Or I should say the dreaded writing of the artist statement. As much as I hate writing, it is while writing the statement that I discover, in a conscious manner, the many layers of the sculpture.
Early on, I started thinking about the artist statement for “score.” Below is my first run and comments given to me by one of my mentors, MFAH Core fellow Devin Kenny
(http://www.devinkenny.info/About).
Much of Devin’s work is music related and he is a writer and sculptor, so I was extremely excited to get his take. He was very generous to give me written comments.
My first draft with comments handwritten
When Devin and I met on January 25th. I had just finished the armature so the sculpture looked like this.
Since that time, I am much closer to completing the piece. I was not able to make it to my studio today, so I pulled out Devin’s comments, reread my 30+ blog posts about making the sculpture (some of which I have not yet posted) and came up with the following statement.
The sculpture at the end of the day yesterday.
“score”
artist statement
”Score” is a sculpture of energy, sound, the physical act of playing contemporary classical music, and its primal impact on emotions. I was inspired by a long exposure photograph of my cousin, Arkansas Symphony Concert Master Andrew Irvin, that captured multiple images as he played his violin. I was struck by the simple back and forth movements of a bow, composed of horse hair, drawn across strings that creates emotionally charged sounds. I cannot carry a tune, I don’t understand musical terms, I have never played or tried to play an instrument, and I don’t sing; I danced, I took many years of ballet. When I listen to music, I feel emotion and see movement. In this piece, the music radiates off the musician as he plays, as well as off the strings of the violin, sometimes like a painfully slow waltz, and sometimes with the sharpness of a quickstep. Working on the piece during the last weeks of my father’s life I examined each movement of the bow and the wire/sound that comes off the violin. Some warble and then end sharply like a tear running down a cheek. Others gently twist into a whisper that fades into a broken heart, and some linger and then like a murmuration of birds pivot and is set free, each movement triggering a unique emotion. I applied the concept of seeing multiple images, and seeing music as emotional energy into three dimensional form. The piece is built on a steel armature covered in plaster, recycled wire cloth, and baling wire.
I am not yet finished with the sculpture, so the statement may not be complete as well.
