Once I saw a film of Picasso behind a glass pane with his brush in hand. He strode to the glass and quickly drew a bull. A stroke here, a dot there and he was done. Eight strokes with two, maybe three dots, and he was done! I waited for him to paint more of the bull when I realized he had painted me a completely satisfying eight-stroke bull, in 28 seconds!
His genius got me thinking about whether sculpture allowed for such single-outline masterpieces. If he could capture an area on his glass canvas, could I capture space? The idea fascinated me: Making a few lines flow into space and gel into a meaningful figurative gesture.
This was the beginning of New Girl, twelve feet tall.
I take my responsibility as an artist seriously. My goal with New Girl was to create a valid fullness with only lines, a dream, a framework on which you can hang YOUR truth and understand it.
There you have it: Sculpture, You, Dreams, Truth--all there together. Quite a load for a sculptor who has never seen any creation like this.
Lines which would curl meaninglessly by themselves must blend together and form some mysterious music. I say music because there is harmony and coherence but, then again, its not music since all the harmonies and meaning change as you move about in relation to the symphony. Moving from the Loge Right to the Balcony Left does not change a symphony's presence or meaning.
Mine changes.
A lot.
Since this is uncharted territory, I found myself walking in circles like a predator trying to learn where the strong and weak angles live.
Do I tweak something? Why? What else changes if I tweak?
More circles.
Could these new-to-the-world sculptures be like magic mirrors? If I walk around to the reverse side, does beauty become ugly; does joy become despair? Or is this new angle simply a new beauty and joy I just haven't experienced yet. Or does it contain some entirely new meaning.
More circles, and I still don't know.
We are all learning this together.
I'd love to hear your thoughts about circles
His genius got me thinking about whether sculpture allowed for such single-outline masterpieces. If he could capture an area on his glass canvas, could I capture space? The idea fascinated me: Making a few lines flow into space and gel into a meaningful figurative gesture.
This was the beginning of New Girl, twelve feet tall.
I take my responsibility as an artist seriously. My goal with New Girl was to create a valid fullness with only lines, a dream, a framework on which you can hang YOUR truth and understand it.
There you have it: Sculpture, You, Dreams, Truth--all there together. Quite a load for a sculptor who has never seen any creation like this.
Lines which would curl meaninglessly by themselves must blend together and form some mysterious music. I say music because there is harmony and coherence but, then again, its not music since all the harmonies and meaning change as you move about in relation to the symphony. Moving from the Loge Right to the Balcony Left does not change a symphony's presence or meaning.
Mine changes.
A lot.
Since this is uncharted territory, I found myself walking in circles like a predator trying to learn where the strong and weak angles live.
Do I tweak something? Why? What else changes if I tweak?
More circles.
Could these new-to-the-world sculptures be like magic mirrors? If I walk around to the reverse side, does beauty become ugly; does joy become despair? Or is this new angle simply a new beauty and joy I just haven't experienced yet. Or does it contain some entirely new meaning.
More circles, and I still don't know.
We are all learning this together.
I'd love to hear your thoughts about circles