05-27-03: Some thoughts the day after the Demo.
Thunderdome.
Yesterday had no plan other than to do my favorite things. With help
from Ulla, who is a Taurus, and into minis, the choice of color and
design was lead towards earth tones. Raw Sienna, pearl, a touch of
yellow for a light brown mix. Sheets of pearl and black were called
into service for blends and separation sheets. We started with wood
grain, a pale pine and went to basket weave, from there to Tiger,
Leopard and Zebra. Made pots from Leopard, Tiger and Zebra, big round
ones.... big for a mini scene that is. Using wedge or leaf shape
slices of the cane, building the pot that way.
These canes are the foundation for an African Mix. With those elements
we could toss in flower petals, leaves, a couple of different end o
cane's worth of each. Then the last of the butterfly wing and feather,
for they were blocking my flow in doing more of them. Chop all that up
and reviewed chop and toss, mirror images, Natasha cut, and theme
building when doing a chop. Natasha logs make instant tube beads, from
there make mini vases that look like they were hand painted.
The flowers from the Water Lily demo were called into service and
stuck in the Natasha log vases of Memorial Africa Mix.
Oh, it was CherylH's birthday ... she partied with us, and was there
while I was doing the chop.
Jen was building a figure and Denise was started on her Neo... did
some nifty dance with the shoes she made for him. Naked and with shoes
on, I'm still laughing.
So I segued into doing a figure. But I wanted to break away from my
usual fare of doing humans and do something different. Interesting
thing about animal cane chop, like tiger and leopard, the chop mirror
images often look like animals, bears, dogs, cats. You can take two
slices with an animal face mirror image and form that image into 3D. I
though, sort of like a Mask. So boink-o, the figure didn't have a
human face, it had an animal mask, sort of like a totem thing. We
spoke of Totem Pooh, for BonsaiKathy was working on a forest Pooh
scene around the same time.
So I have this figure that's covered with this light brown sparkley
clay. I had sheets of pressed leopard and tiger that were experimental
pressings when the cane was made. I had a couple of cats that were
made with mirror image faces and cane slice pressed body covers. I had
flowers and pots and no idea of what the heck was going on ...
Sitting the figure down, covering it with leopard and tiger pressed
sheets it took on a Jungle air. The tiger cat came out the best so I
fit it near the seated figure and saw that it would set in the lap
area perfectly. Ok there it went. What to do with the arms of the
figure? Having a tiger in the lap would suggest a close relationship
so one arm went around the tiger's neck, the other arm could hold up
the Blue Nile lotus in a big Natasha log vase. Ok... now it's a matter
of filling in the other spaces.
Since we kept ourselves in the realm of the natural, wood, basket
weave, animal and bird and bug designs, didn't make the figure "human"
as such, we are encouraged to stay in that realm. Half human forms
bespeak magic, that transformation from the wild and instinctive to
the sentient. That's why I felt this scene had myth potential.
What sort of magic is going on here? Why does a wild animal seek
protection and nurturing from this semi human figure? Why are the
flowers set around in a ceremonial manner? Is the Blue Nile Lotus a
symbol of Honor and Power?
We can tell stories by using color, type of design, mixing elements
like pressed sheets, figures, flowers. We can show emotion even
without a face. The protective arm around the neck of the little tiger
speaks to us. We know that loving embrace. We know how content the
little tiger is and safe to look out onto the world within that
embrace.
We give lilies and lotus symbolic meaning. Setting them around the
figure hints at offerings. Even the Neanderthals buried their dead
with flowers. Flowers are poignant for their beauty is fleeting, like
the Cherry Blossoms, Japanese people celebrate them for they bloom for
just a short time, reminding them of the short time we have here.
I didn't have a tale to tell when starting out the MDMD yesterday. The
mini scene built itself with the natural elements that we limited
ourselves to. The magic and the myth resides inside of all of us.
That's why we can see stories in mini scenes like this. We are
creating myth all the time, always have, always will. A scene like
this is like an ink blot test, you see in it what you bring to it.
When practicing your canes and figure sculpting, a plan isn't all that
important. What is important is you use the colors you love, the
designs that speak to you, start adding them together and your mini
scene will build itself.
So I'm curious as to what was the first impression, first instant
myth, that came into other claymate's heads when they saw this piece.
xoxo
NJ
norajean@norajean.com
http://www.norajean.com
Life is like a lump of clay, both are what you make of it.