Festivus IV (Day 7) - Yggdrasil and the butterflies I learn so much (artistically and academically) from this project as it has evolved in its role as my Holiday ritual . There are now 40 butterflies in Yggdrasils branches and it is beginning to do what I thought visually. Ill make more today. Last year I wandered into the lives of Sooty Shear-waters, putting myself into one moment in one birds life (that piece is up at Next Space). This year obviously - butterflies (with a side wander into Norse Mythology). Im having to research and then visualize a generic and recognizable pattern for a form of life that is mind bogglingly diverse, and then interpret that life form into a static - 3 dimensional piece of sculpture that still conveys the movement,color and texture of an airborne flight of butterflies - that must at the same time - bring to mind the foliage that adorns Yggdrasil (completely different narrative with one or two common threads) - the jury will decide how well or poorly I have achieved that end when the piece is finished Jan 1st, but this is my objective as an artist. To accomplish this, I am looking at thousands of images, pouring over web sites and reading material from all over the world and then producing a series of short writing projects on both topics. For me at least, the learning is deeper when done this way because I have to take what I learn and use my body to shape and create the vision that the material I have found brings up (rather than just to regurgitate it for a test right). In other words I have to DO something with the information I have studied - that is a whole different set of neuron activity. One of my goals for 2015 is to bring this deeper learning experience to every k-12 student in this country. I firmly believe that if we could give each teacher the opportunity to do a project like this a couple times a year in their classrooms - the performance of the students in all subjects will improve, and we will have an impact on the school to prison pipeline we have in place at the moment. I can feel Verdani picking up a new thread as I shape this work, something for Skuld to add to the warp and weft of the cloth she is weaving into my fate.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 18:20:16 +0000
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