http://www.norajean.com/Biz-Archive/MSAT/ClayArt/FaceOff/NJ-LL/Wfeeling-thm.htm
Let's recycle Lobster Lady in her Party Hat since we've had some birthdays lately.
That picture... see I told you that you could blind fold me with dental floss.
My reason for having absolutely no embarrassment over this picture is because it's a point I'm making....
Faces don't have to be without expression. If I see another sculpted face looking sooooo stooonnneeeedddd I'm just going to roll my eyes.
We have a gazillion muscles in the face...
http://www.norajean.com/Biz-Archive/Sculpt/RainingMen/FaceLayers-1.htm
Give your sculpted faces some expression.
Lobster Lady was only worked on when I was angry. That's why she's red. That's why she's escaping the sauce jar. That's why she's making great effort and we know she's making effort because of the expression on the face. I'd be really pissed off over something and then sculpt her face. I'd put a mirror next to her and I'd make the most intense
wincey face and try to peek out my eyes all squinted up and see where the muscles of the face go when doing a full face grit your teeth expression.
You cannot stay angry for long making faces into a mirror. When the family saw me working on Lobster Lady they would review what they might have done and then just figure it wasn't them who caused this
wincey face and go about their business, but not ask me... "What's wrong?"
What can I tell them? Something pissed me off and I'm taking advantage of the sincerity of my pissed off mood to capture a
wincey face for a sculpture?
Being an artist is a weird thing, I accept that. Had to do something with all my weirdness all my life, may as well wrap it around an artist persona, gives me a wider latitude of behavior than if I would tell folks that I'm a preacher on a mission... which is the truth actually, shhhh, don't tell anyone.
What's my mission's name?
Sanctuary Much, you're welcome!
LOL
Old joke and I love to recycle it.
So what's the point of all this... do it with feeling, that's all. Sculpt from the heart. If you're sad, look in the mirror and weep, then sculpt what you see. Just like when you're sad and sing Patsy Cline songs... "I fall to pieces...." and just weep while you sing and wash dishes. Running water drowns out the singing if you're shy.
Do everything with feeling. If you're going to cook do like Emile, BANG!! and kick it up a notch. If you're going to pick a topic to express with your art then pick something that makes you go ....
YEAH DADNABIT!
If what you're working on doesn't make you go...
"Awwww, that's so cute."
"Oh, that's so sad."
"Grrrrrrr, that's how I feel!"
Then you're not reaching in deep enough inside of your self.
That's why the craft market cannot make the choices of topics for you. If a craft market subject... let's say, Santas.... If that doesn't blow up your skirt or kock your socks off, then don't use it as a subject. If you got "issues" about Santa that you need to "address", then change some letters around and sculpt Satan, in red.
What ever you do, pick out a color, mix two of your favorite colors together, get lost in a
marbleized swirl in the mix and then get side tracked bringing out the image you saw in the swirl... what ever you do I want your feelings engaged to the fullest.
Modern life tosses stuff at us with bill boards along the road, radio and TV going on with commercials, we can't pick up a publication without the plea from someone "buy my stuff".
I realized when I go over to Hilda and Gerald's place there's no music going on non stop, no TV. I've been reading
out loud to him, "Chicken Soup for the Golden Soul." and everyone writing about their life observations are way younger than he is at 94. Sometimes he dozes while I read and all I have to hear is the clock ticking, him lightly snoring, Hilda is often taking a nap while she can, and I get to sculpt an iteration of Jean Luc Picard.
But the silence is novel I realized. My Gemini Moon and Leo Sun, I love TV, I channel surf and if I want to evoke a mood I put on a particular video and play it non stop all day... try "Tank Girl" all day, it'll get you to use some bright colors and do stupid things to your hair.
The silence that surrounds me while Gerald snoozes has been a shocking wake up call. Without distraction I've come to identify very
definite desires I have and to work on them. I've done drawings of the converted school buss of my dreams. I've made lists of what I need to research to pull this dream close to fruition. I renewed my resolve to clay from the heart and not to allow the craft market to decide what my topics will be no matter what money craft buyers are willing to spend on them.
I resolved to sculpt what touches my heart and stay true to my own inner vision, or what's the point. To do what the market tells me to not only short changes me, it short changes the buyers too.
For how will they know if they like a weird assed goofy sculpture unless they saw it? When we censor ourselves we deny the art viewing public from making their own decision as to whether it resonates for them.
I see strings in people's hearts, like harp strings, and if I'm playing a tune from my heart and it hits a harmony in another person's heart, we will resonate, we will vibrate on the same frequency.
Claychik/SharonS and I have been vibrating on similar frequencies lo these 5 years this list has been in
existence. She was my inspiration for Goza Girl
http://www.norajean.com/Biz-Archive/Canes/Face/ClayChik-thm.htm
So she's stated her love for Lobster Lady. The harmony that resonates for her with this sculpture is because she too has had to pull herself out of some pickle or another in her life. She can relate to that
wincey face of greatest effort.
I was able to stay true to my feelings and it touched someone's heart and made them say... "I resemble that remark."
So don't be numbed by the demands of the modern life, the noise and distraction. Don't hide your inner feelings when it comes to your art for your creations are for YOU FIRST... it's an expression that's more acceptable than punching someone in the face or indulging in road rage.
I'll repeat that... art is your personal creative expression... peel that onion and you'll find that the operative word is EXPRESSION. People get stuck on that creative bit and go through changes like "am I worthy?" and stop it.
Everyone on this list, no one is excluded in this, everyone has some feeling inside of them that they can express with their art.
We're not limited to writing a letter, spraying graffiti on a wall, or yelling out the window. We got to express ourselves in some manner and what media you use can vary from Cow Dung to chopped rare gems.
Polymer clay is sort of in the middle of that continuum. As pliable as cow dung and as colorful as crushed gems.
Ok... how can I say this without stepping up on the pulpit... Our urge to create is a blessing given to each of us. A kiss from our Creator. We can use this creative urge to worship God or poke fun at Kings. The urge is in all of us. What we create is as personal as our relationship with our Creator, meaning very personal. Through our creative efforts we fall into that meditative zone that's active prayer. Painting primer on the doll house, knitting that bootie, sculpting that face. It's a quiet zone that pushes the big and noisy distracting world away from us and we fall into ourselves and find our connection with the divine.
That's why it heals. It's a conduit to our spiritual center, one of them, but it's the one I'm fostering here on this list.
So folks, let's do it, from the heart and this time give effort to doing it
with feeling
xoxo
NJ
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