Monday, August 23, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Gotta Start Somewhere
I have been delaying the start of this for a while, you know trying to come up with just the right thing. Clever, witty, inspiring and all of that. But I am continuing to age, so I am just going to start.
I am doing this as much for my own growth as I am for you. For me it will be an exercise in social networking, and self promotion. I shudder at that last term. For you, hopefully an opportunity to take a safe look into the mind of an artist, to observe the process by which a thing of beauty becomes a thing of beauty. You are at a safe distance, so relax.
There is a very definite philosophy that is the atmosphere in which my creative process breathes. Our home, this Earth, is alive,all of it is, there is a connectedness. We have worked hard at creating an artificial environment here where we control everything, from temperature and light to sound. Insulating ourselves from the real world, removing that which inconveniences us. We have removed the "harmonics" of the world around us, and replaced them with canned sound.
Oops, I will on occasion get carried away. So, having admitted that, back to why we are here. As an artisan, whose primary medium is wood, I have been endeavoring to return to an honest relationship with my work, to dream with my eyes open and my hands in motion. We are part of an instant society, but we are not part of an instant world, everything natural, grows into what we see, it is a process that involves joy and pain, movement and stillness. The ability to imagine that which is not yet seen. To dream, with eyes open and hands in motion.
When I am out with the big trees and hear them sing with the wind, see them feed and shelter so many other lives, I know that respect must be shown, honor given. How can my hands help to release the dreams held within that which was once a tree and is now what we call wood?
The ancients of most cultures had a basic respect for the life around them, regardless of the form that it took, many had a custom of propitiation, being thankful, and expressing that thanks, for the life given for our need, knowing that at some point we would also fulfill our part in the circle. An understanding of balance, we cannot take without returning, and yet we do, and have for generations now.
In my work I attempt to give honor where it is long over due, to salvage and reuse as much as possible, and use ethically harvested wood. To work with the wood, not forcing it to unnatural shapes and purposes. My pace is steady, I try to keep frustration and stress from speaking in my work, and know how something "feels" when it is done.
I am not a hobbyist, but hope to always be an amateur, doing what I do for love of it, never merely working for the paycheck.
If you made it all the way to this point, thank you, I will be including photos and in process bits as we go along, so it won't always be monologues and diatribes.
I am doing this as much for my own growth as I am for you. For me it will be an exercise in social networking, and self promotion. I shudder at that last term. For you, hopefully an opportunity to take a safe look into the mind of an artist, to observe the process by which a thing of beauty becomes a thing of beauty. You are at a safe distance, so relax.
There is a very definite philosophy that is the atmosphere in which my creative process breathes. Our home, this Earth, is alive,all of it is, there is a connectedness. We have worked hard at creating an artificial environment here where we control everything, from temperature and light to sound. Insulating ourselves from the real world, removing that which inconveniences us. We have removed the "harmonics" of the world around us, and replaced them with canned sound.
Oops, I will on occasion get carried away. So, having admitted that, back to why we are here. As an artisan, whose primary medium is wood, I have been endeavoring to return to an honest relationship with my work, to dream with my eyes open and my hands in motion. We are part of an instant society, but we are not part of an instant world, everything natural, grows into what we see, it is a process that involves joy and pain, movement and stillness. The ability to imagine that which is not yet seen. To dream, with eyes open and hands in motion.
When I am out with the big trees and hear them sing with the wind, see them feed and shelter so many other lives, I know that respect must be shown, honor given. How can my hands help to release the dreams held within that which was once a tree and is now what we call wood?
The ancients of most cultures had a basic respect for the life around them, regardless of the form that it took, many had a custom of propitiation, being thankful, and expressing that thanks, for the life given for our need, knowing that at some point we would also fulfill our part in the circle. An understanding of balance, we cannot take without returning, and yet we do, and have for generations now.
In my work I attempt to give honor where it is long over due, to salvage and reuse as much as possible, and use ethically harvested wood. To work with the wood, not forcing it to unnatural shapes and purposes. My pace is steady, I try to keep frustration and stress from speaking in my work, and know how something "feels" when it is done.
I am not a hobbyist, but hope to always be an amateur, doing what I do for love of it, never merely working for the paycheck.
If you made it all the way to this point, thank you, I will be including photos and in process bits as we go along, so it won't always be monologues and diatribes.
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