Monday, February 20, 2012

Musings from the Studio

Both shows I've been working towards have been delivered. One show is up, the opening has passed and all is well. The second is in the process of installation with the opening this Thursday.

My studios are looking bare and empty without the ideas, the works in progress floating about on all levels around me. I'm a bit at a loss as to what to do next. Start on a new piece (I have an idea for a new "Tiny Little House" piece)? Tie up last year's paperwork? Work on my pattern portfolio? Update website and such internet-relatedness out in the universe of it all? Granted the possibilities are endless and that doesn't help....

I'm also toying with my theory (posting on January 8th) about not putting out into the world creations/pieces I don't love. I had a friend over the other night who inquired about my "Tiny Little Houses". As they are all in a gallery showing right now I just had one to show her.  It was one I had set aside next to my hot plate - to be melted away the next time I turn on this part of the studio. I said as much. She in return expressed her enthusiasm for the piece pointing out an area she loved - what I didn't see she saw. And this has thrown my theory into tangled knots.

I was tempted to just give her this piece as she obviously loved it - much more so than I. And she had a happy home to take it to. But I stopped only because it did not live up to my standard of what I want to go out into the world. And because I am the creator of the piece the law of such is mine to write.... Or is it?

Friday, February 3, 2012

Underneath history

The Before
 I'm quite curious (what, who, where, when prompted this to take place??)  when I see "The Before" of a makeover - whatever that may be (a room, a person etc).

In this case it's a Danish chair, circa 1940, from Danish Teak Classics. The character of the wood and the fabric, both worn and full of perfect imperfections, doesn't completely share with the viewer all of the details of it's previous history. Wouldn't you love it if such a piece could talk?

H Nielsen Slajelse??

Danish Teak stripped my chair down to it's raw skeleton, where they found a name? scrawled across the wooden seat. Oh!, to know the significance, the connection from one person who touched it to the next throughout the Danish chair's history..... It's really all so curious.

Now that the wood has been refinished and the new fabric chosen, it's going to be transformed into a piece that will not, on the surface, give any viewer an idea of what previous life it's had. Only those that have had a hand in it's creation and transformation will have an inkling of the stories it can tell to those who will listen.....

The almost After