Rise up Singing, in Process. 18" in diameter
I have recently (within the past 6 months) been working on "A Body of Work" – a series of women’s torsos. They have turned into a favorite – like playing grown-up dressups. Like Chelsea who I posted on my first blog here, each takes on her own persona. I like some of them better than others and find the form endlessly creative. I have made enough torsos that the basic shape is easy so I can concentrate on the message that wants to come through with the particular torso. All of the ones to date are pretty "tame." I can show them pretty much anywhere that wants to take any of my tiles or masks.
But a new stream is coming through. Yesterday I finished up for firing "This is MY Body." She is neither pretty nor tame. I am not sure whether she will need more than one firing. I am sure she won’t hang in any of my usual spots.
I was thinking about that yesterday, being aware that she is merely a precursor to more who want to have their say and not just sit there prettily. I want them to come through. I want them to push me to concretize my own beliefs. Art should create stories between itself and the viewer and they all don’t have to be nice stories and they all don’t have to have happy endings. But for the stories to be created, the art has to get "out there" somehow.
Of course I will post some of it here. And then I remembered that this is an ArtOMatic year in DC. ArtOMatic is this wild, wooly, anarchic, non-juried temporary space where if you call yourself an artist and want a place to show you are welcome. It happens about every 2 years. Last time (2004) it was in the old Children’s Museum which was before that a cloistered convent. After ArtOMatic’s month-long show, it was to begin rehab for condo gentrification (walking distance to Union Station).
Now that I know there will be a place for this new work it is as if a door has opened – an "OK" to proceed. What will happen after the show doesn’t matter. The work will have its chance in real space, not just cyber, to create new stories. Afterwards maybe I’ll bring them home and hang them on my fence for the birds and the bees to contemplate. In addition to being their own selves, I have the feeling that they are also a portal to new work that wants to come through. I never know what that is. My job is to stay open to it and not fill my time with the easier work (designer tiles, regular torsos, masks).
"Everything has a life of its own,/it too could wake up filled with possibilities/of coffee cake and ripe peaches,/and love even the floor which needs to be swept,/the soiled linens and scratched records…/
"Since there is no place large enough/to contain so much happiness,/you shrug, you raise your hands, and it flows out of you/into everthing you touch. You are not responsible./ You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit/for the moon, but continues to hold it, and share it, and in that way, be known." Naomi Shihab Nye, Words Under the Words, "So Much Happiness"
1 Comment
I am so grateful to read your words today. Love the picture of you-in-a-mirror….and 'rise up singing!' Since I don't take part in the Christian naming of today, I am grateful that Easter is named after a Greek goddess of earthy-fertility…..and grateful to be reminded how important it is to put our own creativity out into the world. Thank you!