Applicable

In checking my horoscope this morning I found it very fitting and thought I would share:

You may feel as though you have been wasting your time with a certain person or a certain goal.  That may be because - despite investing a lot of time and energy and passion into something - you have seen few, if any, results that will help with your objective.  But just because you haven't seen evidence of progress does not mean it isn't happening.  On the contrary, you have come further than you know in realizing your dream.  Keep plugging ahead, and have faith that you will achieve what you hope for.

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Yesterday I had a few hours to work, I was also able to speak with Bob about the critique and where I'm headed.  I'm not really sure what the expectations are for how much work should be produced in regards to Senior Project, I will have to get to the bottom of that.

Other than that, I began building more of the piece yesterday, most of what I tackled was within the piece working up.  I also began a bit with working the bottom of the piece downward more.  Right now I am focusing on the building portion for the most part, it will be built in 3 pieces, you all have already seen the middle section.  I am now working on the upper and lower sections.  After these have been built I will be clamping them together and working the material at the joining sections so as to visually mesh them together.  After they have been worked at the joining sections I will again, take the 3 pieces apart and work the structure and surface separately so that I can get into all of the smaller, tighter areas.  Also a benefit of working on them separately is that there will be less of a chance for the pounding and vibration to weaken the glued joints while it is bigger.  After I feel the majority of the surface work has been completed I will then laminate the 3 sections together to make the one large piece.  After doing this I will fine tune the surface texture, or lack thereof, respectively and then begin to work on finishes.

This is a brief explanation of my process, one that I hope is easier to understand.  The rest of the work; the intuition, the connection and the passion is much less easy to talk about, it's more a feeling - a conversation with both the materials, and the piece as a whole.  I feel a special bond with my work, that being said, it is difficult for me to explain, it's one of those things that "you just know".

In a recent issue of Sculpture Magazine there is an article and interview with Ursula Von Rydingsvard, I have been familiar with her work for some time now as well as her process.  When I watched the episode of Art21 with her in it, I really felt like I was watching my twin soul...my style is so similar to hers, before I had even heard of her.  It was really a breath of fresh air and a nod that I was headed in the right direction.  I want to point out a section of her interview because it really struck a cord with me.

"As I'm working on a sculpture, my base is a highly intuitive one.  I never speak to myself except to say, "No, no, not this" or "Well, this might be a little more doable."  It's all visual and psychological response, all a feeling that has to do with a reaction that comes from - I'm not quite sure where.  One of my goals is to make the process of my making even less about consciously editing.  I'm trying to engage something that I can't control as easily, from a realm that might, in fact, be a more consequential place in terms of the core of what human beings are, or who I might be."
~ Ursula von Rydingsvard
(Sculpture Magazine: December 2010, Vol. 29 No. 10)

I have also been looking at some of David Nash's work, he also has an interview in the recent SM.  He works with wood as well and a lot of his pieces are very intriguing to me.  Something about him that really clicked with me is that he calls himself "a researcher into the science and anthropology of trees".

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So there is the piece that I wanted to get out and share this morning.  I'm sure there will be more as soon as my progress becomes a little more defined.