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Mystery Masks- Leslie Blackford and Lindly Haunani

20” x 10” x 3″

Polymer Clay, Paint (acrylic, oil and alcohol inks), Barn wood

The title of this piece is “Mystery Masks” since it was a mystery to us just how the piece would come together. In the early 90’s I participated in a traveling group mask show curated by Michael Grove and really enjoyed exploring the mask form. Eight years ago I played in Leslie’s ‘studio” as part of a group effort to help with the jump start of a series of masks she was making for a show. When I approached her with the idea of doing something similar with masks as an exchange/collaborative piece for the Synergy exhibit I was thrilled when she agreed.

After agreeing on a general size for the base masks- 3” x 5” – we both made five textured masks from translucent polymer and exchanged them. We then both added elements to these masks and antiqued them with burnt umber paint to highlight the textures and add cohesion to the overall piece. It was fascinating to see just how our personal favorites changed over the course of the project. Overall the sensibility of the piece is Leslie’s “magic” with sculpting masks- and being able to experiment with this process inspired me to work in a looser and more three-dimensional style. I am looking forward to experimenting more with the subtle color effects of the antiqued alcohol inks.

Here is how the Masks look kaleidoscoped via KrazyDad’s online tool.

If you have ever seen me working at a clay retreat or in my studio- you would know that I am not shy about making more than one… and recently I was challenged to expand my series of Asparagus Crown bracelets to include five more pieces. (One can only wonder at over 500 individually placed cane slices- 15 x 2 x 22 spears?

The color of the base clay used to make the spears varies slightly- from a yellower green designed to match a set of double-hole resin beads that I had purchased at a bead show several years ago and wanted to experiment with, to a slightly bluer green that was mixed to co-ordinate with the turquoise tip cane I had on hand.

The first bracelet I made included in the tip segue way a purple cane. A color combination that I have used before- not as an exact copy from nature, but rather to capture the notion of the beautiful slates in actual asparagus tips.

The second bracelet was made using a warmer green for the spears and a red-orange mix of fuchsia for the extreme tips, overlapped with high contrast yellow green cane slices.

The third bracelet was designed for “air” in that there are half as many spears, separated with the half round resin beads.

And the fourth bracelet? …currently my favorite. Most certainly I am viewing this particular color combination in the context of the series, but most importantly- what I would like to relay to you is…neon pink, turquoise green and yellow green, while not being the natural colors of asparagus, are NOT supposed to work together. The entire time I was adding the cane slices to the spears to make this piece, I felt “uncomfortable” about the color choice. And at the same time propelled to finish making it, beyond looking at the individual pieces, instead string the bracelet up and then putting it aside to look at another day.

“If you always do what you always did…you would always get what you always got!”

Try something different today… a new color combination, a color combination that defies the “rules” ( a warm and cool version of the same hue combined with an only slightly destaurated version of the warmer color- discordance!”) When making art and experimenting with making color choices…most comfortable, most familiar, most defined by rules- is NOT always the best tact to take.