Playing Favorites: Chapter 5

Welcome to the 5th edition of The Pulse -- The State of the Art -- a survey in words and pictures of the online artist community. The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of individuals. More than 130 artists have answered a series of questions which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented in a series of online posts which will run every Sunday.
Style File, Techniques & Tools, Master Class, and It's Still Life were the first four projects posted and links to all these posts can be found on the sidebar of my blog. The fifth project, Playing Favorites, continues now...


Participants were asked to: share a picture of a favorite piece of art that you have created and explain its meaning to you...
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Svetlana Spasojevic
"Tragic events in my home country in the late 90s have resulted not only in the disappearance of a country from the world maps but more importantly have left many generations of people with wounded memories. This altered book Retrieved from Ashes is dedicated to my mother's sporting career."

theresa mARTin
 "Julie's Dream is made up of components that remind me of people and different times of my life. The wooden house part is from an elaborate birdhouse constructed by my late uncle. The horse and its china wing were given to me by a friend names Julie. There is a tintype from my antique photo collection beneath the magnifying glass. The chain is like the chain of swings from years ago. It's made with objects that evoke happy moments from the past."

Darlene AkAHugGeR Wilkinson
"I can't say this is a fave because I don't have faves but this is one of my pieces."

Luthien Thye
"This must be the most meaningful piece of art I have ever made. Wee is inspired and especially created in tribute to my little 29-weeker baby, Maia Fae. It represents the struggle she had to face upon her arrival in this world...her fight to survive, her strength, her tenacity and her spirit. The stamp numbers are the identification number on Maia's NICU tag. The littlest washer of course represents her...small (she was 1.3kg at birth) and unique but has as much right to be amongst us as her larger counterparts. My wee one, my fighter, my miracle..."

Kim Palmer
"I created this piece as part of the Pulp Redux collaboration for Debrina's book and it is for me representational of my own ability to overcome obstacles. It required so many problem solving techniques to complete the ideas that I had formed in my head, and I wanted to work with metal in ways I hadn't previously. The finished piece also had to perform within the book structure. As I said, lots of problem solving but I was really happy with how I overcame the construction obstacles and was able to produce the piece as I had envisioned it."

Leslie Marsh
"This is my 365 Grateful project and the book I made to house my daily photos. One of my favorite pieces - this week. It's not that large - about 6" by 9"- but it's 3 inches thick, with two days' photos on a page! I like the feel of this book in my hands, the image of the girl stopping to smell the flowers and the combination of an old book cover, metal elements and waxed linen thread. I like knowing that this book will hold a year's worth of gratitude, and my heart will hold the fresh perspective that the exercise brings."

Pam McKnight
"This was created with found objects but has a much deeper meaning as each tag honors a person that died in a horrendous fire at the Pioneer Hotel represented by the hanger."

Art by Canace
"Eleventh Hour is a very powerful assemblage for me. Many religions, prognosticators and ancient civilizations dictate some sort of Armageddon or apocalypse in our near future. These predictions in my  opinion are totally unfounded, however they have for centuries manipulated peoples' thoughts and judgements about their future causing them to experience untold anxieties, pain and fears."

Jeanie Thorn
"This is Patch which is composed of the basic elements of lines, planes and shapes. In addition to the engineering challenge of fabrication and assembly, it contains many of the elements of design I find so important: balance (in this case asymmetrical balance), harmony, rhythm, texture, emphasis and focus, contrast and variety, proportion and scale."

Debbie Price-Ewen
"This piece is called Driftwood Girl, in honour of myself, because I loved walking among the driftwood and combing the beach (Foxton Beach, New Zealand) for 'finds'. Some of my best, creatively inspired moments have come to me whilst scouring the beach. As well as being an endless source of inspiration, it has a rich history.  In colonial times it was a 'highway' of sorts because there were no roads, and so I constantly think about my ancestors doing the hard miles along this is the connecting coastal beaches."
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Next "Playing Favorites" will be posted on Sunday, September 23rd.