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The Muse's Storage Box

The Muse's Storage Box
Copyright Diane Lou.

Alchemical Dreams and Disparate Realities

Rust and bones, broken toys and old text, game boards, gears and nests. Even as a child such odd, unwanted items evoked a pit-of-the-stomach response that bordered on exhilaration.
While I make no attempt to conjure up specific feelings in the viewer, the ambiguous juxtapositioning of familiar materials creates art that evokes half-forgotten, dream-like visions that beg to be interpreted by the viewer. There is a sense of deja vu (the already seen) tempered by a sense of jamais vu ( the never seen, or the illusion that the familiar does not seem familiar), and this contradiction asks the viewer to dig deeply, to look inside her own repository of wisdom, intuition and experience to find her own meaning in the familiar objects she sees.
The once-private discards of people's material lives that I collect for my art seem to carry universal memories with them, memories that can engage and mystify the viewer. Their beauty lies within the rust, the erosion, the wear, and the mere fact that they were once possessions.
I play with abandon and with no forethought. Each piece of detritus seems to suggest to me a relationship with some other piece, and I begin to put them together and wait for the mental "buzz" that lets me know I am proceeding as I should. Even at this point, I continue to remain in the play state and will not allow myself to direct the outcome of the piece, a process that requires complete trust. The outcome often mystifies me as much as it might any viewer.
Remember when, as a child, whatever was in reach became the instrument of your creative exploration? That is my life. A rusty, flattened piece of metal on the street, a gnawed bone by the roadside, a unique twisted branch from a tree, a fallen nest, a broken egg, a snake's skin, a dead butterfly...all will be added to my collection and eventually have their beauty honored in one of my pieces. The resulting art creates a new story with its own imagined history, one that invites the viewers to lay some claim on it by allowing themselves to be enveloped by the sight, the history, and the ambiguity of the realities before them.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Felix aka Flix



Summer brought a new addition to the studio, Felix aka Flix (Nils condensed his name a bit). When daughter Lenka was moving to the coast for the summer to help her sister, niece and nephew, she couldn't take both Flix and Sophia, her chihuahua. So...Flix came to spend summer vacation in the country with us. He's a big, beautiful 10 year old who doesn't take life seriously, adapts to new situations immediately, takes all the love we can give but doesn't demand it, and likes to spend his day sitting in a lawn chair watching birds and squirrels. He's the perfect studio cat.

As I mark off the days on the calendar, I am amazed how quickly summer is passing by. August is just around the corner, and 2 months later I'll be teaching at Art and Soul! More art in a day or two (finally have it all re-photographed).

Enjoy your summer in whatever form is perfect for you.
(Felix/Flix photo courtesy of Jake Therrow)
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