An Artistic Study of Time
Exploration of time through artistic expression has allowed me to discover how the past, present, future, and the begginingless and endless entity of time affects artwork. Time is a subtle element in my own work which is largely based on the nature and nurture of people, the environment and spaces. I considered elements of time such as sound, movement, memory, and context. I became aware of my core concepts by finding a common thread that ran through all my works: purpose in specific spaces, people, nurturing, protection and how they work together. I came to acknowledge how my unique perspective and personality effects who I am as an artist.
Titile: Potential Tree, Intervention Art, a study in the passage of time.
Title: Potential Tree
Materials: Acorn Caps, used art supplies,copper wire, twine
Concept: Like an acorn to a mighty oak, the growth of our artistic potential is based on the time and nourishment we put into it.
Time: AudioClip, Beginningless Gardening Endless
I set a timer and randomly recorded the sounds of what I was doing when the timer went off. I was stepping onto the porch to get some sunshine, appreciating the buds of spring in the garden, then getting pulled into clearing leaves away from the new growth, then pulling out dead growth. I actually lost track of time while recording. Just an extract of a moment in time with no real beginning or end through the course of my day.
One Day Sculpture: Artistically Reinforcing a Gate
Time: Video Documentation of a One Day Sculpture
Title: Reinforcing the Gate Artistically
Materials: gate, choke-cherry branches, ceramic tile, copper electric wire, fall leaves,screws, outdoor latex paint
Context of Time: During the change in season the fall leaves were inspiring and the weather was cool and sunny. I spent the afternoon outside and documented the unplanned experimentation with on hand supplies for a utilitarian one-day sculpture. Accompiament music was downloaded with permission.
A Measure of Time Passing with the Seasons
Context of Time: Notice how the eggs are smaller and darker on the right, and with the passing of fall into winter how their are fewer eggs, increasingly lighter in color and larger in size as they move along the branch to the left. The eggs are hung beneath the growing season that they were laid.
Maran hens are coveted for their dark chocolate brown eggs that are slightly larger than an average egg. After 6 months of waiting for them to grow old enough to lay eggs I was inspired to blow out the shells and save them for the next 4 months. With an intuitive artistic approach I also collected colorful fall leaves, an Aspen branch and a birds nest made with mud and the dried remains of my summer bachelor button wildflowers. Now abandoned by the Robins and their fledglings, the nest reminds me of watching the chicks grow throughout the warm spring and summer.
While collecting the eggs I blew them out and saved them in order. It was intriguing to see the eggs grow lighter in color with the lessening light of the oncoming winter. The eggs also increased in size as the birds matured. I sought a way to envoke the ideas of the passage of time and seasons effect on our physical state. I mimicked an elementary school childrens project of preserving fall leaves by ironing them between wax paper. With this method in mind I accepted the challenge of elevating ordinary items, like daily eggs and crafts supplies, into a finer art form.
The first eggs from my 2 young Marans hens, a dark chocolate brown and only slightly bigger than a golf ball. These were laid in mid-September.
Materials: branch, Robin's nest, Maran egg shells, copper electric wire, copper, light green and dark green jewelry wire, beads, fishing line, ornament hanging hooks, dried fall leaves preserved with wax paper and glue, dried flowers, faux snow
The Impossible Task
TIME: The Impossible Task
Task: The San Andreas Fault EarthQuake Proof Artistic Beach Retaining Wall
Materials: Steel, stained glass orbs and pieces, rubber etc.
Purpose: Literally Holding Back the Tide
Saving the flooding of the Califonia Coast by putting a sea floor to above sea level retaining wall with woven steel to provide a habitat for sea creatures. The stained glass double wall will provide a variety of glowing views depending on the sun's position in the sky.
Core Concepts: Protection, Nurturing Environments, Doing as much as Possible for Future Generations
A Possible Solution
Core Concepts Realistic Solution to flooding of the California Coast: Floating Habitats and Gardens
Supported by research done on the increased salinity of farming land in India and farmers implementation of plants for food that are salt resistant. The flooded farmlands of India are now being used as farmlands with floating gardens on either foam gardenbeds or planted on top of watervioloets and other floating plants with a layer of soil on top, and tethered with ropes to anchor in place. Farmers harvest these floating gardens in waist deep water and are able to adapt to the changing environment. We cannot hold back the tide, but we can adapt to it.
Materials: reclaimed barnwood, twine, recycled peat pots, dirt, red lettuce, green lettuce, ornamental red cabbage
Place: Weber Campus Duck Pond
Plants will float and be nourished by driftwood, roots will entangle driftwood to keep it together, human food supply, habitat for animals, roots cleaning water, plants cleaning air.
Time, Digital Project: Video bringing an inanimate object to life
Title: Lost Phone
Context of Time: During the course of this project I lost my old pink phone, then bought a new phone, and my old pink phone resurfaced again. I shot this video about the malicious intent of my pink phone with my new phone.
40 - 50 pictures shot, arranged in Windows Movie Maker in order with 1 second intervals with fade out setting.
