Friday, April 01, 2011

No Such Thing as Mistakes (finished)

I could feel myself losing energy on the piece today. Sad, it was, and a bit of a relief, too. You can't keep throwing that much of that kind of energy into a project without losing a grip on reality.

This piece isn't much larger than a tabloid-sized piece of paper. You can see my roll of tape on the left for reference. And the largest portion of the work was done in five days, but the whole piece might be some six years old—I guess it's never to late to try again.

Since I could tell that the Muse was packing bags to go have a rest somewhere more peaceful, I decided that I had better wrap up. I hated to give it up, but I thought that, unfinished, I might come back to it carrying a different story, or worse—that I might never actually finish.

The story is still being told. Whenever I look at it I see something that I didn't intend to put there, and yet it all seems to make sense. I've enjoyed showing it to people, though it's dark—I like hearing what they have to say about it, what they see, or what they think they see.

If it wouldn't be too much trouble... I'd love to know what you see.

3 comments:

Aimeé said...

I like how the opening in the chest of the central figure looks like a mouth when you look at it sideways. Brings new meaning to "sucking chest wound"...

Also love the girl peeking out of the foggy window. I loved doing that as a kid. There's definitely a watchful theme here, with the binocular man as well. I'll have to stop by your studio and see it in person.

Denishé said...

I'm going to comment on my own piece because I can. It's a story that keeps trying to reveal itself to me, so I don't exactly know what's happening here, really. Today I did find myself thinking that she's teetering on the edge, or trying to balance.

Denise said...

I just found a sketch that I did during the winter that resembles this final piece. It was just a sketch, kind of loose. In it there's a figure with a square on it's torso and teeth-like ribs. At the top of the page I wrote the word "potential". Apparently I intended to attach a book to it somehow or make some kind of doll. Maybe it's time for another version.