New Breath for a growing body of work

The Six Viewpoints and Sculpture.....SHAPE & STORY Class 2/3 at the PHCA

The day was warm and sunny. I was able to find a way to recycle all the topsoil I'd acquired for last weeks class. I feel like I am having an honest dialogue with the Viewpoints again. They demand it. I have been researching and meditating on the work being so rooted in the environment and the landscape. Mary Overlie says, "You find yourself through your surroundings, or you don't find yourself at all."

I wanted today to really be about not being denial of anything in your immediate surroundings and to focus intently on observing the subtle qualities of everything that already exists.

I also wanted to try exploring two Viewpoints with the same sculptural materials, but at different times in the class so as to keep the focus on isolated individual perceptual abilities.

SHAPE - perceptual ability to see and feel physical boundaries

observing and participating with Shape;

visualize the mechanics of following a kinesthetic impulse

execute

excavating the plaster from last classes TIME exercise total tactile and sensual discovery


physical boundary of the dirt

physical boundary of the hands

physical boundary of the ground

the shape will inform you where to go next

investigating a logic system non-verbally in groups
sharing the research with each other
using the dirt and the body

All Photos by Tom Murray

When the work, research, and meditations come from diving into the unknown, there is a
reciprocal relationship between the participants and I. A give and take between the work and my body. I can feel the difference between last class and today's and it is good.

I gave each participant time at the end of class to journal about the vocabulary and tools they learned from class and how they could use it in there own work. This is a fundamental quality of this research. It is non-product based and as such, the practice simply opens new pathways for entering your own challenges and visions in life.

The longer and more dedicated the participate stays with each individual Viewpoint, the more free and innovative their structure for their own processes in their life will be.

The next class is the last of the series. I will be sad to see this project end to quickly. It has been fast and furious.