This piece is one of a series using snaps, cotton thread and hand-laid cotton paper; I donated to an auction on behalf of my daughter. Each December pointe and contemporary dancers wear white and red robes and perform in a vespers service at her school. The dance, energy of the girls and the emotional power of their performance inspired me to make this particular piece.
I like that snaps—seemingly insignificant objects—are a perfect design in form and function. Although tiny and useless in parts, they have the monumental task of holding substantial things together. They are strong. They are beautiful and marvelous.
Strung around on paper, the snaps reference movement and space. They offer a strange suggestion of time. What are they doing there on the paper?
How does the unpredictable use of a material bring assumptions into a new story? It’s a challenge to take such an object, loosen it from the original intention and preconceived boundaries, and to consider it anew.
Snaps, string and paper are things we hardly take notice of, but use every day to hold almost everything together, for body and mind. What if the snap becomes the object, and the thread is set free? The snap waits, suspended, for its partner. The string is now the quiet mechanism of action. The two have new conversations, new references. A cardinal darting through space and over the snow. Dancers, moving across the stage.
Which brings me back to this particular piece, inspired by our girls dancing at Vespers. The girls dance, each spellbound in her own exhilarated pitch of movement, all lost in a marvelous dream; together they become Art.
Looking with wonder, asking visual questions and creating tactile juxtapositions encourage the mind to ponder larger ideas. Art, we hope, inspires the viewer to look a little longer, think a little deeper, and feel a little more connected to our world.