstand and find a book or magazine on a craft or art form you haven’t worked in and flip through it. If something really catches your eye, buy it and try it.
- If you don’t have time to try a new thing, at least try to photo hunt. Photo hunting requires nothing but looking around for things that you find interesting and taking pictures of them with your phone camera. Aim to take at least three photos a day (although more would be better!) and then when you are next in the studio take a look at the pictures and see if you can integrate textures, forms, lines, colors, or whatever caught your eye, into a practice piece or even into your present work.
- Write about your work. This doesn’t have to be poetic or sound like a museum catalog, just write about how it makes you feel or the concepts behind where your ideas come from. Working visually often means working instinctively and so you may not be identifying what you are doing with your artwork. By writing about it, you can really define and illuminate your approach and why you’re doing it which can give you more focus and success as you move from one project to the next. If you find this helpful, spend 5-10 minutes every day before you sit down to your studio table writing down your thoughts about your artwork as well as what you want to accomplish that day.
- Collaborate! What other artists do you know and admire? Sit down to tea or coffee or have a Skype call with them and see if you can’t come up with something that you both get jazzed about. The conversation should be enlightening and invigorating even if a collaborative project is not the result.
Serendipity … It’s Up to You Now
So, again, my apologies that this post is a bit spare on images but hopefully these suggestions fill your mind with ideas. You can start right now. Turnaround and take a picture of something near you or walk outside and find something to photograph. Call up an artist friend for that cup of coffee and talk of collaboration or head on over to the craft store to find a new and invigorating publication. These are small things, but they could end up changing your entire life. A random discussion with a friend is what brought me to polymer. What moment or event brought you to polymer? There may be another great discovery for you out there—just open the door to your own bit of serendipity.
Today I’m off to spend time with family and friends and then show off my previously adopted state to Debbie Crothers. I will take lots of pictures! Maybe serendipity will drop something amazing into my lap while I’m at it!
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Do you consider yourself an artist, an artisan, or a hobbyist when it comes to your creative work? You might remember a similar question being asked on the recent survey we sent out (and for the curious, I’ll reveal some of the results at the end of this post.) Does the question make you stop and consider how you see yourself or maybe what those terms actually mean? Or did you answer that question without hesitation? Personally, I really dislike labels, but they are necessary for us to group and categorize the many people we meet and learn about. Our brains simply can’t file everybody in their own little space in our heads. It would be like throwing all your beads in a bucket and then hoping you can find the one you want when you need it. So, we have labels for others as well as ourselves. The label for ourselves gives us a way to identify our “tribe” – those people that approach their life or work in a similar fashion or think or see the world in a similar way.
Of course, to group ourselves with others we have to have a common definition, but definitions related to creative and skilled practices can be so extremely vague and wide ranging. This is, in part, due to the history of the concept of art and artists themselves. Did you know that the idea of an artist as a respected individual with skill and expressive intention was not a solidified concept until the early 19th century? Early on, among the ancient Greeks for instance, people who created in what we now think of as the fine arts, such as sculpture and painting, were often thought of as lowly craftspeople, not much better than slaves. The word “artist” didn’t even exist.
Even after the word “artist” came into use in various parts of the world (circa 1507), it only helped to define those crafters that were highly skilled. That which was called art was not produced as a product of self-expression but was largely created in the service of organized religion or government, quite frequently as a kind of propaganda. Art as a form of expression, an extension of the creator’s unique view of the world, and created for its own sake, was not a well-formed concept until early in the 19th century. That’s a mere 200 years ago! How crazy is that?
Nowadays, we play with the idea about what makes one an artist. I am all for including the requirement that it is an act of unique and intentional personal expression but, as most people proclaim, it’s really up to the individual as to whether they want to call himself an artist or not. However, I don’t think one has to have a certain level of skill or experience, they don’t have to sell their work, or have the value of what they do be confirmed by others. When it comes down to it, I think the only thing that matters is that an artist is willing to put a bit of themselves out into the world, bare their soul some, and share themselves with others.
Because art involves a bit of personal vulnerability, it does take an immense amount of bravery to keep producing, growing, and discovering. Even if you don’t show your work to others, isn’t it a tiny bit scary to sit down and work on something new, not knowing if you’ll create something you find successful? We don’t like to fail, even when we are the only ones judging it, but trying (and failing sometimes, maybe a lot of the time) is the only way we can get to the point of creating something truly satisfying and accomplished.
But even then, even when we create the most magnificent thing we can imagine, we will want to keep at it, to try something new even if just to tweak our best successes, and that takes more brave exploration. I think that being an artist is, in large part, about constantly striving, and regularly failing, but calling up the courage to keep trying regardless.
Why do we put ourselves through such torture though? Because when we create something wonderful, that is uniquely our own, there is just no better feeling in all the world. And you know, those times you don’t succeed are really what makes the successes so intensely satisfying. We just can’t fully appreciate the highs without experiencing the lows. It’s the contrast between them that makes it feel so good when we get it right!
So, this week I wanted to share with you the work of just a few people who are really putting themselves out there, looking honestly at themselves and their work, even though it’s scary. Being brave doesn’t mean that you’re not afraid. Being brave means you do it even though you are afraid.
Brave Artistic Souls
There are several Facebook groups that invite and encourage crafters and artists to share their work and ask questions. It was in one of these groups that I saw this beaded pendant from Amy Jamroz posted with a note about this being part of her quest to create work that she really enjoys making. She was very honest about her fear of moving forward with these new changes. It’s hard enough to try pushing yourself in a new direction but it has to be more nerve-wracking to share it.
First, I want to applaud Amy for posting in the “Polymer Clay Success” group about her journey and her fears. Just that inclination shows a tremendous amount of dedication to her work and herself as an artist. You can definitely see the joy and confidence in what she’s doing now in the color choices and the skills she’s gained with her dedicated focus.
Israel’s Yudit Yitzhaki was one of those brave folks who sent me links of her work directly. I do get this a lot but, to be honest, most of the time, it is from people quite new to the material, people who really need to invest in their work a bit more by putting time into honing their skills and finding their own beautiful and unique voice. It can be quite a long and bumpy road, and I do know how enthusiastic one can be when the polymer addiction first sets it, but we all need to take the time and invest in our creative self before putting new work out there. Remember … the internet never forgets so you want what you post, or ask others to share, to be something you believe you will be happy to have others see a decade from now. Don’t rush it. The thing is, once someone’s skill and voice have come into their own, chances are that others, upon recognizing a unique and passionate voice, will do the sharing and promoting of the work for them.
The work Yudit sent me was obviously already there but I think coming from a non-English speaking country, it was harder to break into the very active English sector of our community. So, sending her work to me and others was a good idea. She has such brave and bright sense of color and her obvious love of the world around her where she lives in Israel, just jumps from the work.
Back before EvaMarie Törnström made such a tremendous breakthrough in her art, I had an email conversation with her about her Malta horse, seen below, which I also blogged about in January of 2015. My then assistant, Paula Gilbert, championed her work for consideration for the magazine but I was hesitant to do so, not because I didn’t think it had merit but because I felt like her previous work was not quite there but the Malta horse was amazing and I wanted to hold out a bit and see where she was going with that.
I wrote her to express my thoughts and yes, she was thinking about heading in a new and exciting direction and within a year she came out with some of the most expressive animals sculptures I’d ever seen. I could tell from our email conversation that she had been a little uncertain about the new direction although I wasn’t sure why, but she did the work and really let her own voice shine and the response to her new sculptures was so very enthusiastic. I am so glad that I listened to my gut and waited to feature her a year later when we could show her very emotive horse sculptures, like the piece this post opened up with, that she is so well known for now.
Now, is there something you have been hesitant to try or a new direction in your work you’ve wanted to explore or maybe a change in your art business that gets you excited? If so, why haven’t you started down that road?
Sometimes we are fearful for good reason and that emotion always warrants a bit of consideration before jumping in but if you feel driven to do it, don’t let the fear hold you back. We have to take some risks to make progress. I find it helps to ask, “What is the worse that can happen?” Usually the worst thing that can happen is that you temporarily fail but can readily get up and try again. You’ll learn more through your failures than through your successes so be open to the learning and go for it!
Thanks for the Survey!
Thank you to everyone that completed our Reader’s surveys. I LOVE to hear what you have to say. Nearly 400 people responded, and a lot of you left custom suggestions which I am still going through, so I’ll need more time for that. However, there were a few interesting results. So, here is a rundown for those of you who are into statistics or are curious about your fellow readers here.
I have had the sneaking suspicion for a while that my readership was no longer just polymer artists and sure enough, 1 out of every 4 readers that answered the survey did NOT identify polymer as their primary medium and half of those folks didn’t even consider polymer as their second medium. That was a surprise but a happy one for me as I do hope what I write, here especially, appeals to a broad range of crafters.
Also surprising was that only 7% of survey respondents said they work exclusively with polymer while the majority worked in a mix of polymer plus another medium, most commonly beads, mixed media, and metal. And the most surprising statistic, for me, was that only 58% identified jewelry as their primary art form. I thought it’d be a lot more! Tons of readers said they worked primarily in home décor, wall art, and sculpture. So, okay … I seem to be speaking to a wide range of artists and crafters here and I am sure glad to do so.
Remember the opening question of this post …. Well, 55% of survey respondents identified as artists, either part-time or professional, which I was glad to see since I think in terms of what artists would want or need when I write these blogs. The vast majority of the other 45% said they were avid hobbyists and much of the design and aesthetic talk is good for those folks as well!
When it came to content, I was rather surprised but encouraged that only about 1/3 of the survey folks thought project tutorials were a must have in what I post and publish. That has not been the case in past surveys where half the respondents were clamoring for them. Is there a shift in the community or in my readership? It’s hard to say.
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I push for people to find their own voice and although project tutorials are a fabulous way to hone one’s skills, it really looks like you all are clamoring to learn more about design, with a good 40% saying that’s a “Must Have”, another 40% saying they looked forward to that kind of thing and absolutely no one saying they didn’t want that kind of information. That was the only category of content preferences that didn’t have anyone say they weren’t interested in it and it had the highest level of interest although learning about other mediums came in a close second. I just love where your focus is, all you beautiful readers!
The only other thing I thought was of particular interest was how many people pay for digital media such as blogs, Patreon accounts, and membership sites. It looks like almost ¼ of you do, even with all the free stuff out there. That is wonderfully supportive of your fellow artists who put together digital online content. It looks like that goes up to about half if you if we include downloadable PDFs and videos. Of course, the majority of people put their money into books and magazines. After all, this is the readership of Tenth Muse publishing but it good to know a lot of you are open to other options that can monetarily support what I do!
I doubt it would be a surprise to you all to hear that over 85% of the folks on the survey access publications and online sources primarily to improve their skills. So, no matter what I do, I will endeavor to help you do that, but I am really going to have to think on what these results mean and how I can help you all get the content you need and want.
As for the drawing winner … Congrats to Judy Santini who is $50 richer! And tons of people are richer in information for taking advantage of the 15% off coupon! If you answered the survey but didn’t get to use that discount yet, give me a few days to get a mailing list together to resend you the code and a reminder.
On the Road
On that note, I need to ask for a pardon as next week’s blog will not be quite the same as I have been doing. Getting internet access during all this traveling, as well as free time while visiting family and taking care of other business, has been trying. I will get you something next week but as you see in this one, there’s not as many examples and I don’t know what I will be able to pull off this coming week as I help my sister get ready for her wedding. On top of that, Christi Friesen and Debbie Crothers will drop into Denver in the midst of that so free moments will be spent sneaking off to commune with my like minding polymer pals. But if you are in Denver next weekend, look into the classes Debbie is teaching at the Great Create. I will try and drop by on Saturday to say hello there as well and maybe I can at least share some photos with you next weekend.
Ok, my design minded, skill honing, courageous creatives. Go forth and conquers those fears and create bravely this week!
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