impermanence.

I am a crafts major at Towson University. I make objects using a variety of processes and materials. My inspiration comes from my own personal experience, background, and stems from my own personal interpretation of the world.

During the course of this year I have been pursuing an honors thesis project, which requires that I create a collection of work that is to be showcased in an off-campus venue in May.

I crated this body of work in response to the Buddhist doctrine of Impermanence, a theory of which I knew little about prior to my Spring 2008 semester. The summer before my final fall semester (Fall 2008), I spent brainstorming not only this theory but also the pieces I would be creating in response to this theory during my senior year. I drew all the sketches that are the first post on this blog over that summer. It’s funny to look at them now and see what actually ended up happening.

Before the summer began, I had recently finished a special topics course in art with my advisor Jan Baum in the Spring of 2008. The final project of that class consisted of a group project that ended up motivating a lot of the processes I would use in my thesis project work. My group, Rebecca, Lizzy, and I, researched Appalachia for this project. We ended up choosing an old tuning peg form found on home-made stringed instruments from which to stem the project. We bought some pre-made pegs, I learned, with the help of my father, some techniques to carve some pegs out of wood, we cast peg forms in a variety of materials, and Rebecca even let Lizzy and I watch her forge some pegs from steel. Overall it was a great project, I felt like I learned a lot and really enjoyed working as a team to create a whole group of forms. After we had cast, carved, and forged forms we added individual finishing touches. We ended up choosing some techniques from the fibers class taught by Megan Auman that Lizzy and I had taken the semester before including crocheting, felting, basket-weaving, and basic stitching.

I ended up really liking how the objects I carved from wood looked and how the objects I crocheted around looked. I thought the stretched thread around the forms was like a fragile protection that created a beautiful, uneven pattern on the form. These techniques for some reason came easy to me and gave me satisfaction through their timely completion.

As I began creating my honors thesis work I started first with carving wood in the garage of my parent’s house in Bowie, Maryland. My parents moved to Texas in December and I wish I had taken advantage more of my father’s wood shop when they were here. I think I tried not to work with wood for the longest time simply due to the fact that my father, and grandfathers all are carpenters. I, inevitably, had to rebel.

I got to a point where I was working in metal, using simple processes I’d learning in previous classes: etching, hammer texturing, forming, electroforming, and casting. The first piece I made was a neckpiece, simply a sheet of copper, etched on the interior, fitted around my neck, textured, and covered with a color penciled pattern. I cast an egg-shaped form out of bronze and carved a small finial shape out of wood. After I had made these forms I knew that I wanted to incorporate thread. In a casting class I took in the Spring of 2008 I made a necklace that consisted of a cast bronze form suspended with knotted embroidery thread. I loved the combination of heavy metal with thin and surprisingly sturdy thread. I liked the way the thread stretched with the weight of the metal. I knew that I would be using thread again.

I crocheted around the forms I made since I knew I loved how this looked from my Appalachia project the semester before. It’s interesting now to see how much the classes I took influenced what I made and how I made it. I suppose that seems obvious, but I don’t think I was necessarily aware of it at the time.

The work I made for this year-long capstone project are in reference to the body and the interaction of the body with the work. The pieces are all wearable/useable in some way. I made a series of rings in the format of two parts, one that sits on top of the hand and the other, connected and suspended into the palm of the hand. I had seen rings like this in jewelry books including 1000 Rings, Edited by Marthe Le Van. This format suited the subject these rings referenced: emotion. The part of the ring that is suspended in the hand is to be squeezed and released by the user in response to their constant changes in emotion.

The neckpiece came first, inspired from another research project I did in the special topics course I took in the Spring of 2008. It controls the user/wearer’s ability to stand, sit, and move the head normally. It references changes in control.

The bronze ring came next. I ended up creating six of these rings from a variety of materials. They are titled Rage, Release, Regret and help the user cope with changes in emotion.

I then created a piece that began my interest in changes in belief. The pieces of this collection that I created in response to changes in beliefs reference my own personal experience. I was raised in a home with strong beliefs that were instilled in me at a young age. I was never forced to believe anything, but due to the abundant influence that surrounded every aspect of my close-knit family and my life as a child and adolescent, I chose for myself to believe. Believing in something, for me, consisted of a struggle to find a personal and unique belief that was completely my own. I constantly struggle with knowing whether or not this belief I have is truly a choice or if it is simply a natural response to my personal upbringing. The forms I created in this collection reference the conflict faced between what you search to believe and what you are told to believe. This series of tools and wearable forms serve the user by allowing each user to physically stretch and wear the forms in response to their own experiences with the changes associated with believing in something, shifts in belief, and common conflicts associated with what to believe.

The first one I created consists of two leather forms I hand stitched and filled with sand and lead weights. I then stitched loops into each side and connected these loops with a crocheted cord. The piece is to be worn over the lap of a seated person. The two sides of this piece reference two sides that have their own weight and hold a person down. One side is what an individual is told to believe, the other is what the individual struggles to find out for themselves.

I ended up making three more forms with the same concept that become tools for the viewer to use. The two sides of these pieces are handles, to be gripped and pulled by the user. I did similar leather forms for two of these pieces and one of them is simple wood handles that I carved. I connected one with a crocheted cord, one with a rubber cord, and one with cheesecloth. These materials were chosen since they each stretch in different ways. The rubber, obviously, stretches easily but also provides a level of resistance. The cheesecloth is extremely thin, fragile, and stretches tightly to a point. The crocheted cord is also fragile and stretches only to a certain point. They reference the fragile connection between what to believe and what not to believe.

I made two more pieces, to be worn over the shoulders and around the wearer’s neck. One is a two-part piece, similar to the pieces made in response to belief. One side I carved from wood, the same form as the original carving I made over the summer with my dad, just bigger. I then made a mold of this form and electroformed a wax cast of it. I made this form a very thin copper, filled it with wool and colored the exterior. I carefully crocheted around both forms and connected them with a crocheted cord. The difference in weight of the two forms is drastic, and hangs unevenly when worn. This references this uneven fight between sides of what to believe. The protective layer of crocheted thread around the separated forms keep them together. The peices are connected by the thread and also strengthed by the thread.

The last piece I made from the same mold except I crocheted around part of the wax form before I electroformed it and let the copper be much thicker. I enameled this piece and crocheted a thread cord around it to create a lariat necklace. The hollow copper enameled form is filled with lead weights and pulls the crocheted cord with its weight. I made this peice heavier to reference its subject: change in control. The weight provides discomfort for the wearer and stretches the thread cord to an extreme.

I made material choices based on my concept of impermanence. Everything is constantly changing. Wood, leather, metal, and thread, all change with continued use. The oil and sweat from the hand or neck of the wearer will physically change the material with time and use.