Redemptive Beauty – Photographs & Prose on Reclaimed Objects

Yesterday we found great pleasure in taking the old, the worn out, the disposed, the damaged, the decomposing, and the ugly and finding beauty in and through the object.

How is it that these things can be beautiful?  What is beauty?  What is Truth?  Why are things despised by one and enjoyed by another?  Here are some photo’s and prose that deal with these issues.  Thoughts that we have been thinking about, dreaming of and truly seeking for the answers.  We hope to bring forth a continuing dialog of these important matters.

                  

  

             

      

                    

We have also enjoyed using recycled materials, objects and rejected figure drawings in our artwork, lately.  This is not only an economic, but a potentially meaningful practice.  We, like most artists we talk to, have a limited budget for our pieces.  This does not negate the beauty of precious and pure materials, but it offers an outlet, a challenge to think, a freedom to create with increased possibility and opportunity.  We would say that one can create redemptively with an ideology that when we always use new materials we miss the chance to recognize value in people through the work of their hands, or through worn out items which have the potential to inspire us in a physically creative way.  This is a redemptive way of thinking that we like to apply to our relationships, as well, to value all sorts of individuals and their work.  When we value people and their handiwork and reuse resources, we feel that we are creating beauty which holds a truthful aesthetic.  We develop a creative conscience so to speak.  A stone sculptor we met with the other day even said of his stones, that an artist such as himself had to “beg, borrow, trade or steal” to make it as an artist.  We would suggest using found objects or deals at the local curb or junkyard as a starting point for your pieces.  Darin actually found bronze ingots, large tree trunks, and a Baus Haus chair on his last outing.  He felt quite triumphant.  What you don’t use, you can recycle, give away, or invite other artists to apply their creativity to the jumbled mess together.                          

Letterpress & Linocut Blocks Symposium on the Vandercook Press

I had the pleasure of taking a symposium at the Lawrence Arts Center  in the John Talleur Print Studio (JTPS) on printing on a printing press called the Vandercook Press.  It was very informative and an excellent time.  Tim O’Brien who was demonstrating the press was very helpful and clear.  Tim showed us an example of a letterpress and lino cut combination print of Taryn’s for her upcoming show.  Thanks to all who made it possible!

invitation

destination gathering postcard images

here are some of the postcard art images that were produced for the destination gathering.  they started conversations about where we may end up, the tracks of certain lives, the journey of an artist, beckoning of an afterlife, telling people’s stories as ways to evaluate our relationships and possible outcomes, common pasts, diverse and similar interests, celebrating creative and relational living, artistic trends as foretelling a culture’s future, and the list extends far into the horizon.  the discussion was one of curiosity and affirmation.  we only touched on each topic, and would like to hear more from the artists on them.  some of the images have poems, descriptions or other text on the back of the image, many almost as intriguing as the front.  if this is the case it is (or will be) posted below the image.  all images and content are copyrighted by the artist and have been used reproduced with permission.  all pieces cannot be reproduced without the artist’s written consent.  we are also looking for opportunities to show this entire series of work (several pieces are not shown).   contact us at balm.org-at-gmail.com if you are interested in purchasing an image, reproducing an image, or you want to display this work.  we will work with the artists.  this would be a great traveling show.  serious inquiries only please.