Scraps, Bits and Pieces as Source
Last week I wrote about inspiration. It’s always there, and finding it takes looking around at our surroundings with fresh eyes. Whether it be the urban grit of a city, the organic forms of nature, or whatever it may be that catches your fancy, it’s there for us to tap into at any given time.
I’m always on the lookout for the simple, unsophisticated details of life. I am often drawn to the elements that most people will overlook. I collect them through photographic documentation or by physically gathering any interesting objects I find.
I’m in the studio this week, sorting through these found treasures and scanning them for future use. Each object is attached with a memory, the place it was found, the weather on the day I collected it, the people I was with, etc. Each discarded scrap that I saved holds the hidden story of it’s past life now tied together with my new relationship to it.
These bits and pieces eventually find their way into my artmaking practice. Often they are scraps of newspaper that give reference to language, or notes handwritten by strangers that speak to the unseen human presence. Sometimes they are patterns and textures of walls, wallpapers or other elements that hint at place. Other times they are found objects from nature, a leaf, a seedpod or feather for example. These treasures become my most valuable source material.
When I work with these materials I find myself setting off on an artistic journey that begins with a thought or feeling and continues to develop and build until the artwork takes on it’s own unique personality. Once gathered in the computer, I am able to give them a new life where they are combined with others to tell yet another new story. Finding the unexpected interplay between the source material, and the color, texture and other imagery is what excites me and keeps me in the studio for hours on end.
Where do you find the source materials for your work? Leave your comments here:
Tags: found objects, Inspiration, source material
June 5th, 2008 at 7:09 am
FINALLY time to browse around and visit your lovely new blog. I have been too busy vacationing! That scrap of inspiration is too beautiful and so similar to a personal symbol I like to use on my work — a spoked wheel with a small empty hole. This wheel is my symbol for the Tao verse about “even 30 spokes have an empty hub,” a reminder to find the small, still part of me even in the flurry of work and play and family and friends and life.
So, that is one inspiration: texts, quotes, song titles. Another is the details of the natural world — leaves, textures and colors of bark, sunrises, cactus flowers, spine patterns, waves. I am also inspired by ancient and contemporary symbols: Did you know the octopus is a spiral symbol in Minoan art, (its legs shown coiled) and is related to the dragon and spider, depicts thunder or lunar phases. Here’s the book I’m perusing each morning: AN ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TRADITIONAL SYMBOLS by J.C. Cooper, 1978, Thames and Hudson, London.
June 6th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
As a painter, I’m drawn to what I call “hidden treasures”. Those are the spots right under our noses, beside the highway or right off the path that people seem not to see. Strong contrasts, angles and texture get me going. Many times collectors are quite surprised to find the piece they admire is something they’ve ignored as they go about their day. It’s like sharing secrets.
June 7th, 2008 at 8:45 am
The computer has become an interesting artistic cauldron, has it not? As we gather images and digitize them, they take on a new potential for combination and creation that didn’t exist 50 years ago (or whenever computers weren’t around!). It’s like the new shoebox that we collect the little pieces of our experience in for future contemplation and combination.
One interesting little technique I ran across lately for finding source material is to take an empty 35mm slide mount and move it over pictures in magazines. It’s a great way to find abstract compositions and designs in larger images.