Monday, June 17, 2013

How does this happen?

The chaos of time.
     I found this jpeg on my FB feed. Not sure of the original link since it was a while ago but it came up under "I Fucking Love Science's" FB page. (Great collection of information, science trivia and cool things to know under that FB page, btw.) I love it. The bottom drawing of the "cause/effect" relationship of time, how we perceive it, record it and comparing to how events actually unfold is both humorous and enlightening to me. I love the visual representation of the bottom image, the swirls, crossed points, circles collapsing on themselves into spirals and the take off points for new curves of time. It makes for a beautiful chaotic pattern. But it's also a bit of a tangled knot that can be a bit hard to untangle as to which goes where, what starts and what ends? Today that knot represents my mood.
Bowl, greenware, slip painting, to be continued...
     It's only 8-ish in the morning as I start writing this post and already I feel as if I got on in the middle of the roller coaster. I simply was looking forward to a productive week. I have some ideas and goals of things I'd like to accomplish and yet, just after breakfast, I'm already behind... behind what, I'm not sure and the fact that I'm living in rural Kentucky as opposed to the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple makes it even more perplexing. I stopped running for trains but now I feel as if I'm running for weeds. I'm being bested by my beans. This is a human flaw and I'm cultivating it. Or am I? Is this not how nature really works? Survival is a daily ritual. We live in constant tension. No living thing can fully rest until it is no more. We humans attempt to master the art of survival, making it easier and more convenient to the point where we get outraged when mother nature does not conform to our expectations. I don't know whether to laugh or cry at our collective delusion. Sometimes I do both.

Sugar Jar
   The geometric shapes and line carvings I have been doing on my functional work have touched on time-lines like the one drawn in the top part of the first image. We set down markers in our lives as if they are linear. However, it seems as if things really are more circular and about touch points. Some places intersect and we mark them, some don't. I've become intrigued with those points and it's made me think about the quest for balance in our lives or imbalance as the case may be. So now, a lot of the newer work (should I ever get it in the kiln to bisque) is predominantly circles that overlap and intersect, points, spirals and wavy, undulating lines. Still some pod/leaf forms as I find those very fundamental. Seeds, eggs, origins and the like, you know. Points hit intersections or float within circles looking for an intersection. Still adding the equine imagery as a kind of personal homage to prehistoric art.
Platter


Pitcher
    Still searching for balance. And the ironic thing, when I thought about it this past weekend, is that balance is not the absence of tension. Balance is tension. Balance is constant tension. Balance is perfect tension with the environment around us. You can notice this when you run into the extreme of unbalanced energy, a different kind of tension, an internal tension that does not connect with the reality of the outside environment.
      Anyway, it seems I'm off to the races with this idea on the pots. Still doing the pod/genitalia thing in the sculpture realm. And now the universe has intervened again and I jumped on an opportunity that will change my trajectory. Seems I will be making molds for the next month. How about that. Me and my silly expectations.
Pod people. Don't fall asleep...
A teacup diversion.

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Monday, June 3, 2013