Aga's take on the art thingy.
I am Polish amateur artist, based in Scotland since 2005. My day job is work for water industry. Art is subject of free time. Many years' laboratory work and scientific background had influence on the outlook on life, the universe and the rest of it.
The artwork ideas are as interesting to me as art materials and technical side of creation.
The word Art brings to mind the Chinese concept of Tao - the Way; being on correct path, flowing with natural flow of the universe, and Te - integrity, being exactly who one can and should be.
Collage/assemblage materials
Tools for the job...
Assemblage or collage is to a degree tri-dimensional. It can also have many dimensional storylines.
You will come across clock dials, to evocate relation to time. The o-rings tell the stories of seemingly insignificant but crucial elements of the systems like reactors, spacecraft or analytical instruments. It could also be story about single point of failure. Plastic netting used for fruits and vegetables could show how easy it is to get entangled. Electronic motherboards, resistors, diodes could mean constant flow of ideas from dawn of invention through short lived popularity, to dusk of obsolescence when invention is replaced with something else. Nail polish, pine cones, stones copper wire and dried plants - each of them is hooked up in a story. These are things we take for granted, don't pay attention to, discard.
Other interests albeit related
Once upon a time we had a house and a small garden. The soil there was worst kind you can imagine - clay one could start pottery shop with. My attempts to grow things, were mediocre, except sunflowers. They seemed to be happy, providing I planted them in carbon rich decomposable pots, or added grated potato to the soil. Anyway over several years I added tons of various ingredients to this soil. Several bags of calcified seaweed, coarse sand. Finally alfa alfa and red clover sewn in autumns to be dug into the soil soon after sprouting. We religiously kept two big composters, large percentage of contents of one of them was twigs and needles clippings of the conifer tree. All the egg shells, the nut shells etc. In the fourth year the contents of these composters were ready to be worked into the soil. The effect was amazing. the following spring and summer I grew peppermint, wild strawberry, wild mustard, calendulas. This was one of the happiest moments of my life.
