Get out that Image bank!
I’ve been feeling so uninspired and bereft of creativity lately. It’s the worst place to be for me. It makes me so blue and pessimistic. It colours everything in my life and nothing feels good in any aspect of my life. I’m just not myself if I’m not making things. So, back to my go to exercise. I got out my magazine stash and started pulling some images that appealed to me and began chopping and assembling them in a way that made sense to me. It’s a simple and effective way to get those creative juices flowing again…and I need it!
I like to begin with background atmosphere, sky, water and earth. I have been so inspired the last few years by travel to Utah that those aqua/turquoise and sepia/burnt orange contrasts are often my background choices or the grey skies and verdant foliage of my native British Columbia. Once I have the illusion of some distance and horizon I begin adding mid-ground elements; rocks, leaves and texture that brings the composition closer to the eye, more into focus. My last layer is usually the most colourful and I tend to pull the audience into my work with floral elements in bright pinks and oranges, yellow or the starkness of pure whites or cool blues, depending on the background colour. I favour contrasts so, most often I am working in opposition to my background.
This collage features a skewed horizon, using a fisheye perspective, which appeals to me. It creates an unusual perspective that I think is interesting. I created added detail with some large rock formations and then began layering in the flower forms. I am largely intuitive with placement but I like to overlap and work with rounded forms, as well as objects that are more elongated to draw the eye upward and through the composition. toward the horizon and the sky. This image inspired a monoprint that will add to a desert series I have been working on. The image was traced onto a plexiglass plate using watercolour paint and then tranferred to paper using a wetpaper and press technique.
The second collage of the day (actually, they happened simultaneously) Illustrates the second of my compositional colour choices, more West Coast foliage (in this case Arbutus trunks that are so much a part of the areas around and near the ocean, especially on the Gulf Islands off the coast) but my background is figurative. The starting image was a beautiful white bridal gown with a model holding an immense, lush bouquet of white roses and lilies. I built the foliage and tree branches on top of the dress, allowing the floral arrangement to peek through the branches, at intervals. Her shoulders became parts of the tree, in my imagination, tree as woman, woman as tree maybe? I was lucky enough to find this huge Blue Morpho butterfly that I placed to the left, lighted on a tree branch, taking solace in her shade.
This second example inspired me so much that I have started an acrylic painting using this image as my inspiration. And that’s how it often begins for me when I am feeling uninspired and at a loss, visually. A little bit of structured play is sometimes the best thing for an empty creative well. The act of leafing through the pages, tearing, cutting and working through a compositional puzzle can break that block. It doesn’t always lead to a “great work of art” (See Art with a Capital A) but the smallest act of creation can make all the difference when I am blocked. I have been productive, creative and it feels good! Sometimes that is enough.
