Materials: My love relationship

New Work in Progress, Paper, String, Acrylic Paint, both pieces are aprox 20" x 20"

I feel as if this blogging has disappeared in to the ethos or something?  I wonder why it is less important now or why it has been abandoned?  There is so much to choose from now as an artist...so many options for expression.  Blogging is an energy that requires the time, intention and care that other forms require.  I think I have been holding my breath a bit, keeping secrets in a way, as I walk along making new work.  Creating visual work is one thing and it is separate from the dialogue and text that surrounds it.  I have experienced discomfort with miscommunication and misunderstanding of our verbal language pertaining to my experience of creating my art....and if you are an artist I am sure you can relate.  I don't believe that's a reason to stop speaking about art or writing about art, but it does make me aware of the fact that we need to be sensitive to the amorphous quality of visual art...there simply is not a simple "right" way of seeing, feeling or understanding ones work.  Nor do I believe there needs to be.  We are such base beings, wanting concrete unmoving truths, HA!  The only truth is that everything changes and with it all understanding must continue to change....as does our understanding of ourselves.

All that said, I have revised my statement and it is here (below) for you to read.  At this sliver of a moment in eternity, I am finding that my relationship to the living spirit within materials and my love of beauty and god is what inspires my work.....and a little more elaboration below.

I am a process artist. My approach to the work is intuitive in nature; I collaborate with chance, accidents and impermanence. I include marks of time and wear, emphasizing beauty in imperfection. I work with a wide variety of materials including: organic and found objects, clothing, plastic, dirt, and paint. 

My work is inspired by transformation, how life is flux, that one thing is actually many things in a state of infinite change; examining the fragile yet powerful brevity of life and the innate connection between all that is.  I work with materials in a symbiotic nature, I do not force the materials in to submission instead I present them as they are, allowing them to reveal their potential transformation through the act of observation.  I see myself as co-creator with materials, myself also as a material and a tool.

My inspiration is unbound from category, thus flowing freely between artistic disciplines and forms. The thread of artistic inquiry and intention is what connects the work, whether it is performance, painting or installation.

Outsider

This pretty much sums it up for me-I would add "and shares them with you"

I have been thinking lately about myself as an individual artist and my art as a career lately. I have also been thinking of popular culture and my un-popular childhood. It seems as though my definition of an Artist is not in line with the actual definition:

art·ist

–noun

1.

a person who produces works in any of the arts that are primarily subject to aesthetic criteria.

2.

a person who practices one of the fine arts, esp. a painter or sculptor.

3.

a person whose trade or profession requires a knowledge of design, drawing, painting, etc.: a commercial artist.

4.

a person who works in one of the performing arts, as an actor, musician, or singer; a public performer: a mime artist; an artist of the dance.

5.

a person whose work exhibits exceptional skill.

6.

a person who is expert at trickery or deceit: He's an artist with cards.

My personal definition includes parts of the 'Artist' especially in creative expression but my definition is closer to the common definition of Beginner, Outsider, Thinker and Innovator. It seems like an oxymoron to be considered an "outsider" and "popular". Which makes the notion of being a high selling artist in ones lifetime almost obsolete. It would appear that innovative and new work is harder to sell because naturally we are less likely to trust what we don't already know as good. Its not the masses who try something new, its the few outsiders, and for successful commerce you wouldn't focus on the few! I suppose we can say Lady Gaga is an artist according to our dictionary's definition. But I would like to say that Lady Gaga is a successful re-packaged blond doll, created by and for our current popular culture. As an individual she is a willing pawn, sacrificing herself for fame.
The thing is that I am happiest when I make new things, learn new things, and think about these things......I think I may just be an outsider!

think·er

–noun

1.

a person who thinks, as in a specified way or manner: a slow thinker.

2. a person who has a well-developed faculty for thinking, as a philosopher, theorist, or scholar: the great thinkers.

out·sid·er

–noun

1.

a person not belonging to a particular group, set, party, etc.: Society often regards the artist as an outsider.

2.

a person unconnected or unacquainted with the matter in question: Not being a parent, I was regarded as an outsider.

3.

a racehorse, sports team, or other competitor not considered likely to win or succeed.

4. a person or thing not within an enclosure, boundary, etc.

in·no·vate

–verb (used without object)

1.

to introduce something new; make changes in anything established.

–verb (used with object)

2.

to introduce (something new) for or as if for the first time: to innovate a computer operating system.

3. Archaic . to alter.

be·gin·ner

–noun

1.

a person or thing that begins.

2.

a person who has begun a course of instruction or is learning the fundamentals: swimming for beginners.

3.

a person who is inexperienced; novice.

Artist Statement 2010

Dawn Breeze
Artist Statement 2010

I work with a wide variety of mediums and materials including: natural and found objects, clothing, seeds, dirt, photographs and cement. I explore my personal relationship with grief, love, and mental illness; examining the fragile yet powerful brevity of life and the innate connection between all that is. My approach to the work is intuitive in nature, I collaborate with chance, accidents and impermanence. I include marks of time and wear, emphasizing beauty in imperfection. My inspiration is unbound from category, thus flowing freely between artistic disciplines and forms. The thread of artistic inquiry and intention is what connects the work, whether it be performance, painting or sculpture.

My work is greatly influenced by the transformative experience's of giving birth and the death of my sister. I am curious about the connecting points in the eternal life cycle, and the depth of love. My current work is a form of syncretism; the work collides and transmutes disparate eclectic objects and ideas through artistic alchemy, creating new life, new meaning and surprising harmony. It acknowledges that nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect - that the only truth in this reality is constant change, and that love is life's elixir. It celebrates the beauty of the limited mortality of an object, the transcendence of form and the liberation of life from the material world.

There is a sincere urgency behind my inspiration, I am compelled to create artistic expressions of feelings and thoughts; my artwork is my heartwork and a cathartic experience. While engaged in my artistic process, elusive emotions and concepts emerge visually, physically and symbolically. My finished work is always a surprise greeting me over the edge of fear. Only when I have surrendered completely to authenticity can I then see things from a new perspective. It's at this point where my work transcends previously held ideas of truth, provoking a deeper personal understanding of life.