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s.laing art

@slaing-art / slaing-art.tumblr.com

painting, sculpture, drawing, illustrations and general musings of Shona Fitz-Gerald Laing
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"Traven" Revisited, 2013

Acrylic and Embroidery on Canvas

Bottom: Allra and Traven, 2013 (installed February 15, 2013)

I thought I would tell a little story with these, since stories I’ve been working through some things with these works, and I think it’s important.

A very important professor to our art program passed away in June of cancer. It was sort of sudden for us. He was present at our first critiques of the new year, and then promptly went on sick leave. We all miss him, and I feel as though the program is suffering a collective mourning.

During my thesis proposal presentation last September, Graham asked me if I had read John Green. I had replied that no, I hadn’t, and received “You write like him” in response. I never thought much of it, just put John Green on the very long list of writers I ought to look into.

When Graham passed away in June, I found myself trying to clinging to everything he had ever told me. He had a way of saying everything in very few words, so there was very little to work with. And among the things I salvaged, the comment about John Green came up again.

But you see, I have this terrible habit of walking into book stores and buying books without reading the synopsis. (Fun fact: this is how I read Simone de Beauvoir, who literally ruined my life for the better). And so, I picked up “The Fault in Our Stars” and thought nothing much of it until I opened it a few days later. I was probably only on page three when I realized I had made a terrible mistake, and a part of me felt as though I had been burned. I wanted to throw the book across the room and scream bloody murder, but I couldn’t because I paid good money for that book and I would finish it even if it killed me.

And I found myself searching for Graham in pages that could not tell me what he meant when he told me that I would make a good professor, or what it was that he saw in me that I cannot see for myself. It was silly of me to do so, but alas. “What a [wo]man with a broken heart will say is no indication of what [s]he may know.”

I’ve been suffering from some artist block, so I revisited a practice Graham supported in sculptors: to make drawings from objects. Hence, I made these. It’s most likely a more positive mourning process, and I’ve been feeling a little like Traven recently. A little sad, a little lost, and unsure what it is I should do. But those feelings pass.

shonafitzgeraldlaing.com

#art#art on tumblr#artist on tumblr#artist#embroidery#thread#paint#painting#sewing#sewn sculpture#sew#my art#my artwork#john green#the fault in our stars#tfios#soft sculpture#sculpture#embroidery hoop#domestic arts#drawing#hand sewn
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Re-imagining old projects in new ways. 

I had a professor who was a big advocate for drawing your sculptures once they were complete so that you can learn more about them as objects that take up space. "Sculptures are drawings in space".

Check out the original sculpture at shonafitzgeraldlaing.com

#embroidery#art#sewing#sew#thread#paint#mixed media
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