I hope today finds you happy and festive. I am sitting in New Hampshire at my sister in laws house as I write this. It is a house in the country and we are surrounded by trees and snow. We had a white Christmas. It was very nice...but now...I am ready to leave. There is only so much one can do out here...and I think I have done it! LOL I guess I really am a city girl. Tomorrow, I will head off to Vermont to see the rents (parents) old homestead. Whenever I come this way, I always go back and check out the house where they used to live and were my sisters and I would gather on holidays when we all lived here on the east coast. I will be buying some maple syrup to take home with me and also will be taking pictures. Then on Thursday, we head back down to Boston for a day of sightseeing and then fly back home to Las Vegas on Friday. I am ready for home. My own bed, my doggie, my kitties and just the comfort of home. When I return, I will be posting some pics of the beautiful snow that we had here. I do miss it sometimes, but for the most part...NO. I have been trying to read the book Fools Gold, Making Something From Nothing, by Susan Wooldridge. I figured that this would be prime reading time but I can not get into this book. It has some good ideas at times, but I have to read 10 pages to get to the one paragraph that resonates with me... It has been a struggle. I guess it's because I am not a new age kinda girl. Do all the art books around that tell you how to get in touch with your creative being have to be so...I don't know what word I am looking for....out there??? maybe I don't want to dredge down deep in my soul and conjure up injuries from the past so I can create..... I want to find the fun part of life...the whimsical, childlike essence in me that is free to do whatever I want... I guess I am finding I am not liking these books on the creative process because none of them are for me... Am I alone in this? Do most artists like all this free flowing hippie BS? So...here I sit...in the middle of nowhere...thinking there are not many of us out there...the semi normal not "artsy" artists...does that make sense? I guess I will sign off for now until I get back to Vegas...maybe all this fresh air is affecting my brain!
Comments
To address the overall question, really, of the post......perhaps one or two "get in touch with your inner self" to create art is good. But I do like the premise of childlike essence, fun and whimsical.
Let's hear it for twirling around outside under the stars until you just fall down silly dizzy (in the grass, hopefully and not on the rocks I have in MY yard) and making shadow animals on the wall in front of a nightlight...and laugh out loud catinthehat books.
Glad you had some time back East...now fly on home!!!
xo Rella
Cindy - I too love the whimsey and fun in art these days. Maybe we save the book for another stage of our life.
Happy new year...hope to see you in 08!
I am way behind on blogging and blog reading, and I hope you had a beautiful Christmas...
and you are not alone... I did not read this particular book, but I always scan and "cull" what I find relevant in all the artsy books these days, because much of it doesn't work for me. (but I do like to gather twigs, I must confess.)
Love this! That's really a very good topic -- what artists draw on (no... not the paper, I'm talking internal material) to create. I used to be a poet, and found I could draw both from my joyful side, and some pretty painful stuff as well. Now that I'm exploring visual media, I get the same thrill of creation, but always from a happier place. I have an unfinished altered book started during a very conflicted time... it's interesting work, but I can't finish it. I just can't go back to that ugly place. Maybe because it is nonverbal(mostly, I like to use text too), visual art to me is a direct link to that childhood "whee!" of getting the big box of crayons, 64 colors, with built-in sharpener. Remember that? The smell? Mmmmm. As for the "new age" artist's advice, I had to laugh along with you. God help me if I start taping crystals to my forehead, instead of putting them in the art piece!