Erhard, for 25 grand I would have thought that they could have
made two giant orange turds for the courthouse. IMHO that brings
to mind my major objection to too much government funding for
"the arts", that they fund things that people, left to their own
devices, would never buy. (Recalling that ‘cathartic’ is an old
word for ‘laxative’.) But then maybe its just sour grapes from a
frustrated libertarian. Mebbe’ I need to get into the
spirit of community art for the masses. Geo.
Hello - Perhaps cathartic work is deeper - more dramatic - than
my comments to follow - but I was motivated to add my two cents
this morning . . .
I don’t spend much time in the cerebral realm of analyzing or
verbalizing my work. Sometimes when diving into a period of
experimentation - the source of the inspiration isn’t even clear
to me until later. This is when the creative process is the most
satisfying and sometimes healing - leaving preconceptions out of
the equation. Depending on the results, I may do variations of
the theme that come out of that round of experimentation. Once,
when I was interviewed for an article - I had to suddenly
articulate my work - and hadn’t really given it (verbalizing) a
lot of consideration. That experience did cause me to spend a
little more time forming those types of thoughts and
observations. Most of my work is consciously created - and
although abstracted, is somewhat obvious to the viewer. I think
the viewer enjoys the time of visual “discovery”. I enjoy
stepping back and listening to feedback on my work - and if the
viewer (customer) asks - I will verbalize - if there is something
to say. If not, I will talk “shop” - hammers and stakes -
whatever is the vehicle for the expression. To me, the technical
process is also valid as a point of communication. If a piece
"talks" to someone and they go home with it - great. I see
putting my work before the public somehow as a science experiment
and watch the results. The detachment makes it pretty fun to see
who responds to what. We are absolutely a composite of our
life’s experiences and we are fortunate to have an artform for
self-exploration. Cynthia