Saturday, April 21, 2012

Artist's Statement


Explorer’s Journal

My name is Lindsay Balfour, illustrator of worlds, sculptor of life, paper engineer of wonder, and amateur naturalist. I am a maker, inventor, and innovative thinker in the fine arts. Living on the other side of the world as a young child has blessed me with a unique experience that shaped my perspective in so many areas and my sense of home is the world around me rather than one specific place. Whether I travel abroad, across town, or just to a park near home I know I can find biological novelty and cultural inspiration.








For my senior thesis, under the deep depths of the Arctic sea I discovered a not only a jellyfish, but a living timeline of nature in an untouched environment. It is truly the biology of the strange; no eyes or nose, they manage to find their way fluttering curiously in the dark sea with no destination other than innocently living its life. Each illuminated fold represents a pictorial moment in time etched onto its body, reflecting the character of an omniscient creature. We never dream of being alone with a godlike creature; and when we do we view this being as terrifying and yet inspiring. When I call myself a naturalist, I specifically refer myself as a visual and conceptual scientist. On the field I know there is a chance of major discovery. My artistic process is drawn from what I discover and to recreate a unique entity based off what I have learned and observed. 




You can find my sketches display under the creature itself.

3 comments:

Christopher said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Christopher said...

You've stopped blogging- what's up with that?

I happened on to your blog while doing paper research- found much duplication here. I wonder: do you know what sort of binder Debbie Wijskamp uses in her pulp furnature, or the pulp recipe employed by Dana Major Kanovitz?

I'm presently focusing on mold-cast sculptural furniture and architectural ornament from paper pulp; my binder/glue of choice is PVA- which has several disadvantages, and I'm searching for alternatives.

I hope to hear from you- if I don't... well, keep up the good work.

-Christopher, İstanbul.

Lindsay Balfour said...

Hi Christopher,

Why, thank you for the comment! It's kind of you to mention something despite the long hiatus from my blogspot. Originally this blog was made for cataloging my process for my Senior (Undergrad thesis) project. I took quite some time off from my blog to focus on an internship and then a job after I graduated. I'm just picking up where I last left off on this blog just a month ago, but I'm starting small before I go big again. I was thinking about starting this blog again since what I'm working on is still relevant to my previous work.

In terms of binders, you can try something a little more vegan friendly which is homemade wheat paste. Some of my super early experiments have involved that mixed with a little bit of bleach to add color and take care of possible mold when you shred recycled newsprint as your main source of paper. If you use finely shredded cotton (Feels like really dry dust/with a felt-like texture) you wouldn't need the bleach and just mixing the wheat paste binder would be enough. It's hard to tell what Wijskamp or Kanovitz uses based off just looking at their work -- though the type of paper that can handle oil paint's corrosive and fading nature would need a strong binder for the paint to adhere to. PVA might not be it if that's the case. If it is though, her recipe might not call for as much of it.

If you want to chat more -- my e-mail is lindsay.m.balfour@gmail.com. Oh and you can find some of my more current work on my twitter account at twitter.com/#/essente

~Lindsay