Yes, just last week I said that I was doing three more studies to make a total of twelve. However, there have been a couple of developments that have led me to decide that enough is enough.
Firstly, I’ve had enough. I feel like I have achieved my initial goal of relaxing my technique and executing a looser cutting and laying. I’m mostly pleased with the results from this study. I believe №s 5, 7, and 8 are the most successful. It’s amazing how hard I had to work at this!
Secondly, a commission has come my way and I am excited to switch gears and do something that is someone else’s idea for a change. After the commission, I’ve got some ideas for a few art pieces that should take me through the end of the year and I’m really excited about those too! Not sure how I might incorporate the learnings of these studies into future work, but I trust that I will.
So, how did I do? I’ll review this process, study by study, that started in June of this year. My intention was not to create works of art. Rather, my intention was to define some parameters within which I could explore something different.
№ 1 I was seriously—or so I thought—being less obsessive about my cuts and placement, although it does not at all show. My progress was so minor but it was a first step—a step that showed me that I needed to keep stepping.
The spring clips are fun to work with, but the areas that the placements create are very small and a challenge to fill.
№ 2 I made visible progress on this one, in both the filling of the spring clip areas and the marble background. Still, the cutting overall looks too precise for what I wanted to achieve. As I worked on this, I was fighting every instinct to be more precise—obsessively precise, to not allow some space between the pieces. I felt like it was too loose, too sloppy. My goodness! I was really getting a lot of insight as to my own frame of reference.
The background is Emperador marble and I so 💗 this marble! Just look at all that variation with a single stone!
№ 3 This one was a bit of a backtrack on the previous one. It is a little less loose and more controlled and is certainly not a step forward. I’m not sure why this happened but I think it has something to do with the background design bringing out my inclination for clean, straight lines.
I really do like this one though. I love the marble and travertine mix of the background and the beautiful Mexican smalti. And I love the mixed-direction linear background.
№ 4 I moved forward in this one regarding the spacing of the tessera, however the cutting of the stone background is more precise than I had hoped. I found myself challenged in employing this more formal and complex andamento, as in № 1. However, the smalti sun was so loose that I had to restrain myself from redoing it.
The Azul Bahia granite and blue sodalite were a joy to work with due to the sheer force of their color. Blue rocks! How fabulous Creation is!
№ 5 Alright, a giant leap for Jackie-kind! This one is absolutely loose by my standards. I exaggerated it as much as I could muster and this is the result. I was equally excited and horrified! The horizontal background was easy to execute loosely and not too traumatic, but those leaves nearly gave me an anxiety attack. Okay, a slight exaggeration.
I hesitated to do a tree as I thought it too cliché, but I had done a sun so why not! And I like the way the tree came together.
№ 6 Like № 4, the background spiral has a more relaxed spacing, but overall I think it looks too precisely cut. Again, a somewhat formal and complicated andamento was a bit of an obstruction to achieving what I was shooting for.
I did the background spiral freehand, without an initial design, and it turned out fairly well. I thought that not having a specific pattern might contribute to a looser execution. For the most part, it did not. There are a couple of rough cuts that I would not normally accept, but otherwise it looks fairly precise.
№ 7 I was beginning to feel that the spring clips in such a small format were limiting. It could have been just that I was getting bored—which I easily do—but I felt like I needed to switch gears. And I’m glad I did. This one is definitely progress!
I managed to employ aspects of a more formal, flowing andamento and still achieve a looseness and relaxation. Very happy with this one.
The materials and palette are striking.
№ 8 Just another version of № 8 with a slightly more relaxed spacing but less dynamic background andamento.
Although a very simple, uncomplicated design, I like this one. The mix of materials is very pretty and each compimentary of the others. I find myself surprised that I like this a little more than № 7, which I think is artistically better. Weird!
№ 9 I have no idea where this concept came from and it did not help to advance my goal. I should have continued along the lines of № 7 and № 8 as that would have given me more space to further explore my objective.
The background marble is one that I got years ago from Mosaic Rocks!, from dear Bill Buckingham. It is similar to Emperador but it is call St. Laurent. I find it to be more dense than Emperador and easier to control. It has a similar, if less rich, degree of variation in color.
№ 10 Same concept as № 9 but with a more challenging background andamento. I wanted to see how much of that movement I could express in such limited space.
The concept of large pieces of gold intersected with contrasting wisps of color is visually appealing to me and I may explore it in a larger format at some point.
This one shows no progress beyond № 7 and № 8, which is why I feel I have exhausted the limits of the study at this time.
In summary, I’m very happy that I invested the last three months on this study. I feel it was very worthwhile. And it was fun and liberating to not be trying to make art. I hope I can carry forth more fun and freedom in my future work.
