Week Two

Keeping Warm

Moving, mimicking, and making

A way of working when the days are cold and the nights are frigid is to keep the head and feet warm and move. I see this in us as we bury through a winter’s week. ‘Strained but hopeful,’ said President Obama in State of the Union address on Wednesday. Something about the winter brings us naked and vulnerable, moving in fear of chilling, willing to take warmth where otherwise we may not. We are resourceful and hopeful. Artists are no different than everyone else, than most of the critters in the natural world.

I first heard Janine Benyus speak of “biomimicry” at the Harvard Design School in December and decided this week to bury myself in the images, text, and words on this topic searching for models for how and why to make things. It has me thinking that we are not different, how egocentric to think we possible could be. We are creatures who move in fear of chilling. My basic question is about art and The Artist and whether we can learn from the natural world about how to make marks and form. I am looking at method.

That has brought me to a week of looking at how the things in my everyday world create. From tendril vines to beetle shells, from icy rivers to climbing staircases, from toddlers scribbles to winter buds I looked at the form in nature around me, locally. I look for the presence and absence of form and patterns. I ruminate on the method driving it. Through these everyday studies, I ask "What is the difference between the Artist in our contemporary culture and everything else that creates?" and "How can I borrow, mimick, from other creative processes?" I am in search of method. Obtuse exercise - possibly - but it kept my mind moving and eyes open.

Our little girl, for instance, she is an artist in her own right (left). She makes things, sorts and stacks things, scribbles and performs. Her method is driven by exploration and transgression. From her I learn about intuition and expression, experimentation and discovery in the everyday.

The tendrils, a photo piece I did from the vineyards (right), demonstrate a mechanism good for climbing in strong winds. From these I learn from the stem about flexibility and opportunity. I continue to learn from the order and complexity of the world around me.

I made some drawing this week (see above) to keep moving. If there is any consistency in this short course of biomimicry it is to take the “A” out of the artist. Be humble and simple and inspired. I found a method of doing out of need and intuition finding meaning and fit through the survival and play of what worked and what didn't. My marks in these drawings reflect this process. These small ink and charcoal pieces are on paper. There are tones of grey, taupe, dirty white on concrete, brick and asphalt. Finding place. Keeping warm.

In addition to my orbit of rumination, I had a first meeting with my artist mentor, Sheila Gallagher. We talked about the paintings that I brought to the residency and about moving forward. By setting out mulptiple parallel exercises she is encouraging me to experiment and find newness in the materials and the act of painting. More to report as this unfolds.

Art Journal

This week I looked at Janine Benyus, a natural scientist, and Vija Celmins, a painter. They are both woman of extreme passion and desire toward their subject matter. One communicates through various media, talks and text while the other paints. Both speak to the vast dimensions and intricacies of the world in which we live. Both have inspired me.

1. Janine Benyus

As mentioned above, I heard JB speak in December and have been thinking about her talk since. It is easy to romanticize nature but to really look and learn from nature is a different approach. It is reverent but it is also a way of looking at the world as a complex web of systems. Everything in the system of nature seems to be efficient, resourceful, able to do more with less because this is how organisms survive, this is survival of the fittest. I wonder how to fit into this system as an artist. I am not convinced that we are more than glorified makers of things, self proclaimed and moderately tolerated by society. We are different than the farmer or the plumber or the doctor in that we actually, arguably, are not needed. I do believe artful lives are needed though. Our lives need to be part of the community, part of the life around, part of the scribbles and the twining. I found a lot of energy in the lessons from nature and biomimcry and I will take them into the studio moving ahead.

http://www.biomimicryinstitute.org/media/audio-video.html

Biomimcry: Innovation Inspired by Nature/ by Janine Benyus, 2002

2. Vija Celmins

Vija Celmins studies what seem to be cliche and banal subjects of water and the night sky, a spider's web or stones and brings an obsession and concentration to her work that is incredible and impressive. I love the depth in layers and the realism that reaches beneath the skin of abstraction. I am simultaneously lost in her paintings and found. Something seems like home. Dare I say... sublime? These interviews also show what a sensitive and quirky woman she is, in love with her work, her materials, and unphased by the attention and popularity that it has attracted. I would like to meet her and talk about making night skies and layering of atmosphere.

http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue9/thinkingdrawing.htm

http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/celmins/index.html

http://artforum.com/video/mode=large&id=20861

Vija Celmins / Published by Phaidon.