Meanwhile, Samaris continues to draw me back into Icelandic landscapes. Traveling through frost, ice, mist, rain storms and rainbows. I truly hope you have or will take the time to give them a listen.
The other day, during a terrific thunderstorm here in Toronto a cosmic moment (?) artist, Mary Grisey pulled her bike up under my studio awning to take shelter from the storm. The studio door was open and I was holding a semi-private workshop (with another Mary) and we all started to chat. Felt rather cosmic as Mary and I both hail from the San Francisco Bay Area (relocated to TO due to Canadians) and affinities towards New Mexico (I lived there for 13 years) and Iceland (because: Iceland!) and I had only just returned from a residency there with mega plans to return. Plus, textiles, clay, metal. The storm lasted just long enough for the two of us to connect and share contact info. I am sincerely hoping to get to know Mary, her work and maybe even collaborate or who knows?! 🙂
For years now I have been searching myself and process and truly considering the materials I work with. I haven’t honestly produced anything with metal since … 2011? Nothing, at least in my view of creating/working with metal. I have focussed on glass, sketches and teaching, really. Teaching taking up my hand-space. Mind-space. There is nothing ethical or sustainable when it comes to working with metal. Unless I work exclusively with scrap materials- the extraction of metal from the Earth is a dreadful, toxic affair.
Then there are the ideas. A continual overflow of ideas, visions, sounds, dreams. While pertaining to film, Werner Herzog in his book, A guide for the perplexed views ideas and their onslaught beautifully, replace film with- art, audio, body of work:
The problem isn’t coming up with ideas, it is how to contain the invasion. My ideas are like uninvited guests. They don’t knock on the door; they climb in through the windows like burglars who show up in the middle of the night and make a racket in the kitchen as they raid the fridge. I don’t sit and ponder which one I should deal with first. The one to be wrestled to the floor before all others is the one coming at me with the most vehemence. I have, over the years, developed methods to deal with the invaders as quickly and efficiently as possible, though the burglars never stop coming. You invite a handful of friends for dinner, but the door bursts open and a hundred people are pushing in. You might manage to get rid of them, but from around the corner another fifty appear almost immediately… Finishing a film is like having a great weight lifted from my shoulders. It’s relief, not necessarily happiness. But you relish dealing with these “burglars.” I am glad to be rid of them after making a film or writing a book. The ideas are uninvited guests, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t welcome.
While I welcome these ‘uninvited guests’ I just don’t know where to seat everyone!!
Meanwhile, the thunderstorms are back (yay!) which makes me happy (I am not a lover of Toronto humidity) and I’m making soup. Haha. Thai soup from last night’s left overs (Instagram @nanopodstudio) Back in the studio tomorrow with a glass casting workshop.
and I hope you will visit me again soon for, Otherworldly time travel, part 3
nanotopia 