and what kind of ideas will it break loose in my head?
Blur photos of my studio, October, 2017.
and what kind of ideas will it break loose in my head?
Blur photos of my studio, October, 2017.
You may say, and what is it?
Erosion bundles.
I learned about them here on Evelyn Flint Art. The idea appealed to me. So I gathered up some stray scraps of paper, some rusty objects (thanking the Claudia McGill Museum for the loan, by the way, and I will say again, the Museum will be back!), some string, photos…
I put these pieces together into bundles. I didn’t give much thought to the groupings; I just set layers together and tied them up. I numbered them with the idea that I’d remember to look for all of them when I want to retrieve them. Seven, I must remember that there are seven…
Then yesterday I took them outside to my back yard.
It was pouring rain so I didn’t stay out long. Here is an overall view of the location they now occupy, with arrows pointing to the ones in view…
Today, in better weather, my husband weighted them down so they wouldn’t blow away. I have learned that 2-3 months makes some nice artifacts, from Evelyn’s examples. So I’ll keep an eye on them and see what results.
And a thank you to Evelyn for the inspiration!
Here are some more tiles, 4″ x 4″, from that group I made for a friend. The theme of this post will be – how I get the ideas for these tiles.
The general answer is, I get ideas from everything. I think pretty much everything is interesting to look at, so I’m never short of subjects. I take my camera around with me everywhere (it’s just a little point and shoot, nothing special, but I do think it takes nice pictures and it has a good zoom, so that’s why I favor it over the phone camera).
I will take a picture because it’s a pretty scene, because it’s a bizarre scene, because I want to remind myself of something, because the scene reminds me of a different scene, because the people in the scene look interesting, strange, beautiful, or have arranged themselves in a noteworthy way, because the people are doing something interesting or ordinary, because the scene contains cars, buildings, trees, water, chairs, tables, clouds, swimming pools (I like all of these subjects very much) or because it features objects or people in patterns or color combinations I like.
In other words, I’ll take a picture of anything that’ll stand still long enough for a photo.
And that’s just what I see around me. I also get ideas from books I read, conversations I overhear, memories, sounds, something someone told me when I was young, something someone told me this morning, cars, buildings, trees, water, chairs, clouds, swimming pools…You get the idea.
Really, I don’t know where the ideas come from but I’m grateful they choose me.
OK. Enough generalizations. Here is what prompted some of these tile scenes, one by one.
Man in a rowboat – I was doing some collage poetry, taking words from a Hardy Boys book, and they were out in a boat in a storm. Honest, that’s the true source of this tile’s image.
Bird with a red eye – I had been reading about birds in Australia and this is my idea of what one of the birds the author described looked like. Maybe.
Bed – I like furniture and I felt like making a checked quilt and a pillow, so, a bed fit the order. I like reading in bed so I made a bed I would like to read in.
Garden – I received several seed catalogs and they reminded me of how much I like the geometry of a garden, how much I like making little shapes, and so I made a garden. With a couple of spiral trees, because I felt the gardener should have a place to sit and rest.
House – I love to make house pictures. I imagine myself living in each one and put features I would like to have. This house is small, just a little cottage, so I would see it as being a place out near a lake, just for weekends.
Kitchen – I love my kitchen. It looks nothing like the one in this tile, but it’s the spirit of the thing – I love being in a kitchen. I would like to have a black and red tile floor like this one, maybe in that lake cottage I mentioned above.
Well, that’s the short tour. Anytime you ever want to know what prompted an artwork, just ask. Be ready for some odd answers. That’s what keeps this whole going, isn’t it – finding the interesting in the ordinary?
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