A lot of my work draws heavily on ocean waveforms for art inspiration. I’ve spent many happy hours sitting on beaches all along the west coast from San Diego, California to Long Beach, Washington just watching and letting the power soak into my bones.
I call this visiting my Oracle….I ask questions and (usually) I get a few answers.
There is nothing better for resetting your sense of self than watching several tons of water crash against the rocks …again and again…relentlessly. The rocks hardly notice, but over the years, the water will win. In search of art inspiration, I discovered when I went back to visit a favorite beach I found the sea had rearranged objects in my absence.
Where Medium Meets Art Inspiration
My sculpture medium is paper clay. It has high water content and I can slam a slab of it against a “rock” that I set up in my studio. The effect is very much like what I observe at the beach. I manipulate these slabs to support human figures. I follow this sculpting method for a while like a person in a fever. But, after several new pieces, the fever will leave me and I step away from the ocean waves for a time. I now know that at some point I will have to return to the sea for information about my life and my art. (Aren’t they one and the same?). My Oracle will always be there.
To learn more about Michele’s work or Pacific Northwest Sculptors, contact us today!