mixed media art – Page 17 – Mixy's Art Blog

The Year of the Heart Wide Open

Earlier this year I embarked on an art project that crept up on me and took me unaware. I didn’t see its approach – no rustling in the background – no warning at all.

One moment it wasn’t there at all in my world, then BOOM it was there: front and centre in my field of attention, large as life, impatient to be made. Suddenly the biggest most important messy painty colorful thing in my life was this book:

The Complete Short Stories of W Somerset Maugham (volume 3).

I’m not sure where it came from, but somewhere down the line I rescued this shabby orphaned volume from an uncertain fate.

It’s destiny now was to become an ingredient for ART.

Along with the stacks of magazines I set to work on filling the book with colour and collage.

Over the course of a few months this book became my retreat from the doubts and the obstacles in the outside world. When ideas weren’t showing up for me, I dove into the book and let my unconscious put together shapes and words. When in doubt, play.

I’ve shown you some of the developmental stages already, but now the book has got to a point I’m calling pretty much finished I thought you might like to see it altogether in a flip through.

The song, from whence I adopted this title, is by Winterbloom* and is in the movie Indie Kindred. *since I put together the video a couple of months ago the Winterbloom website seems to have fallen off the interwebz. Such is the constant moving and changing of the world.

When I watched the film this song got caught up in the wheels of my mind. It’s all about creative collaborations and the mutual support of the tribe, which mirrored a lot of what’s been going on for me lately. And this year I have felt my life open up to a new phase. This book is one of its illustrations.

With more than 40 pages the flip is separated into 3 episodes. I’ll share them over the next few days by way of something bright and fun as my holiday gift to you, dear digital friends. With much love X

~ Part 1
~ Part 2
~ Part 3

ingredients of a week (49/52)

In no particular order, this week’s page is built out of these things…

Derwent XL Graphite (same folks who make the Inktense stuff). Big chunky blocks that are also water soluble. Great for grubby grimy grunge. Vague shapes and noises to form the ambiance.

Brené Brown vividly describes something I’ve been focused on this year, these words showed up this week…

“Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.”

Scroobius Pip – The Beat That My Heart Skipped (and much more). Such a fine Wordsmith, a rhyming genius…

“Especially in this instance
Never ending persistence
To use the words in each sentence
As if they were blunt instruments
To beat a hole in their defence
Of this beauty and her innocence
Which serves to build resistance
In spite of all my good intents.”

Copic Pens (I don’t have them with me, I forget exactly which ones) – lovely delicate translucent colors. Layers of hazy background.

Sakura Gelly Roll Pens Oh my! I could just write for miles and miles in these pens. Buttery soft. Love. And some colours really zing too.

Regular old graphite pencils. Everything about writing and drawing in pencil whisks me back to childhood. Mixed memories. Shiny greys on the page, shiny grey smudges on pages, on hands, on faces… Timeless.

Carne Griffiths I fell across CG’s work again on DeviantArt this week. I remembered it from researching drawing styles online for an artschool project a couple of years or so back. Some aspects of his style has leaked back into my subconscious this week. (I’m glad)

Perspective. Is upsidedown intrinsically wrong and in need of re-orienting? Writing is more than words of information, it’s shapes and connections and flow. The angle of the eyeline defines the view not the object. That’s what everything in the news boils down to (from where I’m looking)

Pilot Gel Ink Pen Super rich black ink, words spill out with ease.

Thanks for dropping by…………X

a calling to the tribe

Edit 17 December: There are just TWO SPACES left to fill. If you’re hovering on the brink of signing up, this may be your last chance….

…You can whisk yourself over to HERE to soak up some more of the details to help you decide.

…………………………………………

A couple of posts ago I was telling you about IGNITE, the course I took with Dirtyfootprints Studio. I’m still resonating from the abundance I found there.

If it’s something you’re interested in exploring, Connie Solera, our beautiful guide and genius behind it all is offering a free information call on Monday December 14 @ 12pm PST / 3pm EST / 8pm GMT

If you can’t make the date there will be a recording available to all who register.

2016 Adventures…

What adventures do you have lined up for the upcoming year?

Are you a planner, or a wait’n’see-er? I’m a bit of both.

I like to have some looking-forward-to-things lined up, pre-booked, so that creeping apathy or the inner critic can’t persuade me to wriggle out. But if I start organising my time too much I get freaked, run away … sometimes have to sleep it off.

Since 2009 when I returned to education, I’ve taken on at least one big learning project each year. One in which I’ve had to show up to the commitment I made. Partly through a loyalty to the others involved, but mostly to myself. Accepting a challenge. Jumping in.

In 2015 joined up for IGNITE, an online course for women artists run by the gorgeously wonderful Connie Solera of Dirty Footprint Studio.

I was so inspired by Connie’s series of artist interviews, the 21 Secrets Conversations. Right from the off I was fascinated by listening to all these artists describe the path that’s led them through their careers. But even more than this, I kept going back to watch more, I was totally entranced by the joy and love that fills every episode. I just knew I’d found my tribe. I felt at home.

Over the year in IGNITE we developed and grew together as a group. We’re dotted about all over the world, so our meet ups were digital, but they were frequent and will be ongoing. It’s been the most amazing ride, through which I’ve got to meet and know some really inspiring new friends whose lives are in tune with the same creative energy.

…this video was part of a project I created back in the summer for IGNITE…

Emerging from the course I’ve got a much clearer understanding of my creative process, far more so than 3 years in conventional art education. I’ve developed a stronger sense of being-ness. A sense of freedom and possibility has replaced the sense of limbo I began the year in. I really generated the momentum for the bounding leap into my next paint-fueled adventures.

IGNITE is an intensive course, it runs annually. In 2016 the course will begin again in early January. So are you wondering….?

Are you at a point in your creativity where you feel ready to stretch forward into a more exciting, dynamic phase?

Does it make you feel skippy inside to think of becoming part of a global tribe of soulful spirits ?

At the time of writing I believe there are a handful of places left – so if you’re interested scoot over there now and check it out before they get snapped up. Ooh, and on top of that – this year Connie is enlisting four IGNITE Alumni to act as mentors. And yes, one of them is me 🙂

Come and join us – it will be so much fun!

thinking in digital

I got back into art after a long while away from it. Whilst ‘grown up life’ was busy occupying too much of my time and I pedantically stood in the way of where I wanted to be, I dwelt in a creative famine that lasted for too many years to recall.

The thing that brought me back to life was digital art: I acquired myself a computer with all kinds of glorious programs and bit by bit (ha!) I fathomed out how to make use of them. I began in Adobe Photoshop. And I fell in love with pixel pushing.

At this time I lived in a tiny one-room rented flat. Painting wasn’t viable: This carpet was new when I moved in, I paint messy, I can’t afford to lose the deposit.

Digital was my perfect solution.

The ‘desk’ where my computer was homed was a big shelf unit, with the tower on the floor, the ginormous CRT monitor on one shelf, the keyboard and mouse on a piece of board I perched on my lap.

Ideal?

No.

But I was entranced by the magic of what could be done, so comfort and ergonomics were very much secondary.

After all, this is where my soul belongs: in the midst of a multicoloured frenzy of streaming ideas and glory. I Stuff like this began happening…

And a short while, and on with the addition of digital camera, bits of ‘reality’ entered the mix.

I got massive value from the magazines that were about at the time – we’re looking back about 10-12 years ago now. All my spare money went on anything with Photoshop in the title.

I devoured the tutorials, I dabbled and played.

I was up all night on this stuff. A lot!

I got my collaging head on.

And I took my ideas with me down this rabbithole of dreamscape.

(I’ve been there ever since)

fullmoon meltdown (26/52)

Everything begins with an idea. Everything.

See the little tiny bits of neon pink in there? That’s the idea that set this page running. I saw this colour in the art shop forever-ago. I’m not a pinky kinda person but I had a really visceral attraction to this particularly teeth-jangling shade, and it was in my head until I had to buy it last week.

It’s a colour that says Bite Me.

If I was in charge of naming paint colours it would be called Don’tFuckAbout Pink. Then for some reason that wouldn’t be allowed. So I’d call it BiteMe Pink. Then I’d get a job someplace else cos I can’t tolerate that level of being told what I can’t say, or what I can’t call colours.

But I digress….

Thing is, I didn’t know what this page would draw out of me. All I knew was it was going to be powerful, virtue of is starting out as these three modest shouts of BiteMe Pink.

Even under all this noise, they can still be heard.

And it was a cacophonous week.

The weekend in the middle (my weeks begin on a Thursday, remember? please keep up) consisted of more than my usual level of soul searching at a creativity workshop. Meeting with extraordinary minds and beautiful souls. Deeply spirit rattling. Still feeling the ripples now. And breathe….

This week concluded the first half of the year.
And this week concluded with a big fat full moon
And the hottest day of the year,
And a literal fullmoon meltdown.

It was monuMENTAL

As illustrated by the many layered frenetic scribbles.

Coalescing finally, as this….

“Be Real ~ Be Awake ~ Be Present ~ Be Now”

last week: remixed (25/52)

Just sometimes I can’t settle and be at peace with a painting.
It’s out there somewhere, or tucked away in a book, and it’s niggling me.
It’s cropping up in my thoughts and interfering in my whatever’s-happening-next-ness.

Last week’s page of the page-a-week project was one of them.

Look, here she is. She looks mis-coloured.

What’s a page with no yellow? No warmth?

No.

Where’s her depth? Can’t leave her cold like this.

Bring on the warm tones!

(I’m happy now!)

Evolution of a Ideas

I love the dance between the digital and the analog.

Set the pixels in place, print and then set to with the tools of a previous age:

Actual cutting with actual scissors

Actual mess with actual paste.

The combination of these colours and the sheen of the medium have given her heads a pearly purity.

(And all that baldness was bothering me.
It’s getting lost now under layers of cut out swirls.)

Poured paint, deluge of color.
But tonally bland.

Contrast added. A sea of souls.

Reaching In

For every action, so they say, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
In balancing the outward reach, a degree of reaching inwards naturally follows

As Im exploring my journey of imagination and making, I’m looking through inner worlds as places of thought and reflection, and I’m acknowledging the past to step into the future.