Mind Mapping on the "Working Table"
Dear Laura,
I haven't written a 'working table' post in awhile, but that is a part of what I will be doing more of this year. I have spent the last six weeks reading and researching with some moments of drawing in between. I needed some room to think for awhile to decide which direction to head for 2015.
One main thing I have realized is that I would like to share my process more. The work we both do is so much more than what is exhibited in a formal setting. The envisioning, editing, researching other artists, dedication of time, developing craft, and "listening" while in the flow of creating is mostly what we talk about on the phone for hours and during visits. It is my intention to make this more accessible to our audience. This doesn't mean explaining everything, because often the intuitive response in the work isn't like that at all. These posts will be more of sharing what is unfolding. Some of it may never be final work, but helped me jump to the next path.
I began thinking about mind-mapping after a colleague shared with me how she is teaching this to her students. I hadn't thought about mapping my thoughts, but I suppose that is what I was doing with this sculpture work from 2009.[gallery link="file" ids="16144,16143,16142"]
Tony Buzan has some direct instruction about mind mapping. HERE is a link for the teacher's out there who are looking to incorporate this into a student's thinking practice (image above from that website). Actually you should go to that link anyway, because it helped me see the possibilities for my own mind mapping.
I am starting mind-mapping with words from my artist statement. I have begun with NATURE and SEPARATE. I stumbled across separate while mapping nature because the definition of nature is often in the context of humans being separate from it. How has this happened that we are nature but are defining ourselves as separate from nature? It is this question that will be guiding my work this year. It's not a new question for me, as you can read in my artist statement, but this mind-mapping process got me "back on the rails".
The next mind mapping will be LOST and FOUND. I am interested in flushing out why I am so curious about found and antique objects. I am also messing around with Citra Solv image transfers. More on that next time....
