Thursday 29 March 2012

Scratching for inspiration .......


I imagined a blog would be somewhere I would be able to share points of inspiration and every now and then showcase my work - complete, resolved ....... 

For a couple of days I have been bouncing around ideas for a new artist's book and though I have been experimenting with a range of techniques,  I am not sure that I will be able to pull them together.  Rather than not disclose this, I realised that I am not alone with my scratching.  Very often we have ideas in place and start to bring them into play - only to find that all is not working out as planned, ideas sometimes have a way treading their own paths - mastering you rather than the other way around.  This is not the perfect way, but it is often the way images resolve ..... starting as one thing, metamorphosing, repeatedly, until the result is far from the initial intent.  Sometimes the talent is in recognising when this magic is happening, and letting the artwork speak for itself.

These scratchings are not yet there - but I have hopes that they may form a conversation of pages in one of my books.






No magic here yet. Maybe thread, more paint ........ it may be the rubbish bin after all.  

The book box has worked out well ...... transformed with lots of graphite powder and PVA.  Eventually there will be pages in the story.

8 comments:

  1. These sctatchings look pretty delicious to me, Susan xoxox

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  2. kind words Noela but trust me, they look very ordinary 'in the flesh'. Enough there to make me try again though... x

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  3. I agree with Noela. Your scratchings look good from over here (Connecticut, USA) too. I wonder at their size? A friend of mine who is also an artist, fiber, starts large and usually ends up cropping. While I always fall in love with the initially large piece, once she crops and turns 1 into 2 or 3 or more, the magic simply bursts out. Then it is possible to focus on that little bit there...or this delicious section here...

    I wonder...are you scratchings large enough to crop? Just a thought.

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  4. you are a delight Jennifer! Wish the image was large enough to crop - I totally agree with you that very often a section of a larger work has the magic working where the rest of it falls flat. Truth is, there was very little going for this little piece but I am committed to honest blogging ..... bad along with the good, and sometimes inspired!

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    1. Honest blogging. I'm all for that, but remember where one sees bad, another sees good...especially those of us who are scratch-challenged.

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  5. I'm with Jennifer. Creative play often produces large mediocre pieces that contain several small gems. These gems often end up as a pivotal part of another work.

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  6. susan, i like your candor. if it's not happening, it's not. it's brave to put it out there when you're uncertain. sometimes the discussion solidifies your thoughts.

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  7. thanks to you all for your comments ....... I am certainly one for creative play and find very often this leads onto inspiration. Am actually going to blog on this very thing soon.

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I appreciate your comments - thank you!