Summer/Fall 2018: Changing Midstream
We all have a style. It helps us to become recognizable in the vast creative landscape of art. Many times this dovetails with a theme and we will see not only the same style from an artist but the same common denominator…the topic. Repetition springs eternal! Where does the thin line lie between making an income and satisfying the artist’s joyful spirit of exploration fall?
Well, speaking of income, I’ve heard the advice that it is better to seek gainful employment whilst one is with job. So the parallel for creatives might be to explore a change in your style while happily ensconced in the studio. Why not? If the quiet voices telling you to seek change are suddenly screaming with excitement over an idea, why not pursue it?
I had been very content in my unique idea of painting marbles and chocolates and sprinkle donuts. Some of these works hang in my home and bring a smile every day. But when I was looking at other art, it was a whole different look that was grabbing my adrenaline. The art of print-making, in all of its luxurious boldness called out. Blocks of color forming a picture. Magical!
There are artists I have admired for years. Their work I have framed in my studio remind me daily to answer the call of what is creatively speaking to me. Gustave Baumann, Eyvind Earke and Kazuyuki Ohtsu. Eyvind Earle was an artist with the Disney company. He created the art for Sleeping Beauty. For me, it has always stood out from the other Disney films. The lines were sharper, more angular and clear-cut, more vibrant in movement.
Since changing my methodology, new ideas became strong and apparent. I was pulled toward painting landscapes and still life works but what could I do that would stand out, that I could call my own? Somewhere along the line the light bulb of combining print and the paintbrush illuminated my creative spirit.
I have a wealth of files from being a photographer for so many years, a digital photographer for the last 11 of those, and I reminded myself that I took those photos for a reason. The scenes were beckoning to be caught on camera. I live in the west! Come on! What’s not to love in the landscape of Montana?! And Wyoming, and New Mexico, and Oregon.
So, I changed my way of thinking and I pulled a 180 on my process and new venues have opened to me. I put my photographs through a photoshop program and decide if it works or doesn’t work and when it works it’s obvious. The paintings slowly come into realization through blocks of colors until I can see the original image I had taken with my Nikon. The blocks are geometric and odd shaped pieces of color against one another. The process is slow and methodical. The result is fairly abstract.
I have found a new audience and my work that was submitted on the east coast and the west coast has been accepted, juried by people who have been much more active in the art world than I have likely been. Am I talking about success? In my equation of fulfilling my artistic dream, yes. Financially? It all remains to be seen but if you have not yet learned in the art world that money doesn’t drive the fulfillment vehicle then you may want to rethink your profession.
Your creative destination should always be the clear voice talking to you. Let’s listen to those thoughts and practice using our inside voices.
We all have a style. It helps us to become recognizable in the vast creative landscape of art. Many times this dovetails with a theme and we will see not only the same style from an artist but the same common denominator…the topic. Repetition springs eternal! Where does the thin line lie between making an income and satisfying the artist’s joyful spirit of exploration fall?
Well, speaking of income, I’ve heard the advice that it is better to seek gainful employment whilst one is with job. So the parallel for creatives might be to explore a change in your style while happily ensconced in the studio. Why not? If the quiet voices telling you to seek change are suddenly screaming with excitement over an idea, why not pursue it?
I had been very content in my unique idea of painting marbles and chocolates and sprinkle donuts. Some of these works hang in my home and bring a smile every day. But when I was looking at other art, it was a whole different look that was grabbing my adrenaline. The art of print-making, in all of its luxurious boldness called out. Blocks of color forming a picture. Magical!
There are artists I have admired for years. Their work I have framed in my studio remind me daily to answer the call of what is creatively speaking to me. Gustave Baumann, Eyvind Earke and Kazuyuki Ohtsu. Eyvind Earle was an artist with the Disney company. He created the art for Sleeping Beauty. For me, it has always stood out from the other Disney films. The lines were sharper, more angular and clear-cut, more vibrant in movement.
Since changing my methodology, new ideas became strong and apparent. I was pulled toward painting landscapes and still life works but what could I do that would stand out, that I could call my own? Somewhere along the line the light bulb of combining print and the paintbrush illuminated my creative spirit.
I have a wealth of files from being a photographer for so many years, a digital photographer for the last 11 of those, and I reminded myself that I took those photos for a reason. The scenes were beckoning to be caught on camera. I live in the west! Come on! What’s not to love in the landscape of Montana?! And Wyoming, and New Mexico, and Oregon.
So, I changed my way of thinking and I pulled a 180 on my process and new venues have opened to me. I put my photographs through a photoshop program and decide if it works or doesn’t work and when it works it’s obvious. The paintings slowly come into realization through blocks of colors until I can see the original image I had taken with my Nikon. The blocks are geometric and odd shaped pieces of color against one another. The process is slow and methodical. The result is fairly abstract.
I have found a new audience and my work that was submitted on the east coast and the west coast has been accepted, juried by people who have been much more active in the art world than I have likely been. Am I talking about success? In my equation of fulfilling my artistic dream, yes. Financially? It all remains to be seen but if you have not yet learned in the art world that money doesn’t drive the fulfillment vehicle then you may want to rethink your profession.
Your creative destination should always be the clear voice talking to you. Let’s listen to those thoughts and practice using our inside voices.