Tag Archives: creating

Art Discussion

The ABCs of Creation – H Is For Heart

An artist friend recently shared with me an article they wrote titled “The ABCs of Underground Art”. I really enjoyed it, and they encouraged me to write my own ABC’s of the type of art that I do as a fun journaling prompt to use to unwind and organize your thoughts. Those that have followed me for awhile know that I don’t typically stick to just one type of art, so to open up the limits I decided to make my “alphabet” the ABC’s of Creation. I have assigned a word to each letter, along with a video of my illustrating a cool little ACEO sized letter inspired visual to go with each word. Read, listen, or both – whatever works! 

H is for Heart. Creating takes heart. It’s something you can’t quite put into words, but it’s usually obvious when a creator’s heart isn’t in something they’ve made and they are just going through the motions. That is one of the reasons I can’t get behind AI art. It isn’t measurable, but even not accounting for the goofy mistakes, something always seems like it’s missing. This is true to my eye whether it’s AI digital art, ‘photography’ or rather what is made to look like photography, or a logo design. I myself am not a fan of pure copying from a photo without making any creative changes, but even in art where the goal is to simply replicate a scene in the artist’s chosen medium, if the artist is excited about what they are observing and the process of recreation it definitely shows through.

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Artist Bio

The ABCs of Creation – D Is For Dreams

An artist friend recently shared with me an article they wrote titled “The ABCs of Underground Art”. I really enjoyed it, and they encouraged me to write my own ABC’s of the type of art that I do as a fun journaling prompt to use to unwind and organize your thoughts. Those that have followed me for awhile know that I don’t typically stick to just one type of art, so to open up the limits I decided to make my “alphabet” the ABC’s of Creation. I have assigned a word to each letter, along with a video of my illustrating a cool little ACEO sized letter inspired visual to go with each word. Read, listen, or both – whatever works! 

D is for Dream. Creating allows us to show others things they could never see in real life. It transports us. The art I appreciate the most takes ideas from reality but uses innovation to present it in a new way. This is the kind of art that makes creation valuable; we can’t just look out the window and see what it is showing us. Not to say realistic things like landscapes can’t show us a new reality, Look at Van Gogh! Creating invites us into the mind of someone else, a place we can’t usually go.

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Art Discussion

The ABCs of Creation – C Is For Craft

An artist friend recently shared with me an article they wrote titled “The ABCs of Underground Art”. I really enjoyed it, and they encouraged me to write my own ABC’s of the type of art that I do as a fun journaling prompt to use to unwind and organize your thoughts. Those that have followed me for awhile know that I don’t typically stick to just one type of art, so to open up the limits I decided to make my “alphabet” the ABC’s of Creation. I have assigned a word to each letter, along with a video of my illustrating a cool little ACEO sized letter inspired visual to go with each word. Read, listen, or both – whatever works! 

C is for craft. Another word for creating something is to craft this or that object. This may be an unpopular opinion in the art world, but I get frustrated when I am pulled into conversations about “art vs. craft”, what pursuits are fine art and what is “just” crafting. I sure can’t make a quilt. Why should that be considered a lesser skill, especially with the amount of math and attention to detail that is involved? I love when gallery artists give the middle finger to what is supposed to be sophisticated materials, and add glitter, beads, paper ephemera, buttons, and other craft supplies into their work. Without craft, we are excluding an entire discipline that could teach us new ways to approach our art.

Above is a closeup from one of the piece’s in an inspiring Mark Messersmith exhibit I was lucky enough to catch last Fall while visiting family in Ohio – I’m detecting some GLITTER!

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Art Discussion

The ABCs of Creation – B Is For Beauty

An artist friend recently shared with me an article they wrote titled “The ABCs of Underground Art”. I really enjoyed it, and they encouraged me to write my own ABC’s of the type of art that I do as a fun journaling prompt to use to unwind and organize your thoughts. Those that have followed me for awhile know that I don’t typically stick to just one type of art, so to open up the limits I decided to make my “alphabet” the ABC’s of Creation. I have assigned a word to each letter, along with a video of my illustrating a cool little ACEO sized letter inspired visual to go with each word. Read, listen, or both – whatever works! 

B is for Beauty. Of course, when we create something we hope others will want to look at it (or listen, or watch, or read …) Beauty means different things to everyone. The great thing about that is, there is a pretty good chance that someone out there will find your creation beautiful, even if it doesn’t fit the norm of how beauty is typically defined. 7 years ago now, I created one of my favorite pieces of a young woman with down syndrome looking joyful, confident, and gorgeous. When it was shown for the first time at an exhibit and awarded, some viewers were confused, did not approve, or were even angry. (How did I know this? I have very acute hearing and was even playfully called “elephant ears” by my parents as a kid because I heard EVERYTHING.) Though the lack of openness towards diversity in portraiture or a disdain towards people with disabilities is definitely not ok, it is ok for us to not all agree on one definition of beauty. Many more people have adored this same mixed media drawing. We each get to define what beauty is for ourselves.

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