New Mixed Media Pieces
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In my perpetual struggle to find time to do art I *want* to do, the past few months have represented a welcome positive turn! I’ve had great fun combining several different media to make things. The relatively recent addition of hammer formed aluminum to my bag of tricks has made it possible to do things that would have been too fragile (or else too thick/heavy) in ceramic. A craigslist ad for old growth fir lumber that was destined for a landfill spurred me to go rescue some of it and turn it into corbel pedestals for several wall pieces. I ran several experiments with marrying materials, and came up with methods for strong modeling and joins, with non-toxic components.
How to patina the unfinished sculptures was by far my most daunting challenge! But my insecurity led me to research color (yet again) and commit more brain effort to grasping the Munsell system for quantifying color—it’s sticking this time and has really helped demystify color for me! I still have a hard time *visualizing* color in my mind, but once I’ve determined what color I want, I feel much more confident I can mix it.
I think using Instagram (I started an account a little over a year ago) may be helping my brain with visualization…flashing thousands of images briefly as I scroll through the daily feed seems to be fostering some new neural capabilities. Fingers crossed, as it’s been a frustrating shortcoming as an artist to have difficulty visualizing color! Fortunately, I can quite easily visualize *how* to make things…and I’m grateful for that and enjoy the process of making very much.
