Thoughts on One of a Kind Works...



Here's a sneak preview above of my next creation - a sweet little Snowgirl. She has actually changed quite a bit since this stage. I hope to be listing her later in the week - right now she's waiting for arms...and perhaps a muff. At present she has a cap embellished with ball fringe.

Thoughts on the nature of One of a Kind works...

In the past few weeks, I've had a few people ask me (and I love that they ask, actually), if I can make a creation like the one just ended at auction. I write back (and thank you, btw!) that I will let them know when I may make something "in the spirit of" that particular creation. I don't do exact repeats of artworks. There are a couple of reasons for this - one is that in order for it to be interesting to me, the artist, there has to be something new and fresh in each work. There is a discovery to be made in the process, if you will. The other reason is that I couldn't exactly duplicate things if I tried. And it's mainly because of that process of discovery involved in each work. Sometimes you get effects by "accident" and you're not sure how you did it! Sometimes I'm able to file away what I think happened - like when I painted a doll, then put some shoe polish on it, then I used a crackle medium. Some of the crackle actually cracked and flaked off. I think it was because of the oil based shoe polish resisting the water based crackle medium. But I haven't been able to duplicate that since then.

So "one of a kind" doesn't mean I'm too snooty to repeat the work - but mainly that each work is borne out of "what if I did that?" kinds of questions. And those are the questions that making art-work interesting to me...

1 comment:

Exuberantcolor/Wanda S Hanson said...

I agree that each piece has to be new and fresh. I hate trying to replicate something. It is boring and I don't want to be a "factory". Each item should be from your heart and duplications just don't do it.


"Do not let what you cannot do
keep you from doing what you can do."

John Wooden