I have been an artist off/on for over 30 years. I say
off/on because life happens, plans derail, and people develop artist block.
My artist block has been one of the most difficult things
I have ever tried to overcome. Happily – and completely unexpectedly - I have
been able to make some incredible breakthroughs in regards to my artist block over
the past six months thanks to the persistence and support I have been receiving
from my partner. The most important thing that he has said to me was that art
should be “play” not work, not take it too seriously, to simply let go and see
what happens.
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| #3 A Difficult Beginning |
Up until the beginning of this year, I had been unable to
produce art regularly. I would find myself going through phases in which I would
be overcome with this incredible need to develop or work on a
project, but whenever I sat down to “work” or attempt to execute the project, I
would freeze up and would be unable to add even one line to the paper I was
looking at.
The origins for artist block are endless and vary from
artist to artist, but, in my case, it is fear. Fear of people not connecting or
enjoying my work, of not being good enough and (surprisingly) fear of
succeeding and then being unable to continue to produce work that people will
embrace.
After years of frustration dealing with my artist block,
I read an article in March of this year about a 30-day art journal challenge – work
for 30 minutes in your journal for 30 days. All other ideas up until this point
had failed, so there wasn’t any harm trying the challenge – the big question
was: would I be able to complete it? And I did. It wasn’t easy, in fact it was extremely
frustrating at times, but I had the support I needed and it WORKED. I started
“playing” and eventually came upon my current project in the process.
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| #46 Striving Upwards |
In an effort to continue to work through the artist
block, I bought a set of stencils with organic designs – or biomorphic, as I
came to refer to them. Armed with the stencils, a couple of boxes of Sharpies,
and a stack of ancient watercolor paper I began “playing” regularly. The only “rule”
was that the designs would be done entirely in ink – no pencil, no
pre-planning. I started working with 15x22 sheets of watercolor paper, added a
0.25 inch black border, and used the stencils to produce designs. After a
couple of weeks, this evolved into adding simple Celtic knots and, ultimately,
on a whim, Chinese hexagrams from a portable book of the I Ching that I had. The
result was the I Ching project.
The I Ching project will ultimately be a series of 64
mixed-media paintings – one for each of the 64 I Ching hexagrams. The only
“static” requirements for the mixed-media paintings are: the black border, the
addition of an I Ching hexagram and the corresponding Chinese character… anything
else that may be included in the mixed-media paintings is entirely up to
whatever inspires me at the time the painting is created. Right now, I have
been working with the idea of combining Celtic knots with the biomorphic
designs, next month it could be something entirely different. I have no idea
what direction this project will go in, all I do know is that the mixed-media
paintings completed at the beginning of this project will be entirely different
from the ones completed at the end of it.
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| #25 Remaining Blameless |
I am well aware that this is an ambitious project, but I
have already completed 1/3 of the mixed-media paintings, so I am well on my
way. I am also very much aware that not all of the designs “work”- and that’s
OK, too. Not every painting will be “great” and not everyone will connect with
them, but I can use the “failed” paintings to inspire new directions and new
ideas. After all, it certainly doesn’t hurt to try an idea out.
Attached are three of the I Ching paintings… I have been
working on getting the color correct with my camera for the past couple of
weeks, but so far have been unsuccessful; maybe someone has a suggestion for
future postings.
Any questions, comments or suggestions can be made either
on this blog or sent to my email address: offthegrid91@gmail.com.
Jenn White
White Rooster Studios
