June 9, 2011

New ideas and inspirations!

Hello Friends!
Well, in the aftermath of finishing those invites, I have spent a little bit of time getting back to some art that has been waiting for some love.  When I made this post I was asking the question, where do I go from here with my bird skull illustration.  Well, after letting the work sit in my studio for a while and really just staring at it...I have just been letting inspiration come to me to tell me where my next steps should be.

I have actually found my inspiration for finishing the work in my teaching practice, though it was completely unintentional. While working for the AGC I have had the wonderful privilege of being able to teach about an artist who creates incredibly complicated and detailed works to talk about his First Nations identity.  I have really found an affinity for his work, and I have been teaching a program called Land Image Story quite a bit the last while that is all about his work.

One day, without thinking of anything, I just picked up some chalk and started working on the rest of this piece.  Thoughts of Alex Janvier had not entered my head at all, but I see how the time that I have spent speaking about his ideas and techniques for telling his own story has affected my own artistic practice. 
I had known that this piece would need some company, that it would not be a work to stand alone.  So I hummed and hawed thinking of what I could possibly draw that might compliment the bird skull without being too didactic.  I think I was able to figure it out.  Arrow fletching seemed to fit the bill.  It has the organic nature of the feathers, the skill of being hand made, and the whimsy of another time. 

Here are the two of them together.  I intend to complete one more work, that is smaller.  The board has already been prepped with gesso and lace, and I am just waiting for that final inspiration to help me decide what the subject matter will be.

All in all, this work is a huge departure for me in what I normally do, so I am curious as to how well it will be received.  I feel relieved to be able to work confidently with such bright punches of colour, but I am still kind of finding my wings in that area. 

I have spent so long working on tonal drawings that I have been very very hesitant to ever include bold colour (ever since I was told that I was bad at it in art school!)  But I think that the colours that I have chosen speak to the colours that I have surrounded myself with and that make me feel the kind of energy that I wanted these works to evoke. 



Any feedback for me friends?
xoxo
Loves and Kisses!

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