That's right, stuff submerged in blue Jello!
I considered using polymer clay to make things to symbolize different parts of my life, but I instead decided to use found objects from around my house because these are things that I have some personal tie to.
Though it is not obvious the piece has a chronological order. It starts with a few colored pencils. Every year my mom would give me and my brother a little art kit for Christmas. I always felt that my brother was the better artist, but this gesture now means a lot more to me as an adult. My mom was always encouraging to me, in all things, including art (My mom is awesome!).
Next there is a a piece of a negative. In high school I loved my photography classes, and my photography teacher. This reignited my interest in art. When I went to college I originally majored in "Media Art Photography". My dad was not at all supportive of this. When I transfered schools I changed my major to Advertising hoping to do something that would please my dad more and that would give me a solid income.
After I graduated I worked as an Art Director (similar to a graphic designer) for several years. Submerged in the jello is one of my first pieces for The Windy City Rollers, the chicago roller derby league. I loved this piece. It was inspired by the work of Hatch Show Print. I have also included a ticket from a Chicago White Sox game. They were another client of mine. I created my one and only commercial for the Sox. I am a big White Sox fan. These were high points in my career as an Art Director.
I then later moved to Reno Nevada where I was getting a big promotion and hoping to real help turn around a mediocre agency. The fake plastic hat and playing cards arranged in a bad poker hand symbolize this part of my life. Reno felt pretty fake, plastic, and cheesy to me. This was a low point in my advertising career. The agency went under after I had only been there a few months. On the other hand I loved this area of the country. There is a map of Lake Tahoe in the jello. We lived a 20 minute drive from Tahoe and we spent a ton of time there.
My Husband and I moved back to Chicago (to live with his parents, yikes). My sister-in-law helped to get me a job as a Pharmacy Technician, hence the IV Bag, syringe, and vial caps. I continued doing some freelance work, but I had realized that there were some things that I really didn't like about advertising. I gradually stopped doing freelance work, and decided that I would try to figure out where I wanted to go with my life. For three years I continued working as a pharmacy technician while I waited for a grand epiphany of what I was meant to do with my life. It didn't quite happen like that, but after many talks with my best friend, husband and mom I decided that I thought I would be happy as an art teacher. I still felt unsure. I was scared to make another wrong decision. Eventually I had convinced myself enough that I decided that I just needed to take the leap, make the plunge, go for it. This decision is depicted in the golden figure diving off the edge of the "pool". And all of this is what has brought me to Art education.
I can't wait to see your journey piece in person as it seems very conceptual and enticing from the photographs.
ReplyDeleteI simply adore your quote: ""The impulse to make is primordial, nonnegotiable, and irresistible. But the impulse to make sense runs just as deep, for making sense of what we make is what makes making meaningful." because it may as well be the manifesto and guiding philosophy for artist teachers. We are about helping students make sense of their world and contribute to it through meaningful making.