When I was possessed by the fiery passions of youth I thought the one thing I needed to make myself stand out from the crowd, from an artistic viewpoint was a giant dictionary of symbols. I had felt this way for quite a while, because I was always impressed by the old masters ability to hide what they wanted to really say in plain sight. When I was a young sprout I remember going to the tcc library pulling the dictionary of catholic symbols down from the reference section and making as many copies as humanly possible, and if I had no change I would feverishly write in the margins of my sketch book the meanings of long puzzling symbols. This seed finally germinated when at long last I had disposable income and ordered at giant dictionary of symbols.
Certainly it was naïveté on my part if I thought a dictionary of all things would suddenly spark my creative juices and take me to some new high as an artist. Often time’s youth is wasted on the very stupid, and I had yet to achieve any kind of wisdom. Perhaps even now I have no wisdom but I know the only things that will ever pay off any sort of dividends are practice and a drive to see your vision through. Yet that pseudo wisdom came from many years of awkwardly trying to shoehorn meaning onto something and not thinking about the work as a whole.
When I first attempted to add layered meanings to my work, they were in a word clumsy. I didn’t take a holistic approach and I just wanted symbols there because I could put them there. I then quickly moved away from this idea and have been spinning tires for a while. Honestly, though I like symbolism because a work of art, weather its music, painting, or literature should been open to multiple interpretations and not be obvious about what it is trying to express.
With my current work I am trying to express something important, and maybe it is only important to me but I am trying to make the attempt at something more then superficiality. While I would say what it means I think first of all, that it is more fun to allow the viewers to discern their own meaning. I really loathe it when it seems like someone is holding my hand and telling me what I should think and feel, I find it condescending and try my hardest to not be that way in all areas of my life. I might be an arrogant conceded jerk but I don’t think I could be painted as condescending, and for that I am truly grateful.
When I started I had a general idea of what I wanted, and I went through many different variations. I knew for instance that I wanted something inspired by Mucha but I also knew that I should have more then a general idea of what it looks like. I don’t think this necessarily creates a sterile work but I don’t like to just randomly start something. It is only a recent development that I have really used the sketchbook as the great tool it is and used the book for its full effect. I now experiment with the colour scheme, layout, and composition in much greater detail and I have things thought out and organized before attempting to start the actual project. Starting with a thumbnail I tend to refine that until I feel comfortable making a larger drawing and working on that.
Some might say that all these steps are tedious and unexciting but this is where a project lives and dies. Spontaneity is found through the happy accidents when trying to aid a project in its birth. I often think that my best work is done in these early stages, because I am willing to be much more experimental and willing to fail wildly to see if an idea can work. One thing that I have been trying to do lately is know when to stop and that can only be done through many paintings and the confidence gained through the creative process.
I think that I have found a design that I like and I have spent a great deal of time trying to work out all the kinks and through out the entire process I am trying to keep in mind what symbolism works and what should be pruned.
Keeping in mind that this is inspired by art nouveau I have decided to make the border feel organic and tree like, and I want the piece to feel like life is exploding around the subject matter. She can be best described as someone full of life so I want the work to express at least some of that idea and the rest of its meaning is secret, at least for now.
Certainly it was naïveté on my part if I thought a dictionary of all things would suddenly spark my creative juices and take me to some new high as an artist. Often time’s youth is wasted on the very stupid, and I had yet to achieve any kind of wisdom. Perhaps even now I have no wisdom but I know the only things that will ever pay off any sort of dividends are practice and a drive to see your vision through. Yet that pseudo wisdom came from many years of awkwardly trying to shoehorn meaning onto something and not thinking about the work as a whole.
When I first attempted to add layered meanings to my work, they were in a word clumsy. I didn’t take a holistic approach and I just wanted symbols there because I could put them there. I then quickly moved away from this idea and have been spinning tires for a while. Honestly, though I like symbolism because a work of art, weather its music, painting, or literature should been open to multiple interpretations and not be obvious about what it is trying to express.
With my current work I am trying to express something important, and maybe it is only important to me but I am trying to make the attempt at something more then superficiality. While I would say what it means I think first of all, that it is more fun to allow the viewers to discern their own meaning. I really loathe it when it seems like someone is holding my hand and telling me what I should think and feel, I find it condescending and try my hardest to not be that way in all areas of my life. I might be an arrogant conceded jerk but I don’t think I could be painted as condescending, and for that I am truly grateful.
When I started I had a general idea of what I wanted, and I went through many different variations. I knew for instance that I wanted something inspired by Mucha but I also knew that I should have more then a general idea of what it looks like. I don’t think this necessarily creates a sterile work but I don’t like to just randomly start something. It is only a recent development that I have really used the sketchbook as the great tool it is and used the book for its full effect. I now experiment with the colour scheme, layout, and composition in much greater detail and I have things thought out and organized before attempting to start the actual project. Starting with a thumbnail I tend to refine that until I feel comfortable making a larger drawing and working on that.
Some might say that all these steps are tedious and unexciting but this is where a project lives and dies. Spontaneity is found through the happy accidents when trying to aid a project in its birth. I often think that my best work is done in these early stages, because I am willing to be much more experimental and willing to fail wildly to see if an idea can work. One thing that I have been trying to do lately is know when to stop and that can only be done through many paintings and the confidence gained through the creative process.
I think that I have found a design that I like and I have spent a great deal of time trying to work out all the kinks and through out the entire process I am trying to keep in mind what symbolism works and what should be pruned.
Keeping in mind that this is inspired by art nouveau I have decided to make the border feel organic and tree like, and I want the piece to feel like life is exploding around the subject matter. She can be best described as someone full of life so I want the work to express at least some of that idea and the rest of its meaning is secret, at least for now.
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