Week 7 - Art (Part 2)

Title: A Swirl of Pits and Stacked Grass

Size: 17 inches in diameter

This piece portrays the unity of nature.

This piece was especially fun to make because of the movement the materials created (for me). I couldn't just pick up a pencil and go. If I wanted straight lines, I had to go look for lines, grab them, bring them back, and repeat when I didn't get enough. One of the things I love about doing 3-D art is that, when I finish, what I remember is the movements of making it. 

When I think about a drawing I've done, I remember using my pencil: drawing the outline, shading the edges, or something like that. But when I think about making, for example, a pile of grass, I think about about picking the grass, slipping the pieces on top of each other, and seeing what my stack looked like from inside. That's one thing that always makes me at least a little sad when I finish a 3-D piece. The inside is gone, lost from human eyes. The feel of wet clay or the the excitement of getting two pieces to balance just right without falling over is gone once the piece has been fired or immortalized by photograph. It sometimes feels almost like the life has been drained out of it.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with how this ended up. I think it looks pretty good, if I may say so myself. Of course, my mind, sculptures are all about the movement of creating them, so I really don't ever know quite how to respond when I finish a piece. ("Do I just let it sit there? On the shelf? ...But can't I do somthing with it?"). ;)