Meanderings

Do we do what we say and say what we think
or do we say what we think we do?
Complexities compiled, boxed and bricked
to fit on a shelf, filed and fixed
or focussed on feeling and felt?

Discribed and dissolved, dealing and dealt
dimensions and doors ignored.
Divine interlude, diffused and amused
and perfectly pardoned apart.

Cleaned and closed and stringently dosed
defining and digging its grave.
Diligently dull and pining to sell
it servantly longs to save.

So lift and left, lightened with life
and listen with wing overhead.
To sigh and sing and sift to swell
a delight in a life not death.

Ideas

A couple of ideas have been running through my head lately, and I thought it was about time I put some of them to paper. I am trying to engage more with trying to create and enhance an aesthetic in my pieces, and capture more of an essence of the themes that run through them. So here's some sketches of what may come...

artist-wearer-viewer

I've been thinking about jewellery in the context of its relationship between the artist, the wearer and the viewer.

How often when we make a piece of jewellery do we think so much about the wearer, and actually forget about the viewer. Is the viewer not just as important? The wearer naturally has more of a connection with the piece of jewellery than the person looking at it, but when the piece is viewed on the wearer, is it not put into a completely new context? This context of the wearer could actually enhance the piece considerably!

So as an artist, is our piece ever viewed in the way we intend it to be if the perception and aesthetic judgement of it is constantly changing? I dont think so, and I think that is what is so beautiful about being a creator; you are the beginning of a snowball effect of people tuning in to a connection inside them, and what starts as one piece with a specific meaning or intention, ends up gathering more and more significance and meaning as it is exposed.

Aesthetics....continued

If aesthetic judgment is so subjective, then how do we as artists, try and create a specific aesthetic within our work? I suppose we first need to become aware of how and why we personally perceive and make judgments of things, and what influences these decisions. I think it all starts in understanding what our own perceptions are...

Aesthetics....continued

In a nut shell, aesthetics are values that are linked to the sensory-emotional systems, also called 'judgments of sentiment' and 'taste'. It is the different ways in which we see and perceive the world. Aesthetic judgment is very often contradictory because it draws upon both intellect and instinct. When we judge something or form an opinion on it, it is often a judgment of what that thing means or symbolizes for us.

A person may have a very hostile instinct to this picture and find no appeal in its vicious thorns because of an experience they had involving a thorn piercing them and producing a lot of pain. Another person who has been brought up in an environment where they are always out doors and love nature could find this picture beautiful; an endearing depiction of nature protecting its beauty. Another person could see a very spiritual connotation to the image, relating it to their belief and the crown of thorns Jesus wore. A photographer would look at the composition, a teacher would find a way to relate it to a lesson to be taught....

Every eye sees differently, and one could even argue if it's even the eye that sees...or is it the soul, the heart, the mind?

Aesthetic judgment is influenced by many factors apart from one's senses, emotions and intellect. Culture, values and the upbringing of a person plays a strong part in their judgment. One's training and instinct, as well as their desires and subconscious behavior all relates to the the way in which they perceive something.

Aesthetics

I think that it is important for us as artists, and people to have at least a vague understanding of aesthetics and the ways in which we make aesthetic judgments.

When writing about my work recently, I almost frivolously used the word aesthetic, and only once I went back and unpacked what lies behind the etymology of the word, did I really have a sense of understanding, and it has made me aware of and question how and why I see things the way I do. As an artist as well, I have become a lot more aware of how differently people can perceive my work.

For example:











After recently displaying these earrings, a friend told me that they really connected with the concept of the miss-matched earrings, using the same pattern but one being cut out and the other embossed really emphasized the concept of how a person has many facets and sides to them and a person can never be a perfect reflection of what they want to be.

Another lady, on the other hand, was actually buying the earrings and asked if I realized that I had forgotten to cut the pattern out of the one earring.

Both of these reasonings seemed perfectly understandable to the person making the judgment because of the context which they created in their minds. Their reasoning and connection to these earrings were completely different because of their separate influences in life.

To See The World in a Grain of Sand....

" To see the world in a grain of sand
and heaven in a wild flower,
hold infinity in the palm of your hand
and eternity in an hour."

William Blake

This is probably one of my all time favourite quotes and is it not so true?
The mundane specks of sand in one's everyday desert, may seem like the bud of inspiration in another person's field of blossoms!

Our lives are our inspiration, and we need to open our eyes and draw from it because it is a continuous source of creativity... We will never be able to grow a bud in a desert! How important is it then, to plant that field of blossoms and nurture the field continuously. Like a sponge, we need to suck up and absorb what surrounds us, and the more there is to soak in, the less we have to squeeze for something to drip out.

Let our lives be our inspiration, fueled by our hearts and minds, and let our hands be the tools that make tangible what we feel inside.

I read a quote by Julia Cameron the other day that springs to mind;

"The artist brain cannot be reached -or triggered- effectively by words alone. The artist brain is the sensory brain -sight and sound, smell and taste, touch."

Ref: Marilyn Zelinsky, The Inspired Workspace , Designs for Creativity and Productivity, Rockport Publishers, 2002

Half Year Display

These are Pictures of my half year display I set up at tech recently. Because there are so many other things I explored as a journey up to making my jewellery, I found it difficult to show everything in the display in order to create a context for my pieces, but at the same time, keep it from becoming too much and ditracting from the jewellery.

I layed everything out in a progression, almost as it happened, starting with my journal, test pieces, leading on to printing and paper embossing, followed by clay and wax work, then it all culminated to one point which was my cuff, and that lead on to a collection of smaller peices inspired by the technique used in the cuff.

After looking at my display, I realised that in the future I need to isolate pieces more, almost creating a little atmosphere or context for each piece rather than such a broad overview, because apart from the cuff, the other jewellery pieces didn't seem to speak out as much as I think they could.

Because my display was more or a long line of progression of my work and exploration, I thought the photographs of the display would be a lot more affective if I took close ups of each section and compiled them all together in a collage. I think it worked more effectively than the photo I took of the entire display.

Not just a cup of tea! ......

Sitting in my kitchen this morning I was in a daze of thought as my eyes brushed over my tea cup that was on the table. Almost subconsciously they focused on a reflection in the tea of the lacey curtain that shades the window above, and then the different reflections of light bouncing off the surface. Immediately I thought of a discussion I had yesterday with Chris about if our eyes consciously focus on something, they often miss everything else that is around that thing, or all the factors in the atmosphere around it that contribute to what that thing actually is. If we 'look' at something, however, but make our eye aware of the surroundings- we get a vague understanding of other layers that play a part in the context of that which we are looking at. So this morning when I was not purposefully 'looking' at my tea cup, my eyes were focusing on and picking up other things which normally would not have been noticed.

The reflection of the lace licking the surface of the tea while shapes of reflections, shadows and light bounced off and sunk into it had such a beautiful effect with all the different layers it created. What seemed to just be tea, turned into a collage of elements abstracted from my surroundings. This was such a delightful connection for me to my work at the moment, layers of elements that ignite recognition....

Layers

Layers.... could they be described as many different elements combined to make one entity? The dictionary describes a layer as a depth or level, I like that! Layers create depth...or I'm not so sure if they 'create' it as such, but rather assure that there is depth, that there is something beneath.

I like to relate this concept to people, and life in general really...we all know onions have layers! but have you actually sat and pealed away at all those layers to find what lies in the centre? Eventually you arrive at nothing! So in reality it's the layers that actually make up the onion! Is this not true with people and cercumstances? We try so hard to peal off all the layers in our lives and in situations to look 'deeper' for what's in the core and 'find ourselves' but is it not all those influences and characteristics that are the very things that define us and represent who we are?

According to the thesaurus, a synonym for layer is story. I think it is a very apt word and think it could lead me in some form of direction with my jewellery....layered jewelery as a representation of my story perhaps?

Inspiration

What a beautiful set up! I just love this image! It's simplicity really enhances the focus. I found it on decorati.com - check out the site on my 'Inspirational Links' its great

















This painted and carved wooden frame mirror is also form decorati.com The atmosphere in this picture really inspires me...the old world, worn, warm feeling you get, a sense of extravagance and beauty with a simplistic air.

I tend to draw a lot of inspiration from a large variety of things in life, not always tangible, often its just a feeling that a certain atmosphere ignites in me, and I'm growing more aware of what kind of settings source my creativity. Recently i have been consciously making an effort to recognize and contemplate my response to my surroundings in terms of how it affects my creativity, and actually am trying to 'create' space for myself that is filled with inspirational things. I have been pleasantly surprised at how much enjoyment I am getting from doing this and it has opened my eyes to a lot of different things that seed ideas 8)

I've come to a little bit of a realization... I've always had an intrigue with layers, in all forms; be it physical layers in art, architecture, nature and all the everyday things we come into contact with, or symbolic layers, layers to personalities and stories etc
After much thinking and discussion, it dawned on me that my quest of experimentation with different techniques to create pattern in jewellery could be spurred by this enjoyment of layers. I think that through all this experimentation I have been subconsciously trying to find different ways of creating depth and ways to bring about layers into my work.... just a thought, will see where it leads!

This week I have found myself asking a lot of questions and contemplating aspects of decoration that I had not previously given much thought to...

In the Victorian era in particular, but still up until this day, people decorated themselves and their surroundings with such extravegance in order to demonstrate their wealth...why feel the need to demonstrate the wealth you have? Is it absence of personal wealth and richness within one's self that one needs to replace it? Yes, for some it brings satisfaction to display and gain acceptance from others through it, but why?

When we decorate and enhance the beauty of something( including ourselves) is it a form of appreciation to accentuate the beauty, or is it the lack thereof , that makes us feel the need to create beauty on the mundane in order to appreciate it, or accuire appreciation from others?

Or is pattern and decoration and ornamentation, all just forms of expresion, an appreciation and representation of the beauty of character inside us that we are so scared to surface and therefore aknowlege it in other things?

I have always had a keen interest in history, and things from the past which has lead to a delight in antique objects. I take a lot of my inspiration from forms and patterns in antique furniture, frames, jewellery and prints.