The last few weeks have seen me churn out a ton of new ideas - artist as sausage machine you know.
It seems to be cyclical, I can tell when I'm coming up for one of these periods because they are always preceeded by a kind of restlessness and irritability where I'm unable to settle to anything properly. Like a bubble waiting to burst, things rising slowly to the surface. Sometimes wonder if the cycle/gestation thing is more pronounced because I'm female but I suspect all creative people have something similar.
It takes a while to sort out the stuff worth keeping, there's always plenty of crap generated. These ones here, I decided, are keepers and will be listed in my shop over the next week. Will post it on the Strangeartworld Facebook page when that's done.
Abstract is something that never fails to move and excite me. I've stood in front of a Constable in the old Tate Museum and thought 'meh' and then stood before a wopping great black and white abstract by Pierre Soulage and had a visceral experience of it that was so strong I had to go outside and take deep breaths of fresh air. And while I loved abstract work,I felt it really had all been done before and that I could not add anything original. I wandered off in other creative directions instead.
But if you go far enough you meet yourself coming back, or so I've found. Somethings you've just got to do and being creative has never lent itself to being rational. Like falling in love, it's most un-rational.
These two shouldn't really work but do. When I printed them out I thought the blue would look artificial and kind of pasted on. It doesn't, it just floats on top, seperate elements that keep their individual identity but somehow belong together.The process is still a mystery to me. I hope it always stays that way.
Heavily influenced by textiles and fabric design, this last piece is going to be a starting point for a lot of variations . . . want to try this in different colours,just to see. I will be sorting through the newly generated pieces over the next week or so and will post a bit at a time. Till then . . . .
I suddenly got bored of tasteful muted colours and let rip with something a little punchier. My favourite word to describe in-your-face kind of colour. This one was built ontop of something else I did a while ago. Taking the idea of making things specially for Photoshop stamps from sewn paper bits to maybe something more 3 dimensional . . . grabbed a small box and an old roll of exposed film along with a letter from a dead keyboard ( we never throw anything away in this house!).
I like the idea that I can use and reuse various components . . . expect to see these again then in different combinations.This is called Angry Red Thing 'cos I was in a bit of a fractious, bored stroppy sort of mood. I get these restless period where I need to just be spontanous.
Sod whether it works or not, sod whether I've got too much else to be starting something new. Just got to do it. Strop over I decided that I really like that red . . .
oh yes, could eat that off a spoooooon.
This is all about the pain . . . .
another reason why I was feeling fractious. There is, after all, only so much I can bear and be cheerful. Too much pain, too many drugs for the pain which after a while become some kind of variant of the pain because they make you feel like shit. The worst of that episode is over, thank god and I'll be back at the gym before long. Now we could call this one 'Good Year for the Roses' or 'Splash' both of which would be crashingly obvious but t
hen sometimes you get a title inspiration and sometimes you don't. Suggest a really good title for it and I'll send you a print, A4 or smaller . Leave me a comment and I'll pick the one I like best in about a week from now.Oh well, here I was chucking in everything but the kitchen sink which is a great thing to do because you do end up with some pretty random combinations and you get to learn what works and what doesn't. For me this works. It is called ' I will love you forever' though with that eye it seems more like threat than a promise. I've been trying out a thicker scribble line, the black lines are just the standard round brush but thicker than normal. It works but I'm not 100 % happy with the way it looks so I think I will try and come up with something else that can make that kind of mark but not look quite so . . . . digital I guess.
I have, finally, got these notebooks done and listed here ( or should that be done and dusted? ).
Nothing worse than a pile of stuff sitting there reminding you reproachfully that you still haven't made the time. They are satisfying to finish off though, a nice weight in the hand ( 50 sheets of nice smooth recycled paper ) and the colours have come out really well.Add to that the print to go with the notebook . . . . .And something new entitled 'The Moon behind the Clouds' a 10x10 print. I quite fancy this for our living room wall . . . .
it just needs a nice matt black frame.Something else I've been fooling around with, trying for a simpler line. I always start off simple but end up with something that is waaay more complicated that I planned. Like life really! This to me has Miro kind of quality to it. Not sure if I want it to actually be a print or not . . . . . gotta live with it for a while and see. Oh yes and then this . . . . . I'd started fiddling around with a very vague pattern idea, just vertical lines to start with, trying to keep it loose, just seeing what components would look good totgether without any real thought to their placement. I have to work as spontaneously as possible or I just grind to a halt. Do it it rough ( and yes, this is very rough ) and then later work it up in best. Have also decided that I am going to do this in a half drop repeat. Which I'm not that good at doing yet. We shall see, it's going to be entertaining! Will let you know if it works out . . . . if it doesn't there will just be the sound of sobbing coming from in front of the computer . . . and not for the first time, I might add!!! Have a good weekend whatever you are doing!
