On Creativity...
There was an artist who created an exhibit in an art gallery putting a glass of water on a little shelf on the wall, calling it, “The Oak Tree.” People criticized this because it was a glass of water and in no one’s perception an oak tree. He was making a point. Who is to say what art IS? The moment you put one ounce of personal expression into a piece, it is changed. The glass of water was an expression of an oak tree. Although we can certainly argue that borrowed art or AI-assisted art is very different from the original art on this page, we have to remember that all art is only an expression. It’s YOU leaving behind an expression of your feelings or thoughts. It might be fleeting, as in performance art. Or it might be an expression that lasts for hundreds or thousands of years.
TransMedia Creation
I never stay in one medium or the other. I only create something when I have an idea, whether it be a book, a musical composition, a painting, a sculpture, an illustration, a photograph, or a charcoal portrait, I never had formal training so my process is much longer than someone who has thousands of hours in one particular medium. I make a lot of mistakes. Sometimes I fail and can’t capture an image or a person’s face, which makes me feel terrible.
However, for some reason that’s not enough to stop me from starting a new project. Failure is hard. It hurts. It makes you doubt all the effort you’ve put in to your life. If you feel your self-image is in jeopardy it’s hard to plug into the creativity that is born within you. It doesn’t matter if you’re a plumber, a hair dresser, a surgeon, or a physicist – you need to keep the people judging your work outside of your head. Your personal expression doesn’t come from a committee. Personal expression is personal. Perfection is a myth. Be okay with being wrong and making mistakes. The less you require perfection, the more you’ll create. If something ends up being a mess – it’s shown you what NOT to do. Perfection is a myth. Critics are seldom artists. Don’t create in order to please critics. Create to please YOU. The best way to become mediocre is to try to please others. You want to enter into the magical world of your imagination? Pretend criticism is just static on a radio. You are here in this world to express YOU. To make the world different for you having been here. You aren’t here to express what others think you should do. Part of my work is to help people turn up the volume of their imaginations and dreams – and turn down the volume of fear and comparison.
Examples in large-canvas Acrylic
Latest Bookcovers - Graphics
Animation
Charcoal Portraits
Clay as a Medium
This is something I sculpted to be a Wall Dragon. This emerges from the wall, then part of the snake-like mid-section, then the tail. I lost interest after the head. Maybe I’ll finish the other parts some time. I find I have creative spurts in one genre or the other – then it’s like I’ve filled that quota and move on to another genre. Not everything is successful. Sometimes I get it wrong or can’t capture a face… and it’s devastating for me. But that’s art. Can’t always get it right. That goes for life as well.
All mediums of creation are the same – clay, paint, charcoal, metal, wood, paper… It requires logic to decide what steps go first in the process. After that, you just keep at it until you get what you want.
That goes for life as well.