Snapshots of Experience, Capturing a moment in art lessons

An artist friend of mine has a recent body of work that explores capturing a movement, a dance, a wrestling match, an experience. She stages these events on a mat of clay. The clay records the movement of the tango by the impressions of the feet. The wrestlers' struggles are impressed in large gauges and sweeps across the clay mat. She even hired a pair of fencers to duel on a long strip of clay.

After the event takes place, she casts a copy of the clay in a type of foam rubber, which can then be sold as a record of the event. It's quite an interesting idea: having a tactile record of movements, feelings, motion. It's basically making a commodity out of a temporal, intangible experience. If you care to see pictures of her work, check out the link I've included for this 'blog.

Other than video, pictures, and language (journaling, etc.), how do we remember events and experiences? Our sensory memory can be quite helpful. Smells are very powerful reminders of experiences. I purchased an air freshener yesterday that smells like gingerbread and cinnamon. It reminds me of having a warm kitchen and baking holiday goodies in the house I grew up in. I can remember the cool feeling of the white tile counter as I reached up to peek at the hot goodies cooling on the baking rack. Sometimes, the smell of paint or clay will remind me of works I have created.

Souvenirs from places we go can be markers of memories. They're not quite the same as something you have created - evidence of your own existence and participation in the big scheme of life - but they do the trick.

I've recently taken up knitting again, although I'm horrible at it. I love knitting because for me it's a process of doing something while I work out the busy-ness in my mind. I often find solutions to problems, and I come to understandings while in the process of tatting away with the needles and yarn. At the end of the process, I have a knitted something-or-other as a tactile reminder of that time I spent working out the issues. It's an object created from the experience of meditations.

So, let's think about experiences we have had. Find a fond memory that you would want a souvenir of. How can you create a tactile representation of that experience?

Sometimes people make masks with certain pronounced facial expressions on them. You can record these expressions in papier mache, or plaster strips. The impression can further be recorded as a plaster cast of the impression. This cast can be altered be adding material (like antlers or extra teeth) to it, or subtracted from by carving, sanding, or filing.


The basics of art can be met in discussing the work as you create it. Talk about the elements of art, the principles of design. Find examples of them in what you are creating. Then find them in things that already exist. Begin thinking about aesthetics in your everyday experiences. Cameras are too easy for capturing images of events. It's much more of a challenge to have a tangible record of an experience. That is your challenge for the week. Can you do it?


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