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Posted on 1/22/2023 1:25:00 PM
By Susan Gainen
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Purple Paper Mosaic Parrot
Regardless of the art that you make --- painting, writing and making music, cooking, writing, sculpting, etc. -- Filling in the Blank is your imperative.
We all start with a blank page. Our challenge and joy is to make marks that make us happy. "Happy" can be defined as learning and teaching, exploring, contemplating, working with new tools and techniques, or collaborating with new and unexpected folks (not limited to self-defined "artists").
"Happy" can (and probably should) include making mistakes and celebrating happy accidents.
How you deal with your art mistakes can open unexpected doors. Ten years ago, I realized that watercolorists unhappy with their work can cut up the paintings to make mosaics such as my good friend, The Purple Paper Mosaic Parrot. I spent a year making paper mosaics and still love them.
Cave Walls and Golden "Fern Feet"
When creating the first cave walls for the Lost Cave Paintings of Saint Paul, I dropped some Golden High Flow Acrylic onto wet white gesso and was shocked at the little fern feet that appeared. Thinking that I'd bought a bad bottle, in a panic, I called Bonnie Cutts, then Golden's Resident Artist in Minnesota. She laughed and said "Golden calls that 'bloom,' and it's fine." The little fern feet joined my art-technique-tool-box.
Cooks, Writers, and Molten Makers
Dissatisfied cooks work wonders with leftovers. Recipe developers just keep going. Writers delete and cut-and-paste to make work better. I'm not clear on the science, but I suspect that artists working with molten materials (glass, metal) can toss their duds back onto the fire and start again.
Your joy and collateral benefit.
That others may find meaning or joy in your work is a collateral benefit—but not always the point. #artfun
Posted on 9/20/2021 2:01:43 PM
By Susan Gainen
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9 Swoops: Photoshop Magic
NEW WEBSITE AND BLOG
I've been promising (myself) a new website and blog for two years. It's here. I copied 274 posts from my old blog and decided NOT to paste them into this site. They are separated and are resting comfortably awaiting a massive editing project. This blog will have new art, new materials, new thoughts about art, and whatever comes to mind.
NEW ART: SWOOPS
I am constitutionally unable to stop picking up gizmos and making art with them.* I made this with a plastic swoopy tool and acrylic ink and Carbon Black in a Platinum Brand fountain pen.
MAGIC OF PHOTOSHOP
Almost every time I sit down to create in Photoshop, I find something new. With the magic of Photoshop, I made this:
ARTISTS ARE MAGPIES
*Artists are magpies. We pick things up, look at them, and imagine making art with them. This is why I tell everyone never to put something that they cherish in front of an artist and go away for an hour. The thing -- the precious thing -- will be transformed into art.
