The August Sculpture of the Month played an important role in my development of the naming process I now use to auger out the stories told in my sculptures.
Many of you have asked what I have in mind when I create the sketches for each piece. The truth is almost always… nothing! Although, I will occasionally focus on a particular inquiry as I randomly draw lines on paper and then refine the images that appear (e.g. “How can we get past war?” in the Rosecrans Project and “What happens when we allow science and art to positively impact one another?” in the Fusion of Art & Physics Project).
I used to try deciphering the stories in my work by researching myths and archetypes to uncover their meaning on my own. Then one day, someone asked me the name of a piece in my gallery, but I had forgotten! So I told him it had not yet been named and invited him to suggest one, since he seemed strongly connected to the sculpture. Shockingly, the name he suggested matched the one I had already given it!
Next, I experimented with a crowd-sourced naming process when the piece featured below appeared in a show in Tecate, Mexico.
In Tecate, I invited viewers to suggest names for this piece by writing them on a slip of paper and dropping them in a box. When I opened the box at the end of the show, I found that about 70% of the names suggested were the same: The Day I Danced With Death!
The Day I Danced With Death
This piece marked a turning point for me. Previously, I would not have believed such consensus possible regarding any art, but now, I felt called to invite small groups of people to help me name my sculptures. I’ve consistently found that, if we talked deeply enough about a sculpture, a consensus typically emerged about the story.
It still amazes me every time naming group members reach a common understanding, thereby creating a sense of community within the group. This appears to contradict the idea that objective truths can only derive from scientific discovery, and not from art.
Over the years of repeatedly witnessing this phenomenon, I have come to embrace the idea that good art appears to have truly valuable ideas for our survival on this planet.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic.
The Day I Danced with Death is now owned by an old habitat restoration buddy in San Diego. Mike came to a number of my shows over several years but never expressed an interest in owning a piece, until he saw this one and wanted it immediately!
Unknown to me, Mike had a long history of struggling with an illness that took years to diagnose and treat. For him, this piece spoke deeply about his own dance of healing and recovery.
May we all have the ability to dance with the inevitable impermanence of our lives… and of all things.
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