Inspiration
I've been up in the mountains, art directing a photo shoot for the past couple of days. The 3-hour drive was inspiring... great colors, beautiful weather, crazy geologic formations to admire. (I need to get out more!)
I have been thinking about a series of collages related to growth, plant forms, roots, etc. That's probably why I am so taken with the seedlings that sit in the window at the end of my desk! Last year when I planted the seeds they took over a month to sprout. Somehow these are up and unfolding within a week. The shapes of the new leaves and the pliable stems stretching toward the light are beautiful and changing hourly it seems! It feels like a science experiment...
When I was in Indiana a few weeks ago I visited the Indianapolis Museum of Art. I had seen photos of tapestries created by African artist El Anatsui but had never seen one in person. Wow -- they are composed of recycled, flattened liquor bottle caps (aluminum) joined together with copper wire. I wish I had been able to photograph it up close. It is spectacular from a distance and captivating on close inspection. This piece is 17 feet wide and hung so that it undulates. The museum website has a video clip that shows its installation along with some closeups and commentary about the piece. Very inspiring!
I saw the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater today. What an amazing performance. So many effortless looking movements and intriguing choreography, amazing artistry and athleticism. I kept thinking how great it would be to photograph the dancers, even though it would be a blur, and use some of those abstract qualities as the basis for a collage composition. I have several pieces that I feel were influenced by my daughter's ballet studies. They are more carefully composed and balanced, as ballet tends to be. The photo shows a piece called "Arabesque" that was done quite some time ago. It would be fun to try something along those lines that incorporates more movement and speed. It is great when one kind of art is able to lend ideas to another kind of medium -- it was a very inspiring afternoon.