Talk about town … these figures are very busy chatting up a storm … I wonder what the topic is … They almost look as if they are gathering at the village well - where all the important news gets shared. Or is this a vertical painting - a portal with figures guarding the doorway, perched on the top?
I think it fun to see all the different ways to put together the same design elements. In creativity I often find it useful to constrain the variables so I am forced to be creative within limits rather than in total freedom.
Tomorrow I will share the chosen business cards ~ I haven’t had time to prepare the files to upload for the blog yet.
I am having lots of fun playing and making these digital paintings ~ are you? I sure hope so … it is being a lot of fun to just play and see what happens … Neda, is this your Golden Rule? I love the texture in the blue … and how it relates to the yellow. I may well rename some of these later … right now I just want to have fun.
I got caught up today with the work of documenting my finances for the art business … thank goodness that is done! I waited too long so it was hard to recreate the details. Please remind me to keep up better!
But tomorrow I should be able to get back to … ta da … the business card. Hopefully that can get wrapped up tomorrow. Thank you for being in my life and in our community!
Now can this be a circus? Is this fun? I love the swirls and circles … the way the colors - especially the yellows and blues - play off each other keeps my attention. And those different shades of blue swirls engage me.
Castles in air … enter into my world … the chaos of life, reflections of life, reflections of the carnival, reflections of outer space, reflections of inner space …
whimsical, comical, vivid, fun, topsy-turvy, dr suess, children, play … the wild blue yonder …
This is the last of this Gold Leaf series. I had a lot of fun making them. I think they should be rugs or wall hangings. But they look so rich and sumptuous to me - very luxurious.
In the post yesterday, Sue O’Kieffe of Sacred Circles Mandalas said “My art, at its core, is about the Light piercing the darkness. My intent is to find new ways to let the Light shine through !” I love her mandalas and to me her art is about piercing light - the light piercing in many different styles and feelings and outcomes … but all about light and energy.
Even though our work is very different, that is what I want my work to be about too. “Enhance Your Spirit” is my slogan - it is the effect that I want my art to have on people. To me, the uplifting comes from light or love or energy.
Some of my work has specific aspects of light (Conundrum I, the Luminous Angles series) and others I think are more light-filled by the content. Sue’s work is more an emphasis of physical light which then translates into the light of power, love and healing - to me.
Perhaps my work is more about other things shining through - but to me in the same realm of light, power and healing - at least some of my images. One of the Luminous Angles is Heart of Fire if you would like to see that use of light. When I just peeked at the painting again, it does look like Sue’s - light coming through.
Thank you for stopping by and allowing me to share my thoughts ~ I would love to hear what you are thinking about.
In the Northeast U.S. we are having a week of glorious weather … a week that has drawn many of us outside to tackle gardens and reconnect with the earth more directly. This little fellow (a bear cub) is also awake and checking out the world. I feel very full of life and energy.
My studio is functional again. The weatherizing is finished and the studio is put back together and spring-cleaned. There a many projects all pulling at me - in all sorts of different directions. I am going to have to prioritze!
Being an artist in the modern world is a juggling act. Of course, there is creating art. That IS why most, if not all, of us started in the first place. Creating needs to continue. Sometimes it is easy for me to get diverted into the business of art.
I have to learn how to move more gracefully between the creative process of art and the art of business.
In talking with you this week, I am much more at peace about my creative style … or should I say variety of styles. I am grateful for your sharing of my journey. I am happy enough for now to stick with my colorful, whimsical and uplifting styles - internally there is a cohesiveness. Painting is the key for me right now.
Locally, the CDC (Community Development Corporation) featured a business class for artists last fall. Many types of artists were there - painters, photographers, writers, installation artists, musicians and more. I had been hoping for mostly visual artists because I thought they would be the ones I would have more in common with.
Instead there was an incredible wealth and variety of experience and paths. It was extremely helpful to see that we are each carving out our own path in harmony with our creative needs and practical necessities. We could each share our own ideas, and methods and out of that came an incredibly fertile cross-fertilization.
We discovered in the class that we all had a lot to learn (we already knew that!) but we also realized that we all had valuable insights and experiences. We also found out that there are many resources that can help us but common sense and persistent would take us quite the distance.
My feeling grounded and ok about myself and my own process allow me to hear and absorb others’ help. When I start feeling doubtful and judgemental about myself, my life and my work, it is a distraction from getting on with life. But also part of life - I want to be in balance. The upshot is that once again, I need to listen to the experience and advice of others and listen to my internal intuition.
Thank you for sharing this week’s journey with me as I sorted out how I am and how I want to be in relationship with my painting.
I so much appreciate that many people share their experience and wisdom through blogs, websites, books, email, the phone and conversations. I am delighted that artists (and others) are very generous. Workshops and classes are another exciting way to connect with people. The amount of information is immediate, helpful and sometimes a little overwhelming.
This abstract design signifies the continuing of the discussions from posts earlier this week … Another area in which many share a lot of advice is the how to be successful as an artist. Many of the strategies are consistent and similar, and others are pretty divergent.
Sometimes I feel that I should passionately throw myself into the creative process of painting and sideline much of the rest of life. Some people have taken great leaps of faith and have realized their dreams of success with much hard work and some luck. I could focus on painting and drop much else that I do.
Other times, I think the slow steady way is right for me. I keep building this art business, but at the same time I also do graphic design and web design for clients. Also, many times people will ask me to do a job here and there with computer skills - convert some files from vector to bitmap or put their kitty into a field of flowers.
I did make a comittment last fall to myself, my artwork and my business - Any new volunteer work needs is to be directly connected to art. I have taken responsibility for managing part of a website for local artists and I am the chair of the Visual Artists Group in Franklin County. I feel those comittments enhance networking and support me as an artist even though they take time.
Doing my paid design and computer work allow me to keep my paid work in a creative field. That is working for me right now. Thank you for sharing in my clarifying process.
I admire artists who feel an incredible passion for only one type of creating. I have a friend, Tom Wyatt, a fine art photographer, who has made a decision that a particular type of photography, especially water reflections, is what inspires him. Another photographer friend, Gloria Kegeles, photographs only car reflections.
Susan Elkin, another fine photographer, loves to shoot series using the lights she finds at night (Night Light Series). But she also photographs landscape, portraits and reflections. One of her landscapes fools everyone - they are sure it is a painting, not a photograph. Her work has a unifying theme of revealing the mystery - whether of a person, place or thing.
This process of writing to you about these issues is actually helping me a great deal. In fact I am writing these several posts all at once to share with you day by day. I like to read posts that are moderate in length, so I am writing these thoughts in (short) chapters.
I am feeling more at peace with my decision to create different kinds of artwork. Perhaps there is a unifying theme and perhaps I am fooling myself. But I am now accepting that, for now at least, this is my process. Much more important than choosing one medium and style is doing more painting!!
There is one more piece that gets my thoughts twirling in this very wise business advice. Sometimes I wonder if I should throw myself passionately into just creating artwork and give myself the possibility of making it to a much higher level through my hard work and luck. More on that tomorrow … Thank you for being with me in my process.
It is a delicate balance - I currently believe - between pleasing oneself and pleasing customers. Certainly, I am not going to create artwork that does not please me. There is no point to that. I am also creating work not just for myself but for others aslo. It is part of my mission statement. I want people to be uplifted by my work. When I create, I feel that I am creating for all of us (who are inspired by my work). I feel I am allowing myself to be a channel for the life force - it is not mine.
I am continuing the ruminations from the last two days posts about the unifying themes of color, uplifting, whimsical and poetic quality in my artwork. I am showcasing these abstract designs during this discussion as part of a unifying theme for these thoughts. As I mentioned, sometimes I think it is enough that in certain ways my work does hang together as a body of work with many subgroups.
But other times I think I should specialize much more tightly. But which part to give up? This is another aspect of being an artist in business. Many people love my enhanced animal images - they are some of my best sellers. Am I supposed to drop that part of my work because it is a “lighter” type of art? I first showcased my goddess collages, and some people then wanted more choices. That is how I got into printing cards myself - to be able to supply people with the variety they desire.
For me it is an odd balance of being an artist of pleasing me and pleasing my audience. I am going to continue these thoughts tomorrow.
Speaking of traveling (yesterday’s post), this little kitty did some traveling … that is how he was “Arriving.” He went on the journey to the next plane and this painting was part of my grieving process. I see his arriving to a place where he is celebrated as the cool kitty he is … this is his arrival where everyone is delighted to see him!
As you can tell if you have been following these posts, I dearly love this little kitty. I have plans to paint more pictures of him. I enjoy doing this kind of spontaneous painting.
A friend of mine was training with Michele Cassou to teach “The Magic of Painting as Spontaneous Expression.” I had already found a book and video of Michele’s work and technique before I knew my friend was taking classes. I had been using the techniques on my own, so I jumped at the chance to be a test student for my friend.
Two of the paintings I created in this class, “Arriving” and “Underground,” are very popular for me in cards. Hopefully tomorrow I will get to Etsy and ArtFlock. Perhaps this will be one of the cards that I sell at those online stores.
To me this looks deep - life being created right before our eyes … Again it is 3D - I can go right inside this image and floating around with the rest of the pieces of matter and life. We are now at the beginning of this year’s cycle of life (in the northern hemisphere). Time to start afresh!
I created 17 different images in the Beginning Life series. Once I got going playing with this set of digital paintings, I couldn’t stop. They are so similar yet so different. Years ago, someone suggested they would be fantastic in a video. I think I know how to do that now and it is on my list of things to do.
This was created entirely in the computer program Painter with KPT filters. As with many of my other digital images, extensive layering is involved to create the translucent properties of this painting.
I think I will translate this image into a different color scheme. Those of you who follow my work know that green is not my usual choice. I wonder what this would look like in my pink/purple/aqua. I will get back to you on that.
I love working with actual, physical, paint. There is something so satisfying about using physical paints (as opposed to digital paints.) This is another painting from my goddess series with, obviously, the double-face theme. For one of my friends, this is her absolute favorite image of all my artwork.
This creative process has an interesing origin. A long time ago, I stumbled on this image of double eyes and faces from fooling around with early digital equipment.
I found out that if I moved my my head one way while photographing myself with the video equipment, my face became a series of peaks. Moving my face in the other direction, made my face stretch out. I still have the orginal printout that I made into a grid. Sometime I will scan it and show you.
Even though it’s beginning came from a mistake (or divine inspiration), I have found this to be a powerful motif that is worth repeating again and again.
Each person seems to have their own interpretation of this idea. In my experience, people are often sure that their sense of the double faces is what I intended. To me, that seems to indicate that I have tapped into a deep inner connection that speaks loudly for many.
I find myself mesmerized by these double faces. There is a way that I feel “feed” on a soul level. I feel connected to me deep inside.
A couple of days ago I showcased a pastel version of this painting in the post The Empty Chair - Pastel. The original pastel was created in the slide room - see the post Creating Inside and Out if you want to read about this creative process. I thought it would be fun to create the same image in different mediums - so I did.
It is interesting to me to see the differences. The blues give dissimilar feels - the blue in this acrylic painting lets light into the picture. I see a distinct time of day in this image … there is a lot of light flooding into the space of the empty chair. The emptiness doesn’t feel forlorn to me as the other one does.
The use of color rather than just the mediums themselves give them some of their variety. This woman looks more seamless to me instead of shadowy. Remember, the other painting was created in the slideroom so I didn’t have as much control over the materials. Chance played a much bigger part.
But, to me, it looks like the same artist painted these even though the color and feel is distinctive. (Yes, I know I did.) I know which of these two worlds I would prefer to enter into …
“The Empty Chair” is another pastel that was created in the slide room. You can read about the details of this creative process in the post Creating Inside and Out. I also have an acrylic version of this painting that I will showcase in the next couple of days.
It is interesting to me to see the difference in images when I put them into different mediums. My teacher, Michael Coblyn, used to talk about how each time one takes an image and translates it to another medium, it is important to see it as a new painting.
He encouraged us to not get caught up in trying to duplicate the image but instead to look at it as a new creation. This thinking has been incredibly helpful to me as I have taken my paintings created in traditional mediums and translated them into digital paintings.
After I created this pastel, I took a good hard look at it - and it was very striking to me. That empty chair in the window is very poignant to me - it feels very lonesome. I was caught in just creating and then stepped back and feel that there is a lot of power in this image.
Diane Clancy creates vibrant paintings that feature color and vision to inspire and uplift people. Says Diane, "I feel very blessed to have this opportunity to express myself through painting. I love that people say my artwork enhances their lives."
Diane belongs to Worldwide Women Artists Online, an international collective of women artists showing and selling our work online. For more original art direct from the women who create it, search WWAO.
Diane Clancy creates vibrant paintings that feature color and vision to inspire and uplift people. Says Diane, "I feel very blessed to have this opportunity to express myself through painting. I love that people say my artwork enhances their lives."
