Artful Thinking

5th February 2021

I have a few questions on my mind a lot of late. Some being, am I exploring fully my creative artistic licence? not fully. Am I authentic, honest? I try to be. Am I holding back? Yes, I think I am.

You would think at my age I‘d be over all this by now, but I’m only just beginning to figure this conundrum out. Will I ever figure this out, or will it become a lifetime worth of work?

I have always been an over doer, I have gone through various stages throughout my years as an artist, like conforming, to educating myself, to rebelling and healing. The most interesting part of what I do is allowing room for adventure and the unusual to manifest. I love spontaneity, to play with the surface and the medium and so by doing this, I feel I will become a better artist. There have been eras where I have focused on the reality, the realism of what I draw or paint, I’ve also gone through periods where surface and pattern is a priority. At present I am interested with exploring the unlikely, the wrong way (is there a wrong way?) I use the rebellious route. I have a large blank canvas in front of me waiting to be brought to life. I find myself not wanting an agenda, what I will be covering the blankness with? I just want to begin somewhere, perhaps with a certain colour or texture or something I leave out intentionally. No matter what I do, it all was not there before I started? Even the bits I intentionally leave out will have been brought to attention.

I think artists are wired differently; I think there must be a mixture of differing elements to come together to create an artist. For example, the right hemisphere is the strongest in creatives, but there is more, I thin, than just this. The individual will have experienced many varying difficulties with their emotions throughout their lives, maybe even experienced traumatic situations, (this pandemic will have produced a lot of creative thinkers by the time it's past). To be a good artist you need patience and stillness as well as a busy mind, a constant battle, an internal tug of opposing sides. You need to know how to balance this and use it effectively. And if you want to earn a living from this magical gift/curse you need to be astute and business minded. We do not have to have the Van Goughs or the starving artists in this day and age, as we have social media platforms! But on a more serious note, mental health issues and the arts tend to go hand in hand. There is a special bond between these two areas. Art in the mental health sector is only just starting to take practice, although I do not think the true appreciation here is not fully understood by society yet.

So, to make an artist we need a mixed bag of genetics and social outcomes. Nature AND Nurture. Is it another “Egg and Chicken” scenario? Which came first the artist then the life, or the life then the artist? I think I may take a whole lifetime to ponder over that thought and still not have an answer.

Above are a couple of examples of work in progress, I pick up when I have time. I approach these paintings with the method and ideology mentioned in this blog. Its a good feeling to just let go and see where the art takes you.

Going back to my art and how I am going through a stage of spontaneity and playfulness, I like my mind to roam free over the canvas, I become a vessel to travel through, from the hand to the canvas surface. The element of surprise can be achieved in this magical moment. An adventure into the unknown, where will this line go, will it end or met another. I am just as curious as the on looker. I did a similar practice with my jewellery, The Entropy Collection. Which I hope to revisit once I set my bench and tools back together again. My paintings have the same process, I throw together a mixed bag of ideas and see where the journey takes me. This way of working is becoming a common practice/pattern and I should go with it rather than fight against it. Free myself from these restraints, let myself go. As I have always held back trying to conform. I am curious to see where this way of thinking will take me.

One more thing before I go. New art in my shop take a look Shrimps and Flowers https://www.saraboyle.com/product-page/shrimps-and-flowers

Have a lovely weekend all and I will see you again next week