Have you been to a garage like this? You trust the guys to do the work, but end up paying whatever they ask. It's as if they hypnotize you with their jumpsuits and greasy handshakes.

Is a buoy really a sign? The only people that seem to obey the no wake rule are the sailboats that couldn't speed if they wanted to.

Not sure where this one came from save dream to speed around on the dirty green river water.

Over time, even the prettiest ones shrink, shrivel, and grow mold.

I chose to consider some operative words as I created this work for this week's post.

Universal
I chose to simplify the structure of the houses to reflect a universal theme. In retrospect, perhaps the chimney is too ethnocentric, but I feel as though the composition needed it. While the image may not be truly universal or timeless, it is the most generic The use of cut paper and flat, two-dimensional shapes allowed me to reinterpret a common pictogram for a house.

Eclectic
The use of strictly cut paper allowed me utilize found paper as an art element. The type that appears on the paper is intentional. It adds the to composition by adding an uncommon element. The small headline reads “Paper with Character” only adds to the piece and will be noted in describing other terms in the list.

Minimal
Limited materials, minimal color palette, large dominant shapes construct the work. I left out unnecessary details.

Anthropomorphic
I had almost left the work finished without the inclusion of the arms and hands. The windows suggested a human-like traits, but I thought that the inclusion of the hands added emphasis and wit based on the theme.

Elegant
The elegance lies in the work’s simplicity. A concept was abstracted down to it’s basic theme and subtly presented in a basic hands-on medium.

I remember my first, pivotal, creative work. My first work of art was made and re-made on the underside of the living room coffee table. Some parents may cringe at the suggestion, but my parents encouraged my activity. Hours were spent drawing on the bottom of these two tables. Most of the marks represent the bang dot stage of mark-making, but some were more than that. Some of the tadpole characters looked like dinosaurs, others were simply scribbles. Although disposed of (with hesitation from me; Mom wanted me to save them) I did take time to look at the table a few years ago. I almost saw the marks as something familiar. Have you pulled out an old sketchbook and immediately recalled the context of the image? Had I not seen that sketchbook, I wouldn’t have remembered any of that. For me, those tables represent my earliest work.

The one thing that I think is unique to this early pivotal activity is the lack of influence or feedback from my parents. They knew I was scribbling down there, but never really took the time to ask what I was drawing. I think they were happy I was happy. I see the opposite in my reaction to my 2-year-old daughter’s marks. She has taken to telling stories about her work—“I draw a snake Daddy”. I think the storytelling is a way to elicit a reaction. It works, both my wife and I respond and now we even ask her what she’s drawing. Perhaps I should withhold that and instead get an old table and some fat crayons and close the door.

In attempting to re-create this significant work I was tempted to lay, Michelangelo-style under my current coffee table and go to work. The quality of the table and my left brain wouldn’t allow that to happen so I re-created the work on paper based on what I believe the work looked like. I saw the piece months ago, but threw it in the trash. Having gone through this creative research, I wish I had it now. I found the recreation difficult. My fine-motor control got in the way of what I remember as bold, spontaneous marks.



The first image is my interpretation of the significant work. Just for fun, I asked my two-year-old daughter, Grace, to draw what I drew. In some ways, I prefer hers to mine.