Research into 'Cosmos' artists.

I have been doing a little research into artists that use the Cosmos / Universe as a source of inspiration.   The first one that comes to mind is of course the very famous Pablo Picasso.

Picasso created a series of Constellation Drawings inspired by his gazing up at the night sky.  These images were drawn in a 16 page sketchbook in 1924.  (Fabrizi, 2021)

These paintings are created in pen and ink, and are a mixture of both controlled and chaotic mark making.  Joining lines in-between the dots to create many different images. I find them quite thought provoking.

(1924), 2021)

Whilst Googling 'Cosmos Inspired Artists', I came across a page that talked about Wassily Kandinsky. Wassily was an abstract artist who often took inspiration from what was around him, whether it was sound, or sights, or the atmosphere.   Some of his work has suggestions that they may be inspired by the universe / cosmos. This piece could be one of those.  A black space like background full of colourful planet type orbs,  I really love it.  

(Editors, 2021)

I plan to do lots more research into Kandinsky as I find his theory of painting sound totally fascinating.

I also need to talk a little about Satoshi Tomizu.   He is a fabulous glass artist from Japan who makes the most unique pieces of glass that look like they have a little galaxy within them.  Satoshi works with coloured glass and flecks of real gold to create a wonderful backpiece, then he adds an opal for a planet. Quite exquisite. 

I have had a go myself at this kind of technique and its not easy to do, so I am in awe of these beautiful pieces.

(Space Glass: Extraordinary Solar Systems and Flowers Encased in Glass by Satoshi Tomizu, 2021)

• (1924), 2021. Constellations Drawings | Pablo Picasso (1924). [online] Cocosse-journal.org. Available at: <http://www.cocosse-journal.org/2019/10/constellations-drawings-pablo-picasso.html> [Accessed 17 March
• Colossal. 2021. Space Glass: Extraordinary Solar Systems and Flowers Encased in Glass by Satoshi Tomizu. [online] Available at: <https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2015/11/space-glass-satoshi-tomizu/> [Accessed 19 March 2021]. 2021].
• Editors, A., 2021. Ten Modern Masters Who Elevated 'Space Art' to Astronomical Heights. [online] Artspace. Available at: <https://www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/book_report/ten-depictions-of-the-cosmos-by-modern-masters-55022> [Accessed 18 March 2021].
• Fabrizi, M., 2021. Constructing Abstraction. Pablo Picasso’s Constellation Drawings.... [online] SOCKS. Available at: <http://socks-studio.com/2017/02/13/constructing-abstraction-pablo-picassos-constellation-drawings-1924/> [Accessed 17 March 2021].

Creating the first layer of my Universe 'Core'.

 So, I have taken a core sample out of the universe as I imagine it. I have done this with an imaginary 'cheese trier'... you know those metal tools that take a tube of cheese out of the wheel to test it?  That.

From this idea I have started with a top core layer.   I have made this in a dark amber glass. The glass colour of choice would have been black, but I don't have any, so the closest I could manage was the dark amber. 

As I was arranging the pieces in the kiln I was thinking about the 'Order' versus 'Chaos' theory.   The thin straight rods of glass looked very ordered until I broke them all up and randomly criss-crossed them in a chaotic way.... or was it?   Maybe by the careful placement of each piece, it could seen to be laid out in quite an orderly fashion, as I was making sure there were no big gaps or clusters of too much glass.

Into the kiln it went on an overnight fuse schedule to melt all the rods together.  The result the nest day was quite pleasing, even if it wasn't my chosen black, I think it worked ok.

From this I was going to suspend a load of hand made lampworked glass beads, with lots of colours going on to represent a Nebula layer of my universe core sample.

I turned on my Lampwork torch, which uses a Propane and Oxygen mix, put some music on, zoned out, and just made bead after bead.  Picking up which ever colour grabbed my attention. It was quite theraputic.

I then suspended these beads from the flat disc part using fishing wire.  I spaced them quite randomly, with no exact pattern.  They don't hang so well at the moment, but once the next layer is added on it will weigh it down a bit and look much better.

Planning to do the next layer very soon.

What is a Nebula?

 While researching the Cosmos and the Universe I came across Nebulas - I have been fascinated by Nebulas for a while due to their magnificent range of colours and how this can be transformed into art.

A Nebula is basically a place for new stars to form, it is a collection of dust and gases that clump together and  grow until it collapses under its own gravity, At that point a new star is born.

The word 'Nebula' is Latin for 'Cloud' or 'Fog'.

So why are Nebula so colourful?  If you have a look at this very quick Google image search you will see just how colourful they can be depicted.  Some of these images are art, created by using the artists imagination to how a Nebula might look.

Nebulae come in different types, they can emit light, they can reflect light and they can even block light, to create all different effects within the gases and dust of that Nebula.  They even change the look of the other Nebula near by by blocking and reflecting the light.  (Nebulae - Celestial Objects on Sea and Sky, 2021)

I think that by exploring what happens within a Nebula with the dust and the gases, I will be able to produce small Lampwork glass samples in the shape of beads that I will encase cremation dust and coloured glass into to create the colourful Nebula effects.

This work will be done by heating up a small blob of glass, then rolling it in other coloured glass before encasing it with a clear glass to give a reflective and magnetic finish.  I will also do the same with some cremation dust  (of a dearly departed doggy friend) as this dust can give a lovely effect when encased within glass. 

I would also putting forward the point that nothing ever leaves the universe.  We, as humans, once here, will always be here in some shape or form.

Spaceplace.nasa.gov. 2021. Troposphere | NASA Space Place – NASA Science for Kids. [online] Available at: <https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/troposphere/en/> [Accessed 6 March 2021].

Planning my Cosmos / Universe piece.

I have been thinking about the piece I want to make for my Cosmos (Order) / Universe (Chaos) assignment.

When you say either 'Cosmos' or 'Universe', you often automatically think of Space, Stars, Galaxies, Planets etc... or at least I do.

And of course there are loads of artists that create pieces of work around the celestial colours of space, or what we perceive that to be within our imagination or from illustrations from books.

So, what I thought I might do is to take a core out of a piece of the Universe.  I am imagining it being like taking a core out of a roundel of cheese with one of these...

Digging down and bringing back a decent core sample..

I sketched out my idea to include starting my core sample in deep space, although not a solid piece as I feel that space is much more dimensional than that, I feel we should be able to look through it to the beyond... whatever that might be.

Underneath that we would find stars, space debris, black holes perhaps and more.  I want to explore adding things into glass that perhaps wouldn't be there normally, like found items off the Earths surface - feathers, foliage, organic matter, cremation ashes perhaps.  Most of these will burn away with the heat of the torch, but they may leave a tiny mark of soot where they have been.  A tiny imprint to be there forever.

Then I decided I might make the core sample slightly deeper and add the Earths crust into it.

I could then show how ordered the core sample is in respect of where things are placed throughout the universe, but while also appearing quite chaotic.

I would make this piece in glass - fused glass for the top, fused and slumped glass for the Earth, with lampworked glass beads being all the pieces in-between and underneath like stars and lava rocks.

Order or Chaos

 

Today we started a new assignment - Cosmos (Order) or Universe (Chaos).

Before the class I was convinced that I would choose 'Chaos' as my chosen route into this project, but having now attended the lecture and seminar and have taken part in the exercises within, I find myself more drawn towards 'Order', which seems completely against my nature and almost an alien concept to me.

I feel I live my life quite chaotically.  This isn't a concern, I quite like it. In fact, I probably choose it.

I live chaotically, I work chaotically and I hate clock watching. I don't mind a messy desk and I can find things easier than if it is in order.

Some might say I am chaos personified.

However..... after doing the brainstorming task for both Order and Chaos I found myself more drawn to the ORDER side of the list.  Some of the words like 'regular'. 'design' and 'clarity' seemed more appealing to me.

BUT.....

Can I be experimental AND ordered?

Can I test theories and work out if glass works together whilst retaining that order?

Can ORDER be diverse enough for my Chaotic brain?

We shall see!

My sustainability project.

 I have finished my uni piece for my 'Sustainability' assignment.

Due to the fact the working with glass isn't one of the most sustainable art forms, I decided to create a piece that might draw attention to the plight of the planet instead.  

I also decided that I would not purchase anything to create this piece, but concentrated on working with things I already had.

In my head I wanted to make a clock, to draw attention to the fact that we have limited time left to help the planet.

I had a box of mini wine bottles that I scrubbed and dried, then popped in the kiln to melt down flat.

My kiln is quite an energy efficient one, as it's not soo big, but I did need to do a couple of firings to complete my piece.

Once they were flat I messed about for a bit trying to decide on a formation. Ideally I would have liked to use all twelve bottles, but this was going to make the clock too heavy to hang.  In the end I decided on a formation of eight bottles, leaving some to use in another project at a later date.

I cut the numbers out of old copper sheet that I had rescued from a fire pit.

Once that was all nicely fused I was just going to fit a clock part, when I came across a clock kit in my stash that had an interesting wooden ring. Immediately I thought this would be excellent as a 'warning' ring if painted red.  Warning road signs are usually red rings.  

Because there was also another piece of round wood in the kit, I could sandwich the glass in-between the pieces with glass glue and bolts - therefore making it a much sturdier piece to hang on the wall.

As I now had a red warning ring I felt like I needed a warning statement to go on it.  My daughter helped me out with that - I wanted both the words 'Time' and 'Waste' within it.  She she wrote... "Don't call time on the Earth, reuse, don't waste". That worked really well so I wrote it on.

I was VERY unhappy with this as my handwriting is appallingly bad.  So it was back to the drawing board for that.

After a quick repaint, I dug out my vinyl cutting machine and I had some scraps of black vinyl left that had come from my old shop many years ago.  I cut out the words by machine this time and it looked so much better.  Using the vinyl was something I wanted to avoid if possible, due to it being plastic.  If it wasn't lockdown and I could have found someone with nice handwriting I would have definitely done it that way instead.

Now it was time to put it all together and add the clock mechanism.

And my piece was finished.  And it holds it's own weight well on the wall... and you can tell the time so it's functional too, as well as being a conversation starter,

I have enjoyed this project. I particularly like working with materials that might have otherwise gone in the bin.  Giving something a repurpose is something I try to do in other aspects of my life, like adapting clothing and sprucing up furniture.  So this assignment was right up my street.

Fixing up my project.

 So I had got this far in my project when I made the mistake of handwriting on my warning ring.

I was so annoyed by my writing being so bad that I almost gave up on the whole thing!

But instead, I poured a large glass of wine and put it out if sight until the next day.

After a quick repaint - three or four coats to cover up the permanent marker that I had written with - it was nice and blank again and ready for me to add the words again.

I did think about using the vinyl cutter in the beginning, but wanted to stay away from the use of plastic.  If I could have found someone with lovely handwriting to write this for me that would have been my preference, but due to lockdown I couldn't. I would of also liked my granddaughter to write it for me, but again due to lockdown that wasn't going to happen.

So I had to make the decision, against my own initial judgement, to use the vinyl cutter.

The vinyl I used was a little scrap left over from 15 years ago when we had a shop and we needed to cut window signs for it, so I wasn't buying new vinyl to use. I justified it to myself that way.

I used a little bit of tape to take the letters of the vinyl backing paper and transfer them neatly to the wooden ring.

And I have to admit to myself that the result is much more pleasing to look at than my childish handwriting.

Now... time to put it all together.