Pushing Boundaries

Pushing Boundaries

I have just passed the one year anniversary of my move to a professional studio space so of course I am thinking about what has happened over the past year.

First of all, I absolutely love having my studio in a busy arts center. I do get interruptions occasionally but I also get amazing inspiration, support and encouragement. I have learned so much about art and the creative process by hanging out with a wide variety of artists including oil and acrylic painters, photographers, jewelers, potters and even a few knitters.

One of the biggest growth opportunities this last year is because Cottonwood Center for the Arts hosts themed exhibits 6-8 times a year. Each exhibit challenges me to learn more about art history and theory. I try to enter as many as possible and even though I don’t always get in the show I learn so much that it really doesn’t matter. I was more than thrilled to be accepted into the abstract and postmodern exhibits this spring.

This piece, Does it Matter? was accepted into the Postmodern show. I and many of the other artists at Cottonwood spent considerable time discussing exactly what is Postmodern art. It is still confusing but I was thrilled to have one of my pieces get in. Competition for these exhibits is pretty intense.  During the show I had quite a few great conversations with viewers about my piece and the question it asks. Great fun. I didn't have good photo lighting for this piece. The background is flat black like a chalkboard.


As you can see my work is changing! I still love collage but am moving away from it to a more abstract expression. I have been working very small; 4" square and 8" square but I just ordered a canvas that is 2' x 8' for a whole cloth piece I have been working on. Being part of a thriving art center has encouraged me to push at the boundaries of my textile art. I can't wait to see where I go next!

To Title or Not to Title

Liz Kettle on the blog today.
As some of my new work becomes more abstract I am re-thinking the need and use of titles. While most of my work is still narrative and based in story some of my newer pieces aren't. I am at a loss as to how to title them.
 

As usual, when I start wondering about something I started doing some research on titles and found some fun stuff like this Abstract Art Titlegenerator. Now, one could have a lot of fun and waste days here!



I also learned that naming art is a rather recent development. Renaissance painters did not title their work. Pieces were referred to under general categories such as the artist, the patron, or the subject. While mid 17th century artist may have started naming their paintings, it seems that art dealers and galleries may be the real instigators of the trend toward titles. They need to keep track of art and sell it after all. Names certainly help with that.


Obviously some work can simply be titled factually as with landscapes/urban-scapes, people, pets, and still life work. However in abstract work titles just don't usually leap out.


On one hand titles make it easier to identify a specific piece of work and to refer to it when writing. Titles can be practical when exhibiting your work, getting the right information with the right piece, ensuring catalog descriptions are accurate and may cause a second look from a viewer after they read the title as they try to understand the meaning of the piece. This is especially true if you use mysterious or sentimental and symbolic titles.

On the other hand, titles can imply specific meaning or suggest what the artist was thinking and attempting to communicate in their work. But, is that not simply telling the viewer what to see, feel and think? Does that leave enough room for the viewer to find their own meaning in the art?

One can identify a series and use numbers like  Thread #298 I suppose. Is that better than simply untitled? Or I suppose I could name it Untitled Thread #298. Each piece has a meaning for me but that meaning may not be something anyone else would ever care about.

What are your thoughts on titles?
Do you want to understand what the artist was thinking or exploring?
Would you prefer to just enter each piece of art with no title to influence your thinking?

Liz

Bricolage Explorations

I recently just finished a class in abstraction with a focus on bricolage. I didn’t really know what the class was about when I signed up but I knew I wanted to learn from Karen Khoury.  I love Karen’s art which is difficult to describe. Karen works with paint but not in any traditional format. She creates art that is both sculptural and 2D at the same time from paint sheets that are rolled and folded much like fabric. 

I learned that bricolage is a characteristic of much postmodern art...also learned a lot about what exactly postmodern art is. Bricolage simply means working with materials readily at hand. Altering them to meet your needs or using them as they are. The DIY and indy-craft movement are also examples of bricolage. It was a great class that gave me permission to follow my instincts and stretch my creative boundaries.

As an artist who works a great deal in collage, I realized that as my art has improved I have been working up to the more honest and authentic style of bricolage. When I started creating stories in fabric and paper I would spend quite a bit of time shopping for the right elements, fabrics and images to tell the story. Over the years I have learned to simply create with what I have on hand.  There is still the temptation to just go shop for something rather than make it myself or use what I have but I have learned that having less control often results in a better piece of art. 

 This piece about my grandmother is a great example even though I didn’t realize at the time I was working in Bricolage as well as collage. The rather loud and not quite matching background fabric is from one of her evening skirts. My grandmother owned her own advertising and printing business and every evening when she got home from work she would change into her evening wear. She had quite the collection of long skirts and was quite fond of both Hawaiian prints and velvet.  I used this orange and yellow skirt with the curving velvet trim because it spoke of her essence and quite honestly, it was available. 

Quite a few times I considered a shopping trip to find a better fabric but that would have taken a lot of time that I didn’t have…and quite frankly I really have enough fabric!  I stitched the orange flower embellishments with silk roving and thread I had on hand, pulled shell bits from my collection and mixed up beads I already had. I even used a bit of orange kitchen lace (aka plastic mesh from fruit and veggie bags) because I had it and it was the right color.

 

A wonderful example of bricolage is the work of El Anatsui a sculptor from Ghana and Nigeria. I have spent a lot of time examining his huge piece that hangs at the Denver Art Museum. Using the metal wrappers that are found on the necks of bottles tied together with copper wire he has created a fabric based on the Kente cloth from his homeland of Ghana. His huge sculptures are breathtaking. You can see more of his amazing work here.

The piece I started in the class isn't quite finished but I promise to show it as soon as it is. It is quite the departure for me and I am very excited about it.