Luna wx 26%v
Have of necessity been going back and forth between 2d and 3d work, probably for the first time -effectively- ever. Finding that I need a bit of a buffer activity between the two kinds of action. Beyond the physical clutter & space issues associated with a back and forth, there is a distinct difference in mindset and operation that at least at this stage, are not compatible in the same space (the same tabletop).
I can’t be physically sawing or cutting or otherwise working on a piece while stopping to sketch or draft. Necessary to do like operations all together-
Ex. today: morning, 2d work for PNP transfers, design begun for 3rd box, more image refinement for six-wings pendant.
buffer: to kinkos for more image refinement, cook dinner, clean kitchen, poke around on the computer\
this evening: saw work for demo ARARITA ring, sawing and filing of sides & lid of 2nd bronze box, cut new locket base from brass tubing, practice rivets if time
buffer before sleep: watch some episodes of City of Vice with T, read in automata book.
Stages, 2d:
The design (sketching) stage done with very few tools- sketchbook, pencil, eraser. maybe a straightedge, but lines are almost always freehanded at this point. Can be done just about anywhere- coffeeshop, home, work. Mental/psychic aperture wide.
The variations and blueprint stage: needs to be done at a clear, clean table with good movable lighting. Home studio. Need above plus mechanical pencil & sandpaper, straightedge, triangles,compass. Sketches are scaled and redrawn, retraced, and redrawn again until all necessary variations are gone through. From the several variations one master is chosen. The master is recopied once more and inked if necessary, final adjustments and minute improvements made by hand as the copying happens. Mental/psychic aperture narrows.
The patternmaking stage: Selected blueprint master is hand copied onto tracing paper. Master parts on tracing paper are affixed to material for a cardstock/cardboard mock-up or the final materials for the actual object. The pattern will of course be destroyed in the fabricating, but as long as there’s a still a master on file, no worries. Screw up, just make another one. Mental/psychic aperture narrowly focused.
Copying is done by hand and preferably all in one session or on the same day. Xeroxing is possible, but hand copying improves drawing skills and leaves me with no worries about whether the line will be “alive” or not. Also, xeroxing onto tracing paper more often than not jams the machine due to its slipperiness and thinness. Vellum is too expensive to be a throwaway material. Regular white paper obscures the edges too much when cut, and gums up/dulls the saw too quickly.
Reckon the materials with the design via the pattern- once cut and fit it will be clear whether the design works.
– BUFFER – THE DIVIDE-
3d processes vary widely depending on materials, but the mental/psychic aperture progression reverses the above in stages, where initial bridge between 2d and 3d maintains very tight focus and once form is established in the material as a viable, working piece aperture opens out somewhat. As space is created in the object and gesture/rhythm of pattern becomes apparent and firm, the piece itself has more to say about what it is/will be. Active/passive relationship of artist and created shifts more and more the nearer to completion the operation gets.
All phases of work require that I be alone, or at least not be expected to engage in conversation with others.
phase two/3d -Body leads, acting on materials to effect spatial & formal changes, head following. Mind as sentinel of attention continually drawing actions back to conform with design as well as mediating messages from the material itself, facilitating necessary adjustments.
The alternation of thes two parts of the self within the two phases “warms” the heart and produces a third thing essential to viable, living works.