Give me the pages, I want to handle them
Give me the person, I want to hold him
Give me the paint, I want to use it
Give me the ink, I want to spill it
Something about this blog format wigs me out. It overcomplicates my thoughts, muddling them. Maybe it's the little beige box, surrounding my words, keeping them all neat and aligned. Or maybe it's my irritation with the limited formatting options. But something about this method of expression bothers me.
I want to be able to touch my work, let my handwriting loop more loosely as I daydream, doodle. I so much prefer writing out my ideas than typing.
I've always been the kind of person to let things develop freely, by themselves. I like to watch my art create itself, rather than forcing it to be created. My hand carries out my thoughts on a page, or a wall, or a piece of wood. There is no such thing as a mistake, every mark matters, means something, contributes to the overall message.
My art digs deeper into my mind than my mind itself, teaching me about myself, and about my thoughts.
Take this piece for example:
This piece originated from the mess of another piece.
I love using my fingers to paint. I feel so much more connected to the art that way. Needless to say, it gets a little messy. After completing a finger painting of a flying lady, my hands needed some serious cleaning. I decided to press my palms onto several sheets of paper to get some of the wet paint off before touching the sink's faucet. But when I looked at all hand prints, I was inspired to turn them into art. I sat down and started drawing immediately.
For the above piece, I started by tracing the outline of my hand four times in pencil over the hand prints. Then, I outlined the spaces between the fingers. When I stepped away from the paper, I noticed that the many outlines looked like a grenade. The piece immediately took a social justice turn for me. So, I added the sun on the bottom right, and the earth with its moon on the bottom left.
...a couple messy hand prints led to some hand tracing...
...which led to a grenade...
...which led to a social justice interpretation...
...which led me to draw the sun and earth...
In the end, the piece became about humanity and its control over the balance between life and destruction. The many different colors of paint used in the hand prints represent the many different people responsible for humanity's pain. The hands form and hold the grenade, but sit on top of the earth, suggesting humanity is responsible for bringing destruction to the earth.
So, I like learning from my art. I like learning from its development. I like going in with a mess and finding the beauty. I like starting with a doodle and making it a masterpiece.
