Breaking lines and bending space: Broken Line #8

While looking at some of my art, my aunt and cousin were both drawn to a piece that I was unsure of, BrokenLine No. 5. What Cindy said she saw in this piece was what I had had in mind making it, subtle shifts in space created by broken lines. Cindy told me a story about a drawing studio she'd had as a student. The professor entered the classroom, took a black shoelace and two pieces of masking tape then taped the shoelace to the wall, stretched between the two pieces of tape. Then he left the room, presumably to get a coffee at the student union and read the paper or a magazine. Without instructions the students began drawing. They drew the wall, the shoelace, the clutter on the floor, easels, other students, all of it. After a time the professor returned to see the progress of his students. He walked in, looked at the drawings and said "Your lives are very cluttered." Then he left. An hour later he returned again. He looked around at the new drawings, more of the same, and said, "You have too much on your minds." He left. At the end of the studio period he returned to see if his students had made any progress. They had not. They had drawn the easels, walls, benches, students and the shoelace, but they had missed it. The professor walked over to the wall and stood by his two pieces of tape and black shoe lace and said, "Do you see what I have done here? I have bisected a plane." The rest of the semester the students used one, then two and eventually three lines to divide a plane and create spacial relationships.

Lines are something that I work with a lot in my sculptures and this story reminded me to pay attention to the profound effect on line has on a plane to divide it in many ways and so to affect that plane and cause it to move in space. I have tried to show this in the piece I am working on now; BrokenLine No. 8. What follows are a series of photographs showing the evolution of this piece.

Beginning with lines

Cut and place hundreds of pieces in one panel



And keep working on the other panel

Look at the panels together and consider the options

Consider a tree?

Hmmmm?

BrokenLine # 8, antique painted wood, 40" x 27", 2009

After considering the options and consulting some friends, I decided to frame the piece in a shadowbox. After some finish work on the piece, building the frame and hanging it all, I am pleased. I am sorry that the photograph does not communicate the sculptural aspects of this piece. There is much more character to BrokenLine # 8 in person than on the screen of your computer. If anyone is interested in seeing this piece in person, feel free to e-mail me at matthewlouisallard@gmail.com and set a time to come see my workshop and some of my completed pieces and my incompleted works as well. Art making is a long process and it has many frustrations, but I embrace it. I am already onto the next project, the next set of challenges, frustrations and multiplicity of lines.