Keeping it fresh
First I’d just like to say a big THANKS to everyone reading my blog <3 I started this thing two years ago as a way to force myself into thinking creatively (almost) every day to try and re-light some of that creative passion floating in me somewhere. My 2 year blogging anniversary was earlier this month, and yesterday I had more blog reads than I’ve ever had! (and they primarily weren’t from search engines!) So again, thanks for reading! You guys are wonderful and really help me to push myself further!
On that note, earlier this week I sat down (after my sewing machine had crapped out again) and decided to get my hands a little dirty and made this little thing:
I love the tiger image, which is one I used on my window design project for a lamp and had a scrap of it left over. As a quick project I glued the scrap to a 9×12″ canvas board and used acrylic paints (red, yellow, blue & white) to make a sort of graphic collage poster. Nothing fancy, but it was a nice exercise to sit down for a couple of hours and just think about composition and graphic appeal within the constraints of a limited palette.
Sometimes it’s hard to motivate myself to paint, or even draw. I like to have an idea pretty well thought out before I even put pen to paper, which in many ways is self-defeating because often the best way to work something out is on paper. I guess I’m afraid of “failing” or creating something that isn’t a masterpiece, which is something I’ve been working pretty hard on getting over. Failure, especially in art is such a vague thing. It implies laziness or lack of talent or a poor idea, when it’s possible for even a master’s piece to fail (not that I’m comparing myself to a master by a long shot). In the gallery I work in I’ve seen some phenomenal artwork hung, and then taken down a month or two later because not a single piece was sold. Has the work failed? Or the artist? Or the public? Failure is perhaps a word substituted for an unknown – a proxy for an unexplainable outcome to a highly anticipated event.
The top 5 things that get me in the creative mood:
+ A warm cup of tea to focus me.
+ Cracking open a design book that shows artists’ sketchbooks and process drawings.
+ Browsing craft shows & art competition deadlines.
+ Thinking about the future and my hopes for it.
+ Sitting down with a piece of paper/canvas/pen & ink/brushes and forcing something to come out.
From a young age I’ve known that I should expect the very best from myself, and work up to that level at every opportunity. After all, if you can’t expect the best from yourself – how can others? At some point though the messages got a little mixed, because I was so busy looking around at others trying to find what “the best” was. Sometimes I kept up and sometimes I was behind. I went through periods of creative arrogance and creative self-loathing, before realizing that 80% of the time I should have been more focused on what I was doing and what I COULD do, and only 20% on what other people were doing. I look back now on a lot of the work that I feel like I could have done better on, if I had just concentrated a little more on myself and what was in front of me and a little less on the work other people were doing.
When it comes to my artwork, I know I’ve fallen short of my best in the past – by my own standards – even if I didn’t recognize it at the time. My intention these days is to recognize that as long as I’m pushing myself to try, as long as I’m trying to do something I like, and as long as I like what I’m doing, I don’t have to worry about failure.
Beautiful collage! And an interesting post on creativity and failure. I think about those things a lot too (also the question of creativity and success!). One of my summer jobs for a couple of summers during college was being a teacher’s assistant for children’s art classes at a community art school. There were two classes- one with 3-5 year olds and the other with 6-10 year olds. It was really interesting to see how the younger kids just had so much FUN making stuff and not worrying too much about the outcome. But around age 7 or 8, they discovered the eraser, and got very uptight about things looking “right,” and become very self-critical. Making art became more stressful and less fun for them. It really stuck with me, and when I find myself getting too worried about if something is “good” or not, I think about those little kids just enjoying the act of making stuff.
Your creativity started as soon as you could sit up and hold something (c: The first time you could draw circles you were ecstatic!! It is hard to worry about it being the best or a failure if it gives you joy in the creation. Experimentation, new visions, and bringing the idea into reality should be your goal. If it doesn’t turn out the way you expect you can always refine your skills and/or adjust your design. I am really happy that you are still flexing your creativity. Now if I could just work on mine (c: