Summer I / 2021

Studio Hours II - Professor Marilyn Thompson

During the bulk of this class, I worked on completing the first piece of an installation project I have titled e/Mergence

This first piece is a notable progression of my work as I consider abstraction, and new materials.
Ascendant is the first piece in the installation and may liekly be seen as the center-piece of it, if I get to produce it in the scale I intended.  What I am completing during this class is, more or less, a proof of concept.

During this class, aside from Ascendant, I worked on exploring a variety of concepts that would support the piece and express the conceptualizations through additional pieces that pull in key forms, hues, and details which speak into the subject.   I worked on some acrylic and clay mixed media pieces, which for me did not feel successful.   Principally due to my lack of familiarity with acrylic painting techniques.   I will retry the concepts using spray painting and  possibly some other types of paints.

However, I've also got to be sure not to get distracted.  Professor Thompson was very understanding and provided great guidance for every direction that I was looking.  In fact, even though we did not talk about metal much, her feedback regarding the form itself was encouraging.

The summer began with finishing up the metal work for Ascendant... There were many more sketches, and a couple of 3D CAD type works I made in order to aid my efforts.

The experimentation with combining painting and clay pieces is ongoing, but here is where I started.  I made a bunch of backgrounds on canvas with acrylic paint, and planned to suspend (using some simple magic) a clay inverted pyramid in front of each.

The painting is not strong, as one would expect, and I want to explore other types of painting; such as spray painting.  But I will still suspend the clay pieces in front of each background.

I took a little breather for a few days and started some work on one of the next pieces of the e/Mergence installation.  These metal pieces will become a collection of inverted black pyramids, which will be suspended in mid-air.  They will be varying in size from as small as 8 inches to 16 inches high.  Here are some concept sketches and photos of the advance work.

In finality, during the Summer I session, I did create the clay face part of Ascendant.  The piece has not been fired yet. I am letting it dry very slowly.  I looked at quite a bit of other's work, and the first image was the best summation of what aesthetic I was drawn toward.

During Summer II, I will continue to work on the video component of Ascendant, but will be working on Deferred Hopes and Whispers (2.0)