The most recent class I took with John Fink was in 2009 at Nassau Community College. They’ve got a great studio set up there, and are very supportive of artists like myself that take the course to work on their own projects rather than to earn credits. In that class, Professor Fink showed us how to make coffee cups. And when I told him I sometimes sit with my coffee or tea while I’m working and get annoyed that it gets cold, he suggested making lids—a very positive evolution in the coffee drinking experience in my house. These are 5 of the ones I made.
We are the proud owners of a Dinocritter made by John Fink. Here he is, staring at us from his shelf with a quizzical look, as if he wonders how he got into our world. Also apt is John’s alternate name for his ceramic creations, “Far-Fetched Dragons”, for they often find themselves in larger, playful constructions—so playful that I found myself laughing out loud at his exhibit in Gallery West at Suffolk Community College, Brentwood. Maybe our critter got here “Through the Portal” with the help of the Scientist Critter operating the bizarro device. Maybe he came as a little egg on the “Maternity Express”, guarded by a fiercely grimacing dragon. It is the expressions and individual identities he gives to each of these critters that makes a room full of them so fun to explore—a gallery full of John Fink’s playful sculptures is a really fun exhibit. Article on the exhibit.
Maternity Express
Maternity Express - detail
The joy John brings to the creative process is also why I keep returning to take his classes over the years. From John’s article Creative Thinking: “…creative strength is found through ‘weakness,’ not by being egotistically confident in your abilities, but to come innocently to work as would a child. To accept vulnerability as strength, rather than a weakness.” An important understand for any artist, and particularly appropriate for those of us who play with clay. Continue reading →
This is the distinctive difference of painting faces as an art, isn’t it, that the art we create moves and is alive—and, once painted, the art we create has a life of its own. Unlike a Calder mobile or other kinetic sculptures, the work of art we create is on an independent, conscious life form who then puts the art into motion following their own determinations. Once painted, we have no control over the art we have created and it just goes off into the world to have its own adventure. Face painting is a kinetic art, an art that moves, with a will of its own.
The thought that my art goes on to its own adventures is a significant part of what keeps face painting exciting for me. As the commercial opportunities of artistic body painting begin to expand in the U.S. I have continued to focus primarily on painting faces because of the greater numbers of people it gives me a chance to transform. A painted body has quite an impact, but not as great, I think, as the dozens or hundreds of faces we can paint at a an event—and, of course, we are giving so many more people the experience being art, kinetic art, as they move through the event. I particularly appreciate painting like this at large public events, and have constructed my Transformations Facepainting company with this type of event in mind, because it affords the greatest opportunity to send a multitude of faces off into the world, leading to the surprising discoveries by passersby of painted people in everyday settings (like the woman in the previous post telling me of looking for our faces throughout the village of Southampton), and remarkable juxtapositions like in my favorite “face in the Crowd” photo of the man in a face from Papua New Guinea eating potato chips on the roof of the Port Authority Bus Terminal with New York City in the background
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Alice and John at his reception
This past Sunday I was able to send one piece of my day’s kinetic art on a mission. I was painting at the Darwin Dayfestivities of the Long Island Ethical Humanist Society. As a woman sat down to be painted she asked for something appropriate to going to an art gallery, where she was heading to next, and after a few questions we realized she was going to the opening reception of an exhibit by my friend and mentor, John Fink.
In Professor Fink's class I worked with the same themes that inspire my face and body designs
I had started the day disappointed that my gig prevented me from attending his reception and here came a serendipitous opportunity to be there at least in spirit. Alice was enthusiastic about being a human greeting card and I did a design based on cave paintings, like the work I had been doing in the last ceramics class I took with Professor Fink. Check at John Fink’s very playful sculptures, ceramics and constructions: www.johnfinkart.com
When I first started using cultural sources for face designs I recognized that they stand out in modern settings in a way that draws the attention of spectators and enhances the effectiveness of the transformation
Painting adults also draws more attention to the art, because it is more surprising to see a painted adult than to see a painted child
Another way in which a painted face is a kinetic art, as the movement of the face brings the design itself to life...more on this in a future post
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“Facepainting” or “Face Painting”? The Medium is the Message 8/17/11 http://wp.me/p1sRkg-ci
