Snapshots!
Moments of the larger work.
In my last post I wrote about falling in love the work and not wanting to be done with it. I think I will always feel this way. It is part of why I work in a series. Why I keep returning. Why I keep asking “what if?”
Some of those “what ifs” can’t always be answered right away or in one composition. Part of me is still a scientist and likes to change one variable at a time. If an artist loves the subject matter, that series will go and on and on. I know some artists that are on the hundredth piece in a series. The idea of working on the same idea for 100 pieces is thrilling!!
I recently returned to my Vertebrae series and while I was creating the next three pieces, I wondered if I still had anything to say about some of the earlier pieces. Turns out, I did! While my work has evolved over the four years I’ve been working on the series, my voice still comes through in all of them. They all are still clearly my work and I love looking at how they do and do not speak to each other.
Last week I launched my Snapshot collection of smaller works on my website. They range from 8” x 8” to 20” x 24” and are not a smaller version of the larger piece but instead a portion of it. They ask what does it look like to take this section and make it its own work?
The results have been exiting and fascinating. The Vertebrae motif definitely works in a smaller composition!
One of the things I love the most about these smaller works is that if you keep the same scale as the larger work, you now only look at this narrowly defined portion. It forces you to focus on the individual pieces. How are they cut? What color are they? How do they relate to the adjacent piece? I think the smaller view requires attention to detail in different ways. You aren’t looking at the figure ground tension with a large scale motif but what makes up the motif and that is exciting!!
For example, look at the two pieces below. These are Vertebrae 10 and the Snapshot. When you look at the larger composition, maybe you’re not seeing those small individual pieces but when you move to the smaller composition, they are now the prominent subject matter.
I enjoyed working on these tremendously! I will definitely be continuing the practice of making Snapshots as I work on pieces.
Some are still available on my website.