Back to Wood

Well I have been working on these some more. There are about half a dozen so far. The idea behind these smaller pieces is that they will eventually be components to a larger whole. One of my goals in creating these pieces is to reference a stick or branch. That being said I'm really not trying to recreate a stick. In fact I have been avoiding bringing in tree branches or even pictures of tree branches. The idea behind this is that it sort of requires me to imagine what I think a branch should look like. As a result of this I am sort of realizing that my creations don't really reference a tree branch much at all. By this I mean I've never seen a stick that is just one straight line or branch. So I have been working out new ways for these piece to have a more organic forum. Originally these forums started as a pretty basic stack but I am developing slightly more complex ways of creating branches. The picture below represents one of these methods. I'll post some more pictures in the future but the light in the studio was bad and its too hot tonight to deal with the blog editor and its finicky picture uploaded. More at a later date.

-mf

I have returned! Vacation was great fun (as it should be)! We rented a house boat on the Mississippi river. We stayed at three differnt beaches. For most of the trip we were a bit north of a small town called Wabasha, MN. Overall we traveled a 20 mile stretch of the river. The scenery and was beautiful. We caught some fish and watched some eagles. One morning we woke up to the sound of an eagle feast that was happening about 30 yds down the beach from our houseboat. One of the bald eagles caught a huge fish and eight of her friends came to share it with her. Well I was there I made a couple of stacks. So this is what I have to share for this week. Hope you enjoy. I'll be kayaking on a river near Stevens Point, WI this weekend so hopefully I'll have another post early next week.

micro wood stacks

So this is pretty much what I have been working on. I saved a big box of scraps from previous projects and I am working on gluing them together. Right now my intent is to create the sort of oblong stack forms and adhere them to pieces of driftwood that I find. One of the images below sort of illustrates that. In a sense I am re-imagining the form of the stick as it would sit on a tree. I view this process as a sort of reconstruction of the tree. I'm sure I will develop this concept further as I work on these more.

In other news I probably won't post again for about a week. I am going to the east side of the state where I am going to be spending next week on a house boat on the Mississippi River. I'm really looking forward to the trip I think it is going to be a lot of fun. Maybe I will have some interesting pictures to share next week.

Slide Shows: 0 Matt: 1 million

Woot! I posted these slide shows and it only took me like 4 hours!... (and some help from Tabby) Chalk it up as a win. Also Tabby tells me my website is coming along nicely. Feel free to check it out! www.matthewfarnsworthart.com

First post... Woot!

So I guess this is my first post. Trying something new I guess. The premise behind this blog is that it'll let me track my progress as well as share some images of what I am making. Hopefully the idea that someone out there is looking at this blog will motivate me to keep coming up with interesting ideas. Either way I've found that I have quite a bit of time on my hands and I should be making some art during that time. So this seems like a fun and easy way to share what I am doing with all my friends!

So far it feels like the transition to working in this space is going rough, but I am optimistic that I will come up with something by the end of the week. I think I am almost there. I got my small work bench set up in my studio (a.k.a. laundry room). Today I glued together the last slices of door that i had left over from Whitewater. Originally I was going to bring a lot more with me but I feel like I should be done with those forms for now. Either way I am struggling to find avenue to explore. I walked on the beach today with Tabby and found a nice piece of driftwood that I thought I would cut apart with my small circular saw. The saw is smaller than the wood and would not cut through the diameter of it (demoralized me for at least 10 minutes). Even though it didn't work out like I had intended the driftwood has given me a few more ideas. Overall I am thankful that I have a place to make some work. I also realize the importance of gathering objects and bringing them home.

Anyway this is long enough for now. I am going to go back to my studio for a bit and hopefully come up with something worth posting about tomorrow. The images are: my cool new studio! [top images] Last Piece (for now) made from the sliced up door [bottom images].