Art as Usual

Art as usual is a motto I came up a year or so ago. It happened by accident- just a few pieces of text lying next to each other on the table. I thought about it for a moment and decided it described the way I want to live my life. I want to make art the usual for me- so I think a lot about inspiration. I also want to surround myself with art. To do that I've created some pieces that are functional but attractive enough that they work as stand alone sculpture as well. I started with some jewelry displays. Then I went to town on a lamp base and shade I'd purchased. Next I turned my attention to the mess of papers and ephemera I clutter up my house with. Ticket stubs, photos, cards, articles from magazines. I always have a ton of paper sitting out. I like to display them but I don't like to clutter up my fridge or counters with them. I set up a vision board in my art room and that helps tremendously but I still needed another solution. SO I started to create wire photo card holders. There were a few on the market at the time but I didn't see anything that was as whimsical or sculptural as I wanted. So I started to play. The first one was pretty abysmal. It actually didn't function well at all- and I was going for FUNCTIONAL art. The next attempt I loved, and since then I've created quite a few unique designs. They work great, they have a purpose, but each one is lovely enough without papers to work as a piece of art.

Last week I was asked to create a free standing card holder. I had kind of started to play around with that in the altered book/ wire garden format I posted pictures of last week. But she was interested in keeping it all wire. So this weekend I tried creating a couple. I thought I'd post a photo and see what you all think. I have another almost done that has a bird and nest entwined in it as well. I'll take a photo of that soon. These designs were inspired by the customer who was requesting something custom. I love it when people offer me ideas. It's been a great source for me. Soo...if you have ANY ideas about what I should transform or create next- I'd love to hear it!