4th Quarter Studio Challenge - Land Art

Every quarter we have a challenge on the Felting and Fiber Studio site. As December is coming to an end, I didn't think I'd ever find time to do the 4th Quarter Challenge. When I chose Land Art, I thought it had a really good scope for some interesting felt sculptures. I really liked the work of artists using twigs and branches, whether they were abstract, patterns, designed by colour, or like Tom Hare's work in willow, sculptures of plants, leaves, seeds, or even a sliced apple. I really liked this lotus seed head: http://www.tomhare.net/files/cache/6241679806767b541ec85e7977677c16_f44.jpg

I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. Something sculptural based on the things I'd seen with holes and stems and curves. I even thought I might do a series. Well, time was running out and I hadn't started, and I was thinking about what I could do to take part that wouldn't take as much time. For a few weeks I've had a piece of felt with a balloon inside, hanging in my living room doorway, it was the result of me thinking I'd try felting a winter woolly hat, and it ended up looking more like the start of a balaclava or fetish mask! So, I thought I'd improvise and use that. It wasn't far off the shape I'd pictured, and though I would have preferred to work with wet felt not fulled, I thought it was worth a try. So, I started cutting, wetting and shaping, and I was happy to see it was starting to look interesting! I rinsed it and put another balloon in to keep its shape while it dried. I thought it looked really good, it was nice and firm and kept it's shape without the balloon. I attached some string to get a photo, and this is what I saw when it spun around:

A ribcage! My fancy felt sculpture was meant to look plant-like, but it looked like a carcass! I took the string off and put it on the table, but it sunk a bit and that didn't look less dead either!:

I reshaped it, the way it was meant to be, and that looked much better! I know it doesn't look like any plant or seed in particular, I wasn't copying anything, I just had a vague idea of shape, lines and holes:

Different angle:

It does look much better hung up, less flat and more round. While I was messing around taking photos, I stood it upside down and squashed it, and that looked really interesting!:

Felting And Fiber Studio 4th Quarter Challenge

Over on The Felting and Fiber Studio site, we have a challenge every quarter to give us some inspiration and get our creative juices flowing. This year, we have all been choosing artists. So far we have had Jackson Pollock, Stewart Stephenson and Claude Monet. You can see the challenge entries in the 2014 gallery here. It was my turn this quarter and I have chosen 'Land Art'. I was initially going to choose a specific artist for this challenge, but in the end I just couldn't choose just one, the whole 'movement' is so inspiring. In case you haven't heard of it, Land art - according to Wikipedia " is an art movement in which landscape and the work of art are inextricably linked. It is also an art form that is created in nature, using natural materials such as soil, rock (bed rock, boulders, stones), organic media (logs, branches, leaves), and water with introduced materials such as concrete, metal, asphalt, or mineral pigments. Sculptures are not placed in the landscape, rather, the landscape is the means of their creation." (i.e, not Christo)

There are so many inspirational artists, one I really like is Richard Shilling, a flickr search gives you lots of great photos, have a look at this link: https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=richard%20shilling  He has inspired others to create land art too, such as Colleen Proppe, who made the Leaf Flag in the photo above. Andy Goldsworthy is another name many people might recognise. Scott Robinson was inspired by him to make this Leaf art:

I discovered the work of Tom Hare while I was looking up land artists and sculptors, he does some gorgeous work. This is his website: http://www.tomhare.net/portfolio This is a photo of one of his willow sculptures, a Horse Chestnut breaking open, taken by Jodie Brodie:

Have a search on google for Land Art and Land Art Artists, I can guarantee you'll be inspired! Feel free to post your work on the forum, whether it's wet felted, needle felted, knitted, crocheted, woven, mixed media etc, as long as it features some kind of felt, fibre, or fabric, post it in the 4th Quarter Challenge thread: http://feltandfiberstudio.proboards.com/thread/1788/fourth-quarter-challenge-land-art  Have fun!