Hello to everyone out there in the Do Art Nation! September is here! While Mr. Jerry is out visiting California with Ms. Karen, bringing the creative energy & saying hi to the redwood trees, I’ve had some time to recharge as I get ready for our fall schedule.
One of the things I love to do with my time off: visit museums! I recently got to visit the Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art in Oak Brook IL. For those of you who don’t know, “Lapidary” art means rock carvings, especially gemstones.
One of the joys of making art is that it adds a whole new dimension to the way you appreciate it. Rather then just looking at a work of art, asking if you “like” it or not, you start to imagine what it must have taken to create it. In the case of rock carving it’s truly mind-boggling to imagine an artist, spending thousands of hours at a lathe, carving a precious stone like agate or jade into the delicate, ethereal works if art that populate the museum. Even seeing footage of a master jade artist at a steel lathe doesn’t really do credit to the level of fastidiousness & care that must have gone into creating the elegant curves of a jade teapot, or the wonders of a miniature fantasy castle.
Stone carvings are some of the earliest known human works of art. In many ways they encapsulate the creative process as a balance of opposites–strength with gentleness, technology and human ingenuity, practicality & poetry. Whether or not I ever try my hand at carving stone (and who knows!), seeing an art medium outside of my own experience infuses me not only with inspiration, but also the kind of curiosity that is fuel to the creative process.
What new art medium do you want to explore? Let us know in the comments & don’t forget to KEEP CREATING!