Jumpstart Three - Ideas For Jumpstarting Your Art

 

1. If I could paint the moment between exhale and inhale, what colors would appear?

2. What do I wish someone had told me ten years ago and how can I show that visually?

3. What happens when I create from rest instead of striving?

The Persistence of Memory

The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali (1931)

This Surrealist piece, famous for its melting pocket watches in a desolate landscape, was painted by Dali when he was 27 years old. The story goes that the idea came to him one night after dinner while he was staring at a piece of melting camembert cheese.

The soft drooping texture symbolizes the fluidity of times, the subjectivity of memory and the inevitability of decay. It became one of the most recognized paintings of the Surrealist movement, capturing the anxieties of the world between WWI and WWII. 

It's a small painting, just 9 ½ by 13 but its influence on modern art has been huge. It's housed at the Museum of lModern Art (MOMA) in New York City.

I think it captures a bit of the anxious mood in the world today. How would you paint an anxious and unstable period in time?

 

Find Your Artistic Voice - A Book Review

 

Author, Artist, Illustrator Lisa Congdon describes the artist voice as a combination of style, skills, subject matter and choice of medium. It also reflects your personality, experiences and values.

I can tell you from experience that you do not "find your voice" over night. It took me years of experimenting, practicing and sending my art out into the world. My voice only became clear when I started making art nearly every day.

Congdon confirms my experience that your artistic voice is a journey, not a one time event. It is an evolution that changes as you change.

This book includes interviews with artists and also suggests strategies for developing your unique voice like...

• making art every day

• create personal challenges

• seek feedback from those you trust

• embrace solitude and mindfulness.

Although at my age I have a pretty good sense of my artistic voice, this book was a good confirmation and worth the read.

A Bridge

 

Water Lilies and Japanese Bridge, Claude Monet 1899

Our second exercise is to create an image of a bridge. You can draw it, paint it, collage it, whatever you want. It can be drawn to look like it is made out of steel, wood, or even a swinging rope bridge. You decide.

Monet's bridge over the water lilies is probably the most well known bridge in the world. A bridge is a wonderful subject. It also can be painted as a metaphor. For example, where are you leaving from? What are you leaving behind? Where and what are you going towards?

Are there any obstacles on the bridge that might make crossing it more difficult. Are you on the bridge or look at it from afar? Are other people on the bridge? What's underneath it? Do you have a history with this bridge?

Here are some more artist paintings of bridges to inspire you...

Path of Gold, Jonas Lie, 1914

Booklyn Bridge, NYC Angela Wakefield

Langlois Bridge at Arles, Vincent van Gogh, 1888

I am beginning a mixed media piece of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. It has much history and meaning to me. I have photographed it many many times - on days with clear skies and a view to Alcatraz and on days where the fog has rolled in and you can barely see the car in front of you.

What bridge calls to you? Is it a bridge you know well, made of steel and wood or an imagined bridge?

Getty Museum Artist Challenge

 

The Getty Museum offered a challenge to artists to take three items around their homes and re-enact a favorite work of art. Thousands responded and the re-created art are a hoot. 

You can see some of the art by clicking here

The Getty also published a book from the entries called Off The Walls: Inspired Re-Creations of iconic Artworks. You can buy it at the Getty Museum shop.