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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.

Monday, May 2, 2011

And the winner is....

And this month's winner of  a 100-piece assortment of creative possibilities/treasures/stuff, is.....
drum roll!!!......Rebeca Trevino!  Congratulations!  Rebeca, please contact me at dianelou at earthlink dot net and I'll send it right out to you.

Details on next month's (well, actually now this month's giveaway) to follow tomorrow.

It finally feels like spring is here! yay!
Posted by at

7 comments:

Rebeca Trevino said...

Thanks Diane! What fun! who knew!

(i actually saw this last night and thought i responded, but maybe it was late and only 'thought i responded')

i did send you an email with my contact info last night - thanks again - can't wait.

May 3, 2011 at 8:12 AM
Diane Lou said...

Congratulations, Rebeca. I got your contact info and will get your winnings off to you right away. Enjoy!

May 3, 2011 at 8:37 AM
Rebeca Trevino said...

woo! hoo!
tks again

May 3, 2011 at 10:44 PM
Carol said...

Congratulations Rebecca! Carol xx

May 4, 2011 at 4:40 PM
Diane Lou said...

Rebeca, your box was mailed today, so you should have it in a day or two. Enjoy!

May 4, 2011 at 4:45 PM
Rebeca Trevino said...

Diane!
i just got back from a week away vising family in texas . . . to my delight - my 'box' was here waiting for me when i got home.

what a great way to be inspired to 'jump' right back into the studio and get to work. i already know where a few of the 'bits' and 'treasures' and 'stuff' will go.

thanks again Diane.

May 12, 2011 at 9:56 AM
Diane Lou said...

Oh good! I love it when something that comes along seems just the thing for something you have been working on. I find this often happens to me after a "bins" trip. Not that I knew what I was looking for, but I knew it worked as soon as I saw it.
Glad you like your winnings, Rebeca!

May 12, 2011 at 10:20 AM

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