A New Year of Creating

Above is a piece of Mailart I created as a swap with Katie, a flickr friend. I really like how it came out. It was one of those pieces that I worked on forever. I started with the left side, drawing in with an illustration pen and then inking in with watercolor. Next I drew in a snail, hated that, then pasted in papers, ripped them out and repeated this over and over for the next several months. It would sit on a shelf or in between the pages of a sketchbook for periods of a time until I created this. After that, everything fell into place. The white parts over the stars, above the snail, is aluminum, so it is actually silvery.

For a while, I’ve been encouraging a friend of mine who is really great at photography to get involved in this 365 days project where you take a self portrait everyday. So, now it is the new year and it seems everywhere I go people are all jumping on the 365 days projects. It has me thinking about how I know that the more productive an artist is, the easier it is for them to work and develop. I usually equate productive and polific artists to success. You never hear about a great artist that only created one piece of work. Doing something creative everyday is part of my everyday life. But I am usually all over the board, in one day I will work on spinning, painting, and metalwork. The next day photography, collage and drawing. Finishing and completing a piece, is something that happens with less frequency.

I just read this interview with Artist Betsy Walton, whose artwork I’ve admired for a while. She mentions her rituals for artmaking and it reminded me how most artists have rituals. I think I read one time how Penelope Dunham said as soon as she put on her painting apron she’s ready to go. Last winter I started my own ritual where I light up some candles while I work, it just makes me feel cozy and safe. It was during the winter but after I noticed how it helped me, I continued doing it, even in the hot summer. I think it all comes down to feeling comfortable and making the environment conducive to production, as well as making an ease in transition from right brain to left brain thinking. I think it was a drawing professor that drew my attention to when you first sit down to work on something, there is a period where creation feels more like a struggle, and then all of a sudden you get into your groove and that is when you have switched gears in your brain. When you sit down more frequently, this struggle becomes less and less and that is where I need to get to.

All of this 365 day projects has me wanting to at least get into a pattern of, not only creating everyday (which is something that already happens) but to hone in on one form for 365 days. Not only would it help in the ways I mentioned above, but it would also be nice to have a year worth of work to look back on. What I would love to do is make one piece of mailart everyday, but I honestly don’t think that is possible. Instead I think I will work on making one piece in the vein of Keri Smith’s morning collages, no pressure, it’s just meant as an exercise to get me creating.