Time out (in Australia) Week One

It’s been a super busy and rewarding year with some amazing commissions and collaboration opportunities I feel so grateful for :)

It has meant, however, that I’ve had less time to develop my personal works and explore some new ideas and media. So when the opportunity came my way to spend the [British] autumn on the Sunshine Coast in Australia, it was the time out I yearned for to focus.

Studio view

It’s now October and I’m here in sunny Maroochydore! The view from my new work space over a section of the Maroochy river isn’t bad, eh? And there’s no better place to ponder the deeper questions than on Cotton Tree beach.

For the next eight/nine weeks I’ll be diving into a personal project I’ve been wanting to explore for a while. It’s a continuation of my Year of Expression where my central goal was to achieve genuine self expression as inspired by the Abstract Expressionists in New York in the 1960s. In this period, I want to explore the idea of creating images that reflect what the world looks like through the eyes of anxiety and depression.

It’s been my objective for my entire creative life to tell my story the best way I can. I believe, this is the strongest foundation and skillset for any artist/creative to master. It’s how we “find our own voice”.

time to reflect on cotton tree beach!

I’m armed with a number of tools that will guide me on this journey. For the fun studio stuff: “Free Up Your Art” a short course by artist Tara Leaver and “The Artist’s Journey” by Nancy Hillis M.D. Both of these resources will teach me better exploration, confidence in mark-making and discovering a personal visual lexicon. For digging deeper and grappling with the hard questions “What’s Your Artist Identity?” by Dr Eric Maisel. This is important because I’m concerned by how self-expression can become too self-absorbing and indulgent. In order to counterbalance, Dr Maisel helps artists with the “meaning-making” question of our existence [as artists]; making pretty pictures isn’t enough, we have a fundamental need for meaning and that requires us to interact with the world and offer something of human value. Maisel’s book will help me figure out what that means for me. (I’m gonna need that beach time)

My materials box is selective; I was careful to pack wisely, with a limited colour palette and a few must-have tools, but I believe limitation is often the springboard to creativity. [And there’s a pretty good art and fabrics store not too far away!]

setting my intentions

• I want to create works that reflect what the world looks like through the eyes of anxiety and depression.

• I want to explore further the question of my identity as an artist/creative and how I interact with society. (Using Dr Eric Maisel’s Book, “Your Artist Identity”)

• I want to develop my sketchbook practice. In art school I filled several shelf fulls of these, but since then computers have taken over my life and I’ve lost the skill of working out an idea on paper rather than piecing it together digitally. And I love sketchbooks!

• I’m going to be working with some new materials: oil paints and pigment sticks. I hope to gain some new insight and skill with these, but also have some serious play time!

Week one: free up your art - tara leaver

I was initially inspired to create continuous-line doodles by a course I took on Skillshare. It was a game-changer for me as I’ve never believed I was particularly good at drawing (my degree course tutor confirmed this fact). It’s been a real persistent stumbling block to my confidence as an artist, so to have a breakthrough by simply relaxing, looking and calling them “doodles” rather than drawings has improved my skills considerably.

Tara Leaver, in this course, takes the continuous-line doodle to the next level on day one, with Blind Contour Drawing. We first arrange a paper collage of different sizes, textures and colours. We then draw the subject of our choice (a still life is best) with our pen on the paper, but our eyes on the subject. The idea being that as our eyes move over the object, our hand and pen follows. We then separate the collage and are left with a number of abstract pieces that can be used as “starts” for further work.

As I’m in love with monoprint drawing at the moment, I decided this would be my medium of choice rather than a pen. I simply love the quality of line the monoprint produces -especially on these diverse papers!

As we complete several different blind contour drawings - and have a wonderful selection of odd pieces - we can go on to construct new abstract works.

Although this exercise produced images of varying degrees of success, it sparked a rush of ideas for my project.

As I’ve tackled the question of creating images that reflect how I see the world through anxiety, I’ve been working with the idea of “everything happening at once”. Every day - and every moment - I’m engaged in a continual battle for calm with a constant noise in my head, from nice things like songs, to annoying things like conversations I had, conversations I should have had, self critique, comparison to others, conversations I want to have, visions of disasters, recollections, concerns about travel, concerns about dinner, concerns about how others see me, public humiliation, concerns about how others may not see me, the list is endless.

I endeavour to find some quiet amidst this noise by mindfully focusing on the present to enjoy the place I find myself in. It takes a lot of practice and I am getting better, but during an intense period of anxiety, it’s exhausting.

In terms of capturing this snapshot on canvas, I’ve previously played with paint layering techniques, but I love how deconstructed Blind Contour monoprint drawings may offer an interesting alternative. It translates well onto fabric also. It was the perfect excuse this week to visit the local fabric store and begin a collection of various weight cottons, linens and other curious options. I love the work of Taylor Anton White and early work of Jorge Luis Santos who stitch together pieces of paper and fabric to make their canvases and tell their stories. As I’ve come from a fashion and textile background, i’ve been looking for ways to use this as a foundation to my work.

In the next lesson in Tara Leavers’ course, it looks like I’ll have a chance to experiment with fabric and explore this very idea!