ART CHALLENGE - 3 of 5
I had to skip a day in this reposting project - yesterday was just too much!
We went to the Villa Giulia, Rome's museum of Etruscan objects. The Etruscans preceded the Romans in Italy. They were strong from the 9th to the 3rd centuries BC, but had the misfortune to be Rome's neighbors as Rome was flexing expansionist muscles. Etruscan statuary and objects of daily life now fill the Villa Giulia. There's too much to see in one trip, so we staggered out after a few hours looking for lunch (it was 3 pm), into a downpour and a dearth of public transit.
We walked all the way down to Piazza Venezia (pausing for pasta at a reasonable place by Piazza Popolo), and took a bus home, heavy rain still coming out of the sky as we splashed inside. Our compensation, a delicious supper of lemon chicken made by Julianne under the supervision of Donna Ellefson (our houseguest for 2 lovely weeks), and a couple glasses of wine.
Thus no Art Challenge yesterday. Here it is today, a continuing survey and consideration of my own trajectory in art.
ART CHALLENGE, DAY 3. I took the Glass Lovers Weekend at The Washington Glass School in 2006. Ooh, glass! These early pieces have good elements, but mainly I was learning how to work around errors. None of these pieces was made at WGS, though my tiny dresses became sculptures thanks to their suggestions and help.
The fate of my first slumped piece. it's an Elizabethan-style robe about 24" high, made at Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle in an early stroke of blind luck. I didn't know enough to use museum gel to fasten it to the stand, and, back in DC, gallery floor cleaners tried to move it. Happily, they had insurance, but I was bummed!
From a workshop at Bullseye Glass Company in Portland. This is based on a drawing I had made in DC. The glass powder came out very sandpapery, and it collects dust, but I still like it, despite its anatomical issues.
After a lost-wax workshop at Pratt in Seattle, taught by the late and much-lamented Susan Balshor, I made some tiny dresses in my condo kitchen. Back in DC, the WGS guys help me imagine how to display them, and this was the first to sell, thanks to a plug from Lenny Campello.
I was thinking, I better learn how to work with glass colors. How better than flamework? I started making beads in my garage, just me and the mosquitoes. In the winter, me and 35 degrees. Work 20 minutes, go defrost 20 minutes, back to work, back to defrost, repeat as possible. This was clearly not my cup of tea. I also realized I'm not by temperament a jewelry-maker - all those tiny beads all over the floor! But I started experimenting, and this Clown is my most amusing outcome.
Onward in glass, as Art Challenge Day 4 looks at developing skill and so forth. Glass has been often frustrating for me, with my limited but developing skill set, but there have been moments of delight and real pleasure with it, too.
