Nevada Museum of Art 2D Workshop

Recently I took part in an interesting two day workshop at the Nevada Museum of Art. Igor Burk, a graphic and product designer and owner of Protein Design, taught our workshop about moving from two dimensions into three. The concept, while simple, was also very vague. To be perfectly honest I was a bit disappointed and befuddled the first day of class, especially when the most inspired object was created by a 10 year-old.

What was I to do - despair over time wasted and a lack of inspiration? Could I compare myself to a pre-adolescent who was obviously more talented? Should I re-think my entire aim of being an artist based on such limited skills and knowledge? Of course! Artists are better at "agonizing self-scrutiny" than they are anything else. But after the despondence I surfaced with a warm, cuddly thought that greets me almost any time I am in an artistic quandary - just make a book.

Thus a book I did make, and stand, and "closure" device.

With images of fantastic book structures dancing in my head I took off for class on the next morning totally undecided about what I would do. Luckily time was a major factor. Not only was the class on it's last day, but at the end of the evening we would be displaying our works in the NMA lobby for the next four days! If I know one thing about myself it's that I am excellent on tight deadlines, as long as you aren't expecting magic. While I was expecting magic for myself I realized that I was not, actually, a witch so I decided to do an open-face double accordion structure. Disregarding all of my original ideas I busted out this strange monstrosity which I cannot help but love. It looks wonderful. It's not archival, it's not even really pretty in the traditional sense, but it is a great beginning and a fantastic conceptual starting point.

what do you see?

Thanks to Jill Jensen Mayorga for this photo.