COMPLETED WORK
Completed Sept. 16, 2000.
SCULPTURE
Sculpture. 2000. Assemblage. 18"x 34".
It took a lot of patience and determination to see this work through.
The experience of actually creating the work was, in itself, a healthy one.
While I had to make some compromises along the way, the work certainly does
maintain its integrity. It is delicate, fragile and organic. It is also strong
and geometric. It is free, and moves, yet it has a quality of weight and stability.
I have not hung it in the kitchen, as it is too delicate for a busy room with
young children, but, one day it will get there. In the mean time, I will have
it close at hand, hanging in the parlor, to remind me of its reason for being.
You are invited to come see this work in my house, where it was meant to hang,
with the living, breathing artist present. Such an opportunity to experience
living art should not be missed... and time is running out.
What follows are the WORK IN PROGRESS notes compiled for this work:
SCULPTURE
Sketch for: Sculpture. 2000. Assemblage. 16"x 25".
Background
This work began in 1991. In the spring of that year I was offered the
opportunity to live and paint in Italy for two or three years. The
nature of the project made the offer hard to refuse. The catches were that
I would have to leave my wife behind, quit my job, and pay my own way
while there. The outcome is another story, but what matters here is that,
in trying to decide if I should go or stay, I threw the I CHING.
About three thousand years ago, the I Ching was a simple Oracle
which supplied a YES or NO answer to questions asked of it. Since that time
it has evolved into a complex book of wisdom and ethics, based on the
understanding of the nature of change. I Ching, in fact, translates to
"Book of Changes" in English. Although the imagery in the I Ching is
endlessly fascinating, and the interpretation of the imagery endlessly
interesting, the ability of the I Ching to act as an Oracle, answering
a simple Yes or No, is endlessly lacking.
Upon throwing the coins, I produced hexagram #27, "I / The Corners of the
Mouth. (providing nourishment)". Nowhere could I find any help with regard
to going to Italy. What I did find of interest was the following:
"Words are a movement going from within outward.
Eating and drinking are movements from without
inward. Both kinds of movement can be modified
by tranquillity. For tranquillity keeps the words
that come out of the mouth from exceeding proper
measure, and keeps the food that goes into the mouth
from exceeding its proper measure. Thus character
is cultivated."
This remains of interest to me. I have always been overweight. I use food
as a drug, showing very little regard for its nutritional properties. I have
had a tendency to fire words out of my mouth in a most destructive manner,
and, although I am mellowing with age, my words still do damage from time
to time much to my shame. Finally, I am far from tranquil, and introducing
a bit of tranquillity into my passionate character would be a welcome change.
I did nothing with the ideas or imagery for five years. Then in 1996, I was
searching for signs and symbols which could help me find my way, and I carved
the hexagram from the I Ching, along with some other symbols, into a
stone. (If you refer to the thumbnail sketch above, you will see what I am
referring to as "the hexagram" contained in the red rectangle. It is composed
of the two solid lines at the top and bottom, and the four broken lines between.)
In the fall of 1999, I suffered multiple gallbladder attacks which led me to
greatly modify my eating habits, and the idea of the hexagram came up again. I
wanted to see it around me to remind me to watch my eating. After much
consideration, I decided I wanted to make the hexagram out of handmade paper.
I made a mould which would allow me to cast a sheet of paper with the lines
of the hexagram missing. Air could pass through the lines just as things pass
through the open mouth. I wanted the sheet to be delicate, gentle, tranquil.
I did not want to violate it by drawing upon it, or cutting into it. The mould
and handmade paper supplied the perfect means to these ends.
As fate would have it, my gallbladder was removed in emergency surgery, and
with it went the need to watch my diet, the place to store my "gall", and the
need to produce the paper hexagram. For the next few months, I gained weight
and wrote a lot of pointed letters to people and institutions whose ideas and
behaviors I disagreed with. I made many enemies, some very good points, a
good chunk of money from an out-of-court settlement, but really no changes.
The individuals and institutions continue on in their ugly ways, and it occurred
to me that trying to bring health to the evil in this world was sickening me.
So, I began the quest to bring health to myself by first developing the
HONESTY NOW web site, and second, getting the hexagram up and visible,
and assisting me. This brings us to the present.
Foreground
'Tis the gift to be simple,
'Tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down
Where you ought to be...
-from the Shaker Hymn, Simple Gifts
Where creativity is concerned, talent is the natural ability to produce
something well, but intuition is the natural ability to know exactly what
to produce. So, where creativity is concerned, it follows that intuition must
be talent's master if anything of integrity is to result. Creating in this
order requires having faith in one's intuition, and this faith is a gift.
Rarely have I come down where I ought to be. I have had fleeting moments of
faith, and works of great integrity have resulted, but I always start to
question, and invariably undermine my faith with self-doubt. I have repeatedly
destroyed my gifts of simplicity and freedom with complexities and doctrines.
The realization of this sculpture is also, then, an effort to again realize
faith in myself - to embrace my gifts, to trust my intuition.
It would be a violation of what I just stated to probe into how the final
idea for this sculpture came about. It did come about, and it is exactly as
it should be. It is an act of intuition. I will, however, freely describe what
the sculpture is to be, and what talents will be employed in producing it.
I will then leave it up to you to decide for yourself whether you believe
the foreground and background presented are of one and the same vista.
I know they are to me.
The sculpture will hang; it will be able to turn and sway with the breezes
in the house. It will hang in the kitchen and be visible where I do most of
my talking and eating. The red portion will be handmade onion skin paper with
the horizontal lines missing from the mould. The paper will neither be drawn
upon, coloured, or cut. The colour is the natural dye from the red onion skins.
The paper will be suspended from four strings. The frayed end of the strings
will be embedded in the drying paper to avoid the need to violate the paper.
The string is a natural hemp-type, which I found in a corner of the garage.
The long, horizontal cross-member above the paper will be a stalk of naturally
occurring bamboo-like grass which grows close to here. This cross-member
will skewer four shrunken apple heads, each having a face carved on both the
front and back, and cloves for eyes. Each head will have a thin, hollow straw
from the same grass through its center, and these straws will also go through
holes in the cross-members. Eventually, the strings from the paper will be fed
through these straws, then tied at the top of each apple to hold the paper up.
The cross-member will be joined to the main supporting string from the ceiling
by two strings, one from each side. The same hemp-type string will be used.
Middle ground
The following photograph shows the mould with onion skin pulp cast and drying
in it. The apple heads can be seen mounted on the cross-member, and beginning
to shrink. The straws through the apples are visible on the left. The strings
embedded in the paper can be seen at the top.
Photo of Work in Progress. Taken Aug. 6, 2000.
The work cannot progress until the pulp dries, and the apples dry.
Aug. 9, 2000. The paper has dried completely in parts of the mould.
Onion skin paper has the tendency to tighten up considerably just as it
completely dries. This created some problems. The paper did not release
from all parts of the mould, and the tightening caused tears where the paper
had not released. As tears are not in keeping with my original intent,
I have had to cast the paper again. I used a more thorough coat of olive
oil in the mould this time. Paper is a perfectly recyclable product, so I
had only to soak it and beat it to a pulp again to make the same paper
reusable.
One other problem I noticed was that the dried paper was too thick. I was
after a more delicate feel, so I reduced the amount of pulp when I recast it.
It took four days to dry the first time, but the reduced pulp may reduce
the drying time this time around.
Aug. 11, 2000. The second casting of the paper dried more quickly,
but the same problems resulted. I tried another method today using the more
traditional mould and decal technique. I let the paper air dry, but still the
tearing occurred. I noticed two things to improve on. First, the thinner the
paper, the less it folds and tears. Second, if a barrier was placed just
above the drying paper, it would restrict the lifting and tearing of the dry
areas. With these two ideas in mind, I have again used the mould and decal
(specially designed for this project) to throw another thinner sheet, and
have placed the screen of the mould upside-down over the drying sheet to
reduce movement. The screen will slow the drying down which may help as well.
The apple heads have now shrunk to about one half their original size. Each
face is taking on a distinct character, and it is quite amusing to watch
the changes.
To date, the project has been quite challenging, and although so far it has
the best of me, I do not intend to give up or even compromise. This is either
a sign of health or of madness! So far, it feels like health, but it will
become obsessive if I don't take a break from it soon.
Aug. 14, 2000. After six tries, I finally managed to throw a satisfactory
sheet of paper. It is very thin, and very, very delicate. If you breathe on
it, the moisture from your breathe causes it to change shape; but the thinness
of the sheet gives it a very tenuous hold on the splayed strings. Here I had
to add a reinforcing layer of pulp on one side while the sheet was still wet,
and a reinforcing coating of pulp and rabbit skin glue on the other after it was
dry. The addition of rabbit skin glue is a compromise I can accept, given that
it makes possible the use of such a thin, delicate sheet, and, as I am not a
master paper maker, I must accept that my talent in this affair is limited to
begin with. Hopefully, these additions will help the strings hold firmly to
the paper.
The next step is waiting for the apples to completely dry. The rate of shrinkage
seems to be accelerating, but some dark, mouldy areas are showing up. Having
no experience with shrunken apple heads, I am not yet sure if this is normal
or not.
What follows is a photo of the shrinking heads and the onion skin paper as of
Aug. 14, 2000. The quality of the photo is very poor, and the background has
been cleaned up a bit. The strings are not yet through the apples, although
it looks that way in the picture. The cross-member also appears too bulky,
but it is not so in reality.
Photo of Work in Progress. Taken Aug. 14, 2000.
Aug. 22, 2000. I am still waiting for the apples to dry. They have shrunken
to about 1.5" x 1.5", but still feel a bit rubbery. I will give them some more
time. Although the mould has not spread, it is visible in places.
Your comments and questions are welcomed. E-mail me.
Return to COMPLETED WORKS HOME PAGE.
Sketch for: Sculpture. 2000. Assemblage. 16"x 25".
Photo of Work in Progress. Taken Aug. 6, 2000.
Photo of Work in Progress. Taken Aug. 14, 2000.