on my studio table

I have not been posting much, but I have been busy in the studio. I just completed a commission that I am really excited about and honored to be a part of. The commission was for a cover of a book and I hope to share it once the whole publishing process is over, but below is a process shot that inspired the final composition.

I had been working on several panels as that is my favorite way to work, even if I am working on a commission. It allows me more freedom to take risks which allows me to loosen up to get things going and not freeze up. After the whole 30 paintings in 30 days thing, my studio table was a disaster zone and I needed to clean my work area. So I piled up two of the panels and this little plaster feather piece that I had been sewing on a stool so I could clean the table. As I was cleaning and moving things around, my eye kept going back to that pile. Something about it just drew me in. I took a photo of it, so I could remember it. When I got back to working on the painting, I drew from this process shot to get me to the final composition.

I really think that creativity is such a deeply layered process- pulling from our our perceptions, our experiences, and then there is always that sense of spontaneous improvisation- “mistakes” or serendipitous moments that we come upon. When you understand your own process from doing it over and over and over again, then you get to this point where you recognize all the different strands and are able to weave it together.

I just got word that a proposal I submitted for an outdoor installation was accepted for the Art on the Trail program at Lake Roland Park in Baltimore. I am so excited. I have had this vision of an outdoor book art installation in my head for over two years now and am just thrilled to finally be able to manifest it. I will be busy this next month working on the books. This weekend I will go and walk the trail to pick out the best spot for my installation. I have never done an outdoor installation before, but I felt so compelled to submit my idea and I told myself if I didn’t get accepted this year, then I would keep trying until I did. Art is my life as is the outdoors and hiking. Bringing the two together makes so much sense to myself as an artist and an outdoor enthusiast and environmentalist. I am really looking forward to the whole process ahead.

A shot of one of my paintings before I pulled the tape off the sides to frame the painting and ship it out to its new home. Lots of history there.

Creativity is an incremental process–the instant Big Idea does not exist. -Andy Green