Welcome to MissouriBendStudio!

This is an online journal of my artistic investigations and a way to communicate about my work, ideas, quandries and queries! I welcome comments and conversation and do hope you enjoy these musings. My artwork is available in my shop MissouriBendStudio on Etsy.com or on my website.

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Friday, May 27, 2011

Connect the Dots



 detail...

 closer detail...

and another detail...

I have lately found myself very much drawn to connecting the dots through drawing on paper, the larger metaphors for such activity only slowly revealing themselves.  For me, this is the best part of the artmaking practice....relaxing enough to follow my instincts, because they almost always have something to say to me....some dawning awareness about what it means to be alive.  

The last piece I showed you Firmament of the Ancestors from The Pink Pages, had that arching pattern of connected dots in the sky above the boat...each work I engage with seems to want to carry the notion further in some way....so I'm going with it...I want to know where it will take me and what will be revealed.  This is what I mean when I say that I think through my hands and that work itself reveals to me my own thoughts the most clearly.

I'm slowly building the surfaces, scumbling and layering whisper thin very dry acrylic paint and drawing, only lightly covering the underneath layer to reveal the earlier pattern of connected dots. Always there is an overlapping, like the layering between civilizations and histories....always a trace left behind. As time goes on and we look back over events, we often make different connections, see different patterns emerge and yet, there are times when the connections between points are there for life and we draw the same conclusions we'd drawn earlier.  Seeing the layers of drawing is also a way to talk about the fact that, given any group of random dots, the different ways they can be connected is truly amazing and each change in the way two ideas are connected, two events, two individuals....well, it can change the pattern slightly or almost entirely. This life is a dance....each moment could be otherwise.

I've heard creativity described as the abililty to make connections between seemingly disparate ideas or things and I've always found that idea intruiging....finding the connection, forging the connection, seeing life anew through the endless possibilities.

Our weather is quite chilly and dreary this weekend...I doubt there will be too many Memorial Day picnics in this area....but I hope you enjoy the long weekend!  See you at the beginning of the week!


11 comments:

  1. Kelcey (Sweet Mess)...thank you!

    Carole...yes, mind boggling!

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  2. I like your perceptive descriptions almost as much as the works themselves, P! They remind me of star charts in a way. I do believe that certain points are fixed, be they persons, places, ideas, events, and we have so many different connections and directions we can choose from to create the patterns of our lives...and no two people need to make the same choices, even given the same material to work from! Endless possibilities!

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  3. I just read G/TT's comments and it echoes what I was thinking of saying! I love the thoughts that lie behind your works Patti - I love the stories and I love how it comes together and all makes perfect sense.

    Ahhh the marks on the maps, the dots that connect us; food for thought and art for years to come me thinks.

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  4. Gabriella...yes, I like to think of those fixed points from which all the lines are drawn and redrawn, endlessly! I am inspired by star charts also, I'm sure! Thank
    you for your perceptive comments, as always!

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  5. Fiona....yes, your mapping reference hits home too, which I think may play a role in the next scroll! Thank you so much for your kind words...cheers to you!!

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  6. I too, am reminded of the night sky... beautiful, evocative images.

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  7. Hedera...thank you so much for you wonderful comment!

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  8. 'the abililty to make connections between seemingly disparate ideas or things', that is an intruiging thought indeed.
    Creativity as the perfect brain candy maybe.

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  9. Elis....I wish I could remember where I ran across that idea about creativity, but it struck a huge chord. There is creativity in every discipline and that's how things advance...someone is able to make the connection between things previously "unattached"....quite intriguing.

    I'm very curious to learn more about your Burrows project...

    Thanks for your comment!

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I'm happy to hear from you...comments and questions are welcome!