Embrace Accidents
Winter 2004
We stopped at our first ceramics workshop in Denmark because the front garden was full of gorgeous, and huge, blue pots. Closer inspection revealed the garden art was created from work that had cracked in the kiln or had been ruined in some other way.
This is a photograph of the side of another potter's shed wall. A wonderful, free-form mosaic.
If only we in the fiber world were more accepting of the vagaries of our process. Or perhaps we have no displays of our "mistakes" because we recycle them all. Or, as I prefer to think of it, we have no accidents, just experiments in technique.
BEHIND THE SCENES
I've just started work on a traveling Fiber Artists' Collaborative Books project. The initial requirement was to create a blank book, its covers and the first two-page spread. Once a month for a year I will be receiving another artist's book with her theme and format and be required to add two to four pages. It is inspiring to see other artists' work "up close and personal" and to work with new themes, such as architecture.
Here is my front cover:
Paper, paint, dried ornamental grass, wax.
Here are two pages for another artist's book with the theme of Home:
Left-hand page of two-page spread
Right-hand page of two-page spread
HAIKU
Four moving shadows
Tall grass walks slowly at dusk
Making soft deer shapes.
RECOMMENDED READING
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold
INSPIRATION
The essence of November in Nebraska.
PARTING THOUGHTS
I have found the winter months to be the most productive times in my studio and am looking forward to snow and colder days. Until we meet again, embrace accidents and use them in your art!
Virginia
