Seeing that carousel at the Tacoma Zoo & Aquarium stirred something from its slumber inside me. A billow of fresh air has swept through my noggin. I went back to my old sketchbooks. I don't really sketch anymore like how I used to -- I sculpt now. But in the 1991-1992 books (about eighteen years ago!), I found a bunch of ideas sketched down for my own carousel horses. Each one had a theme, or narrative, which was fun to design into the concept. And I'd forgotten about them! I've included three of them here in this blog post.
Dag gum -- I'm not going to forget about them again! I'd gotten so caught up in my current work, that I forgot about the energy of my older ideas. Just because an idea is old doesn't mean it's obsolete! I still remember the thrill of coming up with these ideas (and my head is now swimming with new ones), and I think now it's time I brought them into reality. The question is now -- should I create them as pressed tile medallions/tiles, or as "cut-out" ornaments? Hmmm. I mixture of both? Hmmmm.Good gravy -- teapots, medallions/tiles and now this? I need an army of clones!
"Few ideas are in themselves practical. It is for want of imagination in applying them that they fail. The creative process does not end with an idea -- it only starts with an idea." ~ John Arnold