To Do or Not to Do, that is the Question??

I am at a juncture with the Kollwitz Homage, the stained glass assemblage, I am currently working on. From the beginning of the piece I imagined and planned an undercurrent of an archive collage of photographic images of poverty, hunger, the Holocaust from the WWI and WWII era. I have written about it in my papers; my mentor artist discussed it in her mid-term evaluation.

I have completed the painting on the glass with vitreous paints, and have built the photo-montage elements and am now at a juncture of applying these to the back of the glass.

I am very pleased with the painted elements on the glass, even though window is on the work-board and you cannot completely know what it will do visually in the light. However, I am pleased enough with it, not to go forward with the collage undercurrent.

Achhh!!! I can hear my UA college (MA- art ed & glass '87)/ glass professor Roland Jahn, in his Schwarzenegger-like accent, saying: "I know what you are trying to do, and respect that, 'BUT, Don't Do It!!!" Yikes, I think I am at the threshold of the internal art-craft debate in my work!!!

Years ago at UA, I was working on a large landscape window, a translation from a plein air landscape painting, and had built a entire undercurrent of slumped glass. This references the quote above. I listened to Roland's advice. I did not apply the undercurrent, but assembled it as an entire separate piece.

So I have this internal debate going... I have called my mentor artist to see if she can swing by and give me her opinion.

I have invested a lot of time, effort, thought and theory into the photo-montage elements, so the big question is: Do I abandon it, or go forward with it?

You can see all the details in motion of this current piece at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/113967877601706753492/DrawingsCartoonAndStudiesForKollwitzHomage#