Green Gerbil

"A Creature's Gameboard"

I was super excited to be able to see my friend Ashley Smith's newer work this week on e-mail. I rarely get to see what she's making because she has been so busy becoming an art teacher in the far-away land of Buffalo (and she is not as addicted to the internet as I am) that we are at times worlds apart. We were painting/sculpting buddies in undergrad and I still find myself wishing often that she could still be my studio neighbor.

I love the play with painting and sculpture in the piece above. I love the density of the central blob form, full of color and marks. It contrasts beautifully with the green, airy green extension that seems to float upward from the left. The color of the yellow pod-like bit and the white feather on the upper part of the central blob reminds me of a fried egg which I think is awesome! The materials really trasnform themselves which adds to the myatery of what this creature's gameboard could be made of-- I'm guessing it's made of some kind of magical semi-precious stones from the creatures secret lair... and perhaps bones of his green gerbil who died of natural causes.


"Self-Punishment is a Disease"

I was only able to see these two pieces but I can't wait to see the rest when we get to hang out again (NYC is much closer than Japan-- I'm optimistic!) I love the drawing above because it seems to mix a lot of things together into a beautiful, stylish composition: fashion, art, organic growths, science fiction, etc. When I asked her about it she talked about how it she originally made it as a plan/sketch for a sculpture. I think it is a really interesting idea for a sculpture plan but that it also stands alone as a piece. It would be really interesting to compare the original sketch to the physical sculpture. Materials often demand other magical things of the artist that we don't initially expect when making a drawn plan. The magic of making anything! (If we already knew all the answers, why would we want to make it?)

I can't wait to be able to have a crit in person. Thanks, Ash, for letting me post your work!