I look for inspiration in all places. Having research historical contextual information, first had inspiration of the nature world and works of existing artists... I have also found TED talks a wonderful source of inspiration to hear candid explanations and stories from artists and designers, similarly to my experience listening to Grayson Perry at the insight at Lancaster launch.
I found this talk by Janet Echelman particularly inspiring. Janet creates sky scraper sized net sculptures which are installed in cities across the world. Having been rejected from art colleges and starting her career painting for 10 years it is interesting to understand her story to how she was able to find a sculptural medium which was unique to her and was able to express her ideas.
After travelling to India to create paintings to be exhibited, her paintings never arrived which forced her to experiment and innovate in order to create works. This lead her to observe the local fisher men making nets before she began to collaborate with them to make sculptures from the nets which would dance in the wind and make soft forms. I found a key point in her story as the moment which she achieved success out of bad situation, had her paints arrived she would never have been force out of her comfort zone of painting. Furthermore by stepping back and observing she was able to find clarity to see the craft traditions, which were being performed around her. As Grayson Perry demonstrates, traditional and ancient crafts can be transferred and manipulated with modern technology to become successful artistic mediums.
After finding her medium she was then able to experiment with it and take it further and test the limits of the materials and techniques she was working with. I found this inspiring how she did not settle once she found her technique with the nets to simply create them to be exhibited in the safe environment of the gallery, but she innovated and researched materials which would withstand outside conditions and the constraints which nature would place upon it.
From this her final sculptural pieces, which she exhibits in cities, are beautiful, delicate and enchanting. It is admirable how she retains and stays true to the effect she wants to create while searching for new materials and technologies. This ensures that her sculptures maintain the same affect as if they became still due to material constraints the connotations and interaction with nature would be completely changed. Furthermore she does not settle by the technological constraints, she used the help of engineers and technicians to create her own software’s thus innovating a process, which is entirely unique to her sculptures.
As she ends her speech she describes that 14 years ago searched for beauty in the traditional which shows how her determination to learn and observe has allowed her to create her own technique by combining the traditional with high tech engineering and technology. Furthermore by working outside of the gallery setting and the traditional sense of 'art' her art interacts with nature, the environment and people of all kinds, as demonstrated by her final story of people in business suits laying under her sculpture noticing the changing patterns in the wind. I feel this is an important part of art, to allow people to see something, which they had not previously noticed... similarly to Grayson Perry's portraits which exposed aspects of human nature and social classes which the people themselves had not even realised about themselves.