Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Pre-Polished and Poised for Production


Tonight I pre-polished my hammers and steaks getting ready for a new round of production. They still need some work. Tomorrow I will hit them with another course of gray clay and then a course of green tripoli. After that, polished or not I'll start banging out some new silver earrings using the narrow end of the riveting hammer as a raising steak for a silver piece. I'll show you what I'm talking about in a subsequent post.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Evidence To Lay Bare

Thoughts on Virgil Aldrige's Philosophy of Art

There is a kind of objectivity in looking at a work of art that is the same detached objectivity that one has looking at a hammer or for that matter, a pile of shit. This is a physical view. There is another way of looking at and talking about a work of art that constitutes a ‘logical’ view. This view involves looking at the work of art, interpreting at an experiential level and elaborating on it. There is also the ‘metaphysical’ view which is again, different from the physical or logical view of the work of art.

The logical view must be based on what is evident. Evidence. The evidence can be placed in plain view. The act of artistic creation is an act of revelation. The artist reveals the evidence. From this perspective, the artist is the instrument of ‘revelation.’ This term, revelation, has metaphysical trappings but here it is intended in a logical sense.

When I answer the question, “What is this? “In regard to my art, I am answering a logical question. Yet, I am afraid, I am not answering the deeper question of what the evidence is that is being laid bare.

Sunday, October 03, 2004

PRODUCTION - 2

Tonight I posted an image of a Ruby point mounted with a hammer-textured, sterling silver wire form.

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Production

I spend weeks building a portfolio of one-of-a-kind items. However, as the time approaches for a spate of shows, I have to turn to the old and familiar. Accordingly I produced 5 variants of the old B-3 mobile the other night. Then I went back to relatively easy one of a kind. Night before last I spent an hour to produce one mobile consisting of quartz and fluorite in silver. Last night I combined green malachite and lime green beach glass, The malachite is smooth and featureless which makes it unwilling to stay inside a wire cage. No two stones are alike, thus no two cages are alike. I intend to wrap 4 elements in this mobile. Nevertheless, it will wind up taking as long as the quartz and fluorite which had 5 elements. The quartz and fluorite as well as the B-3 can be viewed on my website (www.jwoodrff.com/crystal).