Victorian Harmony

As I search for ingredients for my pieces I come across items that I see all of the time like shelf brackets or glass door knobs. I frequently find washboards and it’s amazing how many different sizes and varieties there are. There are wooden ones, there are metal ones and occasionally I find glass ones. Until now I have never found a brass one.  Not only is this washboard relatively rare but the texture of the board, rather than having horizontal ribs, has a beautiful pattern that looks like it’s woven brass. Adding a brass grater to this texture made for such a beautiful base for a Foundling. I find that my work has gotten more complex these days. That I am trying to create a kind of “fugue” of patterns and textures. That is not to contradict Mies Van Der Rohe when he said that less is more, just that sometimes you need more to, well, make it more. Not unlike the illustrations I used to do with colored pencils. Use too few colors and the work doesn’t look complete. Use a lot of colors and the work can look busy or messy. Use even more colors and the work begins to take on a kind of harmony with all of the colors playing off of each other. With all of these patterns and textures I will call this work Victorian Harmony. This piece is 13" x 24" x 5".