Today - #5 in a Series of 7 Posts
Paper Mâché Art: Frames & Stories...
This post was originally published Jul 7/2017... I've republished it on Dec 18/21, so it appears in the proper viewing order...
The frames for the pictures below have all been created with Paper Mâché....and they each tell a story....
I don't know anyone else who draws this way, but I've always drawn portraits in "scribbles", working as though my pencil was touching the face... scribbling more in the shadows and barely touching the highlights... The scribbles aren't organized and I VERY seldom use an eraser... I just add more squiggles to alter the effect... It's a little like finding shapes in clouds and moving them around to make the shape clearer and more defined. The detailed photo below, gives a better sense of my "scribbling" technique....
One day I wondered if I could "scribble" in color rather than just black and white. I had no idea what would emerge or if the technique would even work with color, but I started to scribble anyway... just picking colors which drew me to them with no idea of what was about to emerge... About half way through I knew I was drawing a face, but only when I was "done" did I realize I'd drawn Pele... Above, you can see Her in Her guise as a young maiden, surrounded by a Paper Mâché volcanic pit... Although in this guise She can seem quite "sweet" and harmless, Her energy is usually intense and the changes which She causes often dramatic and sometimes violent... She is both the creator and the destroyer of the Hawaiian Islands and is known as the woman who devours the land...
I exhibited this art at the "Woman's Art Show" in Orillia, Ont. in the Spring of 2016. This exhibit required a written submission along with the artwork... I SO enjoyed this combination of art and writing that I knew I just HAD to do a little more... and so this exhibition of art in seven posts began...
Pele has a passionate and fiery temperament. When visible, She usually takes the form of either a beautiful young maiden or an old crone. She isn't found often in the middle of the road, but almost always on the edges with extremes. She loves to mix and stir, catapulting everything She touches out of peaceful stagnant ruts. On visiting the islands, one is struck both by Her destructive power and by the tremendous fertility of the new land She's created...
Pele is part of life at many stages... She is there each time we confront, feel or express a difficult to deal with emotion – such as: anger, annoyance, jealousy, dissatisfaction, fear or pain and sorrow. Every time we cross a boundary or break a rule, She is there... She is part of every beginning and every ending. She is present with each small change, risk or chance we take and certainly there with the big ones: falling in love, getting married or divorced, changing residences, beginning a career, changing schools or employment as well as when illness strikes us low or with the death of our parents or someone else close to us... Each time we bravely take a step into the unknown, we can feel Pele's energy, creating and destroying the circumstances in which we must live...
She's been part of my life MANY times...
I felt Her presence strongly when my parents bought a new home in the country and I left most of my "town" friends behind. I didn't fit well with most of the children in the new place, so at the age of nine, I began to learn how to be alone...
She's been there each time a new man appeared on the horizon. She's been there too with each parting... Every time there's been an unexpected turn or twist in the road and I've had to deal with a change in my life's circumstances, She's left me with questions... SO MANY questions –about why and what it meant and what if anything was required of me and how I was to work with things as they were now... The questions I've learned are a rich food left behind after Pele's fire and the answers when they've come have propelled me forward....
She was definitely present at my birth... I wasn't happy to leave my mother's womb and give life in the world another try. My last try had been ENOUGH and I DID NOT want another!!!! However, like it or not I was born and in spite of all my tears, I had to keep going and give living life one more try. Pele was present too, forty years later when I started digging down inside to unearth the old memories and face where I'd been before and all of why I didn't want to begin life again this time...
This digging down into one of Pele's fire pits to unearth skeletons and archaic wounds is another LONG story! It's taken me more than twenty years and two books to do this work and document the tale. My web-site at www.sylviakay.ca provides more information if you're interested...
I find that now, I not only "scribble" with my art, but with much of my life too... Scribbling, I find is NOT easy... It feels chaotic and out of control and I feel uncertain and childlike. However, seeing my "scribble" art emerge and look OK, has REALLY helped... "Scribbling" with my life, I take unfamiliar steps into the unknown, which feel strangely "right", with NO idea of what the consequences might be. I don't know if I'm coloring inside or outside "the lines", if what emerges will be "beautiful" or "ugly", "good" or "bad", but I stretch to trust that I can be with the consequences whatever they are and learn something relevant to me and my life... Life lived this way becomes a BIG, improvisational adventure, far outside any comfort zones I used to have, but it is also a living prayer... Each moment I work to focus meditatively inside on following this strange sense of "rightness" I'm learning to recognize... wherever it leads and whatever the consequences may be... stretching to understand the incomprehensible, clarify my own confusion and embody best I can what I've understood. I know my understandings are always quite confused, but hopefully increasingly less so as I live and feel and work through each day...
I struggle to accept chaos: the BIG chaos of Pele's mixing and stirring and the small chaos of my "scribbles". Consequently, both frequently feel something like the picture below....
In my experience it is NEVER easy to deal with Pele and Her fires, but when I've managed to stay with the difficulties of being with Her, I've always grown... Gradually, I'm understanding Her fire and its difficulties are what make life so interesting and exciting to live. I'm therefore, learning to welcome Her and accept Her creation and destruction of the fabric of my life. I'm learning too, how to create me, best I can, out of what She leaves behind, as I work with whatever shows up each day...
However, the following picture, as it depicts how I work with Her energy when it enters my life, is usually more representative of how Her energy and fires feel to me... Although it can still feel VERY intense, the process is more detailed, organized and less chaotic... I've depicted this work as a woman playing notes on the tree of her life... This process makes it possible to notice and work with the emerging consequences, including the resulting growth or changes which happen to both the player and the tree whenever Pele enters the picture; working Her energetic magic unseen in the background underneath...
For this artwork, I used the Nine of Pentacles designed by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law for her Shadowscapes Tarot as a base from which to begin.... Although the Shadowscapes card spoke to me, it wasn't what I "saw". As I felt a need to see this card the way I actually "saw" it with my inner eye, I used Stephanie's work as a place from which to begin... For this piece, I've also used my "scribble" technique, again in color but for the first time for a landscape rather than for a portrait... However, when I used it this time, with an existing framework on which to work, this did influence my choice of colors to a certain extent... For instance I knew I wanted the tree to be predominantly green, so although I used many other colors I did scribble more in green for the tree...
Looking at Stephanie's Shadowscapes tarot card at:
http://www.shadowscapes.com/Tarot/cards.php?suit=4&card=8
you can see that although I've used the same elements, my rendition of this card ends up being quite different... Stephanie's card looks like it was done with watercolor in soft pastel shades. It has a light airy feel to it, with only the pentacle itself standing out...
My artwork, on the other hand, uses more intense coloring, so it has a very different feel to it. I've made the piano truly part of the tree, so my piano is less defined and my tree bigger and more substantial – I've tried to make the picture in general and the tree in particular feel intense and HUGE like one of Pele's Fires and LIFE. For me, the tree is the tree of LIFE – LIFE in general and MINE in particular. I'm the woman playing on and with my piece of LIFE's puzzle... However, this affects not only me but everyone I come in contact with as well... My inner world creations determine what I do with my life and this affects everything and everyone I touch. Furthermore, what happens in the world affects me and the notes I play too.... LIFE and how we each work with our piece of it seems to create a VERY rich and complex inner tapestry and outer play!!!
I've also done a real live snail for the woman to sit on, rather than just a couple of shells joined together... This adds some tension to my picture which isn't part of Stephanie's... I wonder, for how long the snail will be content to rest as a seat for the woman playing and what will happen when it moves...
As is so often the case, I feel, these two cards, each representing the Nine of Pentacles, show that things which seem to have a great deal in common, can be quite different... In this case, although both cards begin with the same structural elements, they reveal or emphasize different aspects or "truths"... You're welcome to compare the two different interpretations and draw your own conclusions while listening to your own feelings and their messages.... perhaps Stephanie's speaks to you and mine doesn't or vice versa...
I hope you enjoy my exhibition... There are two posts to come... While waiting, for me to be ready to display what I've done, you're always welcome to revisit other posts you've already seen as many times as you wish... and please pass the information about this exhibition on to others you think may be interested...
This Post's Flavor(s): art, creativity, process
Click on any of these under "Labels" in the list on the right to bring up posts with a similar flavor...
Below... Pele - The Hawaiian Goddess of Fire, Lightning, Wind, Volcanoes, Dance and Change... Pele is ALL about the "shakiness" of LIFE, wherever and however we each sense it...
I don't know anyone else who draws this way, but I've always drawn portraits in "scribbles", working as though my pencil was touching the face... scribbling more in the shadows and barely touching the highlights... The scribbles aren't organized and I VERY seldom use an eraser... I just add more squiggles to alter the effect... It's a little like finding shapes in clouds and moving them around to make the shape clearer and more defined. The detailed photo below, gives a better sense of my "scribbling" technique....
One day I wondered if I could "scribble" in color rather than just black and white. I had no idea what would emerge or if the technique would even work with color, but I started to scribble anyway... just picking colors which drew me to them with no idea of what was about to emerge... About half way through I knew I was drawing a face, but only when I was "done" did I realize I'd drawn Pele... Above, you can see Her in Her guise as a young maiden, surrounded by a Paper Mâché volcanic pit... Although in this guise She can seem quite "sweet" and harmless, Her energy is usually intense and the changes which She causes often dramatic and sometimes violent... She is both the creator and the destroyer of the Hawaiian Islands and is known as the woman who devours the land...
I exhibited this art at the "Woman's Art Show" in Orillia, Ont. in the Spring of 2016. This exhibit required a written submission along with the artwork... I SO enjoyed this combination of art and writing that I knew I just HAD to do a little more... and so this exhibition of art in seven posts began...
Pele has a passionate and fiery temperament. When visible, She usually takes the form of either a beautiful young maiden or an old crone. She isn't found often in the middle of the road, but almost always on the edges with extremes. She loves to mix and stir, catapulting everything She touches out of peaceful stagnant ruts. On visiting the islands, one is struck both by Her destructive power and by the tremendous fertility of the new land She's created...
Pele is part of life at many stages... She is there each time we confront, feel or express a difficult to deal with emotion – such as: anger, annoyance, jealousy, dissatisfaction, fear or pain and sorrow. Every time we cross a boundary or break a rule, She is there... She is part of every beginning and every ending. She is present with each small change, risk or chance we take and certainly there with the big ones: falling in love, getting married or divorced, changing residences, beginning a career, changing schools or employment as well as when illness strikes us low or with the death of our parents or someone else close to us... Each time we bravely take a step into the unknown, we can feel Pele's energy, creating and destroying the circumstances in which we must live...
She's been part of my life MANY times...
I felt Her presence strongly when my parents bought a new home in the country and I left most of my "town" friends behind. I didn't fit well with most of the children in the new place, so at the age of nine, I began to learn how to be alone...
She's been there each time a new man appeared on the horizon. She's been there too with each parting... Every time there's been an unexpected turn or twist in the road and I've had to deal with a change in my life's circumstances, She's left me with questions... SO MANY questions –about why and what it meant and what if anything was required of me and how I was to work with things as they were now... The questions I've learned are a rich food left behind after Pele's fire and the answers when they've come have propelled me forward....
She was definitely present at my birth... I wasn't happy to leave my mother's womb and give life in the world another try. My last try had been ENOUGH and I DID NOT want another!!!! However, like it or not I was born and in spite of all my tears, I had to keep going and give living life one more try. Pele was present too, forty years later when I started digging down inside to unearth the old memories and face where I'd been before and all of why I didn't want to begin life again this time...
This digging down into one of Pele's fire pits to unearth skeletons and archaic wounds is another LONG story! It's taken me more than twenty years and two books to do this work and document the tale. My web-site at www.sylviakay.ca provides more information if you're interested...
I find that now, I not only "scribble" with my art, but with much of my life too... Scribbling, I find is NOT easy... It feels chaotic and out of control and I feel uncertain and childlike. However, seeing my "scribble" art emerge and look OK, has REALLY helped... "Scribbling" with my life, I take unfamiliar steps into the unknown, which feel strangely "right", with NO idea of what the consequences might be. I don't know if I'm coloring inside or outside "the lines", if what emerges will be "beautiful" or "ugly", "good" or "bad", but I stretch to trust that I can be with the consequences whatever they are and learn something relevant to me and my life... Life lived this way becomes a BIG, improvisational adventure, far outside any comfort zones I used to have, but it is also a living prayer... Each moment I work to focus meditatively inside on following this strange sense of "rightness" I'm learning to recognize... wherever it leads and whatever the consequences may be... stretching to understand the incomprehensible, clarify my own confusion and embody best I can what I've understood. I know my understandings are always quite confused, but hopefully increasingly less so as I live and feel and work through each day...
I struggle to accept chaos: the BIG chaos of Pele's mixing and stirring and the small chaos of my "scribbles". Consequently, both frequently feel something like the picture below....
In my experience it is NEVER easy to deal with Pele and Her fires, but when I've managed to stay with the difficulties of being with Her, I've always grown... Gradually, I'm understanding Her fire and its difficulties are what make life so interesting and exciting to live. I'm therefore, learning to welcome Her and accept Her creation and destruction of the fabric of my life. I'm learning too, how to create me, best I can, out of what She leaves behind, as I work with whatever shows up each day...
However, the following picture, as it depicts how I work with Her energy when it enters my life, is usually more representative of how Her energy and fires feel to me... Although it can still feel VERY intense, the process is more detailed, organized and less chaotic... I've depicted this work as a woman playing notes on the tree of her life... This process makes it possible to notice and work with the emerging consequences, including the resulting growth or changes which happen to both the player and the tree whenever Pele enters the picture; working Her energetic magic unseen in the background underneath...
For this artwork, I used the Nine of Pentacles designed by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law for her Shadowscapes Tarot as a base from which to begin.... Although the Shadowscapes card spoke to me, it wasn't what I "saw". As I felt a need to see this card the way I actually "saw" it with my inner eye, I used Stephanie's work as a place from which to begin... For this piece, I've also used my "scribble" technique, again in color but for the first time for a landscape rather than for a portrait... However, when I used it this time, with an existing framework on which to work, this did influence my choice of colors to a certain extent... For instance I knew I wanted the tree to be predominantly green, so although I used many other colors I did scribble more in green for the tree...
Looking at Stephanie's Shadowscapes tarot card at:
http://www.shadowscapes.com/Tarot/cards.php?suit=4&card=8
you can see that although I've used the same elements, my rendition of this card ends up being quite different... Stephanie's card looks like it was done with watercolor in soft pastel shades. It has a light airy feel to it, with only the pentacle itself standing out...
My artwork, on the other hand, uses more intense coloring, so it has a very different feel to it. I've made the piano truly part of the tree, so my piano is less defined and my tree bigger and more substantial – I've tried to make the picture in general and the tree in particular feel intense and HUGE like one of Pele's Fires and LIFE. For me, the tree is the tree of LIFE – LIFE in general and MINE in particular. I'm the woman playing on and with my piece of LIFE's puzzle... However, this affects not only me but everyone I come in contact with as well... My inner world creations determine what I do with my life and this affects everything and everyone I touch. Furthermore, what happens in the world affects me and the notes I play too.... LIFE and how we each work with our piece of it seems to create a VERY rich and complex inner tapestry and outer play!!!
I've also done a real live snail for the woman to sit on, rather than just a couple of shells joined together... This adds some tension to my picture which isn't part of Stephanie's... I wonder, for how long the snail will be content to rest as a seat for the woman playing and what will happen when it moves...
As is so often the case, I feel, these two cards, each representing the Nine of Pentacles, show that things which seem to have a great deal in common, can be quite different... In this case, although both cards begin with the same structural elements, they reveal or emphasize different aspects or "truths"... You're welcome to compare the two different interpretations and draw your own conclusions while listening to your own feelings and their messages.... perhaps Stephanie's speaks to you and mine doesn't or vice versa...
I hope you enjoy my exhibition... There are two posts to come... While waiting, for me to be ready to display what I've done, you're always welcome to revisit other posts you've already seen as many times as you wish... and please pass the information about this exhibition on to others you think may be interested...
This Post's Flavor(s): art, creativity, process
Click on any of these under "Labels" in the list on the right to bring up posts with a similar flavor...
