Planetary Herringbone

I've always been fascinated by the Abstract Expressionist/Minimalist painter Agnes Martin, and last week I picked up an out-of-print book about her by Barbara Haskell in a used book store. Martin's use of grids and parallel lines inspired my latest experiment with stencils, which can be seen below.

This mobile is large (33" H x 36" W) and sprawling, and it combines metal and polymer clay for the first time. I think the orbs and spheres turned out distinctly planetary, but the herringbone pattern brings it back down to earth.

Here are some closeups of the lower portion:

I have not kept the spirit of Martin's work, which is aimed at evoking the hidden perfection that she believes permeates all things. Rather, I've borrowed an element of her vocabulary to explore my own ideas, which is what artistic conversation is all about.

I was, however, struck by one particular description of Martin's canvasses in Haskell's essay:

In her hands, the grid became a vehicle for the expression of infinite expansion and metered cadences. She captured the rhythms of flowing water -- the simultaneous quality of stillness and movement that inflects waterfalls, rain, and running streams. These were the elements of nature that modulated their form while remaining essentially the same.

I see the motion of mobiles in the same way; a mobile undulates slowly, sometimes almost imperceptibly, constantly changing itself while always retaining its mobile-ness.