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| Untitled work in progress |
Sometimes when you start a project, whether it’s art or some
other creative expression, you began to question whether it is going in the
direction you want. You have the image in your head of what you want it to be,
but somehow it just didn’t translate once it was down on paper. Then its time
to stop and think it over (as the old song says). It’s better to have a few
days delay than to rush it and really mess it up. Experience has taught me that
I have a tendency to “over-do” my paintings by thinking that it needs just a
few more dabs of paint. Within minutes, I have gone from the satisfaction of
creating something expressive and creative to something gauche or
over-pretentious. As creative people, we
have to learn to trust ourselves enough to make the right decisions about how
we are going to create and shape our work, oftentimes a difficult task.
I am having the same dilemma with my current art project. I
am a great fan of Art Nuevo with its flowing, heavy lines and ethereal quality
that conveys a very perceptive, intuitive, and magical quality take seems to
take us to another realm. For quite some time I had wanted to recreate those
same qualities in a piece. I started on a project last week. So far it has gone
pretty well (aside for the physical difficulty-sitting for hours drawing under
bad lighting), first with pencil, then with a black Sharpie marker. I quartered
the paper to work in smaller spaces, because of the intricate detail, so
currently it is one-quarter done. Much to my chagrin, I also confess to being a
fan also of glitter and metallic markers. I had envisioned using them would
create a very sparkling, bright and shiny work and was anxious to see what the
finished piece would look like colored with these markers. Big mistake. After
coloring in a small section with a glitter marker, I felt I should have left
well enough alone. In black and white, it was much more dramatic and
reminiscent of Art Nuevo without being colored in. I found that the stark
contrast between the black ink on white canvas was what I had in mind
originally……but now I was committed to finishing the entire project with
colored markers just for continuity’s sake. I will post the finished piece when finished and let my readers be the judge.
A moral to this story? Take your time. Choose wisely. Doesn’t
take much to ruin a good thing….In life as well as art…but on the bright side…there
is always a new canvas to paint.
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| Happy Valentine's Day! |
Namaste-Mariehelena
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