Welcome to MissouriBendStudio!

This is an online journal of my artistic investigations and a way to communicate about my work, ideas, quandries and queries! I welcome comments and conversation and do hope you enjoy these musings. My artwork is available in my shop MissouriBendStudio on Etsy.com or on my website.

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Monday, February 28, 2011

Practice Random Acts of Drawing

What a saga this weekend was in the studio!  Who said that evolution was a slow process....I zipped from creation to ultimate destruction in almost no time at all!  Whatever I told you on Friday I was all excited about...well I have nothing to show for it, except a big hole in a piece of paper where I cut out the main element....my last attempt to salvage a lost experiment, which turned out to be its ultimate death. Although I can't be sure, because for the life of me, I can't even find that part I cut out, which is why all I can show you as proof of this whole endeavor is this:


At the point where I cut this out, I had already begun the destruction of the piece, because I'd determined the scale was all wrong, so I trimmed it at the top and bottom.  Even though I already knew it to be true that I'd trimmed it too close to the bottom of the "mysterious object", I showed it to John, whose first and only comment was, "it's trimmed too close to the bottom"....I knew that, but I was hoping it wasn't THAT obvious.  So then I thought, aha, rather than attaching some fancy fringe to the bottom (just joking!), I'll just cut this strange form that most closely resembles a chrysalis, and release it from this page altogether, which isn't working in the least and I'll give it a new life some other way. I did that and I swear that thing must have hatched and flown away, because I can't find it anywhere! Who knows and who cares where it is now...I've glad to be done with the thing. However, I must tell you that I'd spent a lot of time, sewing a gazillion soft lavender beads on that little form, along with the countless stitches and the pattern of punched holes.  Enough said....about that anyway.  Easy come, easy go, as they say.

So, the thing that I was most enamored with in that disappeared form is that it started out just as a plain sheet of Japanese paper dipped in beeswax. I had another nice little square of that in front of me on the desk....what would happen if I just crinkled that up, which I did immediately and to my delight found myself confronted with the most beautiful marks and I saw them right away as random acts of drawing.  I felt at home....I was back inside myself, speaking my own language....and I saw that with my failed experiment, I'd been trying make something sleek and elegant, but it never had that quality....but here right in front of me, were elegant marks made just by crumpling a piece of beeswaxed paper....so random, so beautiful....here's most of that sheet still intact below.  I envisioned using bits of the page here and there for collage and once again, my hands were quicker than my head...I began tearing it apart.


In the end, I went back to making the work I'd been making...a few Spring Meditation drawings and another Botanical (or is it some animal form?) Specimen.  Don't we always just come full circle!

Spring Meditation no.5

Spring Meditation no.6

Spring Meditation no.7

Botanical Specimen no.4
text reads: this or that or the other thing


I was inspired by the notion of practicing random acts of drawing to make a treasury with that in mind.
Here's a link to the treasury that is full of inspiring works...at least to me!!!


See you tomorrow...I encourage you to practice some random acts of drawing...or look for them...they are everywhere around you!

8 comments:

  1. I'm pleased to hear it's not just me who ends up with nothing sometimes! I seem to be very good at washing all my paint away or rubbing holes through the canvas when I'm not wanting to! Creating space, I call it!

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  2. Oh Patti what a saga! I really hope that you find that missing beaded piece somewhere. What is it about forcing things trying to control pieces that we need to keep relearning? I love the crinkled paper and I think Spring is springing beautifully. We are in central Australia desert at the moment and it is definitely hot summer here! Keep playing, go well.

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  3. Patti, don't kill me but I sort of like the cutout version of the piece that gave you so much trouble! Big fan of "negative space" I am...and the idea that the chrysalis is gone, but the outline of where it hung remains floating in space...

    Your meditations are lovely - soft and fleeting like tiny spring blossoms. Welcome to the month of March!

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  4. It doesn't look like you had too bad a day in the studio, four finished pieces sounds good to me! Number 6 reminds me of cacti, which I've got a bit of a thing for1

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  5. Annie...oh, you're not the only one! I am sometimes very frustrated by the roller coaster ride of the creative process....but that's just the way it goes! No one said it would or should be easy!!! Creating space is a good way to put it.

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  6. Fiona...glad you enjoyed my saga...such melodrama!!! All part of a day's work...or a weekend's work. No doubt, we'll all be complaining about the heat here very shortly....I know you enjoy life, no matter what the season. Glad you like the season meditations!

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  7. Gabriella....I agree negative space can be quite interesting...just not a fan of that particular negative space...still haven't located that chrysalis shape...I think it has become a butterfly and flown the coop! Happy spring to you!

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  8. Carrie...yes, I was pretty happy to have come away from the rather strange weekend with some new work in hand...especially that I feel good about! Thanks so much!

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I'm happy to hear from you...comments and questions are welcome!