Looking

In addition to looking inward during this time, to attempt to revive the way-of-working that I feel has been compromised over the last 5-6 years, I will also be actively looking outward and posting the influences that I find. One such recent view is the work of Atelier Bow Wow. Particularly interesting is the recent work "Life Tunnel", located within "exhibitions".  

It has begun

With the end of the fall semester last week, I am "transitioning" into sabbatical. Since I've never had the pleasure of doing so, I'm a bit unsure how to proceed. I am, however, keenly aware of time passing. With my children off for the holidays (joy in itself), I'm taking the time to prepare the "system" for recording progress, and scanning many of the sketchbook pages for inclusion here.

One of my goals is to produce a series of material investigations that can be presented in an orderly way. At this moment, the module is 12x12, but I'm beginning to feel a bit uneasy about the constraint. I'll put off that decision until the actual sample manipulation begins. I would be remiss not to acknowledge the influence of the book Mondo Materialis on this process.

The scan to the right shows a page from March of this year. I wanted to be able to have a starting point when my sabbatical work began, so I began sketching along the right hand side whenever I had a notion of what one of the material investigations my entail. In almost all cases to date, they employ a variety of materials. I also plan to be less "planned" once I get in the studio and produce these without "designing" them. I hope to continue a process seriously begun in grad school at the School for American Crafts whereby I consciously attempt to break from my design training and work more intuitively.

Inspiration

As part of the preparatory work for the sabbatical, I've been trying to get back in the frame-of-mind of someone formerly focused on the CRAFT of what I do. Happenstance would have it that SOFA showed up at Navy Pier the weekend of November 6-8. In years past, it's seemed a bit like a gloried glass exhibition, but not this time. Wonderful work across the media expanse.

Time passes

I suppose it's indicative of the situation that it's been months since the last post. I have been actively working towards getting the studio set up for the upcoming work and frankly, a good deal of that lately is preparing for the weather.  Here's a view of the "barn" that's been underway for a number of years. The white version is obviously the "before", the green is how it stands today. The shed addition is where the old chicken coup used to stand.

Context

As I've been thinking this through, it seemed appropriate to post the text from the sabbatical proposal to put this all in context. I will do this as an attachment.

Starting out

It may sound odd, but the first post is just verification of my decision to document and share this process. 

I have been producing developmental sketches intended to suggest possible new directions and will post them as soon as scanned. The intent is to develop a systemized series of "samples" that I can quickly move through and explore a variety of directions without committing to an entire piece.