It has been an interesting six months as far as my art goes. Works included bottle cap mosaics, painted murals and stage sets, not the usual drawing and painting but art none the less. A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending a tile mosaic workshop with the world famous Isaiah Zagar. To quote Steve Earle in “Coppperhead Road”: I came home with a brand new plan. There are many ideas for tile mosaic murals in my head but first one must accumulate the necessary media and tools. This takes time but I know it will happen. Friends, family, strangers are contributing tile, pottery and dinner plates to the stockpile for future murals. There is even the gift of warehouse space. Free!
In the meantime, a friend gifted me with two boxes of blown-out chicken eggs. These were to repair a craftsy door wreath I’d made with various colored (naturally by various chicken breeds) eggs but my media was fragile and needed some replacements.
What to do with a multitude of beautiful eggs? Why not draw on them? Why not Zentangles? I used to do Zentangles as an introductory lesson for my beginning art students. One does not need drawing skills because the lesson involves basically repeating patterns and lines so it was a successful exercise. Zentangles are doodles. The amazing thing was watching 30 high school students go silent as they got into their assignment. The “zen” part is for real, y’all. Here’s a great article from Psychology Today about the benefits of Zentangles here.
So, I doodled on the eggs. Watching tv at night, I doodled. Combined with my morning cup of coffee, I doodled (it seems to set my brain into a calm, creative mode). The transformed eggs began to accumulate. Now what to do? They’re too fragile to be held by viewers (or to leave on a table top, they don’t take well to rolling off the edge!). Are they too craftsy? Could I create a work of ART from them?
That takes us to my current status: assembling new artworks that incorporate the eggs. Thinking past my usual drawing/painting. Thinking about paper/denim pulp. The pics shown here are of works in progress, so stay tuned for further developments.
The Art of Joy A. McGugan 