 Making it look easy
The online course, an introduction to cardboard sculpture, was a good start. A place to gain insight. To observe technique, identify tools of the trade, and observe a work in progress. But I must remind myself ... Beginner beware. It's easy to overlook the fast-forward jump in the instructional video that glazes over the hours of work condensed into fifteen minute segments. The instructor's experience that makes it look so effortless. And the editing that eliminates mistakes, and do-overs. So I remind myself ... Trial and error is part of the deal. Slow down, this is going to take time. Simple supplies ... a pair of scissors, hot glue, and repurposed cardboard don't mean it will be easy. Your mistakes can't be eliminated by pressing the fast-forward button. Just take it one step, one snip, at a time.
0 Comments
 It's easy to dismiss a new idea. To let it go because it seems too big, complicated, or time consuming. To crush that early phase of free thinking. Of possibility. Yesterday, we went to an outdoor printing event, Print Jam, hosted by the artist studios and community, Running With Scissors. It was a display of oversize woodblock printing using an asphalt roller. No simple feat.  I imagine the person or people who came up with the idea, seeing it in their mind's eye: A big beautiful print of a hand- carved image. Then talking themselves out of it. How long would it take to carve such a large piece?  What would we print on? How could we get enough pressure to make the print? And so many more questions. Would, or could, it be printed on paper? Maybe cloth? Back and forth, questions and answers. Excitement balanced with doubt. Not every idea is a good idea, not every idea will work. But sometimes it's easy to allow doubt to creep in, to steamroll and crush an idea if the answers aren't easy. To stop before we begin. Not these folks.  As I begin a new project and
wrestle with doubt, I found myself inspired by the idea of such a colossal block print. By the determination and inventiveness of the folks who made it happen. I'm not interested in creating an oversize block print, but I do have an idea worth exploring. An idea that deserves more thought before it is steamrolled and tossed aside.  The shape of things
After working on this collage bit for a while, I wondered how things were coming together, so I took a photograph. It helps me see things more objectively. And I wonder, what do you see? I hope you see the start of a great horned owl(?). There's a perfectly imperfect element to collage that I like. How even small bits, like that crescent moon snip of yellow paper on the circle of black, can transform it into an eye ... one that looks like it's looking back. When I set it in place, it changed everything. Owl are you today? |
WhistleStop Blog
Pausing to explore small wins and wonder in short stories and poems 
Join Waystation Whistle and get stories, inspiration, and the Story Starters Calendar every Sunday.
It's free! Categories
All
|