a good artist friend has sent me some pictures of one of her recent sculptural assemblages with one of my miniature abstract collages - comparing the surface, colour and texture of the small sculpture with the collage: blue, pale green, grey, rusty red-brown.
it was a lovely surprise to see one of my tiny collage cards now in a picture frame next to hazel’s sculpture.
this delightful 'boat' sculpture is constructed from a rusty spade* as its sail, fixed to a small piece of driftwood. my small abstract collage is made from paper and card fragments [art studio detritus].
this very small collage is is about 3cm square, one of thirty abstract collages on A6 postcards that i created for the 2013 artworks exhibition. the artworks exhibition has a popular 'art shop' where visitors can buy postcards, small paintings, original prints, drawings, sculpture, etc - the small things you might see and like at an 'open studio' event. i made more collages, this time on square cards, for the 2014 artworks exhibition. many people seemed to like these tiny collages, which was heartening.most of my artwork is quite subtly textured, or created in relief, and sometimes muted in colour, and it doesn't translate naturally into flat, printed cards and postcards. i'm more naturally inclined to make artworks as cards, or cards as small artworks. i have also framed a few of these very small collages [as seen in previous blog posts].it is always pleasing to see art in situ, at home in someone else's home, how it corresponds and connects to the surroundings. curiously, this aspect of art and the home came up in conversation this week with another artist friend: how and where you live, and how it influences or reflects your art in some way. i don't think i could ever live and work in two separate places [well, no further than the end of the garden!].inevitably, this got me thinking more about art and life, how one thing feeds naturally into another, the correspondences between the life we live, the things we see, the things we collect, the things we like and love, the things we make and do - it is an ever-evolving symbiotic relationship. if it is disrupted, it takes some time to rediscover and nurture a 'creative space', be it physical [a room] or in the mind [of ideas].relatedly, last week, another artist i know had mentioned in casual conversation my artwork from the 90s - my detritus collage - and whether i had considered doing more of that kind of work [it seems like decades ago, now - and it was!!]. i still have a habit of 'collecting' small random things from walks and my travels - all the artists i know do this - artists are natural magpies.well, dear reader [i think that's me, mostly!], this concludes today's home correspondence.back to the wonderful rusty boat. hazel has a marvellous art studio, spacious and full of light, filled with beach-combing finds, which are often transformed into small sculptures. many of them, like the boat pictured, are created while staying at the coast. you can see more of hazel’s paintings and sculptures on her website. http://www.hazelbignell.co.uk/