Filed under: Collage, Drawing, painting | Tags: art, Collage, El Anatsui, Mixed media, Printmakers, printmaking, visual art
Today, I went to the Davis Museum to see the exhibit of El Anatsui. He’s an artist born in Ghana, who makes these amazing metal tapestries from discarded liquor bottle tops. Totally crazy. They’re a multicolored chainmail of trash…and they’re stunning. He also does ridiculously amazing sculpture and painting. Go see it now. Seriously. Why are you still reading this?
I keep thinking about this portfolio review. It’s really made me stop and ponder…I’m not sure that I’ve come to any brilliant conclusions. I just keep mulling it all over in my head again and again. Tumultuous.
As a result, everything that I’ve been doing is tumultuous. I started by just making marks in a “zen” sort of way…ended up with this weird garden:
Hmmm…a physical manifestation of the chaos of thoughts that I’m having…
I also made material for my collage class. Here is what the pile looked like earlier:
It’s a mix of relief prints…gelatin prints…and other randomness. I don’t think that I’m a big fan of gelatin printing. I like the immediacy of it, but I am never in awe of what is produced. I’m sure that I need to work on it some more…
I decided that I should attempt a couple of collages with this new material. I threw caution to the wind, and came up with these two:
and:
I liked using these materials for collage. I almost felt that I didn’t have to do too much to them, as they had so much character of their own. Naturally…I did too much to them anyway. Perhaps I’ve given up on restraint. Restraint can be so boring. Yes? No? Any comments? I don’t even drink anything with caffeine, so you can’t suggest that I cut back a little.
One of the challenges that I’m having in general, is that I like to do so many different things. I like printmaking…painting…drawing, etc. I think that I should try to focus on one, but each time that I do…I wonder if I’m narrowing down unnecessarily. I know that Picasso could make art with a potato and a dry stick, but the REST of us might do well with a bit of focus. True?
So, the theme for today is: wishing for focus, whilst seriously out of focus.
Is it any coincidence that I’m going to the eyedoctor tomorrow? I hope that those eye charts don’t start looking like my collages…
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slightly wonky 
I love your work and your blog. I hope everything is OK for your eyes. They are our tools as artists. Cheers Sue
Comment by paintlater May 24, 2011 @ 6:14 pmThanks so much for your kind words! I really appreciate it. My eyes are good generally…thank goodness! Best, Elizabeth
Comment by slightlywonky May 24, 2011 @ 6:45 pmHello Elizabeth,
Comment by Ruth May 24, 2011 @ 7:14 pmIf I don’t read your blog for a week or two it always amazes me what you get up to in such a short time.. No wonder you are confused! You do so much.That is not a critisism but probably just driven by my envy for the energy of youth as I really wish I could be as experiental as you. My favourites that you have posted recently are the ones you said were “restrained”. Of the series of 4 I really loved the middle two.. So my advice would be restaint and focus for most of the time to really master what you do best and one day a week being totally mad and doing whatever takes your fancy.
Congratulations on getting your work exhibited and the little picture of Iain is gorgeous.
Ruth
Thank you so much, Ruth! I really value your thoughts on all of this. I’ll try to get back to “restraint”, and not give up on it so easily. It’s so much harder!
Comment by slightlywonky May 24, 2011 @ 9:55 pm