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Heidi Tournoux posted an update
Hey everyone! Update on my first quarter project. I have been really thinking through this assignment, and when Josh first said that we were going to create a piece based on “personal space” I immediately thought, “Wait. I’m a mother of 3 kids with a husband and a velcro dog. I have no personal space”. But then when I saw the slides and he was referring to the space where we spend our time, the wheels started moving.
OH! TRIGGER WARNING- Spider images!!!!
As an artist, I am always drawn to things outside the box, so I immediately thought about the first time my husband and I visited our current home. I was not excited about this house, because in the pictures it was just a weird igloo shaped house that had no character. Until we got inside and the entire living area was bathed in the most beautiful sunlight, coming in from the array of triangular windows on the entire side of the house. I was sold and knew that as ugly as the home was on the inside, it was a treasure. We have been here for about 11 years now, and everyone has a familiar reaction in town when I say “Oh, we live in the round house”. They all have a look of intrigue and familiarity at the same time and I know they are wondering what does a round house look like on the inside?
We live on about 5 acres next to a lake (but there is like a forest between us, so it’s an adventure to get to the lake). We wanted this property because of the acreage. It was the closest thing to town that we could afford- probably because no one wanted to live in a weird house. I started with the house as inspiration.
With the home being built as a geodesic dome, it is made up of a bunch of equalateral triangles. My initial thought is that this will be a handbuilt piece, and I will work to create an entire dome out of triangles, leaving some open, and some closed, to let in light and something interesting for the viewer to peer into on the inside.
When I think further into personal space, I moved inward, to the most personal personal space I have, which is my thoughts and ideas…. and opinions, and judgements….. a true space of vulnerability. I work as a therapist- an art therapist specifically. It is a mental health career for me, and I have been in my current position as the clinical director of a non-profit art therapy clinic in Fort Worth for the last 20 years. Literally this is my anniversary month. Being in this organization for almost as long as the founder, means that I am going to be the one to celebrate that milestone, because no one else will know to do that, we are that small of a mighty organization. Being a therapist can be lonely. We give so much to our clients and are constantly listening to the things that make a person come in to therapy. It can be heavy, and because of confidentiality, we are not able to share stories or debrief with just anyone- we get our own therapists, of course- but it can be isolating. One of my ways of decompressing is to journal. I write down my thoughts most mornings before I start work, and sometimes at the end of the day to just get the info out of my head so that I can be present for my family. I will incorporate my journaling into the clay, most likely by using the clay as my writing surface before I start cutting out the triangles that will become the structure of my sculpture. When they are assembled, no one will be able to read coherently what is written, but the clay will hold the memory of the thoughts coming out of me. They will live on the inside of the sphere, and on the outside will be small carved relief images of the way I engage with my personal space outside of work. Nature will play a huge part of it. And, probably some random abstracted shapes that represent other odd parts of me that make me who I am. I will attach the images.
This week, I am figuring out the math to make sure the finished piece will fit in my kiln (along with my hands and arms to get the piece onto the shelf), and I will be clearing off my work surfaces so that I can sit down and focus on building the triangles.
Joshua Collinson and Amanda Zimlich1 Comment-
Worked out my design with ChatGPT to figure out angles of attachment. And figured out the size of all my triangles. Should be fun amd challenging.
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