Artistic collaboration can be tricky and requires the right recipe of trust, respect, healthy understanding of each other’s talent, a shared vision, and confidence in one’s own creative process.
About 4 years ago fellow artist, friend, employee and soon to be lover Rob Streff and I decided that after working for 8 years on my work, we would try to make a piece together. A piece that embodied each of our aesthetics and skills towards a shared idea. Even though working together in my studio on my commissions allowed for some collaboration, this piece would be a departure from the usual dynamic with me as boss and Rob as employee.
Over time we had found ourselves talking more and more about our own work, getting together to draw outside of work and discovered that each of our creative processes came alive with the other person. We also had a lot of overlapping interests in creative explorations at the time.
All of this is fertile ground for successful collaboration. After I had what felt to be poignant experiences with two Barred Owls - one an afternoon sighting in a tree very close to me when taking a walk and the second a week later right outside my bedroom window during the night - we decided the owl would be the subject of our first piece together. We wanted to make a piece about the moment when you have an encounter with a very wild thing - an unexpected and very raw alive moment in which all your senses come alive to the present. You face each other recognizing each other’s power and place in this world. It can be a profound experience that most of us remember for a lifetime. So we gave it a try.
We went to visit our local Audubon Society where they have a rescued Great Horned Owl named Julio among many other amazing raptors and birds like a Kestrel Hawk, a Raven, and more. Sometimes they’ll let you handle the birds if the mood is right.
Our process felt completely seamless and natural. I’ll note that our subsequent collaborations have also been “right” but sometimes have more tension and involve more working out of ideas where as this one just happened effortlessly.
We formulated a loose composition and I wanted to start making the owl in clay since in this situation I wanted to feel my way through making it and in this case drawing would have detracted from my process.
Rob and I have different and complementary strengths - for instance Rob loves carving and I specifically don’t whereas I have what seems at this point to be an innate understanding of how to paint with glaze even though the color doesn’t reveal until after the second firing and he finds it too mysterious and has a hard time predicting outcomes.
I made the owl pose and feathers while he worked on carving the face. We checked in with each other constantly at each juncture - “do you like this?” “I”m thinking of trying xy and z, what do you think?” Once we finished the owl itself, Rob cut the mosaic background and I began working out the glazing.
We took it one step at a time and made decisions as we went along. Here is our progression:
With glazing, what you see IS NOT what you get!!
For the area around the owl we wanted an atmospheric night sky with a lot of color and depth within the glaze so I layered many different colors to create this mottled look.
The whole process happened over the course of about 3 months since we worked on it outside of our “jobs” in my studio.
Good collaboration is like alchemy - taking two differing elements with equal strength to make something greater than the sum of the parts. It may sound cliche but some cliches are true and in my experience this one is as true as gold!
Here are the official details and description we use for this piece:
SPIRIT OWL
Made in collaboration with Rob Streff
17” x 26” x 1-1/4”
Free hanging art (framed to hang on the wall)
2013
Sprit Owl is a sculptural ceramic piece depicting an unexpected and sacred encounter, one that hints at the flash of insight when we remember that what is within another being is the same as what is within us and for an instant witness the raw magnificence and interconnection of life.