Ode to the Ancients: No. XXVII        Copyright 2008 Donna Branch, All Rights Reserved

Glass, cast, carved with battuto, sandblasted, acid-etched, steel frame, 16.6″H x 8.5″W x 6.5″D, edition limited to twenty-five

Often artists (not just visual artists, I mean writers too) are asked about inspiration.  

Where does it come from? 

What incites inspiration? 

 What exactly is inspiration? 

Just to get the creative juices flowing, Webster’s has a few definitions.  Here they are, then you can tell me what you think.

• (a) a divine influence or action on a person held to qualify him to receive and communicate sacred revelation 
• (b) the action or power of moving the intellect (c) the act of influencing or suggesting opinions;
• but I like the definition for inspire because it more closely shows what this post is about: Webster says of inspire “to exert an animating , enlivening or exalting influence on.”

Those who have followed my work know that I love the natural shape of trees and leaves as exhibited in The Serenbe Project that you can find here.   Or, bark patterns on the trunk of a tree shown in the photo above.

What inspires you as an artist, writer, musician, lover of nature and life?   

If you have any questions or comments about this piece or others in my portfolio at donnabranch.com   , you can leave those on the blog also.  

Your inspirations?  Comment on the blog. 

I announced on Tuesday that I would have an interview aired tonight, at 6:30pm CST on the local NPR Station, WBHM 90.3FM.

The interview did mention that there were 33 or 35 leaves. There are 175 leaves!!

Before I’m off to sign more leaves….a total of 175!…..I wanted to post the link for the podcast. Enjoy. https://www.wbhm.org/Tapestry/

I am still going through exhibition applications and trying to make decisions. Had to pick up work today, as an exhibition closed on last Friday. Also have some correspondence to write then I will be done for the evening. It has been a long day.

Today I wanted to show more of the process of “The Serenbe Project”http://www.serenbe.com/. I have posted an ad for interns. Last week I was contacted by the Redevelopment Authority of a small town located near where I live and they wanted to offer me space in a building that they will use as studios. The Auburn Rural Architectural Studio http://jcsm.auburn.edu/whatsHappen/RuralStudio.html has completed a plan for the arts district in Bessemer, Alabama. This was good news for me, because I knew if my intern project was successful, I would soon be out of space. I am meeting with the director of the project tomorrow and hopefully will be able to use the space if interns want to work at their leisure. This space will be invaluable to me.

The first thing that I will do is to work out a prototype in order to define the process. The mold material that I had originally intended to use is not refirable, so I have ordered a material that is refirable. In a large project like this, the expense of using a material that is non-refirable would be prohibitive.

In the photo above, I am rolling out “sausages” in order to “dam” the mold box. This ensures that the investment material will not “leak” between crevices in the mold box. After the mold box was made, it was shellacked. The mold box is a minimum of 2 inches larger than my pattern. The pattern is made of No. 1 Plasticene and after you get the material warm, it is fairly easy to work with. Plasticene is an oil-based clay which does not dry. That means that it is reuseable as long as it does not have mold material embedded in it.

If you will look to the right of this post, I have listed the workshops that I will be teaching this summer, as of this date. I’m really looking forward to teaching and love doing it. I’m also working on the news release for Serenbe http://www.serenbe.com/ and will post as soon as it is completed. I’ve been looking for someone to work with me on my web site and I have found a couple of people that I believe will do a good job. My friend Debra also has been looking for someone and we shared the name of the guy that will help me. We often share resources. It is great to have a good friend with whom you can talk. Sometimes just by talking with someone else the solution becomes crystal clear. The link to the Alabama Folk School is: http://www.campmcdowell.com/FolkSchool/ Check it out!!