Prosaic Mosaic


It's pretty weird to have washing the dishes be akin to an archeological dig. I mean, when I get down to a level of food that I don't recall cooking, that's hardcore unkempt. I tend to wait to do dishes until every single plate, pot, pan, and utensil is used, including the extra, emergency picnic cutlery. Then I have fun with creative stacking, making precarious temporary sculptures out of the squeaky clean metal and china shapes. Yesterdays' is in the upper left corner. They rest are "works" from other days.



On the All-Consuming Holiday Card Project: I haven't stopped snipping. I kept pasting cheerful papers back to back and cutting out many shapes and aging their edges since Friday rather than stopping yet to assemble. Some quantities are all cut out, 320 needed of some pieces, some parts are pre-assembled, enough to make 50 puppet cards. I now have enough of everything to put together at least 25 ready to go on their way to friends. I plan to take the farthest flung stops to the post tomorrow because time is sneaking up very quickly.

Thankfully, my hands are in fine shape thanks to a sharp pair of Singer scissors I bought for the project (about $3.50 at Target). I knew I'd need some cushioning on the handles to avoid blisters. There are so many wonderful tools available today to make life more comfortable.

If all continues to be on schedule, I should have all the little packages out by Friday and be ready to dive headlong back into my precious Halfland work.

Cheers to you, Herself

Comments

  1. Nice Sculptures Shelley!

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  2. shelley, i love your impromptu dish sculptures! and i've seen the squishy scissors around but didn't know if it was worth getting some: now i see that for big projects it most certainly is!

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  3. Wow, its comforting to know that we aren't the only bad housekeepers...we treat our dishes the same way, wash them when there are none left to use (even the emergency) :P same with clothes actually...who needs a clean house when there are puppets to be made...
    Mighty fine sculptures youve got there, I can see you have excellent balancing skills....sometimes all you need is a wooden spoon to keep everything upright on the pile :)

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  4. Hee hee, Thanks All, I was going to make a little gallery of my dish sculpture photos in our building's stairwell (A.K.A, Art Centrals Backstairs Gallery) and call it, "Disheveled". hee.

    No roaches, thank God, because the ones around here are Buicks, just a happy ant colony. You know, their favorite food is Agave Nectar, the natural cactus sweetener and the chicken baby food that we feed to our senior cat, should either be left out.

    Yes! I can recommend cushy scissors! Still waiting on that Harac cutting tool but--it wouldn't have worked for this project's thick papers anyway.

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  5. Very fun, very cool!

    I could see a series of photos of "dishes piled", naw I like "Disheveled" even better.
    I think you could have all kinds of fun with dramatic lighting and even hiding small lights inside translucent dishes, oh the possibilities are endless.

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  6. Frickin' hilarious, Mark! Can you picture the sculptures as the art installation itself?! Like you describe with lights and other theatrical effects. Ha! It would be easy to make a pretentious statement about the fragility of life as represented by the cracked tableware, etc. Too funny.

    But you see, my art is far more subtle and sophisticated than that! (tongue in cheek)

    "My sculptures are, alas, but brief, temporal moments of vertical and horizontal panes and surfaces, intersecting shapes in materials of meaning known only in our diurnal quotidian routine of life. Each work, deconstructed after a single day's interval, to be rebuilt anew, in different form." hee.

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  7. Ha

    I see you already have your "artist statement" ready.

    You got the lingo down cold. Start calling those NY galleries.

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  8. Anonymous8:42 AM

    What a fun photo-log, clean sculptures ready for the next use!

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  9. I'm glad you didn't say; "ready for the next DAILY use" Ulla! Because it's really more a bi-monthly sculpture process at our house.

    Maybe I could expand the exhibit to include patterns of dried, stuck-on-egg in the row of frying pan bottoms? --Nah, maybe not.

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  10. I wish there was a target here in France! These scissors look like the happy tool for hours of creative fun!

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  11. ps

    Clever post of your dishrack art!!

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  12. Thanks Corey! I have been looking online for 30 minutes trying to find those scissors for you but they are elusive! I may have to pick you up a pair when I'm next out.

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  13. Anonymous11:00 AM

    *nudge*

    ;-)

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