June 2013 - |
Trickster, beware your trap... In my last newsletter I posted a preview of a sculpture I call Stomp. This piece is my largest and most intricate yet. It took over four months to complete, and began as an idea in my head years ago. There are many elements to the visual story contained in it. A raven is dancing in barbed wire. (View the artwork and read the full story at the end of the newsletter.) The mood is meant to be one of mystery and movement, but as I finally assembled the elements together, the barbed wire (which looked okay in my drawing) seemed to tighten around the bird. While some of the words I use for the raven's dance are "a sanctuary, and a self-made trap," the balance I sought with the contradictory trickster was tipped towards a different outcome. I had wanted to speak through Raven, but what did Raven have to say to me? He reflects my own feelings much more than expected. Admittedly, I felt somewhat trapped by this piece. There are many shows I was unable to enter and many ideas left unexplored while I completed Stomp. Just like the teachings of many Trickster tales, the best-laid and most complex plots are the most likely to ensnare the one who laid them. How do you feel, Raven? I can relate. |
Upcoming Events
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Art Students League of Denver |
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Booth #58 June 8th and 9th
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Sculpture in the Park August 10th, 9:30am-6pm Admission: |
Evergreen Fine Arts Festival August 24th - 25th |
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Society of Animal Artists
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May 18th - June 30th
July 12th - August 31st |
New Works
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Stomp 40" x 23" |
Dance I used to work an event staffing job at the Denver Coliseum. One of their annual events was the Denver March Powwow. After my shift, I would sketch the dancers. For three days, people from 100 tribes from across the continent would join together. Through varied costumes and dances from shuffling to wild and rolling, their feet would pound the same rhythm out of ground they danced on. The drumbeat was deliberate, steady and driving, always building. The dancers wore elaborate feather head and backpieces, shawls that twirled, dresses that jingled, or hoops that disappeared and reappeared, and they dressed in bright showy colors. To me they looked liked grounded birds, stamping the earth, stretching their wings, ready to take flight. Raven Ravens (and other corvids- crows, jays, magpies, and nutcrackers) are social animals, the most intelligent of birds, the largest of the songbirds, and share a strong bond with humanity. As a common character in folklore around the world, Raven is a world creator and a trickster, a sign of both good and ill omen, foolish and wise, a thief and a protector, often within the same culture. Raven has been used as a symbol from ancient times to modern, appearing in our books, movies, and sports teams. Take a walk through any art festival and you will see many artists using crows and ravens - they add instant personality to a work. With their intelligence, self-awareness, plotting, problem-solving, and interaction with mankind, corvids make us recognize 'humanity' in a startling way. Stomp Raven dances. His feet pound out the rhythm of the earth. He dances in the barbed wire, caught, then takes it like a dance partner, weaving it around himself and unwinding it like a defense, a sanctuary, a self-made trap, a story. Patterns connect and touch, then open and fall away like the silver rings of a magician. The lines of motion could be the lines of Haida carving, Celtic knotwork, a gymnast's ribbon, or modern tribal tattoos. Raven is a bird of the world, but the barbed wire brings him to America and the West, where history is young. Lines connect and the heartbeat of the world continues, and raven dances. |
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Tiffany Miller Russell www.wildlifeinpaper.com |
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