Some ideas hit and stick. This sticking point is the start of a thread that weaves itself through years of life never gets cut loose. You might call this an Axis mundi, an image that relates to the center of the earth (perhaps like an umbilical providing nourishment). Below is an idea of this center thread as a rainbow in my artwork.
What the axis mundi in your life?
Being displaced from my home as a child after a firestorm created a central belief that mobility is essential to survival. Travel as a lifestyle is like nourishment to my soul. I have prioritized learning to live and work comfortably while traveling. This can be a limiting core belief and as a priority, this need has kept me from being able to settle comfortably. I’ve prioritized a mobile lifestyle and that’s the opposite of how things normally go. Most people settle in a home and then take trips and that works for them.
Climate change and violence are increasing the displacement of communities. Migratory living could be an uplifting vision of the future that also connects us to our ancestors. A beautiful example of this vision is Moana’s “We Know the Way” song where she imagines to her ocean traveling ancestors and their life at sea.
The growing digital economy is enabling more people to work and travel. A new support community is in development for more flexible resource networks and resilient organizational systems. Click here to read about why WordPress is doubling down on remote workforces.
Just like a co-located office requires considerations to make the environment more pleasing for employees, a remote company must also make specific adaptations. – Source
Circus people, salespeople, diplomats, journalists, and warriors are travelers. Can artists be travelers? Can an art studio be a home? My process of building a mobile studio is now going on 15 years. My art studio is a creative practice as well as a place. After lots of experimenting and refining mobility in my creative practice, I’m feeling confident that a milestone is approaching. I’m working on a working dog house size version of The Naked Trailer! It will be about 4 times larger than the model I made in 2015. While I’ve played with other forms, I’m going back to The Naked Trailer now because sometimes you do get it right on the first try! The photos below show three sizes from the 12″ model made out of balsa wood, the doghouse size for the bike trailer, and the mural of what I imagine to be room size version.
I know this dog house size will be working in the sense that I will have enough materials to make and sell art. This is a functional mini art studio AND gallery size. I will make and display small high-value items. I plan to use found materials, give away promotional items and teach, as a rehearsed performance, how to make new art. I will start by showing people how to make and look at a 360 virtual reality photo. I say this is a milestone because, after reaching this point I believe the thread or axis mundi that has been at the core of my life will shift. Being SO close to reaching something I’ve been working on for 15 years is really amazing and scary. It’s the equivalent of jumping off a cliff and believing you will fly. What is next? If I can fly, where will I go?
Background on my studio practice
I had to choose a subject to paint in college and I selected plants because of the variety of plants to choose from. It was a good a place as any to start and I didn’t think too deeply about my choice. To draw and paint plants I had to bring them into the studio. These photos are from 2003 when I started painting plants. I quickly learned that pots limit the composition and I started to play with the container and display of the plants.
Wanting to find more inspiring containers I experimented with hydroponics and air plants. After a few plants died, I got more abstract and started fabricating plants out of new materials like clay and metallic paints. Also, plants are material that can be part of the art itself. Breaking the separation between art and object is quite radical. While the idea that anything can be art is a concept that has been around for hundreds of years, it’s still not widely accepted. (read about “readymades” and Duchamp)
The perspective of the viewer is critical in the world of art. The idea that a readymade art is art because it’s in a gallery and it’s authorship is know is essential. If people are outside, there are unable to engage because of the environment it’s in. Public and interactive art requires creating the art context to be placed in.
Safety and familiarity are key in art placemaking. While everything can be art, creating space and time for art to be appreciated by people is another matter. I want people to be amazed by their own creative potential and to learn how to safely work with new desires, dreams, and feeling emerging within them.
If you appreciate my work and would like to support my vision of living as a traveling artist, consider commenting below and joining my mailing list. You can also support by a purchase of artwork, hiring me to teach an art class, or for a consultation. My commercial creative services can be purchased online at ForeverbirdStudio.com!
Thank you for supporting my art. I could not have reached this milestone without YOU!
