I’m a creative, experienced, multi-purpose artist and art director
who can take projects start to finish in a variety of styles.

Good designs sell –
my designs sell out!

Friday, December 28, 2012

"New"

My brother had a new canvas.  He propped it against the sofa and studied it for a while.  He got up, got a cup of coffee, and sat down and studied the canvas some more.  He got up, paced around a while, got another cup of coffee, and studied some more.  This went on for a couple of hours and made someone who shall remain nameless absolutely nuts.  “It’s just a white canvas!” She thought all this contemplation was wasting time.  I thought the situation was hysterical, but neither seemed to appreciate my belly laughs about it.

I could see it from both perspectives.  My brother was painting many pictures in his head, so the canvas wasn’t blank to him.  The other person thought all those mental paintings were all well and good, but if none of them actually got painted, they didn’t really exist.  Another woman recently commented to me about how artists live in their own realities.  I knew this wasn’t a compliment, but I laughed and said that I didn’t mind as long as our personal realities could peacefully coexist.

I used to work with Ed who doodled war planes and hand grenades.  I doodled a flower, cut it out, and set it on one of his bombs.  I got called a “tree-hugger”.  Okay.  I’ve hugged my share of trees.  Besides, he didn’t say it to hurt.  I respected his personal world and didn’t mess up his bomb.  Ed tacked up my flower by his window.  Our personal worlds overlapped a little, and I felt pleased to put a flower on his battle field.

I’ve been thinking about these things because I often feel like artists get criticized for dreaming.  The world goes round because practical people do practical things, and they get impatient with dreamers.  You can’t stack up dreams on factory skids, but every major advance in society or technology started with what-if fantasies.  Suppose a lot of our fantasies are just dreams.  Tolkien created a whole world with his fantasies.  Didn’t his dreams add something more to our lives?  Or if you have to be practical, Tolkien’s world created real jobs for printers and the movie industry.  Da Vinci created useful machines along with a whole bunch of impractical contraptions.  Newton and Einstein changed the ways the rest of us understand our world.

When I started blogging, I had practical ideas about putting my art online to complement my resume because I was looking for work.  After all, dreaming is great as long as you can pay the mortgage.  Maybe my goal was a good idea, but I abandoned it almost immediately.  I found I needed to dream to create my concrete reality, and blogging provided an outlet, and by extension, maybe my perceptions can mean something to someone else.  Other people add to the conversation, and expand the ways we can all think about things.  It’s a symbiotic relationship of overlapping worlds that’s necessary in a world of too much practicality.

I’ve stared at blank canvases, and have done things for solely practical reasons.  This window is my view from my couch.  I’ve spent many hours staring at it, through it, or looking in that general direction without seeing it at all.  It’s just a glorified doodle with a ball point pen.  I was thinking of an old friend’s way of painting fabric, the birds in the yard, and how the neighbors’ house is too close to mine.  Maybe letting my mind float freely through all those associations will inspire new ideas – or not, but I think the idea of letting my mind go where it wants to go exercises an important but maligned aspect of being human and of being an artist.

Besides, I filled up some of those blank canvases.  Looking back on 2012, it feels like I filled up a lot of them!

15 comments:

  1. Don't look now but I think there are faces on your curtain's tassels... or maybe I'm just dreaming it.

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  2. You certainly have filled up lots Linda, I have loved seeing every one of them on your blog. I think that creativity inspires productivity. I use my creative world to get away from the very different work environment where I earn my money ;0) Happy New Year and here's to seeing many more filled up canvases,
    Jane x

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  3. That is a wonderful overview, Linda. A portfolio of 2012 to be proud of!
    Indeed, all these creations happen when dreaming within the frame of a white canvas and getting transported to a dimension where dreams are dreamed. I fully agree with your brother for taking time to fill the void with dreams.

    I wish you a dream-full and creative 2013.
    And I hope we will stay in contact.
    Hug from Paula

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  4. Indeed! You've filled up many--and I so appreciate your thoughts on dreaming. I spend an incredible amount of time looking at trees--out my windows, on my walks, wherever, and I have decided that that time is necessary to my well-being. But I've done hardly any "tree" art.

    We need artists as much as we need practical people!

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  5. An artist's mind can only be fully understood by another artist.

    It took another artist to get me to draw again. See? We know. We know.
    http://blog.marshotelonline.com/2009/04/16/monday-artday-yecchh/

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  6. How did you make your "year of blog art" picture, by the way?

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  7. Oh no Rand! I thought I got rid of all the dwarves in my house!

    I've been doing non-art work lately too Jane. It's one of the reasons that blogging matters even more to me. I think there's a lot of us out there doing that kind of thing -- or a lot of people like Josh who quit drawing for a while. I did that too at one point in my life. Art is a demanding task master :)

    I made my year of blog in PhotoShop. I update it every week as I go because I like to remember what I've done without going through everything in the blog archive.

    May we all keep dreaming! Thanks for the comments everybody, and wishing everyone the happiest of new years!

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  8. Linda, I'm catching up on long-overdue blog visits, and this first piece that I've read on your blog is really, really thought-provoking.I agree that creative people sometimes struggle trying to justify our "work" in the pragmatic world we live in. Thank you for such inspirational thoughts. (And that Photoshop "journal" is fabulous!)

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  9. I need my own reality, I get bored with that other one. Keep dreaming!

    Nice pen and ink of the window, goes nicely with "new" and your words here. And isn't it fun to look back on a year's worth!

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  10. You've had a wonderful year of art! :) Hmmm...I kept thinking how many great pictures I've painted in my mind, instead of on canvas...that's something to really think about! It never fails, after coming here, your posts stick with me; and that's a good thing. Have an amazing New Year Year and I look forward to your art in 2013. :)

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  11. Thanks everybody! I love it when someone else makes me think about something different, and I love it when I can help other people think about something different too. I hope everybody keeps painting in the new year!

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  12. It is more fun to be a dreamer than say a computer programmer. I hope that you have a few dreams fulfilled in 2013. Boy, that sounds sappy. Oh well.

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  13. You sure did, Linda! The year had been filled with your wonderful illustrations and words to ponder and enjoy. Appreciating the dreamer and is something we start losing when we get older. I am embracing it as much as I can as I get older and continue to wish for my children to enjoy the process of creating/dreaming along with learning practical skills for their futures whatever they decide to do. I'm wishing you a wonderful 2013 ahead, with fun projects, good health and peace.

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  14. Somebody said it's never too late to have a happy childhood. I suppose that's true for being a dreamer too. Thanks for the comments!

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  15. I love the resume of all your work in 2012 - they are all great. Thanks for sharing them with us and I hope you'll continue to do so.

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