Saturday, January 19, 2013

Creating Art: What are you doing about it?

So I've hit a long dry spell in creating art. Why create if no one is buying? I don't need to fill my home with paintings waiting to be bought. What about you? What about people who happen upon my blog or who mean to happen upon it because they too are interested in creating art. I understand writers block--being a freelance writer and having worked as a reporter for a local daily. I understand how to break through the writers block barrier (yes, I meant to be redundant for emphasis), but when it comes to creating art, which takes up a lot more space literally how do I break through? How do you? Please share your thoughts on this topic.

I almost turned off the TV (creativity killer) and worked on a couple of pieces I have had in the works since last year. One was the painting I started for my brother when I found out he and his partner were having a committment ceremony last August. It was supposed to be a gift for them. I never told my brother about it because as I was setting down the layers of oil paint on the canvas, which had been wrapped in plastic my brush picked up random cat hairs, which were then embedded into the painting. I'm not sure if the static on the canvas drew the cat hairs into the paint or if my cats had been using the brushes with which to comb their faces.After trying to rub off several cat hairs, I decided to put the project on hold until I could devise a way to deal with all the cat hair. Help! It's too late now because the paint has long since dried and the cat hair is unremovable unless I turpentine the whole thing and start over. I won't be starting over.

Then there is the oil pastel which has been taped to the dinning room wall for at least six months. I can usually finish an oil pastel in one sitting. I wanted it to be a painting of lovely moon-glow roses with plenty of grey and blues in it. I started by drawing the pot that the flowers would be in--a plain brown planter. This was disasterous for me because it killed my creativity. I realized there was no way to hide the pot and I didn't like the pot so I didn't continue. So there it hangs a pot on a red table cloth and plenty of unpainted white paper on the wall. Maybe I should go back to trading cards. I was much better at smaller works and didn't get so overwhelmed.

Share your story.