Artistic Interpretation

I was recently asked by Erin Prais-Hintz if I might want to take part in a special collaborative project with her. I won't ruin the surprise and spoil her plans before she has gotten to share the details with you. I can tell you this, for my part, she asked me if I would make her set of beads inspired by the painting on the left. The piece is called "Loose Goose" by artist Brenda Wenberg. (Sorry, no link available, Erin tells me Brenda isn't online.)

If I am being completely honest with you, I must tell you, this was the project last week causing "Creative Constipation". Of course, the minute I saw the pieces I was to interpret, my mind thought of a million things. Then I had to wait and wait and wait though mass kit production, and Bead Fest, and Spring break, before I finally had the opportunity to get into the studio and play around with ideas. Once finally able to play, I had no idea what I wanted to make anymore!! Should I do discs, should I do rounds, should I do hollows, what colors should I focus on, what shapes come at me the most? After 2 1/2 hours, I literally had all of four beads in the kiln, 2 of which were simple solid color spacer discs. Yeah, the ideas were stuck in my head and none wanted to come out.

So, I sent Erin an email requesting some more boundaries. This is where I separate "art" and "design". For me, an artist can look a blank slate and know just what they want to bring to the canvas. They are frustrated by boundaries and wants and needs of the people who will view their work. To me, designers have the opposite problem, give them a blank slate and they don't know what to do with it. BUT, give them some want (make it red!) or needs (for a bedroom) and watch out! Those designers can go nuts with ideas. When being asked to visual interpret another artist's work, I am acting as a designer, not an artist (even thought the end result is a work of art). That is just how my mind works. Once I had a few more "client guidelines", lol, OH OH OH was I excited about what ended up coming from the flame of my torch.

Check them out:




Not to toot toot my own horn, but aren't these FREAKIN' STINKIN' AMAZING?!?! Oh my stars, I am thrilled with them. I didn't want to put them in the mail and send them away I was so in love. Okay, here is what I thought... I noticed in Brenda's work, no inch of canvas is left on colored. There is something happening on every inch of the piece. There as just so many layers. So, I started to think about my classic "Mod Dot" style beads. What if, I filled all the empty space between the initial layer of dots? Then.. instead of dot on top of dots, let's go with them askew, and ivory. I wondered how I would add more interest and texture like the inspiration has. I decided to make plunged dots in the ivory. Then, I made it all pop with the coral dots that are sprinkled every where. To get an size canvas I needed to make these, I went with a large hollow bead as my base. Any lampworker will tell ya, making a plunged dot on a hollow bead is no easy task. You risk completely collapsing the hollow when you poke in the spot where you will trap the little bubble. I held my breath through so many moments of these beads! And each one took 30-45 mins to make.

It will be fun to see what comes of these beads in Erin's special project.