Evolution through process
Emergence, 2020-2021, silk cocoons dyed with tea, coffee, oak gall, sunflower and walnut inks, 120 x 60 inches (installation dimensions variable)
I woke up the morning after the installation of Emergence (read more here), already brimming with ideas. It was incredibly satisfying to see the piece come to fruition in a space. It also immediately presented alternative iterations and created questions for me. I see this piece taking over and invading a space: crawling across a wall, creeping around a corner, seeping up onto the ceiling, and spilling onto the floor. I want to think about the negative space more than I did this time around. Think about how different installations can evoke different interpretations.
Installation begets more questions
When I was installing the piece, the gallery curator came in. Trusting her critical eye, I told her I was playing with several ways of installing the remaining sections and asked for her feedback. I enjoy the push and pull of this kind of conversation where my image of what I have been making is transformed as I learn how it is viewed by another person whose eye I trust. It challenges me to understand how my work is being experienced. I clarify what I am seeking the work to do and allow myself to let go of a preconceived idea. Then I can be responsive to what the work is telling me it wants and needs in a particular space.
With the curator’s and a trusted artist friend’s feedback I settled on a presentation. I shared with the curator my desire to see it bigger in a larger space: “Can you imagine it climbing across the wall and onto the ceiling?” I ask. The curator mentions a fiber exhibit scheduled for the following year that Emergence might be appropriate for. She added that there was NEA grant funding attached that could provide help towards assistance and materials - two hurdles that I came up against completing the first iteration of Emergence.
work in progress, Emergence, 2020-2021, silk cocoons dyed with tea, coffee, oak gall, sunflower and walnut inks, 120 x 60 inches (installation dimensions variable)
Another puzzle to solve
I know there are ways to get art projects funded. It is an entirely new learning curve for me (add it to the pile!) and something I have not yet investigated. However, the mention of this one compels me to start thinking about others, and where I might apply or send a proposal to allow me to create and fund a larger iteration of Emergence.
This is a more difficult puzzle for me to work out. In order to create a large-scale installation, it means I will need and must ask for help. The time invested, intensive mindful labor, the mark of my hand, and the physical act of my vision being made physical through materials is very important to me. How is this impacted if I am not the sole person creating the work?
“Possibilities present themselves, materials lure me. ”
How do I let go and become comfortable in not having total control of every portion that is not made by my hand? It is yet another way to dig down, challenge myself to more deeply understand my concept, the meaning of the materials, processes, and my own labor in the work.
silk cocoons dyed with tea, coffee, oak gall, sunflower and walnut inks
The most important question
This is how my practice changes, shifts and morphs. I often get asked how I come up with new ideas. It is in working with the materials that ideas spark: new associations are created, concepts percolate and steep, like vines traveling beneath the surface until suddenly popping into view. Possibilities present themselves, materials lure me. Like a kaleidoscope where a shift in movement causes the image to change, and rearrange its parts. The possibilities multiply as I work with and through materials and processes. Ideas and materials are added and subtracted that seed further investigation and paths of discovery. I think perhaps that the most important question to bring into the studio with me continues to be “what if…”
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