Mixy's Art Blog

Some More Metaphors

‘Odoodem’

The idea for the final design was really concreted by a trip to the Tate Britain where I saw Leon Underwood’s Totem to the Artist. The word Totem is derived from the Algonquian word Odoodem, meaning kinship group.

The idea behind this art installation is to celebrate the mutual support and sense of kinship that develops in the National Spinal Injury Centre, between the hospital staff, therapists, patients and their families through each person’s stay in the unit.

I also want to weave together themes that are integral to the work carried out here at the centre: perseverance and determination to overcome and adjust to changed lifestyle and self-identity.

In the main foyer/waiting area there’s this brickwork column, the central support, the ‘spine’ of the building, this is where the 16 portraits will hang. Each of the collaged portraits is of someone with an inspiring story of extraordinary accomplishment living with a spinal injury. The way the portraits are displayed is intended to echo the appearance of a totem pole, which in turn echoes the appearance of a spine, a central support. And a seamlessly circular metaphor. (I like that kind best).

The images are made from hand-cut layers of silk screen prints which in turn were over-painted with repeating abstract patterns to emulate the carved designs of a traditional totem pole, and also symbolise the patience and determination required for the repetition involved physio and occupational therapies.

more photos to follow…

The Sum of Its Metaphors

Following on from the More Than The Sum posts. Y’know what? this week I finally completed the project! 18 months since the initial brief, the planning, the researching, the thinking and playing began. 16 collaged portraits which will be hanging in their final home tomorrow.

Almost all art has at least one metaphor. Sometimes it’s a visual message, daft or clever, subtle or blatant. And often times it’s something that shows itself in the creative process.

This piece was always going to be heavy on the metaphor. It’s to be displayed in the reception area of the National Spinal Injury Centre at Stoke Mandeville hospital, so it will be seen by hospital staff, the patients, their families, friends and dear ones. It’ll become part of the back drop to a range of emotion – shock, fear, interminable waiting, hope, intensity, perseverance, dedication, and so much more. Purpose-wise, top level: it’s bright, colourful, and a visual distraction. Close up their road-map qualities show up and the faces almost disappear. They might be a place to get lost in for a while.

But the meaning goes deeper than that.

As you know, the collages are made from intricate screen print/drawings which was the first of the metaphors – the repeating patterns, the tiny detail – the repeated exercises of physio and occupation therapies, the gradual steps toward more independence. The incredible patience and strength of character this demands from all involved. Layer on layer of print and drawing – day after week after month of incremental progress in recovery.

The metaphor that shows up in the process: How life is so contradictory sometimes.

Wouldn’t you think you’d see something better close up. You would, though, wouldn’t you?

….apart from when looking too closely at something makes it vanish. From a distance: there it is. No doubt. Get closer and it fades out of sight. WTF? Really? Yes. Something like not being able to see the wood for the trees… perhaps.

These are some of the metaphors. Tomorrow I’ll show you the completed work, and describe the rest of the message.

4/52 Week-ends & Breathing Space

So week (page) 4 of the year (book) ends, and so does a project I’ve been working on for (what feels like) ever!

Week 4 is a wholehearted week, in all senses.

My computer is in for repairs this week, so my usual work is temporarily suspended. Last night I finally finished up this thing I’ve been working on for ages. It’s left a curious sense of spaciousness in my world. I can stretch out my hands and not touch any overrun deadlines, in any direction.

I know this grates with some folks, but I relentlessly endeavour to find the silver lining to any situation. It’s a challenge I can’t resist. It appeals to my stubbornly optimistic nature. So I’ve embraced the computer free week. Either my data survives or it doesn’t. My files are in a Schrodinger’s cat state and will be for a few more days.

While there’s nothing I can do to change this state so I’m enjoying being away from a cold office, I’m getting on with other stuff. To be honest, if this hadn’t happened, the other thing would likely not be finished yet. (I’ll show you that thing in a future post)

This afternoon I sat in a coffee shop making plans for what I’ve got lined up next to do in a relaxed, calm brain-zone. Such a refreshing change.

My engine is idling and I’m planning the next leg of my route. It’s all good.

And I’ll be back on the road again soon, come whatever.

What We Are

Thoughts for the day…

Hibernation VS Motivation

I’m sluggish in the cold, I’m part hibernating, and sleepiness seems to be the theme. So to counter this, I’m pushing a lot of energy into brightness and optimism.

The new (super) moon at the start of the week prompted me to set some new moon intentions, which are glued onto the Bagua vision board .

To accompany my makings, I’ve been listening to the podcasts of Zig Ziglar this week… (I’m reminded of Reverend Lovejoy from the Simpsons by his accent which informed my mental image to begin, but that’s fading as I’m getting more familiar with his style) which has an old fashioned, down to earth, honesty of common sense and untarnished positivity with a very wholesome feel. He’s kept me buoyant.

As one week folds into another the temperature drops some more, I’m upping the colour volume some more. I’m not usually a heartsy kinda girl, but they keep showing up, so this week has a big heart at its heart.

Wordage supplied by bits and things I’ve picked up along the way…. I was especially taken by this quote, which brings together themes I’ve been speaking about lately

“Whatever your gig or deal,
If you spend your time and your focus
and your emotion on creating and manifesting that,
There isn’t anything that can stop you.”
[Gina Devee]

Holy Aphorisms, Batman!

I love a snappy aphorism, some pertinent thought inspiring little snippet of wisdom.

Spend any time at all on facebook, pinterest, or the like, and you’ll be up to your armpits in them before you’ve realised. And, like anything, they can get a bit indigestable en masse like this.

That’s why this made me smile so much:

The Art of Letting Go

The things we learn at art school, that aren’t really art…

I’ve learnt how to let go.

I started out with very fixed thinking mentality. I made myself decide what the finished result would look like as a starting point. Then trying to find a path to get from point A (nothing) to point Z (end product). It was hugely frustrating. Not just for me – I could see it in the face of my tutors too. But I didn’t understand why.

I spent so many years drifty doodling about aimlessly, I had no idea I could choose my direction and just go off n see where I got to.

Stubbornly resistant to the organic process – sketching, researching, dabbling, documenting and recording, experimenting, trial and error, figuring out – I wanted to race to the finish line and then jump into the next thing. Inner kid was at the wheel, and she travels at one speed only – giddyingly fast! Although she brings the very necessary vitality and exuberance, she doesn’t do planning or calm. And in order to get the best results I (we) could, these elements cannot be mutually exclusive.

I look back at early projects and think: what a bizarre way of going about things! (but isn’t that a life thing too?)

I believe we create best within a set of parameters. Told you can only have 3 colours for your painting, 3 notes for your tune, 3 minutes for your idea … set a restriction, and it forces the imagination swell to fill the limits. When you don’t have access to everything in the toy box, you can really set about making the best of what you’ve got.

While I already knew this, my first ‘free choice’ projects at college freaked the bejeebus out of me. The resulting confusion made me panic my own parameters into place. So much so, in the freedom of limitless choicefulness I’d literally hear myself think: Right, so it can be anything??? Ok………<eek> …….. Let’s make it 1.5 metres high, made of fabric, and green. I don’t know what it’s going to be, or why, or anything else. But at least I’ve got some clue what it’s going to look like. And then steadfastly refuse to budge from this plan.

And then reverse engineer my ideas from there.

Top tip, folks: Don’t do it this way!

In the absence of any solid grounding I had to pin meanings on to the finished article, blindly, like the tail on a donkey. It didn’t hold up, there was no integrity: just a decorative thing that isn’t an expression of anything.

The whole process was a lot harder than it needed to be, and it didn’t produce good results. I backed myself into a corner and I wasn’t going to let myself out of it for fear of … fear of… fear of the great abyss of everything that’s outside my self imposed boundary, which is too overwhelming to consider.

So sometimes you gotta follow a route to its ultimate destination before accepting the truth of it, turning round, and going someplace else. Destination disappointment (could’ve done better). And eventually, several disappointments later, I did.

I’ll show you where some of these routes led next…

Gaping Void

I love Hugh McLeod’s drawings, and his very succinct way with words.

This cartoon of his is a favorite of mine, those three words speak so much to me. They describe so much.

He wrote a fantastic article on creativity (I looked it up just now to link you to it, to find it’s over 10 years old. It’s stuck with me all that while!)

If you’re a creative (in any field) with a creativity block – artistically constipated – this is a great resource of timeless advice, and a place to go and cogitate on the nature of making.

The Power of ‘Yet’

I love The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, he describes essentially what Buddhism describes: live in the moment, because very simply, that’s all there is.

Today I was thinking about the Power of Yet.

As my thinking shifts from the very rigid what I can do VS what I can’t do – a third option has opened up: what I can’t do yet.

I was looking at the weights in the gym this morning. I’m progressing steadily and loving it. Even the aches. I’ve even embraced the aches. The far bigger part of the battle, more than toughening up the meat of my body, is toughening up the silly little girl whose voice is so pitiful inside my head. (I’m winning her round too). I realised today, what I previously wrote off as impossible, I’m now coming to consider as just not yet. Later. All in good time.

It’s a good feeling.

What the eye-fish?

It might look like I’ve been deliberately obtuse about the eye-fish thing…

What can I say, they appear in groups of three, and so far 2 of the 3 weeks of this new year’s book have hosted a set.

Yeh, really, they aren’t eyes, they aren’t fish. Eyes and fish are quite different things, and tbh, this one looks like it’s sprouted backward facing legs with which to march, tail first into the unknown.

But that’s just my drawing style – everything piled up on each other style. It’s really a trick of perspective. The eye-fish is, in actuality, some way off in the distance, and hugely bigger than the foreground scribbley yogini attempting to master Warrior 1 pose.

But if you know me at all, you’ll know, it’s not in my nature to be cryptic. So this is as baffling to me as it is to you.

Here are the facts as I understand them to be:

I draw what arrives in my head when I stop thinking.
Eye shape and fish shape are largely interchangable to me.
I think that thinking about the word Focus has had a bearing on my subconcious. (This doesn’t account for the fish)
They hang out in threes, cos having drawn the traditional arrangement of two, I have to (recent compulsion) add a third. I’ve been getting a lot of dreams involving third eyes (more on that another time).
The third eye is a thing. I didn’t make this up. It’s just not a literal viewing hole in the face (mostly anyhow)

So there we are, more info and less sense. It’s all a big brain-dump. Making sense is an improbable ask.