creativity – Page 2 – Mixy's Art Blog

Water in Parallel: Bring in the Deities

The two Water paintings have been progressing along since I last showed you. The biggest development has been that they are now populated with deities.

I’ve invited in the spirits of some gods and goddesses from all parts of our history and mythology.

In keeping with the themes, these are rulers of water and creativity.

Over the last couple of weeks they’ve merged into the swirls. As they become part of their environment and with the water theme very much established I’ve released the color rule of only blues. And zing doesn’t the blue become suddenly so much bluer!

As soon as I can coordinate some good lighting with the camera and paintings in the same place at the same time I’ll show you the finished pieces.

ideas about ideas about ideas…

I’ve been processing thoughts on and around the creative process over the weekend. Unravelling thought processes.

In my exploration I can across this article ‘Find your creative currency’. It invites us to explore where our ideas emerge from. Like the author I can happily binge on texture.

concrete. what's not to love. — concrete. Deliciously speckly – what’s not to love.

Tree bark, rocks, skin, textiles, metals (and everything else) – they all have the potential to release a new stream of wanna-make/draw/invent/etc.

But more so I get this from arrangements of color. A little grouping colors – a patch of nature or a window display, the clothes on a passing stranger or a row of parked cars. These are magical gifts to a color hungry mind. I have been known to stop and gaze at a stretch of brickwork or a row of books on a shelf for just this reason.

Really?

Really, no, not known to. Because I don’t generally tell people that’s what’s going on.

(But I do it, and that’s why.)

What if….

Of all the things we cling to, I find expected outcomes are hard to drop. Some hope of sense of stability or control… That desire to know what’s next, where I’m steering towards and what it’ll look like when I get there. Which I know isn’t real.

Just imagine the possibilities that could show themselves.

I’ve been giving this a lot of thought lately.

Last night I was listening to Darryl Anka. He’s one of those people who has a wonderfully down-to-earth quality offsetting some totally out there ideas. Some of which I know are hard to entertain for a lot of folks… but I was particularly fascinated by this talk. (It’s a loooong talk, this bit is around 58 mins in if you wanna cut to the chase!)

He’s saying the same — the key to the magic in life:
Do what you love, what excites and enriches you
Do it to the absolute utmost of your ability
Do it with no attachment to the outcome.

So I’ll persevere …

It’s simple: You take so…

It’s simple: You take something and do something to it, and then you do something else to it. Keep doing this, and pretty soon you’ve got something

In adopting this premise put forward by Jasper Johns that to create is: ‘take something and do something to it’, and I like to suspend expectation, then just ‘keep doing things’.

Popular wisdom cautions us that creation can go too far – ruined by not knowing when to stop, fidgeting and niggling the spontaneity and spirit away, from whence it cannot be reclaimed.

Unless you choose otherwise.

I’m playing with a new attitude.

One in which there cannot be a point where I step back and tell myself, after critical consideration: This is shit, this has failed, I can’t do this, this is not what I planned, followed up by I give up. If, at the time I observe and consider progress, there is no judgement; either it’s done, or it isn’t.

And even if it is, maybe some more will be done to it another time.

It’s all ephemeral.

“It’s simple: You take something and do something to it, and then you do something else to it. Keep doing this, and pretty soon you’ve got something”

In adopting this premise put forward by Jasper Johns that to create is to: ‘take something and do something to it’ (I like to suspend expectation) then just ‘keep doing things’.

Popular wisdom cautions us that creation can go too far – ruined by not knowing when to stop, fidgeting and niggling the spontaneity and spirit away, from whence it cannot be reclaimed.

Unless you choose otherwise.

I’m playing with a new attitude.

One in which there cannot be a point where I step back and tell myself, after critical consideration: this is shit; this has failed; I can’t do this; this isn’t what I planned; followed up by I give up. If, at the time I observe and consider progress, there is no judgement; either it’s done, or it isn’t.

And even if it is, maybe some more will be done to it another time.

It’s all ephemeral.