Two torn notes found on a garden bed, Albert Street, next to each other.
"Can you m..... the kids?" and "SKELETON!"
The toll free Family Helpline number is...
: )
* * *
There are two things I love to do while walking around: Picking up small discarded objects or natural materials, and documenting the random aesthetic of rubbish, rust and stains and the like, in which I often find immeasurable beauty and unexpected, interesting compositions and forms.
First, regarding "rubbish". What I get from studying it:
1.
Being on a lookout makes a simple walk around the block interesting: you never know what you are going to see or find. It keeps the imagination alive, and regularly moving around the neighbourhood, noticing the people, seasonal changes and happenings also brings a sense of "belonging". Something that I miss (or have always missed).
2.
It makes me concentrate on the here and now. Noticing and closely studying, perhaps then photographing, details of texture, colour and form is one of the best meditations I know. Everything else fades into the background for a while.
3.
The accidental, random clusters and palettes of colour are a source of inspiration which I regularly transform into my work, of designing and creating ornaments, objects, pictures, paintings. This is a good way of coming up with new associations, and breaking a habit of line or form (I tend to produce an alarmingly similar range of shapes over and over if I don't consciously attempt to break away from what my hand is used to).
4.
Somehow, I find that actively looking for detail, colour and form keeps the eye "alert" and helps in developing awareness of composition. I have noticed that often, after an intensive stint of rubbish hunting or object collecting (and then arranging and playing with the findings) I afterwards begin to notice people's faces and gestures, buildings and places, spatial relationships and patterns in a more acute and detailed way, too.
5.
It keeps me optimistic. Getting pleasure from small, abandoned morsels and incidental collisions of ordinary things enforces my core belief regarding life – that negative will always be balanced with positive. Beauty
is in the eye of the beholder.
shed, eclipse, silent sand
"It's in the trees!"
Rubbish no more – now at Saver's shelves.
I want to make a giant neck piece out of these, layers and layers of beautiful curves, luminous layers and something black / red / grey mised into the structure …
PS.
Next / soon about found objects and the joy of arranging them.
In fact, I was thinking I should try and create & document one quick design per day, put together from shapes / objects / bits and pieces I find. Just to keep in the habit of making quick decisions, in order to not forget how to have fun with making, and to train myself to SIMPLIFY things. The daily "pieces" could be just sketches or visual plans, and the format a blog allows could be a good way of keeping track of these "random jewels". Maybe I could then get to make them into real pieces a bit later. Yay.
- IK
