Artist's Blog
Archive Six
These archives were listed as "Week 4" and "Week 5," but I found myself dividing the blog pages according to the amount of time they took to download rather than the number of calendar days covered. So instead of calling them "Week One" and "Week Two," I'm starting to call them "Artist's Blog Archive One," etc. It feels pretentious including the word "artist" when what people pay me to do is recreate what I've created before, so that what the blog covers is more of that than the creative process behind new works of art, but this is the Internet. I have to call it something that will give search engines some indication as to how to categorize it. Generic "Blog" wouldn't help. And I haven't thought of a better label yet.
October 14, 2007
Some artists get so that they hate stretching canvas. Building
shipping-crates for peace poles could become like that for me. Today I finished
a shipping-crate for a peace pole. I decided to spend more of my own money to
have crates shipped back rather than keep building them. Besides eliminating
some drudgery, it would allow me to spend more money making the crates even more
secure for shipping peacepoles since I would get to reuse them.
Today I also went to a supply company to pick up material and I sheared and sanded metal. It did not make for a creative day.
October 15, 2007
I
am searching for broken springs - like the ones used in garage doors. I need
hundreds of them, but everyone says there are liability issues with letting
people rifle through their dumpsters. And the recycler who buys them from door
companies does not sell anything to the general public and does not let anyone
on their lot. Gathering materials can take a lot of time. I made phone calls and
drove around trying to work it out.
That's not all I did today, of course. I etched a design in copper and some peace pole related tasks.
October 17, 2007
The
things that are the most interesting to make tend to have no market value, at
least not when the people who purchase your work find you through a web site.
People viewing websites do not order things you haven't made before. They order
another one of something of which you can show photos from when you made it
previously. What is most interesting to work on is that which is new and
unknown. Those projects take a lot of time and can take a lot of money, like
research and development on a project that you yourself don't even know what it
is. You might know exactly what it is going to look like and where you are going
to put it, but that's all. There is no reason to think anyone ever will pay for
it or anything like it.
For just such a project I need hundreds of springs. I need a few hundred now and a few hundred next spring. Anyone got any friends in the garage door repair business? The busted springs from broken garage doors will work fine.
October 19, 2007
They say that there never has been a democracy that has experienced a
serious famine. The inference is that we, the people, look out for our own
interests better than elites ever will. Yet democracies do declare war. Does
anyone have any thoughts about that?
October 21, 2007
I've
been trying to come up with some less expensive alternatives. How about a peace
stake instead of a peace pole? I have one ready now. It is three feet long and
made of brass with a copper cap and copper bottom. It is triangular in cross
section with two finished sides for the two translations. Nine inches belong
under ground. The photo is of one under construction in my shop.
October 23, 2007
I have posted on my site that for a while I would try making "resin" peace
poles for only $100. I'm doing that partly for amusement and partly to satisfy
the people who email me asking why I don't make any peace poles for "normal"
people, which I guess means people with a different budget than most of my work
requires. I'm making my first two resin peacepoles now. Below is one still with
pencil marks on top of clear tape as I'm work on it in my shop.
I stopped making resin poles years ago because I felt that anybody can make those and my time would be better spent on work that I find more interesting. By the time I get done with this one, I'm not sure I'll have made minimum wage. Maybe I'll get faster after making a few more, but I can imagine losing interest in these again. The work either has to be interesting or lucrative (so that it can support the work that is interesting) or I should be doing something else.
October 24, 2007
Sometimes after a day of work that was not creative, late at night I feel
frustrated and go into the shop to make something - sometimes without knowing
what I'm going to do. I look at the scraps to see if any look like they could be
turned into something. Sometimes I pick up whatever I was exploring and explore
it further. A while back the range of things on which I could work at night was
reduced by my breathing apparatus. Because the masks were not during their job,
I had to stop wearing masks around fumes and start wearing an apparatus into
which fresh air was pumped. But the pump was too loud to use at night, so I had
to stop working at night on things that made fumes. To fix that, recently,
without thinking to note it in this blog, I moved the fresh air pump into the
basement and ran the hose through a wall to my shop. That way the noise is
contained below ground in the basement and I get fresh air in my apparatus
without waking up neighbors. I can work around fumes at night again. It is not
uncommon for sculptors to have respiratory problems from fumes. There are
certain things I cannot smell anymore because of being exposed to fumes when the
mask I was wearing turned out not to be doing a good enough job. Now I pump
fresh air to my face so there is no question.
There
still are projects that I have to abandon late at night because I would need to
use a tool that makes too much noise, but this re-opens the range of what I can
work on at night.
Maybe I worked too late this time.
October 26, 2007
Received this:
Dear Joel,
We have received the Peace Pole. It is awesome. Joel, it is so beautiful I am
surprised I didn't cry. Maybe I still will. Our Principal saw it and suggested
we put up some info to honor you and your work. Do you have something in writing
you would like to represent you in addition to the Peace Pole?
I cannnot imagine it geting better but I am open to it.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Much peace, love and joy,
Irene
"... cannot imagine it getting better" refers to my explanation that it would get better over time. It is a bronze peace pole and the cap appears green right now, but after a few rainstorms it will become red to contrast with the green patina on the pole. That and a few other changes that will occur improve it.
Now what could I want to have in writing about all this? Anyone got any thoughts?
October 28, 2007
Things that are original are not necessarily strange to us and not
necessarily outside the range of what we understand and approve, but the things
that expand and broaden our world probably are. Those things also can lead
nowhere and be worthless, but you never know.
So
how about a peace pole on which the text has been shot into it with a gun? (I
did it with a punch. Would it be more interesting if it really were a gun?)
I can think of arguments for why a peace pole should be made this way. They have to do with product, not process, but I doubt anyone would want one. Yet I find myself with additional thoughts about it, and you never know where an idea worth keeping is going to come from. So I may play with it further.