Woven Melodies, Scattered Thought, Art Seeps Through

My thoughts of late are disjointed. Creating pieces which are fractured parts of a whole seems a fitting description ... I have painted this year. Taught classes. I have created singular pinched and coiled pieces of generous proportion which I have signed with my name, rather then the business's signature. I have sculpted birds, and soon I will be gold lustering and applying mosaic to wall pieces. All the while my kids laugh with jubilation and wonder at life. This gift. All the while I contemplate moving to Canada, the attempted stripping of the diversity of humanity and it's multifaceted soul which is the reason we wonder at life, at the variance and expression possible within this fleeting life of ours, shared briefly, our existence later recalled for our actions... and maybe in my case, some pots I made, but maybe not.  

I have wondered if there is still a living to be made, from art, as I apply to more in person events then I have since before 2020. I will tell you there is a craving for community. For coming together in safe spaces and creating something with people. I can tell this from my classes. 

My goal this year is to connect in person. The online space feels like a rat race, my art judged by the machine, graded in 0's and 1s  based on how many seconds a gaze lingers on a 5 x 2.5" screen, thus keeping a viewer tied to a device to sell sell sell. I'm sorry but I want to talk... like, for real. Writing here feels a bit more like that. I want my art and conversation to enter your mind, not just graze the surface of that creased feeling, emotional being we are all capable of being. As I move away from social media, I will retain a presence there. I haven't squared away leaving completely, if that, on nearly all show applications these days, an instagram handle is all but required for acceptance. So I will remain, but with the goal to be real, here, and in person, not there.  

So I'm looking at a calendar, contemplating more summer classes, and even open studios to browse my work between events. I hope you will stop by, and I will be announcing dates soon.

Currently, I am pulling together a loose conglomerant of related works. They have all been created in the last two months, and they are in conversation. My works on paper are color studies, birds perched within floral arrangements. They fed into color studies over pinched surfaces, and spilled into sculptural bird pieces. Delving into work which is not strictly functional has pulled at me for years, as has mixing mediums. It has finally come together with the birds and I hope to bring more sculpture into the work.

The wall pieces above will have gold flecks when finished, and the back will be mirror mosaic, catching the light. Right now they are glazed, but waiting for the heat of the kiln to mature the glaze, shiny, matte... my efforts I hope look like more then child's play.

The coiled pot below was inspired by the florals which it now holds. See the red rim of the pot peeking behind the red edged Picotee amaryllis flowers echoed in the flowers? I was so happy to capture this photo. 

I don't mean to depress in a time which is so easy to feel a weight. Spring, growth, new life arrives, there will be light through the fog. I look to history - which ripples through the present, and artists whose work you may find poignant today. 

Below is a portrait of artist Max Ernst by Hans Bellmer from when they were both imprisoned during the second world war. There are walls built around us, and there are walls which we build.

In more recent times, I have thought of the brave works of Ana Mendieta, a Cuban born artist whose death very likely may have been an act of spousal murder. Her work 'People looking at blood, Moffit', 1973, documents our ability to compartmentalize, to look while yet looking away. I would encourage you to look up more of her work, it is still relevant, and pushes against norms, it celebrates women... it deserves to be honored and remembered. The gift of her art is especially relevant today, coming from a woman who knew what a authoritarian dictatorship is. If you would like to know more of her story, this podcast 'Death of an Artist' is a good place to start.

With that I leave you for now. Thank you for you time, and if you have any thoughts, particularly of historical figures who are inspiring, and especially if they were marginalized, I would love to hear from you.

Today I will be working on glazing, and I would like to have these pieces available in about three weeks time. I hope that you are also working on something which gives joy and imbues meaning. Thank you for reading. -Emilie