2008 Woodie Awards
An interview with Adele Wayman
Simon Kelly
Issue date: 2/16/08 Section: Features
SK: What is a mud ball?
AW: Making mud balls is a Japanese art practice, which involves taking a ball of mud and polishing it, by hand, to perfection. The mud balls in my collage are only photographs taken of mud balls made by an American. They are called Doro Dango
SK: How long have you been working on this project, how long does one altar take you to make?
AW: These have gone pretty fast, usually it takes me longer. I started working on "Artists Make Altars" around the end of September, and the show just opened the first of February. So that's about how long. They take less time than the paintings that I usually do, because the paintings in these altars are very small. It's the finding and placing of the other objects that is the central process of this work. They're made like a bulletin board, and they are very fragile.
SK: Speaking of fragility, your other paintings of flowers seem to contain an element of impermanence, would you say that this theme remains consistent with this project?
AW: Yes I would, and it was fun to put together things like bones and dying leaves, which are at the end of the life cycle, and images of babies, which are of course at the beginning. There are also images of galaxies, both in small pictures and as the general background of the altar as you'll see in "Milkweed Galaxy Dancer." I'm interested in trying to encompass the little tiny parts of nature and also the bigger components.
SK: There is also an emphasis on these works being contemporary, not drawing on a particular tradition or style?
AW: Yes, we talked about that when we got together in the beginning, deciding that we wanted this art to come from our own path of spiritual investigation. Even though I am interested in Zen Buddhism that is not exclusively how I define myself. I think that holds true for everybody in the exhibit.
"Artists Make Altars" is running at the Long View Gallery from Feb. 1 until March 22.
Guilford students are encouraged to attend an alumni reception at the exhibition from 5 -7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 19, followed by a talk by Wayman called Making Art and Altars as Sacred Practice.
AW: Making mud balls is a Japanese art practice, which involves taking a ball of mud and polishing it, by hand, to perfection. The mud balls in my collage are only photographs taken of mud balls made by an American. They are called Doro Dango
SK: How long have you been working on this project, how long does one altar take you to make?
AW: These have gone pretty fast, usually it takes me longer. I started working on "Artists Make Altars" around the end of September, and the show just opened the first of February. So that's about how long. They take less time than the paintings that I usually do, because the paintings in these altars are very small. It's the finding and placing of the other objects that is the central process of this work. They're made like a bulletin board, and they are very fragile.
SK: Speaking of fragility, your other paintings of flowers seem to contain an element of impermanence, would you say that this theme remains consistent with this project?
AW: Yes I would, and it was fun to put together things like bones and dying leaves, which are at the end of the life cycle, and images of babies, which are of course at the beginning. There are also images of galaxies, both in small pictures and as the general background of the altar as you'll see in "Milkweed Galaxy Dancer." I'm interested in trying to encompass the little tiny parts of nature and also the bigger components.
SK: There is also an emphasis on these works being contemporary, not drawing on a particular tradition or style?
AW: Yes, we talked about that when we got together in the beginning, deciding that we wanted this art to come from our own path of spiritual investigation. Even though I am interested in Zen Buddhism that is not exclusively how I define myself. I think that holds true for everybody in the exhibit.
"Artists Make Altars" is running at the Long View Gallery from Feb. 1 until March 22.
Guilford students are encouraged to attend an alumni reception at the exhibition from 5 -7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 19, followed by a talk by Wayman called Making Art and Altars as Sacred Practice.
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