A Place for Works on Paper
One of the big projects I had on my plate for 2022 was to add shelves to my office to store my supplies for doing works on paper.
Back in January I bought the shelves. And then I decided I needed paint the walls first. And then we decided we should swap the hinges to the other side of the door (why oh why do all of our doors open into the middle of room). Which required moving the light switch. Which resulted in kiwi guy smashing a hole in the wall during that process.
Finally in October – after all of my travels for art shows – the room was prepped and the shelves were put in place.
It took several weeks of organizing and now I have a dedicated space for making works on paper and sketching.
All of the supplies are up on shelves so the desk top is available to create color and make marks.
Current Explorations
To start out I grabbed my smallest sketchbook and started working. No real plans but no surprises what eventually came out is related to my Travel Pattern series of textile work.
Circles, colors, lines, movement.
The sketchbook has only 3 more pages in it and then I will go larger.
Eventually these will end up on fabric. But I’m not there yet. Letting things evolve as they need to.
A Mood
One of the things we do in the MakeBigArt community is something I call Look, Connect, Reflect. Using a single artwork to ignite a conversation, we explore art, art history, our own artwork and lives.
This week we will be looking at an artwork by Kandinsky so I’ve been doing some research.
Here are a couple of quotes that seem quite apt to my current work.
“The observer must learn to look at the picture as a graphic representation of a mood and not as a representation of objects.”
Wassily Kandinsky
I think this can one of the more challenging aspects of abstract art. Even for artists. Letting go of what it looks like and embracing something deeper.
I used to teach a class on abstraction and I’m bringing it back next January. I’m excited to review and refresh the material and see how reviewing the exercises brings something fresh to my own work. Enrollment isn’t open yet but it will be soon.
The circle is the synthesis of the greatest oppositions. It combines the concentric and the eccentric in a single form and in equilibrium.
Wassily Kandinsky
Patterns within the circle and those on the outside. Different moods.
