Collection Sculpture 

Cornelia Parker - Thirty pieces of silver 

• Elements and Principles - Space, negative space, symmetry, reflection 
• Reminds me of childhood tea parties or a strange Alice in Wonderland type tea party, everything has been strung perfectly in line but you can barely see where, this idea really fascinates me
• Artist Statement - Parkers work deals with themes of destruction, metamorphosis and space between objects in the world 

Damian Ortega 

• Elements and Principles - Space, line, shape, negative space
• This piece is so busy and loud it has so much energy yet it is also silenced motion. It is an interesting tangled mess but it has order. organized mess. 
• Artist Statement - This artist is from Mexico city but lives in Berlin. He uses the urban landscape of Berlin as major influence on his work however things he uses in his work are often staples of Mexican life. 

Karen Rosenberg 

• Elements and principles - Space, shape, negative space, color, symmetry, repetition, scale
• a simple yet interesting idea the gold and off white compliment each other well directing your eye along the piece 
• Artist Statement- Inspired by Buddhism

Reflection - 

My collection again focusses on the importance of the material, string and thread are used to wrap and stretch across the diameter of the circle. I wanted repetition of the same object but I also wanted to combine it with a slight differentiation between the rings. I wanted to use white because color is never an important factor in my work, I think white and black are simple yet bold enough to stand without color or with minimal color but color is never my main element. Thread along the string are glass beads which are important in reflecting light and leaving a glowing reflection of the wall. I used line and negative space within a controlled circle. I wanted the beads to create shadow and reflect light. 

Free Standing Sculpture 

Paul Ramirez Jonas

 

• Elements and Principles - Line, scale, shape, repetition
• They have a warm feel to them reminding me of a sail something seen at the beach it is quite geometric looking
• Artist Statement - Jonas talks about being inspired by intimate moments.

Fernandez Arman

• Elements and Principles - asymmetry, shape, space, negative space, color, scale
• This work reminds me of Picasso's cubist guitars. His sculpture is completely broken up like cubist work. He uses snap lines to show the way everything has been sliced apart. 
• Artist statement - Influenced by the DaDa movement

Gudjon Ketilsson

• Elements and Principles - Organic shape, scale, line 
• They are very ceramic looking, very natural looking as if they are some kind of succulent or shell of something.Very irregular shapes
• Artist Statement - Ketlisson's work is inspired by using the whole of the human body to create art. 

Containing Gold -

This free stranding piece has important elements of design being shape, line and negative space. Its focus involves the circular unifying shape, 5 of which have very geometric design elements whereas the circular fabric contains chaos but also structure. I wanted to use only gold and white in this because the balance of the two tones worked together by being simple with the white but a subtle glow with the gold. These circular rings are also about the action of creating them the rhythmic movement of stretching the gold thread over the clean white rings. All three pieces are inspired by elements of embroidery and the action of sewing and binding things together with thread, they also have the common theme of the circle. Inspired also by the Native American legend of the Dream catcher and spinning a geometric spiders web. Circle symbols are important in some Native American cultures being a symbol for equality where no person is more prominent than another. “The circle has no break and holds that which cannot be broken.” This stood out to me while doing research for each sculpture and became a common theme for my work. 

Sculpture - Content Research

History of Embroidery in India

History of Indian Embroidery Embroidery is an expression of self, rendered with patience and dedicated hard work, it is an art rightly described as "painting by needle". Embroidery adds grace and elegance, life and style even into articles of everyday use. Indian embroidery takes its inspiration from nature and religion. The colors, the base the theme and the style are reflective of a particular region. Embroidery on leather, velvet, net, cotton and silk is done all over the country. The patterns are decided upon on the basis of the fabric and its texture the stitches depend upon the style and the effect to be produced. Themes and motifs have remained as such for centuries. Even in the pre historic civilization probably it was the same (embroidery needles have been found in excavations). The patterns have always been floral, animals, geometric and religious. Each embroidery style has its own history and a story of development. Things till very recently remained the same till the craft of embroidery was commercialized. Even now , the themes and the motifs are same but the production techniques have changed, the requirements have changed. Machine Embroidery has introduced new styles and uses. So has the effect of western patterns and embroidery styles. Embroidery is now not just an expression, it is the means and art of decoration; decoration of clothes, bed covers, furnishings, almost anything that one can think of in fabric. Works cited article taken from - http://www.suembroidery.com/articles/history_of_Indian_embroidery.htm An interesting site to look at - http://www.modernedition.com/art-articles/string/string-art-history.html Dream Catcher History & Legend Dream catchers are one of the most fascinating traditions of Native Americans. The traditional dream catcher was intended to protect the sleeping individual from negative dreams, while letting positive dreams through. The positive dreams would slip through the hole in the center of the dream catcher, and glide down the feathers to the sleeping person below. The negative dreams would get caught up in the web, and expire when the first rays of the sun struck them. The dream catcher has been a part of Native American culture for generations. One element of Native American dream catcher relates to the tradition of the hoop. Some Native Americans of North America held the hoop in the highest esteem, because it symbolized strength and unity. Many symbols started around the hoop, and one of these symbols is the dream catcher. Dream Catcher Lore: Native Americans believe that the night air is filled with dreams both good and bad. The dream catcher when hung over or near your bed swinging freely in the air, catches the dreams as they flow by. The good dreams know how to pass through the dream catcher, slipping through the outer holes and slide down the soft feathers so gently that many times the sleeper does not know that he/she is dreaming. The bad dreams not knowing the way get tangled in the dream catcher and perish with the first light of the new day. How the Dream Catcher is made: Using a hoop of willow, and decorating it with findings, bits and pieces of everyday life, (feathers, arrow heads, beads, etc) the dream catcher is believed to have the power to catch all of a person’s dreams, trapping the bad ones, and letting only the good dreams pass through the dream catcher. Works cited article taken from - http://www.dream-catchers.org The Legend of the DreamCatcher      A spider was quietly spinning his web in his own space. It was beside the sleeping space of Nokomis, the grandmother.       Each day, Nokomis watched the spider at work, quietly spinning away. One day as she was watching him, her grandson came in. "Nokomis-iya!" he shouted, glancing at the spider. He stomped over to the spider, picked up a shoe and went to hit it.      "No-keegwa," the old lady whispered, "don't hurt him."      "Nokomis, why do you protect the spider?" asked the little boy.       The old lady smiled, but did not answer. When the boy left, the spider went to the old woman and thanked her for saving his life. He said to her, "For many days you have watched me spin and weave my web. You have admired my work. In return for saving my life, I will give you a gift." He smiled his special spider smile and moved away, spinning as he went. Soon the moon glistened on a magical silvery web moving gently in the window. "See how I spin?" he said. "See and learn, for each web will snare bad dreams. Only good dreams will go through the small hole. This is my gift to you. Use it so that only good dreams will be remembered. The bad dreams will become hopelessly entangled in the web.      Another Legend of the DreamCatcher      Long ago when the word was young, an old Lakota spiritual leader was on a high mountain and had a vision. In his vision, Iktomi, the great trickster and teacher of wisdom, appeared in the form of a spider. Iktomi spoke to him in a sacred language. As he spoke, Iktomi the spider picked up the elder's willow hoop which had feathers,horsehair, beads and offerings on it, and began to spin a web.       He spoke to the elder about the cycles of life; how we begin our lives as infants, move on through childhood and on to adulthood. Finally we go to old age where we must be taken care of as infants, completing the cycle. "But", Iktomi said as he continued to spin his web, "in each time of life there are many forces; some good and some bad. If you listen to the good forces, they will steer you in the right direction. But, if you listen to the bad forces, they'll steer you in the wrong direction and may hurt you. So these forces can help, or can interfere with the harmony of Nature." While the spider spoke, he continued to weave his web.      When Iktomi finished speaking, he gave the elder the web and said, "The web is a perfect circle with a hole in the center. Use the web to help your people reach their goals, making good use of their ideas, dreams and visions. If you believe in the great spirit, the web will catch your good ideas and the bad ones will go through the hole." The elder passed on his vision to the people and now many Indian people hang a dream catcher above their bed to sift their dreams and visions. The good is captured in the web of life and carried with the people, but the evil in their dreams drops through the hole in the center of the web and is no longer a part of their lives. It's said that the dream catcher holds the destiny of the future. Works Cited article taken from - http://www.american-native-art.com/publication/dreamcatcher.shtml

Container Sculpture 

Rebecca Hutchinson

 

• Elements and Principles - Shape, negative space, organic shape, line, scale, space, texture
• Looks and reminds of of fishing wire or lobster cages something weathered by the ocean.
• Artist Statement - Hutchinson has an interest in both human world and natural world, her work is very organic, some pieces are influenced by observing plant growth and ecosystems. 

Sue Walker

 

• Elements and Principles - Rectangular line, symmetry, scale, texture 
• The stitching inspired me because it is very irregular and unfinished looking and it goes well together with the black ink prints
• Artist statement -This artist mostly works with sitting printmaking, and photography 

Rickie Wolfe

• Elements and Principles - Organic shape, color, texture, space, negative space
• The use of wire with fabric is an interesting concept to me, how it creates these organic shapes with it creating an beautiful shadow.
• Artist Statement - Wolfe explains that he is drawn to the tension between the raw metal and the delicate elements; fragile yet strong. 

Web of gold - 

This work begins with a fascination in the materials used. Thread is a simple yet interesting material to work with, it can be manipulated in many different ways and it can also have a mind of itself running in directions you don't always not intend. I wanted to use a combination of this thin delicate material with the strength of the metal nails to create something thick, layered and strong. My interest came from the research that I initially started with. Thread and string can be used and manipulated in a variety of different ways its used to stitch things back together, to bind things, to wrap things up. All these actions require movement and involve using your hands, these actions became very important to me by the soothing and rhythmic action of placing the thread between each nail and stretching it across to reach the next. This movement and rhythm are as much important with the piece than the final product. I chose to use black as my primary color because I wanted it to be simple and bold against the white wall. I used a small amount of gold thread to highlight certain aspects of the work, mainly I wanted it to be very minimal and only thread it around the eye of each piece which are the middle circles. These circles are important and are a common theme in my work. Circles are important in my work representing the whole, the infinity of things and the perfect unifying shape. They correspond to the importance of movement in creating my work the shape is a gestural shape, yet it is geometric, chaos and order.