Abstracting Nature

After a long career of explaining nature (20 + years of teaching non-science majors) and depicting nature (some examples of the many science animations I’ve put on youtube below),

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrMka8vj73U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiZJOTt3Dl0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx9GklK0xQg

I found myself drawn to abstracting nature. Not that this was anything like a conscious decision. But after many many years of observing nature and making abstract art I realized that my sculpture recalled the nuances of form and even process that I had tried before to communicate.

Perhaps it’s the nature of sculpture, the physical involvement with the clay, eyes, and hands, that transforms what we’re perceiving into something that we’re forming. In some sense then it seems that this “becoming” is an expression both personal and creative. This is new to me, though people who have been doing ceramic sculpture may have experienced and articulated this before.

Here are some of the “abstracted” forms I’m talking about:

I’d love to hear what you think about these ideas, which I think I haven’t articulated that thoroughly!