Hello, I'm so glad I found you, but where are you?

[Ira Mency]

Hello everyone.

 

I'm the newbee.  Is there anyone out there? I found this group by accident, and I'm so glad I did.  First of all, I did not know there was an International Society for artists like me! SO HAPPY ABOUT THIS--sending off my membership packet TODAY.  

 

I don't know about you, but as a mixed media / assemblage artist I sometimes feel that I'm in a group all by myself and often left out in the cold. I call it the Assemblage Blues.

 

When I show some people my work they look at me like I have three heads. (I tend to think I have four, the extra one being that I can see something in an inanimate object that they can't....)

 

Sometimes think they just don't "get my work". Thank goodness I've been lucky to particpate in the few exhibits for assemblage, and made some friends along the way----but I often think there's no where to officially belong.

 

I hate to say this but I feel the art world is still oversaturated with other types of art--the most classic forms like sculpture or paintings still being the norm.  (Nothing against painting, my best friend paints with oils....and his work is beautiful).  Honestly there has to be more belonging for collage, altered, mixed media and assemblage artists.

 

It's so nice to know I'm not alone anymore.  I would assume most of you work either in collage or assemblage and I'm wondering if you realize this is a great resource for networking with other like minded artists.

 

So, with that said, has anyone else ever felt the way I do?  Do your families or significant others ever "get your work?" or do they have to ask you what it is?  What are you doing here?  What are you up to? What's most recent on your plate?  Does anyone ever chat? Where are you?

 

Just curious about you and I'd love to know more.

 

xoxoxo

Ira Mency

[Arthur Comings]

Hi, Ira. I guess I'm the newby now. I agree that this could be a good forum for people like us. I'm also in the Pacific Rim Sculptors' Group here on the west coast, but the meetings are so hard to get to that it seems to function mainly as a way to participate in group shows. I'm in Fairfax, in Marin County, and I use mostly found stuff -- metal, plastic, machine parts . . .

Sure, I feel like not many people understand what I'm doing all the time. Of course that's kind of built in to the kind of stuff I do, because I'm consciously trying to follow my own creative impulses, and not to do anything designed to "please the crowd." For example, I don't put together animals or human figures out of found objects. No offense to artists who do that kind of thing -- I've seen some nice stuff -- but if I were to do it, it would feel like I was hoping for a reaction of, "Well, look at that! An eagle -- isn't that impressive, to make that with all that old rusty stuff? And look over here -- it's a dog!" (There's actually a great bull that was done like that in downtown San Rafael, CA, right now)

Anyway, when I'm in in "the zone" I just try to follow my curiosity and ideas with as little concern for the outside world as possible. I almost never start with an idea of where things may go, although of course some pieces take weeks or months to evolve. My non-artist friends are very polite; they don't ever look at me like I'm crazy -- although they also don't ask any interesting questions! My artist friends say what I'm doing is "great," and that helps sometimes, although it's kind of hard to take a big compliment like that, you know? I guess my best feedback comes from getting into shows and talking to people at the openings who say they get what I'm doing. And there was a great review of my stuff in ArtWeek a couple of years ago, which I think about when my confidence is down. My website URL is somwhere on this site now; I'd be interested in hearing what you think. And check out Laura Lynch, who I think just joined up.

How do you work? What kind of stuff do you use? Have you posted some pix? What has happened lately that has given you the confidence to go on?