As a visual thinker I have this image of the trajectory of my artistic journey as a line ever looping back around. I feel like I am always trying to get back to the most creative times of my life. Each time I bring all the skills and knowledge that I gained in between these peaks of creativity, and my work evolves and carries forward the same elements from the beginning.
The first time I felt extremely creative was during my senior year of high school. I had completed most of my required classes, which allowed me to spend more than half my day in art classes doing independent studies. I was lucky to have an open-minded art teacher, Chris Amend, who is not only a teacher, but also an incredible artist. During my senior year I built what I called 2 1/2 - D sculptures. Many of them were drawings and paintings on illustration boards which I assembled into a sculpture. The standout piece was a 3-foot diameter carousel of exotic animals made of boxes.
After this dream year, I went on to learn more skills in art school. I created outside of my assignments, but it was never that full immersion of creativity that I had in high school. When I was finally free from academia I let loose again. Recently I have been re-reading my journals from this time of my life and I can clearly see how energized I was with ideas! I was creating “story art” that included story vests, chairs, quilts, suitcases and more. I look back at these pieces and I am still inspired to push myself to be this imaginative.
“Dreams of a Duck Prince” created in 1994. Look I used polymer clay to make a bathtub! The rest is mixed media including tape to make the characters.
“Look See Tree” 1999 at the Phipps Center for the Arts
Eventually I settled into a more productive even stream as I created lines of work that I sold through artist reps and art fairs. I then learned that I needed a reason to loop back around to that ultimate creative mode. Showing my work at art centers, especially for solo shows, turned out to be that reason. In my early years as an artist and a mother I really needed this outlet in order to be forced to carve out the time to do more elaborate works. My solo show “The Look See Tree” in 1999 at the Phipps Center for the Arts in Hudson , WI was one such opportunity when I was able to create over the top pieces such as the title piece - a 10 foot wall hanging that was a fabric tree of mixed media glasses the viewer could actually try on and then draw pictures of how the world looked through these glasses.
When my daughters were toddlers, I moved into polymer clay and this was another time of education and skill building. Of course, there was still a lot of creativity in my life but not on the scale of that senior year of high school which will always be my barometer of creative output. But I built my skills and pushed myself to create pieces that were outside of the picture holders that I had discovered sold at art fairs and in consignment shops. In 2010 I started making larger wall pieces, so I submitted to show at Artistry in Bloomington, MN and I was chosen to show in their 2nd floor gallery in 2012. When I saw the space, I would need to fill in the next two years I knew I would be “looping back around” to another burst of extreme creativity! I will always think of that show titled “Fresh Baked Stories” as another turning point in my art career. I made over 30 polymer clay pieces several as large as 3 to 6 feet.
“Just Think How Books are Like Birdhouses” 2012
Now I find myself in another loop back to full on creative output. This time caused by the pandemic and a forced sabbatical from art fairs. Now I am getting into the groove of creating pieces that are more involved and time consuming than I’ve let myself make in a long time. The winter of 2021 has been focused on sculptural teapots that take me at least a week to create which may not seem that long but when I sit down to cover a teapot with the canes I already have, I can finish a teapot in a day. Having this expanse of time is giving me the freedom to push the limits and explore new ways to make my visions come to life.
Being in these moments of full-on creativity is incredibly fun but it is also challenging. Right now, I am working on a “monumental piece” that will be about 12 feet long. I am working with a lot of mixed media pieces and polymer clay which means inventing construction techniques that not only look right but also hold together physically. Will it all work and will my concept carry through when it’s complete? That’s the big risk but no doubt it will push my art to evolve AND loop back around to what I have done in the past.
Over the years the pieces that I create in these moments of extreme creativity have multiple similarities. As I look back, I can see how my creative process of playfulness and intuitive use of materials carries through from my high school art career to now. I know I can’t stay in this peak of creativity all the time, but I’ll stretch it as long as I can and it will be exciting to see what comes to life.