Material Matters 3 - cw

This is just a cool piece of aluminum I found years ago. I love its squashed and textured surface and would like to capture something like it in the metal jewelry pieces I am working on. At first when I saw it I thought it was light bouncing off of a wet leaf.

Material Matters 1 - cw

"Hey, are those chocolate?" I was asked numerous times the other evening as I cut out shapes during my son's Tae Kwon Do class. What a great idea I thought, but no, these are wax and will soon be bronze. This is the initial, super rough beginning phase of a jewelry series that will be quite sculptural in nature. Each piece is unique - I am making up the designs as I go and have several thoughts on the hanging method, from handmade chain to ribbon. It is fun to imagine jewelry in chocolate - I always loved those brightly colored candy necklaces when I was a kid. These will be cast at Shidoni Foundry which is a foundry for sculpture where I used to work. Then I will finish the metal work and apply patinas which is more work I truly love. Applying the chemicals and heat and watching the metal change is alchemy in action!

Material matters 2 - kd

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... I've been thinking about two things-- layers and texture. On the purple Moonshell above, I scraped back through the paint and varnish, much like the drawings you do as a kid when you color on a sheet of paper, put black crayon over the whole thing and then draw through the black to expose the colors.

But I want more depth to work with, so I was talking with Carol about that, about plaster specifically, which would give a nice surface to play with, spatter, scrape back to the fiber, do as I like. I don't like art stores, I prefer to work with whatever I kind find close by, so I looked around to see if there was something I could mix with the gesso that would make it thick and give some texture.

Some sand I collected from a pile in the pasture behind the house produced a predictably grainy surface (top photo, right). For the whiter piece (top photo, left) I used some baby powder that's been sitting around the house waiting for someone to use it. I'm really excited about that one, because as you can see, it crackled when it dried, like a river-bed. Having grown up in New Orleans two blocks from the Mississipi River and walked the dry bed many times when the river was low, the crazed pattern of dried fine powder resonates with me. This material has definite potential.....

A room with infinite views - kd

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................This is where I work. It used to be a kitchen, which is perfect because what I do here feels very much like what I do when I'm cooking-- learning by doing, and making things from what I've learned. It's a small space (7' x 11'). In it is a card table, a straight back chair, a fan for drying paint, and my favorite arm chair facing the window. I sit in my chair and dream and sketch, looking up into a huge old oak. The branches, like my thoughts, are dendritic, infinitely splitting and reaching for the sky.
I feel extremely fortunate to have such a view, but I wouldn't say that my imagination is dependent upon a tree.

To do good work you don't need a big space, a lot of gear, or a view. In general I find I do better work with less-- less money, easily available and fewer materials. Against the absence of stuff, my mind is thrown into relief. I learn more, my explorations go deeper. There is no interruption in the flow of ideas, no stopping to switch between different techniques and media, between facilitating and creating. My thoughts are disparate enough in themselves. Using fewer things allows me to express my ideas fluidly.
What you do need is a place that is yours, a little space, time, and silence-- like Virginia Woolf says, a room of one's own -- a place where you can dream and do, taking the threads of your unconscious and making them into something real.
And ultimately, if you think about it, the most important room you will always have is the one you have in your mind--- a room unbounded by walls, a room with infinite views.

- I first published this post in January09 on my blog www.kdokosart.com .

Tree of Knowledge-Om - cw

............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ This is one of my original drawings from the Tree of Knowledge series. This body of work explores humans' interest in symbol making and the dividing and unifying nature of symbols. The body of work so far explores the structure and foliage of the tree; the symbols of what we have manifested. The next drawings will explore the notion of root blight and the symbols of ideas and entities that are eating away at the structure and health of the tree.

New jewelry shapes and finishes - kd

I've been thinking out-of-the-circle lately and am happy with the results. Here are two Moonshell necklaces (front and back), inspired by Asian laquerware, that are spatter-painted on one side. I'm using more and more layers of varnish to build up the thickness and increase the depth of the finish.

Tree of Knowledge 5 and 10 - cw

These are two pieces that will be in the grand opening of the Encaustic Art Institute in Cerrilos, NM on September 12, 2009. They are graphite, transfer, silver leaf and encaustic on paper. These are part of the Tree of Knowledge Series, more of which can be seen on my website
http://www.carolwarestudio.com

What are moonshells? - kd

...............................As an artist I like to look around and see what I can do with found objects and materials, to try and disover new potential in the common and the everyday.
A year and a half ago I moved into a home filled with things left by various members of my family who have lived here over the years. Among the things stashed in closets and chests were lots of spools of cotton crochet twine which my mom used to make lace curtains. I really liked the pattern the twine makes wrapped on the spool, so one day I wrapped a bowl in a similar fashion. To get the string cast off the bowl I had to cut a lid in the top, and as a joke held it up to my ear as an earring thinking "that's an earring only Beyonce could wear. "
But some of my friends thought the idea had real potential so I began experimenting with different techniques to make something that would be viable as jewelry. Along the way I noticed that some of the raw, unvarnished pieces have a ghostly, lunar quality while others seem more like sand dollars or seashells. Some of them just look like they're from outer space -- ergo the name, Moonshells.