MSATClayArt WebCam Demo
So What's the Point?
Ok for those who have been here for a long time you know there's some
method to my madness. What's this all about these face sculpting,
making molds, doing animal prints, doing leaves, flowers and basket
weave? What's the point after all this nattering on WebCam and getting
logs and pix up for you to see?
The point is we are a miniatures list that attacks an idea with
polymer clay. Beads notwithstanding, and you all know I love my
beaders, but that's not why we're here.
We don't need a big complex and expensive doll house to make a scene.
Heck Fire I make a scene each time I'm let out of the crib to prey
upon the unsuspecting public. A mini scene can be as small as a
pendant. Like these here on these pages on the DemoFace. Taking all
that was reviewed over this last week: Tongues of Fire, using pinch
pot to make bubble beads, sculpting faces, making molds, putting
patterned cane slices in the mold, doing leaves, doing flowers, making
basket weave.
What's the point?
For the majority of the world "out there" outside of the industrial
and developed countries, life is
Man, woman, eat, drink, just like the Chinese make movies about.
Out there, there are humans who are still painting their faces, like
the tribesmen in New Guinea. My neighbor Jolie, grew up in Uganda,
laughed like a loon when I told her I don't complain about using coin
operated washing machines because it is a lot easier than taking the
clothes to the local stream to beat against a rock with a stick. She
laughed like a loon for she was that native, as a child, beating
clothing on a rock, and thinking for the most part that this was
normal and a happy thing to do. Much like milking a goat.
For 60 thousand years the brain of humans have not changed, so say
those who measure the inside of skulls. So that means that a hunter
and gatherer would feel the same about their babies, their loves,
their 90210 petty jealousies from cave to cave. It would stand to
reason that all the trappings of modern life is just pupkiss, a
different tribal dance, just another gathering of humans all concerned
with
eating
procreating
and sleeping out of the rain
beyond that it's all face paint, music and dancing the dance because
the belly was full.
Ever feel like singing after a good meal? Just letting out a tune
because you're so happy you're fed. The Japanese do that all the time,
fun little practice actually.
These elements I've been reviewing in WebCam and with the pix and logs
to those who haven't joined us yet, are things that are part of the
natural world.
Civilization is a new gig. Leaves, flowers, food, faces... that's us.
In our primitive state, that's not so far away from the memory of our
cells. Thousands of years of hunting and gathering and only a couple
of hundred years of civilization some say. Gandhi when asked about
Western Civilization he said, "interesting theory". The Chinese and
the Jews count the years in the 5,000 number. It's all arbitrary, made
up, and changeable.
What doesn't change is leaves, flowers, food in basic forms, faces and
the rest is face paint and the yelp of a happy fed human doing a dance
just because they can.
So on to fish and abalone, feathers and more flowers and more leaves
and more faces and we can build a whole world with one face.
These two faces I show you here evoke emotion from us. Snakes scare
us, have all sorts of bad press in the West for the Garden of Eden.
The Snake is revered in the East for it sheds its skin and renews
itself, like each year renews itself. But snakes don't get a oh hum
reaction, love them or hate them, they are evocative of emotion.
Leaves without color is like dream time, like it's haunting for the
color is missing, this evokes emotion from people, showing them
natural things in TV Black and White. It would weird out folks who
never saw black and white TV before, natives from the bush would say
it looks like night time with a full moon.
There's more to this point, like it's both the same face mold, why
does the wrapped one feel feminine? Because it's not threatening, it's
decorated with beads, the leaves are softly falling over clay fabric,
it's friendly. The tiger snake face has these metal leaves that point
upward with snakes. It's not friendly, sexy maybe, but not without
some risk.
The faces I left emotionless for I wanted to give an example of how
color effects emotional impact, how metallic things curved and pointy
going up have a different feel than natural color falling softly down.
I left emotion out of the faces for the color, other elements, will
give a history for that face. The colors will color our emotional
reaction to them. These emotionless faces have their own sense of
self, you're on their turf.
Mini scenes can be in the space of one pendant. Manipulating cane so
it can be used in miniature, like the brown basket weave of the snake,
is the focus here. Small flowers, pinch pots, food. All this can be
utilized in a doll house or room box, but Hokey Smokes Bullwinkle, put
them on your pendants, hang tea pots from your ears.
So I guess there's a number of points I wanted to make with this whole
WebCam review of basic things I'd like all y'all to know and feel
comfortable with.
We need to sharpen our sculpting. It's imperative if we are going to
have original faces to make molds from. That's going to be an ongoing
effort on all of our parts.
We need to not be afraid of making a cane, when you get frightened
remember the FIST OF DOOM, that's the fist of a confident clayer who
isn't afraid to abuse that clay to pound it into submission.
We need to kick out any preconceived notion of what is "permissible"
with mini scenes. Screw all that, we're artists here and we are the
trend setters, we are the innovators, we only ask ourselves... does it
make ME happy. The world will accept what you make if you clay from
the heart.
Look to nature and look to the people still living in natural
settings, check the past, see the variations on the basic theme of
man, woman, eat, drink
add face paint and your own dance steps to that
now I'm hungry, off to forage like a smart monkey
xoxo
NoraJean Gatine
Lead Moderator for MSATClayArt
official and all that for we have a dozen new list members in the
space of a day and this is their first brain massage.
norajean@norajean.com
http://www.norajean.com
Life is like a lump of clay, both are what you make of it.