I think I love this one even more than the first. But don't tell Baby Lamp 1...I don't need my art children getting jealous of one another. Though it is currently in the middle of a facelift and expansion. So who knows...it could win me back.
This is the piece that I put together for Noel's Little Marks show, and these tiny pieces are such a fun way for me to experiment in different ways of making mark through drawing, sewing, cutting, materials...but then I need to get back and apply that to the larger pieces.
I have been working on two new larger lamps as well. Both are currently in middling stages of development, though I did include them in Awash, the installation that I did out in Venice, a couple weeks ago. I've been playing with repetition, using the same forms on different scales, or on the same scale in different materials, as well as combining warm and cool light sources.
The installation was a fun, if a bit crazy beast. Working in an outdoor location was a new experience, and I loved having the different levels and architectural elements of the staircases, railing, walk ways, and doors to work with. Started setup Wednesday evening, finishing touches Thursday after work, show, and de-install immediately after—36 hours all told. Some of you may recognize a lot of the old paper elements that are getting to make one last appearance. I rescued a whole bunch of my "paper burritos," relics from my final semester at CSULB, from my mother's garage the weekend before the installation. I thought they'd all been sacrificed to the spider gods, but it turned out the infestation was superficial. So after a good hour of sweeping and careful shop-vac action, I found myself unexpectedly paper rich. There wasn't much time for modification in that period, but the deconstruction process has started, and while I love these pieces and the transformative period they represent for me, it is time to let go and move on. It was nice to give them one last hurrah before that happened though. Having so much base material made the composition process very fluid.
Once again, I find satisfaction in the balance between very large, immersive, physical, almost frenetically created work and small, intricate, and involved pieces. I'm at my happiest when I can make the latter jewel-like focal points within the former.