If I am to get into an issue concerning maker VS. maker it would not hurt to see what each maker makes.
Hey Kelly,
In a maker vs maker discussion of aesthetics [style, form, etm] I must agree that images can greatly assist if even to a limited degree. But this thread took a turn from comparing tool handles (since M2 steel=M2 steel) to the assertion of some artificial literary touchstone for truth based not upon what is written, but rather upon whether a commenter chose to post pictures of his or her turnings. As if such photos, whatever their quality, in some way confer value on the person posting. However, then denigrating a person who makes comment merely because he/she does NOT post pictures
almost to the point of calling the "no-pix" person a liar, that's a "turn" that has no place on this, or any other quality forum.
But I do think what you make does give insight into who and what you are.
One of my pet peeves is people who try to psychoanalyze an artist by what they make. They seem to delight in trying to figure out the maker's libido and sexual preferences as a function of validating their sense of self-importance because they can appear to impress their groupies by explaining some hidden meaning in a piece. Most often it's naught but a Rorschach-based exercise that brings a gem of a joke to mind. If the artist's message is clear, it communicates directly without the mumbo-jumbo of literature being dragged along like tin cans on the wedding limo. If not, we need go no further and just move on to the next piece.
But back to being a maker. Many makers make cause they have no choice. They are driven to make. A day without making leaves a day with a bit left desired to a driven maker. Me included.
TWO GOLD STARS FOR KELLY! That is what its all about for the artist. Formulation of the concept, making the hundreds or thousands of decisions, big and small, made along the way to turning that image, that idea in the mind into a physical reality. It is the conscious and dedicated effort to create that which was not, and, but for the artist and that "drive", will never be.
But the making without a finished making now and again is like trying to take a breath of air when there is none. Not very satisfactory. The act of making itself is the drive. The end result, good bad or indifferent needs to happen for at least a self completion. A self examination. Being a co creator in the universe. Your making validates the inner God
TRUE TRUE TRUE. I was not teaching my students to destroy, I was teaching them the necessity of self-critique and to develop the willingness and ability to step back, see that the workpiece is not worth going further, and to realize that starting over in a new direction holds more likelihood of reaching that goal of "self-completion", of creating something that has acquired the right to exist separate and apart from its creator.
If you are happy making then getting rid of work you are not a person I can understand. But I am willing to try.
Kelly, how many pieces have you made, and how many of them do you still have sitting around you? Trick question.
Every time you sell a turning, you are getting rid of it. You are pushing that teeny tiny bit of yourself out the door, never to be seen again. And the parting is such sweet sorrow, no? I have wrecked any number of sculptures before they were finished. They got to a point when I had to admit that either the idea that spawned them was flawed or my vision was incomplete. I could have beat my head against the block, paralyzed my other efforts, but I took the more productive path. Perhaps I set it aside "for another day/week/month/year." Perhaps I tore it down and recycled the materials for use in something else. Either way, valuable lessons were self-taught and hard-won.
I also taught my students to value the idea more than the object. I did a project with my Art Major students. Having gotten a materials donation from a large company, several thousand square feet of Visqueen and a case of clear tape, we proceeded to design and build three pieces; a 30' tall pyramid, a 20' cube, and a 25' cylinder. They were to be inflated using 20" box fans, and were connected by 3' diameter crawl tunnels. The day came that we set them up in the school's interior quad, and turned on the fans. Anchored to the ground, up they went. And then it happened. The entire school came to a halt! Teachers complaining that their classes were disrupted clogged the intercoms; kids cutting class to try to come out to see and enter the objects. We had a boom box pounding away in one. Well it didn't take long, but the project turned into a full bore total school "happening" with classes making appointments to come down and go through the Thing. Science, literature, math; all the departments wound up using the experience to teach something. Kids debated the shapes and the reasons for doing it at all in the lunchrooms. And then? The fans stopped, the shapes sank to the ground. The plastic gathered, rolled, and was consigned to whatever secondary use could be found for it. Gone. Never to be seen again. But several thousand young people got first hand experience that art need not be made of stone or bronze. It need not last a thousand years. It can be made from gossamer and last but a few hours because the idea and the experience will be carried in their memories from that day on. We created. We destroyed. But only to create again.
Kelly, I'm betting you understand that quite well.
Peace
