Thursday, February 9, 2012

Mutating Hobby Plaques





I keep re-working these things. I did finally enter the top two in a juried show, so they are officially part of my oeuvre. My statement for the show:

We all share an innate desire to build things. We gather raw materials from our environment, and we invent new forms. My newest work embraces this ancient drive, with a bit of a vernacular twist. In this series, I fulfill this urge to build, using materials and techniques of the hobby craft genre. I do so more from a genuine enthusiasm for these materials, than for the obvious kitsch angle (although that does play a role).

These “Craft Plaques” explore the aesthetic, narrative, and sensory potential of a borrowed, and vaguely defined, cultural heritage. I'm applying these materials much like paint, using intuition to propel process. I'd like to find innovative formal solutions within these pieces, but I also want to create a sort of new nostalgia, by way of new sensory experiences. Can we be “reminded of” something entirely new to us? Does our shared drive to create, form a common comprehension, one that resonates even from within solo artistic endeavors?

 

5 comments:

M.A.H. said...

Love.
These are great and really beautiful too. You could easily convince me they were made by an ancient crafting civilization.
Rock on.

Nomi Lubin said...

Ooo, number 2, is that where my Tribbles went? http://www.tribbleagency.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/kirk-tribble.jpg

Elaine Mari said...

They are so resonant. Make me remember the feeling of building things with mud and rocks when I was a child and remind me of things my mom had hanging in the house, things made of plaster and shaped like plaques.

I was a part of the crafty movement of the 70's, macrame with rocks knotted in and plaster things made by hand. Everybody wanted to make something. You've taken it to a beautiful level.

Carla said...

I like thinking of them being made by others, that's interesting in how it relates to the Mounts.

Nomi, it was funny to fluff that tuft. It felt ridiculous. Then I found myself styling the tuft yesterday, into points. I used to style the ruff of my cat Barney. He would sit facing me, and let me do whatever I wanted to his fur. I made devil's horns, etc. I was going to make a "How to style a ruff" video, but didn't get around to it.

Those 70s crafts were so wonderful to do, and it seems I had so many opportunities to do them, from my early childhood forward. When I was very young, my siblings and I went to the park everyday in the summer. I went to the kiddie area, which was a small playground with a shelter house full of crafts materials. They staffed it with a supervisor. I made so many potholders.

M.A.H. said...

... an ancient crafting civilization that still uses black backdrop paper.

"likevilla'" word veri.