Inspiration Fridays! Does your art talk?
Does your art talk?
We’re all in this hot tub together, but how would you paint the water?
“Painting is just another way of keeping a diary” – Pablo Picasso
I like to paint the world around me, but it’s not necessarily the world that other people see. I might borrow inspiration from a life that I want to live or even one that I’m afraid of living. Sometimes I paint the hope I have for a life I haven’t experienced yet. But the best paintings I’ve done by far, are the paintings inspired by the world in front of me. The world of now. I like paintings that tell the stories that we don’t have words for.
I love abstraction, but completely abstract work can begin to feel a little cerebral when I’m painting. There’s no narrative and no metaphor. Combinations of shapes and colors can be beautiful. In fact, most of the paintings on my walls at home are abstract but when it comes to my own work, there are stories that I want to tell. Digging through my psyche can unearth parts of me that I’d rather stay buried, but I’ve also discovered some real gems that I didn’t know existed. Painting teaches me about myself.
These subconscious bones end up splayed out all over the canvas and help to show me who I am. If not right away, at least they help to clarify who I was when I was painting them.
Birth of Athena – 48″ x 96″ – Mixed Media on Linen
Paintings allow us to gather elements and ideas in our minds and re-order them in a way that relates specifically to us. A painting is a gateway. We are creating a new world for others to see. There is no wrong interpretation. That’s what makes visual storytelling so brilliant. The viewer creates meaning around what they see.
How does the addition of an element or character change the narrative? The possibilities are infinite. Even the placement and scale of the subjects in a painting play a role in what the viewer gets to take away. A flower in a vase might feel very different from a flower in a vase with one or two of its petals laying on the ground nearby. This is a big part of what can make painting exciting. It’s like creating a puzzle or writing a visual novel.
Try experimenting with unusual combinations of characters from old sketches and photos. What would these two look like together? How would the story change If they found themselves in a different location? Rooting through magazines or pulling from movies for compositional ideas is a great way to get the ball rolling. Print out some of your photos and stick them to the wall. Nothing is off-limits when it comes to telling your story.