My Addition to the Whisper Gallery Initiative, In Process

Have you come across the incredible Whisper Gallery series that Hive account@mrblinddraw has been running for the past month? I highly recommend at least scanning the collaborative thread of impressive and highly creative images that are coming to life!

If you’ve ever played the game “Telephone” as a kid, then this concept will immediately make sense. You have a circle of people and you start with one word or phrase and whisper it to the next person who whispers it to the next and so on. By the time it reaches the other end of the group, it’s gone through many evolutions and is completely different. As a kid I always found the changes hilarious and would often be giggling excitedly when the words reached me.

The Whisper Gallery Initiative is based on this game but with art making. Hive account@mrblinddraw came up with this pretty ingenious idea of having a group of artists play off each other's work in collaboration. Each has a week to make a work of art that responds the the previous evolution.

The first week Hive account@upheaver kicked off week one with making the “seed” art piece from a poem.

1. Upheaver.jpg
Dreams of Titan, 2018 by Hive account@upheaver

Week 2 Hive account@paolobeneforti responded to Hive account@upheaver ’s work of art with his own painting:

My Untitled Artwork, 2018 by Hive account@paolobeneforti

Week 2 Hive account@aksinya made a piece in response to Hive account@paolobeneforti’s painting:

3. Aksinya.jpg
Nothing Else Matters, 2018 by Hive account@aksinya

Next for week 3 Hive account@voronenka responded to Hive account@aksinya’s art:

4. Voronenka.jpg
Flickering Light, 2018 by Hive account@voronenka

Week 4 is ME!! I'm right in the thick of making my piece and thought I'd give you a peak into what I'm making.

I began by letting Hive account@voroneka’s painting marinate in my mind for a day or so and an idea came together. Looking at Hive account@voroneka's figure, I see her dozing back in forth in that thick dreamy feeling between sleep and awake. In this space, our psyche plays with reality using dream logic to match images from both our conscious and unconscious.

My piece will use Hive account@voroneka's imagery loosely as the composition of the consciousness. The woman with her of dream logic combines this framework with a vision, a feeling of who she sometimes feels herself to be- a powerful, energy filled, unapologetic animal in the forest.

As you may know I work in clay and have a history of showing my process. I plan to use a combination of glaze painting and 3-dimensional elements to make a sort of collage-like piece. First I made a slab of clay using a white earthenware and added little frame like edges. Here I'm smoothing it:

Then I made the shelves with the bottles except they have become sort of plant-like:

Then I made some plants and leaves and will make many more when I am at the glazing stage. I also sketched a line form of the jungle cat . Even though it's very loose, and I may diverge from it, this drawing will help me feel free when glazing.

Last night I fired put it through a slow firing and unfortunately it cracked in many areas and frankly in very strange ways. I can't remember the last time I saw this kind of cracking with a piece before! I was disappointed but also this puts a bit of tension on the timing since I need to have a finished piece by Sunday to meet the timing of the Whisper Gallery so it could be very tight.

I jumped right into making another one, slightly smaller.

On the left is the cracked one and right is the new slab with mini edges:

Fortunately I could use the elements from the cracked piece and made a few changes:

I put it right away in the kiln which is a little scary. Ideally it would dry for a day or 2 first. Keep your fingers croseed that it comes out perfectly tomorrow night and I can glaze it. Stay tuned for more process and completion for this piece!

4Whisper Circle Wk4.jpg