I have finally got some new work to completion, just in time for a submission deadline (fingers crossed). There is something quite interesting about completing work and then not having long to sit with it before it leaves the contemplative space that is my studio. I tend to sit with my work and communicate with it for some time after it has been completed. It is not necessarily that the work shifts. I think it is almost an honouring exercise, a re-engagement with the work from more of a distance than when in the throws of process, offering alternative perspectives.
This does have it’s downside of course. I have been ‘honouring’ a piece of work now for about a year! It is just not ready to leave. I am listening to that wisdom… some day it will be ready, perhaps.
Variation of surface intensity
Book pages, wooden chest, pyrography, acrylic boxes.
Pyrography text on box reads…
From the core, an eruption of significant emotional magnitude penetrates the outer shell.
The outpouring is chaotic yet strangely structured, but always hard to predict.
The waves of internal detritus and debris are powerful and all consuming.
Those close enough to witness this explosion are never unaffected.
All ground beneath us shifts, cracks and dissolves the solidity that holds one upright.
The vibrations are felt for hours afterwards, slowly but surely their magnitude dissipates until, eventually, all is still.
This stillness, an uncomfortable calm, both quiet and loud in its silence.
Eventually a soft noise breaks into one’s consciousness, like a chink of light cutting through the rock that veils the valley floor, illuminating our path.
The reality of one’s very existence? Perhaps the way forward?
Pandora’s Box
Book pages, apothecary jar, cardboard box.
Jo Howe-Artist 
Thanks Micah. That’s really lovely and most valuable feedback.
🙂
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Whoops – pressed enter too soon. I am also loving the charring of the paper. It is still in it’s natural form, but now there is a wonderful contrast. Beautiful
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Your “Variations of Surface Intensity” work is incredible. The repetition and form are fantastic. I always appreciate that you structurally manipulate the paper, but never change it’s original color or text – it seems so pure.
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