Look at your world of art elements and principals!

Line in the chair back, pattern and unity on the tile floors
Columbia, Tampa

Pattern and Texture and Unity

They are there everyday, you may not name them or know them, but part of our human function of order and arrangement is a long formed sense of placement over 1000 of years, many cultures and many creative ideas: they are  the elements and principals of art!  

Dominance shape form line

Texture   line  form              South Carolina Refuge Park

  Line and shape,  Metairie Louisiana 

unity              Jacksons Square New Orleans

line  and color, Lake Pontchartrain 

Repetition and Unity and Shape Mac Dill AFB, Tampa

Asheville, North Carolina    Repetition and shape and form

Lake Santee, South Carolina    texture

line  Asheville, North Carolina

Leicester, North Carolina          line and repetition

shape, form, color and Unity

Asheville, North Carolina line, perspective, shape

A Study of Shadows

I think sometimes if you can forget what the name of what you are looking at is, you can learn to see things anew.  Our minds are conditioned from when we are young to identify a concept with an image, a sound and written text, but if we can just let go of that for a while and see differently then the world takes on a new view.  Artists are trained to see shapes, line, texture, volume, and color.  When I am working on a particular art piece and I step out in the world...that is all I see everywhere.  When I was teaching small children about art elements we would often start with shapes.  We would look around the room and identify all the shapes things were made of, from the tables to the ceiling tiles.  It was amazing to see their eyes light up and see the world as if for the first time.  I taught them to draw that way as well...if you can see the shape you can draw it.

Door with mirrored Image  by  elizabeth gordon

When I go out in a city my eye is caught by interesting details.  I love the contrast of shadows and light on a fall day.   In Asheville there are many old buildings that dot the downtown.  When these shadows caught my eye, I saw them only as art elements of line and shape and texture with contrast.  I did not think door or sign.  Try going out one day in your neighborhood or city and just think about simple shapes, texture, and line...try not to think what the name is of the item that catches gets your attention.  I think you too will be amazed at how you can learn to see your world a bit differently!   

Square on Brick      by             elizabeth gordon

 NEW ORLEANS ON SITE RABBIT'S MOON     STUDIO JOURNAL

During our stay here in the Big Easy we are trying to chronicle as much about the area as we can for you.  They one thing about a new environment for artist is that you have new eyes, nothing is common place.  In your own world one becomes used to seeing things and forgets to look closely at times.  When ever an artist is in a new environment, it is like you have fresh eyes, you see every thing anew.  It is a like a shot of adrenaline, hundreds of new images coming at you and every thing seems new..because it is to you.  We were coming out of Drago's Restaurant (a wonderful seafood restaurant) and across the parking lot these electric lines outside a building.  The white on white, the shapes forming an abstract composition of alien tentacle like soldiers, and the lines almost in motion..like wind blown...still frozen in motion from Katrina and the wake of destruction it left. The straight lined contrast of the bricks against the curved caps of current connectors makes for an interesting juxtaposition.
These make me think of Louise Nevelson and her mono toned collages in New York.  See what you think.  I will include some of Nevelson's work for you to compare.
I am not sure yet how I will use these photo's in my work, or just let the work be the photo...but I seem to want to do more, so we shall see where it leads. The more i look at them, the more they speak to me and seem to want to say more!  

STUDIES IN LINE, SHAPE AND TEXTURE 

Metairie Electric Lines         photo by elizabeth gordon  

Metarie  Electric Lines          photo by elizabeth gordon

Louise Nevelson                            from google image

from google image

GIVE YOURSELF A TREAT, GO TO A NEW AREA, A NEW ENVIRONMENT, TAKE A CAMERA OR SKETCH BOOK...AND THEN SIT BACK AND WAIT..IT WILL BE IMAGE ON IMAGE, NEW SMELLS, NEW SOUNDS, AND NEW IMAGES.  I PROMISE YOU IT IS A TREAT FOR THE ARTISTS'  SOUL.

Lines, Colors and Shapes/Asehville, North Carolina, Blue Ridge Mountains

These photo's remind me a great deal of some early paintings Georgia O'Keefe did with she first lived in New York City. She had a way of abstracting the obvious to the point you did not always realize what you were looking at. The contrast of light and shadow is so dramatic this time of year. The angle of the suns light is perfect.

Textures and colors of Asheville, North Carolina

I noticed once in New Orleans how different grates and storm drains can be. New Orleans puts a moon and start design on their man whole covers. Each area is different and each country more so. But you just look closely, you see diamonds, chains of diamonds. Look closer you see rectangles, squares, circles and half ovals. The colors ar blues, blue grey, silver, brown, rusty orange, while speckles and black. If you look longer you may see green or other colors I missed. If you are a painter you will name the colors better than me, a non painter.

Clay with High Relief

CLAY WITH HIGH RELIEF

Clay is a wonderful media, it is so flexible and forgiving. If you make a mistake, no matter, just knead it and roll it back out. You can start all over again! You can pinch it, punch it and carved into it.

When you let it get leather hard then you can carve wonderful designs. I love texture and line, as you might see in this plaque. Sometimes I use a pencil point or the eraser end to jab into the clay making patterns or designs. If you are really mad or tense about something clay is wonderful-you can take it all out on the clay!

This clay piece will be part of a plaque and in the square areas I carved away will go found objects or fossils or some material nature. I bisque fired it, and then put iron oxide stain. Iron oxide has a matt finish and is almost raw in its look

The holes are for looping leather or a natural fiber through to connect the piece. When it is finished I will post it as well to show you. It is one of many pieces in process. I am distractive that way, moving from one thing to another, then coming back again when it feels right!

Windows to the world/ Raku Vessel

Raku

Continues to one of my favorite art processes. Today it was very hot here in Florida, over 95F. So working outside with a roaring hot propane kiln and drenched in sweat and smoke one must really love doing this!

I was very pleased with this pot. Taking it out of the smoking ashes the coppers and golds peaked out at me like a sunken Spanish treasure being found deep in the ocean. There are details I didn't notice until the glazing coloration brought them out. The white sections that look like emblems take on a form of a building and green areas look like tropical leaves.

I like the variety of texture that I added with my handmade stamps and floral cloth.

Someone in my class asked me it the building with windows was intentional and it was not completely. It is four separate hand made square stamps that made this section.

The bottom left corner shows the detail of a piece of lace I rolled into the clay. I love the way the copper and green met yet the texture stayed the same.

Bird Bath in Blue

Bird Bath

I do not do cute well and rarely do functional ceramics. I am much more concerned about texture and color. This piece is not one I considered a wonderful piece in the beginning, but it has grown on me. I added most of the design on the sides with my handmade stamps. The whitish tan areas are where I rubbed away the glaze. The birds seem to like it, the cats drink from the blue waters and the summer rains keep it full.

Forever Collage

I am a collage, mix media art venturing in to clay and fused glass. I wanted to approach both clay and glass as if I just discovered them. I didn't want to know the rules and what was best. I wanted my mind clear to discover. There was a time when all media was discovered by someone and then explored. But what I find interesting within myself is no matter what I do I find a way to piece it together, patch and adhere-as if a collage. It just must be my way. Wonder what your way is?