Am I the only artist who can't fathom "creative block"? The challenge I face in the studio is having enough time to explore all the possibilities.
My friend Janine was kind enough to visit my studio on Monday and give me her thoughts on my latest work. In showing her the various pieces I've made over the past few months, I realized that each one offers MANY possible directions that I could proceed in. And each direction could take years to pursue!
The problem isn't in wondering what to do, it's in deciding which of the myriad of possible paths to take.
The image at the top of this blog entry is just one of the many directions I am considering.
Lately I've been drawing swirling calligraphic lines on my canvases with fluid acrylic paints squeezed through a contact-lens-cleaner bottle, then laying sheets of paper across the surface of the canvas and running over it with a brayer. This widens and softens the lines, which looks great on the canvas. It also leaves me with page after page of these lovely lace-like lines, just waiting to become works of art on their own.
Inspired by my favorite project to assign in my beginning drawing classes -- a drawing of three white eggs on a white cloth with a strong spotlight -- I decided to draw little egg shapes in graphite between the lines on one of these leftover "blotter" pages. I like the freely flowing lines, originally drawn spontaneously with paint, in contrast with the precise pencil markings that seem to suggest three-dimensional forms.
Creative block?! Not a problem.
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