The Spires 

Remember the heart I gave to Susan? It was sunny and bright marigold orange. (Go back to the post called the I and I Project for a photo of the heart) Well, here's her response. She was struck by the patchwork quality of the piece so she went with that as her theme:

Susan said this was a difficult piece for her to work out but I found it inspiring. I saw it as a landscape that I wanted to explore. I ended up making a spiral pathway with spires that I envisioned walking through like a walking maze. 

Somehow though I still wasn't satisfied that I'd really gotten at the spirit of a journey into the mind that I was going for so I ended up making a bonus piece. Enjoy!

This was a real departure for me and it is exactly the type of thing I hope to have happening along the way with this project.

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

The Juggler

When I gave my little bear on wheels to Susan she spent some time thinking about what the bear was looking at. When she delivered this painting to me she said it represented a tree full of bees and twinkling lights...

What I see is not a Bee Tree but a crazy juggling bear. So I made The Juggler.

The next piece goes way off of the bear theme. Wait till you see what's coming!

Round 4 - Bee Tree 

I gave Susan this little bear on wheels which I saw peeking out of her painting. I was very curious to see what it would inspire her to do. She got interested in thinking about what the bear was looking at and came back with this Bee Tree.

It is amazing to see where this trading process takes us. We hope you can join us on October 7th at The Pot Shop for the Progress Showing of the project to date.

More of Round 4 trades next time around. 

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Thanks!

Gentle Eggs

As promised, we'll bring the second line of our project up to speed. I made my little 'fish' piece inspired by Susan's painting and here's what she made from that:

After spending some time looking at Susan's painting I was inspired by the movement in the spheres at the very top of the painting as well as the globe type pieces which she made with collaged map pieces. From these elements I decided to try making a sphere within a sphere. Then I would cut away part of the outer sphere to reveal the sphere inside. In choosing my glazes I wanted to have the outer 'shell' appear to be very strong and the inner sphere to appear fragile and egg-like. Here's the result!

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Thanks

The I and I Project Round 2

After our first round of work inspired by each other's work, Susan and I traded projects again. We both got very excited by the first round so were curious to see where this would go next. Here's the result!

Line 1 

Originally I made the little bird sculpture from last post and Susan responded with this painting representing the feeling of a bird in a tree. Now it was my turn to respond to her painting. As I looked at it I saw a little bear in the lower right corner. It just seemed to want to come out of the painting so here's what I made.

Line 2:

We'll catch you up on this one next time around.

Line 3:

This line started with the sort of sun/sunflower piece I made and Susan responded with this bright and lively painting. As I looked at it I saw a heart shape coming through. I've made a lot of hearts in the past year as part of my 'Hearts Full of Love' fundraiser project so maybe I've got hearts on the brain. Anyway, I decided to made a freestanding heart based on what I saw in Susan's painting. Here's what I came up with:

Save the Date:

Mark your calendars for October 7th and come to our Progress Show of the whole project to date. It will be the first time Susan and I have seen the pieces all together. The show will be at my studio, The Pot Shop, in Philo, CA. We'll be holding talks / Q and A at 11 and 1 o'clock about the project.

The show is part of Mendocino County Celebrates American Craft Week. For a full listing of all the shows and events visit www.MendocinoCraftWeek.com

Please feel free to leave a comment below and share the blog with anyone you think would enjoy following the project.

Thanks!

Influence and Inspiration

My artist friend, Susan Spencer, and I have been working on a project we call 'Influence and Inspiration'. It's kind of like a game of telephone where we pass a message back and forth and watch it change except in this case we are passing artwork to each other. 

Susan is a mixed media artist so her works come to me as 'paintings' although they have collaged elements incorporated so one has to look closely to really appreciate all that is going on in each piece. So when I get one of Susan's works I spend some time with it and then when inspiration moves me I make a response piece which is a sculpture of some sort. Once my piece is finished I send it back to Susan and she goes through her process of letting my piece inspire a new one from her. This back and forth continues and it is fascinating and exciting for both of us to see where these pieces take us.

We have 3 'lines' of work going and I'll try and figure out the best way to share them with you. 

Line 1 started with my little bird sculpture which inspired Susan's painting 

Line 2 started with Susan's painting which inspired my 'fish' sculpture

Line 3 also started from Susan's painting as I got so inspired that I made 2 pieces from her work and she got inspired from both of mine... Well you can see how this is going to progress.