Enter the Dimension

I feel like I've entered a new dimension with the latest "products" for lack of a better word. Vinyl has become my membrane of choice, a material that I have rejected for use in prints in the past, as a flexible thin durable layer for sandwiching between layers of goop. Getting materials that will bond with vinyl isn't easy. Making vinyl lay flat also isn't that easy. Sealing vinyl from UV also isn't easy, but there is something about this non-organic feeling stuff that works for me. I am even coming up with ways to remove the vinyl as the final step and thereby leave the print as something of an impression that was made on the vinyl as the "product". I keep thinking there may be a reason for keeping or leaving the material itself, but there isn't otherthan for weight. Structurally the strength of the piece may be increased by leaving the vinyl, even if the vinyl itself is hidden inside, but removing the original print from the final piece is fascinating as is the case when a mold is removed from the piece that is casted inside it.

The fact is that now I seem to be complicating matters beyond what is required and I simply need to get back to making pieces, production, not experimentation. The experimentation can go on forever from what I can tell. I have no shortage of fascinating ideas on how to apply these materials, but time is not on my side and my business requires more time than I have been able to afford it. The weather is also a bitch as some of the materials I am using, or want to use, require warmer temperatures than I can create in my working environment. To keep a space at 70 degrees F would end up costing me a fortune, so I keep going back to materials that will simply work in my not-so-controlled environment.

The entire reason I stay reminded of my goal is that most of the ruined pieces are laying around in my yard weathering as trash because of these environmental conditions. The reminder of constant failure is my motivation. I have work thrown in the mud that my kids walk on as bricks. Other finished pieces that I use as drip catchers for the new work that I am making. A large outside fireplace that is filled with broken plaster pieces. It is as if I am purposely breaking some of the work so that it won't have any value. EVERY piece I have made has a flaw and I can't really focus on trying to fix these flaws since everything seems just like a test run anyway. Why try to make something perfect if it is just going to distract me further from my goal of reaching a plateau and doing some production? There is no reason from my perspective, but I try to limit the obvious flaws.