Creativity from Antiquity

I love to go to flea markets, thrift stores, auctions and antique shops.  Sometimes when I am in a "down" time from my creative flow, I make a trip to one or more of these types of shops to add a bit of a boost to my creative energy.  When I am in an antique shop, there are many times when I find myself completely mystified by the objects in front of me.  Their usefulness has either gone out of vogue or more often than not, completely become obsolete.  Who actually needs a shoe button hole hook after all in this day of laces and Velcro stays?  There are tools and farm implements, kitchen utensils and home improvement tools that once were considered the very best in new technology.  Now, they adorn walls of restaurants and people's homes as country style decor.  I sometimes wonder if these ancient tools led to the invention of newer tools....

Antique shoe hook (looks a little like a modern latch hook for
making latch hook rugs)

I like to imagine what life was like both before and after the implements were invented.  How exactly did people close the buttons on shoes before the button hook came around?  and what sort of method was used long before the food processor or food choppers or even blenders were around for making melanges of fruits or vegetables, much less a smoothie?  did they have any concept of the smoothie or would that have been one of those anachronistic items?

Kitchen utensils.  Being myself almost an antique,
 I recognize most of these tools.
Do you?

It seems like in the art world, the tools and implements really have not continued to evolve--though perhaps the advent of acrylic/synthetic brushes shows that they do continue to move forward.  The painter still uses canvas or paper (albeit, many buy them pre-stretched and ready to go instead of creating the frames and stretching the canvas themselves) and paints with pigment and brushes with water or linseed oil and rags. The stained glass artist's tools have evolved to the point of electric soldering irons and sticky back copper foil, fluxes that are far more clean and efficient and solders that are cleaner and more pure than ever before.

Farm tools. Huh?

For all of our advancements, we are still attracted to the antiquities and for myself, a part of my admiration of a true Lewis Comfort Tiffany stained glass panel is exactly a result of the challenges that had to be faced to create such astonishingly beautiful pieces.  From the masterwork paintings, I admire not only the painting itself and the techniques used to create the art, but the  lost or dying skills of not just mixing pigments but identifying and crushing them correctly for paints, among other difficulties in obtaining the tools of the art.

I actually own a Kerosene torch like this (two in fact), that I got at an auction
...but not with the soldering iron attachment.
That part I will have to invest in next time I see one. I imagine
stained glass would take a very different look from this.

I'm not sure why, I'm not sure how exactly but I do know that for me, a visit to an antique shop rejuvenates me for getting back to my creative work. Perhaps there is an alchemy that occurs in accessing the curious objects of the past and activating the curiosity of the mind in thinking about how things were made and created.  Perhaps there is a bit of magical allure and some of the creative genius that rubs off when one handles antique objects so that that magnificent creative force can be harnessed to the new-fangled methods, techniques and tools of the modern artists' studio.

So here is the challenge of this day:  visit an antique shop.  Question what things are, what they were used to do, how they were manufactured and be in awe and fascination with the creativity of our forebears.  For the day, let go of the modern and the new.  Let your mind play with ideas and ponder the uses of unknown tools.

More Ways than One

We’ve probably all heard the term “more ways than one to skin a cat.”  Now, as a cat lover, I’m not too thrilled with the entomology of this phrase (or the visual this evokes), but from a practical, efficient project management standpoint, I whole-heartedly embrace this concept.

I’m not sure when or where the disabling idea occurred and was embraced that says there is only one right answer.  Okay, perhaps there are disciplines where there actually is only one right answer.  But even in math, for example, I am sure that the further into it you explore, the more creative the answers can get—just look at the wildly creative signs and symbols used to express higher mathematical concepts. 

And even if there is only one right answer, there are multitudes of paths to get to the right answer. 

As an artist/writer and creative person, I have to seek many creative solutions and choose the one that feels best for the circumstance and project.  If one solution doesn’t work out, then it is time for me to try out the second right answer.  And if that still doesn’t lead to the result I want (and it may very well lead to an entirely different expression than I ever expected—one that may provide an entirely new creation or art form)…then I have to explore the third right answer.

With creativity, it is not always the right answer that is the important aspect.  Sometimes, it is the creative process and how the end result is achieved that is far more important.  When I’m doing brain storming for a project or working with a class on brain storming, I constantly ask, “what else would work?”  and “what else could I try?”  These open ended questions can open up the proverbial can of worms.  Some of the ideas might seem crazy.  Some of them might not work at all.  A tangent may not be the answer, but it can lead to a new path that leads to the answer. 

Freeing up creativity requires a willingness to explore. The first answer isn’t always the best answer.  Sometimes it may seem to be the easiest answer, but the easiest answer doesn’t always provide the richness of a satisfying end result.

Surprise yourself.  Try the second or third answer or the thousandth.  If Thomas Edison had accepted the first answer he got for electricity—“it doesn’t work” we’d all still be in the dark. 

Ingenuity and Surprise in Art

University of Iowa Museum of Art, Gift of Peggy Guggenheim 1959.6
 © 2009 Pollock-Krasner Foundation / ARS, NY

As an artist, it is always a challenge to figure out a way to do something unique, to find that "something" that no one else has ever done before.  It is also a challenge to surprise the art world.  Jackson Pollock was able to do this more than once.  While I know traditionalists revile surprise and change, exploration or experimentation (yet they must recall that even their most favorite forms of art came about as a result of all of these!), I personally find that I tend to gravitate to those artists who are more inventive and interested in exploring.

While his early studies were with Thomas Hart Benton, Pollock's main body of work is a far stretch from the type of technique and style he learned under Benton.  His "drips" were the first surprise.  His method of painting was a second surprise--he worked with a canvas on a floor, using non-traditional tools which included a cooking baster and sticks.

The third surprise may very well have been discovered earlier--but if it was, there is no discussion of it prior to 2009.

The third surprise is...his name embedded within the painting.  Can you see it?  Look at the black lines.  If you start in the upper right, you might be able to decipher "son."  Working back from there, you can find the Jackson.  Then look below.  It is an extremely stylized font, but you can discern the Pollock, hidden in the paint.  Read the article about this discovery.

Marianne Berardi, wife of art writer Henry Adams, author of Tom and Jack: the Intertwined Lives of Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock, was the first person on record to identify the letters.  Some critics deny that the name is actually part of the painting.  The most likely (to me) theory is that Jackson Pollock painted his name on the canvas and then painted around that work.  I have used a similar method to hide text within a painting.  I have also painted words AFTER I painted the background but the effect is different and the words are much more plain to the eye.  Of course, in the painting below, for example, I wasn't intending to "hide" the words, as I believe Pollock meant to do. This is the reason I believe he put the name first and painted around it.

(c) 2005, SZing. All rights reserved!! "Characteristics of God," Egg tempera on Bristol.

I have admired Jackson Pollock's work for years, before I ever knew anything about him.  What always attracted me was the energy and the colors.  Now, knowing more about him and his methodology, I still consider him a genius.  What I love most is this quote by him:

My painting does not come from the easel. I prefer to tack the unstretched canvas to the hard wall or the floor. I need the resistance of a hard surface. On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting.

I continue to get further away from the usual painter's tools such as easel, palette, brushes, etc. I prefer sticks, trowels, knives and dripping fluid paint or a heavy impasto with sand, broken glass or other foreign matter added.

When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of 'get acquainted' period that I see what I have been about. I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well.--Jackson Pollock, My Painting, 1956

His approach was a definite departure from the accepted methods of his time.  It is a shame that his alcoholism and perhaps, as some suggest, bipolar disease, caused this unparalleled art talent to die at the young age of 44.  I cannot help but wonder what else he might have done and how else he might have impacted abstract expressionism and the modern art world. Learn the basics about Jackson Pollock to increase your appreciation for his works and ingenuity.

P.S.  Don't forget to submit your entry for the give-a-way which ends on the 15th!!

(c) SZing. All Rights Reserved.

The Question of God

I seem to be skirting all around this theme.  Yesterday’s blog, Blue Print, alluded to it.

Now, I don’t want to lose those of you who are Atheists or Agnostics or Scientists or Pagans or whatever terms and labels you might choose, but let’s face it, whether or not there is a God, there are many artists who have tackled God and religious themes in their artwork.  My own art has a metaphysical bent to it, in that I believe that God, or to use one of my favorite terms, the creative spark, inspires me.  Much of my artwork has been driven by my many-years exploration of my personal beliefs and experiences I’ve had that have shaped those beliefs.

©SZing, Microcosm

For example, in my “Door to Eternity,” I was questioning what happens at the end of life.  Is there a bright light and another realm and another and another on a journey to reconnect with God? Do “we” float around in space? Or, as some of my rather staid scientist friends believe, are we simply worm food?  Frankly, I don’t know.  I can speculate.  I can hope and wish.  But knowing isn’t as important as the exploration itself, at least for me, in creating these types of art.

©SZing, Door to Eternity

Another of my pieces,

©SZing, Characteristics of God

is an abstract piece that was one of those “in the zone” paintings for me. I was thinking about as many different characteristics as I could of what my creative spark or divine inspiration would embody.  This piece hangs above my bed.  My sweetheart says it is his favorite painting of mine because, “no matter what, Love always comes out of the chaos and is right side up.”  I hadn't planned it that way while painting it.  It's one of those coinkydinks I don't believe in.  I truly felt that Zen-meditation sense that I talked about in The Art Zone on the day I painted it.

Then there was this picture.  It was done while I was attending a painting retreat.  It was the last evening and I knew that in the morning we wouldn’t have time to do much of anything except wrap up business.  I had just completed an enormous Amazon woman who was astoundingly intricate in her embellishments.  It was 9 p.m.  I was tired.  A part of me wanted to go have a drink and relax or just go to sleep.  It was a beautiful evening, cool, just on the verge of fall and there was a full moon.  The retreat center had a labyrinth walk next-door to the building where we were painting.  So, thinking I was “complete,” I walked the labyrinth.  I was feeling an enormous gratitude and joy at being so blessed to be at the retreat, to have completed the paintings throughout the week, and just really satisfied and happy.  I walked the labyrinth and suddenly was inspired to go back in and paint.
In 20 minutes, I had completed “God Creates.”

©SZing, God Creates

I remember painting the picture.  I was, at the time, very fond of wearing three or four jangly bangly charm bracelets.  As I moved my brush and picked up more paint, the bracelets were quite noisy—enough so that another woman painting in the corner commented on the noise.  I remember drawing the blue—I thought it was going to be a pond or lake or something for a landscape.  It certainly is.  But before I knew it, it was a world and everything else was in place. 

Twenty minutes flew by and I can say, I had never finished a painting in that short a time.  (For a baseline,  the first painting I did took an entire year and was the only artwork that I did the entire year.)  Of course, I don’t know what planet it is being viewed from (the flowers and trees in the forefront), perhaps it is a starship with a great arboretum on it…I drew the infinity symbol and somehow immediately knew it was a mask, the eyes showed up.  It asked to be “haloed” somewhat, and there was a moment in my mind when I remember asking, Is that God? Or is that me, as God, looking out on the creation of everything?

I promise.  I had not had that drink I’d thought about.  Nor was I under the influence of anything other than the labyrinth and the nighttime.  It is one of my favorite paintings, because for me, I feel a deep connection with…something.  Even in my modern primitive style, I feel that I captured that relationship to God as much as any of the very old school painters may have in their own unique exploration.

I believe that spiritual beliefs and exploration and the artist’s connection with God (again, whatever label works for you) are themes that have been explored for ages and will continue to be explored.  Each artist has their answers and their experiences are uniquely their own.

As for myself, it is my belief that that creative force, spark, or intelligence is every where present, every when.  It is in me, as me, expressing and experiencing through me.  I am not saying I am God.  I am saying that we all are god and god is all there is.  It is a theme I love to explore and which inspires so much of my artwork and projects.  Even writing this makes it all sound so inadequate and mundane.  But there is something about painting and spirituality that can be transcendent.  The fact is, God, or the remnants of God, show up in an astounding lot of artwork over the centuries.  He/she/it and the artists’ may be on to something.  We are all microcosms.