Sometimes I sit there after my body is finished its ritual, not realizing it's over, caught up in savoring the feeling of emptying and becoming lighter. It was one such morning moment, when my attention was wandering, that I noticed the silhouette of an object in front of me. Someone had decided that a used up toilet paper roll ought to live as a cover for the cap to my bottle of lotion. There was an interesting figurative relationship between the two parts and like a rubber band snapping from two fingers to shoot into the air, my mind knew what was destined to happen. Sometimes process isn't process at all but more like an act of Goddess, the idea just happens are you are compelled to complete it. But I find this is quite rare, if it's even a good idea at all, and one can't depend on having that kind of stroke of genius if the goal is consistency.
Oh and a word about the text - I chose to write Poop instead of Pee for a couple of reasons. It's more applicable to more people (as boys don't sit when they pee, they wouldn't get a front view of the Poop Idol). I also think it just sounds funnier, which is pretty important when you're making sculpture without fully waking up.
Later on that day I was finally throwing out the flowers that Alex had brought for Jamie's birthday party a month ago. It was only in the last week that they had completely shriveled and started growing mold. However the baby's breath was untouched, still retaining it's beautiful, lace-like delicacy. Hating to throw out an object with so much potential makes me feel like a crappy human being, so I began to play with it, combining the different pieces until I found a shape that interested me. It reminded me a bit of a butterfly's wings, something sort of aerodynamic looking but also naturalistic at the same time.
I wandered around my apartment for a while, trying to figure out what else it might go with. This kind of sculpture is kind of like playing with a puzzle where there are many different possible combinations. Each combination makes a different, no less complete picture. Working in this way is very ambiguous but also leaves the most room for discovery.
There's something about a five minute sculpture that's really satisfying. I guess for me the closest analogy is of writing poetry or songs. When I first sit down and start writing, everything that comes out is overworked, a result of having thoughts and ideas stagnating for a long time with no release. But after a while the ideas begin to flow and innovation begins to happen in earnest. Perhaps this approach is a good way to work in terms of idea-generation on the most basic level because it is so accessible, the race against the clock allowing almost no room for self-consciousness to set in.
I'd be interested in seeing the kind of things other people make in five minutes.
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