Use your Imagination

I'm going to refer back to my library of Dover books again.  I really love these and find them to be extremely inspirational.  Have you ever wandered through a home improvement or decorating store and found your imagination running crazy with ideas?  You'll see a bathroom sink or faucet and suddenly you are imagining how this could look in your home...or wood flooring and instantly you can envision not just the beauty of say; cherry wood flooring but you're dreaming about burl walnut inlays and uba tuba marble and deep jewel toned colors on your wall and....
....hmmmmm...maybe it's just me?

So...back to the Dover Press book example.  I'm going to show you how I took an image I saw and just let in wander around in my head a while and I explored possibilities and played with elements that I had in my Studio until something fun came out of it all.

I began with this black and white, two dimensional image taken from a 15th century church window...or at least...that's how it was listed in the Dover book.

I enlarged and transferred this image to my canvas and just looked at it for a while and let my thoughts wander.  What else did it remind me of?  Where have I traveled that I might have seen something similar? Is this a door, a window, a floor design?  What would happen if I expanded parts of it...opened it up in areas or eliminated parts of the design while keeping others?  What about using different colors or devices?  

When you find yourself heading in one artistic direction often times your mind will take over and you'll find yourself heading in a completely new direction.  My advice is to just let it go and enjoy playing...that's when art happens.  I found myself thinking about limestone and marble carvings I saw when I was wandering around the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain.  I finished my painting and then let my imagination play out further and thought...what about defining some areas in copper leaf...so I explored that avenue....then played with acid washes to patina the copper and I let those things happen....and so on.

This is where my thoughts took me and still I find myself staring at this art piece and I can see more and more.  Or....you might see one thing in a reference book and combine it with something else to create a combination of pieces and your art will head in a completely new direction.

A 'wild' example of that is where I discovered one element and mentally played with it...allowing my thoughts to go somewhere else, add more...let the direction change...  add another piece and so on.  In the end I had this rather odd painting with some 'thought provoking' chinese phrase.  The painting sat in a Glen Ellyn, IL  art gallery for a short while until someone felt that they just HAD to own it...The art spoke to them in a personal way.

Art finds it's owner and I'm glad this painting has a home.  For me in was a process...something I was exploring and I enjoyed working through not only the technique of creating...but the venting of emotion that was tied up with the making of this one painting.

The title of this painting is called:  5 Circles and it was completed in the spring of 2008