Ideas Not Process

I have been spending a lot of my blog detailing my process, and really not a great deal of time around the idea.  I guess I feel like I don't want to reveal my ideas until they are complete.  Nothing worse than a stolen idea.  The other reason is because process is very important to me.  The process is really part of the idea.  It grows and changes based on how my idea plans out.  Sometimes, the process makes the idea, and sometimes the idea changes mid-process and changes the process.

Since leaving my first Residency in June I have been struggling with the idea of "freedom is an illusion".  This idea has evolved to perception is reality.  An idea I think is less vague and easier to grapple with at the moment.  It also speaks more to how I want to work.

Soldiers and sailors are meant to be all the same.  We are trained to look and act in a certain fashion, and when we do we are rewarded.  We receive medals and ribbons congratulating our similitude, but in reality, after bootcamp, we are all individuals once again.  Everyone I know, while in service, disregards these "awards" and wear them out of requirement.  We do not appreciate them really until we separate from service and truly become "individuals" again.  I want to show this individuality in an organization that forces conformity.   I'm currently working to create this in a series of paintings of individuals.  Each painting will be named for the individual, but they will all be the same in many ways.

I am working with bowls because they signify a vessel.  Something to hold things with no end point because it is a circle, and no real way for separation once inside the bowl.  The military is a giant vessel, and once you are in it there is no end.  It pulls people in, comforts them, supports them, and holds onto them as long as possible.  The "vessel" has shaped me as a person and affected my entire life, and will continue to affect me until the day I die.  I do not feel I am the only one to feel this way.

There are parts of my process that are ready-made items.  I have give these items great thought, and eventually decided I needed something "pure", manufactured, and industriously similar.  Most of the items I am creating in ceramics, wax, enamel, and even maybe edible candies are hand made.  I'm working in hand made techniques for dissimilarity and individuality.  The objects have blemishes, and a child-like quality that I feel realistically identify the people that comprise our military population.  Adults, fitting in, but individuals that are rough around the edges, with child-like qualities that keep them young and intriguing.

So these are my ideas.  They are deeper than can be explained in a blog, and personal.  These works are something I'm excited to be engaged in.  They have a long way to go, and I'm looking forward to the time I will spend with them.