Sniffly Locke Son

Exploring Lines

I think I mentioned something before about how the Art Elements are all entertwined with each other-  what affects one affects others at the same time.  I suddenly was faced with several sites that were dealing with wire -  obviously a line, but also wire sculpture which gets into shape and value, and perhaps color as well. So I decided it was time for the LINE post before I lost the thought trail!  Here we go:

Yes, this motorcycle is made of wire in layers-  see the website for a much better image.

These are two works by Derek Kinsett, a sculptor from the UK where he has used various depths and different knotting techniques to transform wire into his very realistic shapes.


A line is described as a path of a moving point, and these points can then join to make up a drawing.  Lines can vary in width, length and direction, and can be thick or thin, horizontal or vertical, curved or straight, broken or continuous.  Often used to define shape in a 2-D drawing or painting, here are a few examples of line utilized in 3-D works.  Here, the line defines the edges or places where one shape touches another.  (Today I am not really touching on drawing, the most obvious source of line- instead I hope to bring to your attention how line is used in other art forms.)

In the following massive wall mural, the 'point' is actually a staple forced into the wall following the path of the outline of the figures.  Different depths of the staples that pile up form values and suggest forms:

Baptiste Debombourg, a French artist, is behind these staple drawings.  Do check his website for much more.

Boston artist Adrienne Sloane is a knitter, working in wire and treating it as fiber, as well as directly in more traditional yarns.  Above are two of her works from a show at the Slater Mill-  the 'deconstructed' flag on the left is loose hanging knitted twines with the stars all falling off around the edges.  Next to it, in the center of the image are three hanging panels with writing hung below.  These are slightly distanced from the wall so the shadow line becomes an important part of the piece.  Adrienne also does many three dimensional knitted installations so make sure and check her site.  (OK, admittedly in this little post I am somewhat prejudiced because Adrienne is the newest member of my crit group back home and I love her work!  Go see better images on her site, this is all I could steal.)

Canadian aerist Frederico Carbaial forms wire into three dimensional anatomical parts, one 'line' drawing a 3-D shape:

A simpler version could be something like 'wire writing'- this one from the 'foldhere' blog:

Hot Stuff indeed.  Wire writing can also be very calligraphic, or that can be simplified into ink on paper

or ink on flesh:

Again, the path of a moving pen or the path of a moving tattoo artist (I don't know what you call their pen!)

And since I know you've been wondering, on the dog front, things are getting so much better.  Molly now charges at Pepper but without using her teeth (whew!).  Both seem content to be near- but not too near- each other in the same room, and we are now pretty much going on all walks together instead of one at a time.  I am even mastering the skill of poop pick-up while keeping them at arms length, and can foresee the day when it will all be routine.  Already we can get out the gate together without the gnashing pile-up of pooches and people...  Thanks to all of you who had faith that this would work out-  we have a ways to go of course but we are way closer to 'happy pack' than before.  And Pepper slept without the zippers on his crate last night.  He did wake me up crying in his sleep which was so disturbing, but he wandered out bleary eyed and flopped onto the floor next to me and was fine from then on.

And oh yeah, the hookworm treatment (ick ick ick) is complete!  Will retest in 2 weeks.  Sigh.