|
|
Artist Of The Month - September 2007
What do you love about Art Clay?
Crikey, mate--what is there NOT To love about Art Clay? It's the most flexible, easy-to-master medium I've ever encountered, yet with it, you can produce heirloom quality, fine-jewelry and trinket items ON A FREAKIN' STOVETOP! I have not had a single student come to me with a vision for a project that we couldn't figure out how to fabricate, and in my own work, I've made everything from three-dimensional silver tree trinket boxes to hollyhock-leaf bowls to porcupine toothpick holders. Art Clay provides instant creative gratification, which makes it the perfect creative medium for our age's face-paced lifestyles.
On a more pragmatic note, Art Clay is about as non-toxic a medium as I've ever found. I'm a "canary"–meaning that if someone's going to have an adverse physical reaction to a chemical or substance, it'l be me. (I can't even use polymer clay without rubber gloves or my fingers and lips will break out in tiny blisters. Ick.) But in all the years that I've been working with Art Clay, I have never experienced the slightest reaction to any of the products. Nothing. This may not seem like a big deal to folks who are less sensitive, but believe me, it's a big deal to those of us who are! For years I thought I'd never be able to create silver or gold jewelry because of the number of chemicals involved in pickling and such–then along comes Art Clay and Voila! Five hours later, I'm making fine silver jewelry!
In the same vein, I have limited flexibility and strength in my right hand due to an old tendon/ligament injury, and using power tools can be difficult and even painful. But with Art Clay, you don't need power tools–just a modicum of patience, a mini-file and a rubber block! And there are so many ways to use the materials that if one technique causes me discomfort, I can play around until I find a technique that works comfortably for me.
To top it all off, Art Clay is "green", made from recycled silver and created by a recycling company! I'm very environmentally conscious and endeavor very hard to "walk my talk" in my daily life--to the extent that I've chosen to live in a conservation community that has an organic farm on the property and sponsors a Charter School whose curriculum is strong in environmental awareness. Using Art Clay as a means of artistic expression gives me one more ethically sound avenue of expression. So, honestly! What's not to love? |
What are your favorite Art Clay projects/creations?
Uh-oh, busted--I am a shameless leaf junkie. There's nothing about trees and leaves that I don't love, from seeing the first chartreuse leaflets peeking out on a cool Spring morning to shuffling through wet, windblown leaves on a crisp Fall day and smelling that unmistakable earthy, tannic tang. So the ability to capture something as timeless yet ephemeral as a leaf in fine silver is deliciously appealing. Some folks have a perpetual fascination with no two snowflakes being exactly alike–for me, it's leaves.
I confess that for the past two weeks I've spent every spare minute out walking my dogs with my nose lower to the ground than their (wet) noses, hunting through the fallen leaves to snatch up the ones that are just the right size for jewelry. Living where we do, I have maybe another month to collect enough leaves to see me through the winter, and since I fancy myself something of a "leaf specialist", I've found a half-dozen ways to preserve leaves in enough detail to use in my work in any season. (I teach an entire class in collecting, preserving and making Art Clay jewelry from leaves.) It's an addiction; even when I have five or six trays of leaves "in process" I still can't resist plucking up "just one more" deeply scalloped maple or malva leaf from the ground. You don't want to know how much Silver Clay paste I can go through in a month! |
What other media do you work and/or teach in?
Plants and flowers are my natural passion (big surprise, eh?). I'm an avid gardener, and one of the things I do for a living is design and install gardens. It's another way that I enjoy helping people bring creative beauty into their lives. I also play with porcelain clay/Overlay Paste, glass, UV polymers–ANYthing fun when I can find anyone who wants to play along!
I also use Art Clay as a talismanic medium (cool word, eh?), to create personal power talismans in conjunction with my meditation and spiritual awareness ministry. In an age where we have so little spiritual ceremony left, Art Clay is a wonderful tool to create truly personal iconic medallions. |
Biography:
I majored in psychology, which I cheerfully abandoned to pursue ordination as an Interfaith Minister when I realized that psychotherapy doesn't heal people--people heal themselves as they regain balance with their creative purpose and relationship to the Divine. (This is not to denigrate the efficacy of psychotherapy, but rather to say that there are many roads leading to healing, and creative expression is the one within which I prefer to work.)
How else would I bio myself… Hmmm… I'm one of those people who started off in one direction and ended up somewhere delightfully unexpected. Teaching Art Clay is an ancillary career for me. In my "daily" life I am a contract Forms Specialist, developing data collection tools for the pharmaceutical research industry. In my "evening" life I'm a clairvoyant counselor, teaching meditation, psychic awareness, and energy healing, a garden designer, a silver clay artist, and dog mother. To relax, I work in porcelain clay, usually on the wheel but sometimes hand-building. (Art Clay Overlay Paste is a lovely addition to this work!) It's like playing with mud where you just might end up with a cereal bowl.
I'm “New Agey” without being a Bliss Ninny or a Metafuzzy; if I can't apply something to my daily life, it's not worth retaining. I'm extremely shy (true!)., I love nature, critters, flowers, trees, leaves (I think we covered that), flower fairies, The Crocodile Hunter, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings (the books, not the movies), spiritual growth, and my fuzzy dog, Josie. I like longs walks on the beach, 12-year-old Dalmore Scotch, acorns, raspberries, and my favorite color is magenta. No--midnight blue. No–teal. Oh, fraggitall–now you know why I like tie-dyed T-shirts! (Along with bright colors and anything sparkly.) If I were a bird I'd probably be a magpie. |
Philosophy:
I feel that everyone has an "inner artist." As an Interfaith Minister, I see life as an opportunity to bring spiritual inspiration through the physical body into physical manifestation. Which is a long-winded way of saying that I feel that souls were born to create. As I see it, a lot of psychic/psychological pain occurs when people have lost touch with their creative spark and creative process. Some folks seem to have forgotten how to enjoy playing, which makes it hard to enjoy life. Part of my ministry in encouraging spiritual metamorphosis is to help people express whatever it is they incarnated to create. Art Clay has been a fabulous tool to reopen the door to personal creative expression.
And on a personal note, I want to publicly thank Jackie and Tom Truty for their dedication in creating Art Clay World, USA. Guys, without you, I wouldn't be having NEARLY as much fun as I am, and from the bottom of my heart, I thank you! |
Awards / Degrees / Publications / Associations:
Senior Instructor for Art Clay Silver and Gold… so far back I can't remember what year it was, but the Art Clay offices were still in Jackie's house.
Honorable Mention award in Art Clay's 2003 Silver Accessories Contest.
Featured in the book Art Clay Silver & Gold: 18 Unique Jewelry Pieces to make in a Day by Jackie Truty.
I've also won awards for my garden designs, including the garden of my townhome, which made the cover of Chicagoland Gardening magazine's Jan 1997 issue.
|
|
|
|
