To sign or not to sign – that is the question…
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to honor and cherish
the philosophy behind Mingei,
Or to sign and release one’s work
Into the wild for market or vanity’s sake.
Excuse the bastardization of Shakespeare‘s Hamlet, but his famous prose is exactly what popped into my mind after writing this post’s title. To be honest, I really don’t give much thought to signing my work and am responding to Keith’s post. I started signing my pots back in college ceramics 101 on the request of my professor as a way of keeping track of my beginning ceramic doorstops from those of my classmates. I’ve signed my name on my pots ever since, even though I don’t work in a communal studio anymore. I’m not sure that it adds value to my pot or not since most of the world doesn’t recognize my name. And, it’s not for vanity’s sake either – maybe it’s just a western thing. Isn’t everything signed in our culture – good, bad and neutral? Heck, I make the kids in my clay classes sign their work too – mostly so that there is no confusion as to who made something when it comes time to glaze and/or take their work home.
I have long admired the use of chops (see definition #3) or signature stamps and have been meaning to make one for myself for quite some time. A couple of nights ago, I actually dreamed about making a chop and when I woke up, designed one based on my dream. Weird when that happens, don’t you think?
In the past, I have signed my full name or just my initials, and have recently started stamping my initials into heavily textured work when I find that there isn’t enough room for a full signature.
Mini letter stamps
Stamped initials on side of mug under the handle
My chop is based on a lotus flower and after looking at the meaning behind the symbol common to many different cultures and religions, it seems to fit. The lotus is a symbol of summer, creativity, faithfulness, purity amid adversity and feminine genius. Okay – maybe I’m identifying with creativity and faithfulness more than purity and genius. 
I know when to eat a piece of humble pie.
Original Lotus Chop with Initials drawn on my Wacom Tablet
At any rate, the dream was pretty powerful and as clear to me as if I had been awake. I made a first attempt at a chop, but it needs some serious work. I have 2 coils setting up right now that I plan to refine into chops today. It’s tricky because it’s such a small surface area – less than 1/2″ didn’t allow enough room for my design.
Chop #1
Resulting impression
Yesterday, I even had the kids in my clay class make their own chops. They were a little confused by the concept, but nonetheless, they powered through. I’ll share their chops another day.
Question for you: Do you sign your creative work and why?
~Cynthia
P.S. My husband was jealous of my cartoon self, so I made one for him which he is currently sporting on Facebook.
My husband, Ron
LeRoy and Follow Up on Inspiration Post
LeRoy – mixed media movable sculpture
Remember the post I wrote about the “Mixed Media Movable Sculpture” class that I taught at Anderson Ranch Arts Center about a month ago? I finally got around to photographing my sculpture that I made in advance of the class to show my students. He’s been sitting on my piano ever since I returned home, just hangin’ with some ceramic bugs that my daughter and I made last year. I sort of forgot about him, until yesterday when one of my daughter’s buds was over and made a bee-line for him. You can see the sculptures my student’s made by clicking here.
LeRoy's fancy wingtip shoes,
I had a lot of fun making this sculpture which is really a caricature of my dog, Danzig, who we adopted in April from Front Range German Shepherd Rescue. Incidentally, we didn’t change his name because we decided that he had lived with this name for the past 6 years and it might add stress upon relocation stress to change it when he came to live with us. We think he was named after the the ’80′s heavy metal band of the same name, though Danzig is also the German version of the Polish town, Gdansk. We think it’s the former, however, since his previous owners kept him locked in a garage for most of his life. We’ve discovered a few issues over the past few months, but love him anyway. Despite his intense dislike of anything on wheels, he’s a goofy, gentle, lovable and good looking dog – this is what I think he would look like if he had a few human qualities thrown in. My daughter has christened Danzig’s effigy, “LeRoy Guajardo”, after I asked for help naming him.
My movable mixed media sculpture is constructed with low fire earthenware clay, wire, wood, fabric, stuffing, thread, beads, acrylic paint, glue, nichrome wire and a few misc. items that I can’t recall at the moment.
Meanwhile, I wanted to revise my last post on inspiration. I am not lacking inspiration and have a ton of it floating around in my head right now. I’m merely finding it difficult to switch gears from teaching and writing lesson plans to creating my own work. It’s taking me longer to do so than normal. Mary commented that it’s okay to take a break once in awhile and to just breathe. Beth emailed me and mentioned that teaching and creating use different parts of our brains and it gave me more food for thought.
Then yesterday, I listened to a podcast of Craftcast’s Alison Lee interviewing photographer Kathleen Carr and I felt validated just a bit afterwards. One of the things the two discussed was the notion that if an artist isn’t creating every single day then are they really just a pseudo artist?. The answer is no, that’s not true. We are constantly gathering information, inspiration, and formulating a creative response even when not making any work directly.
At the end of the podcast, Alison mentioned a gift one of her friends had given her. It’s an “inspiration tray” to store and display items that one finds interesting sort of like a creative incubator.
After listening to the podcast, I was reminded of the slide show that Dan Essig presented at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in July and his inspiration files. He showed a couple of slides of all the things he has collected over the years since childhood that he keeps in tiny little boxes in his studio. It was fascinating and it looked like he had 100′s, if not 1,000′s of little boxes filled with collected bits and pieces that he finds interesting – some of his collected artifacts even ends up in his sculptural mixed media books when the time is right.
I think I’m going to give the inspiration tray a try and I can start by adding the seed pods (see last post) to the tray so that my thoughts and ideas can develop and grow.
~Cynthia
Artist’s Date & Thank You
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
Raise your hand if you’ve ever read or even heard about The Artist’s Way. I finally read the book about a 1 1/2 years ago and actually worked through most of the assignments. It gave me a tremendous boost and pushed me to move forward in making art my full time career, let alone avocation. One of the assignments that I never did do very well, is the “artist date”, mainly because I feel like my time is so precious between being a mom, wife, sub, art teacher that whatever free time is left has gone towards making art. Well, I’ve come to realize that by not filling my creative experiential cup, that I am in a sense hurting myself. I’ve felt a little stagnant in the past few months, and sure, winter may have contributed to the feeling – but I think there was more to it.
2 weekends ago, I took my daughter to see the Colorado Ballet’s Repertory Series performance. (See the review here.) Now, I’m not normally a ballet attendee so I didn’t have high expectations. The Repertory Series is a mixed program of different dances and the first one, “Leaves are Fading”, left me checking the time on my watch, wondering how much longer I would have to sit there. After the first intermission, however, I sat in rapt awe at the next 2 contemporary performances, the last one, “Straight Line to Never”, being a ballet like I’ve never imagined. To an unschooled viewer, it looked like a cross between modern dance and ballet – I loved it. I left the Ellie Caulkin’s Opera House thinking that I should get out and experience new things more often. I even felt a little more creative and had an urge to run home and get some clay out. So, Julia might have something here in regards to artists treating themselves to new creative experiences outside of their normal routines.
Thank you to everyone who voted in my new studio shot poll! 25 people have voted so far and it looks like it’s a fairly close race between B&W and then same pose but in color. Many of you stated that you liked the sepia toned image as well, but that’s not really an option for me since I want to change it. I’ve been playing around with photoshop a bit to warm up the black and white images a bit.
Meanwhile, spring break has ended and my family is back to a routine of sorts. My third clay class starts today and school is back in session for my daughter. I’m making good progress in the studio right now and hope to continue. I almost have everything made for the “Fine Art of Craft Show” opening on April 25.
Have a good week,
~Cynthia
