This is a painting. I am pulling colors and energy from around me. I’ve been striving with this one for months.
New Perspective, continuing
Topography
I have made a base for Poly-means many that will sit inside the steel legs. Except I’m going to have to modify the corners, because they won’t fit. They are too tall. Art, for me is the process, and learning. I have helped build and rehab many houses, so you’d think I would get that “measure twice” rule of carpenters. However, problems and glitches sometimes lead to new ideas. Anyway, most of the topography is made of scraps of plywood. I will insert some pieces of plate glass in some of the gaps. Some are holes, or ruts, like to map of my life. The red wood dye is a Briwax product. I will continue to add more dye to make some areas dark. Because some of the plywood had a hard finish, it barely takes the dye, and other areas are various shades.
Shadows
Poly-means many
I am trying to understand the many sides of this thing. Maybe like a blind person describing an elephant. I have already used steel wire to make the word “open” which I plan to use to wire the book closed. Along with openings and opportunities, there are limits. After I fashioned the word “limit”, Gregg forged it for me, making it flatter and wider. Then we took a photo to show the shadow, and the light. Many of the words I’m using are opposites, but some are shades of meanings. “Limit” may appear on or near the “glass ceiling.”
Catching up
I’ve been experimenting with Poly-means many for awhile. Here are three elements I’m thinking about. The base will be a topography of plywood pieces, dyed red like the small one in the corner. There will be glass elements. Here is a model from foam core for the stacked glass ziggeraut. I know that is not the usual spelling. The third image is cut glass pieces that may find a place in this sculpture.
Siren?
Poly-means many is the project that I am pursuing, even though I did not receive the grant. Gregg is lending some technical help, and as always is a sounding board, but he’s insisting that I learn to swim (make a sculpture) on my own.
I have been gathering thoughts and ideas since Sept. 2021, when my son Forrest visited. He pointed out the parallel curves in my recent paintings. That gave me the handle to write the grant narrative. The steel framework was left over from a first go that Gregg had at Amaranth. I spied it in the welding yard, and we worked together to add a steel base. Now she sits on a rolling dolly in my studio, calling to me as a siren.
