ART

Friday night I had the opportunity to be alone all evening while Bill was at a meeting and while relaxing, I flipped through the channels on the television and landed on our local Public Broadcasting Station, KVIE channel 6. It seems like I forget about watching local channels most of the time because of the many channels available to me via satellite. And sometimes, with all those choices, you still cannot find anything to watch! Agreed?

But Friday night I found a series about art in which it focused on three artists for the hour. All were fascinating but the one that appealed to me the most was El Anatsui. His works are made using recycled items, some of which are bottles caps. And all the works have a deeper meaning to him, referencing the problems associated with alcohol and drinking and what it does to the people of his country. You can check him out further here if you'd like. 

I love the fact that much of his work resembles or references quilts or cloth, even though it is made with metal. Each item is "sewed" with wire and he has a group of people that work for him. I think this is more common-place than I thought. I know that artists sometimes have a stable of people that they employ to do the work that they conceive. I suppose if you get well-known enough and your works are large and labor-intensive you would probably have to resort to this way of creating. This concept is so foreign to me, however. Whenever I create anything, I need to do it myself and frankly, do not want any help. (There's that control issue coming out again!). 

Watching this show gave me great satisfaction though. It also inspired me to do something with all the bottle caps that I have been collecting. I think that I will have to resort to the help of other people to help me collect more bottle caps though if I am to create anything as large (or even half the size) of what El Anatsui makes. It brings to mind the bottle cap art that Kimmie of Art in Red Wagons does though. Sometimes we don't have to make large pieces of art to make the same statement. It does look impressive though!