Sometimes ideas flow like a raging river. Other times you feel "dry as a stone", to quote Virginia Cobb. Some artists keep a sketchbook by their bedside, others journal their ideas. Me, well, I usually can't find what I need when the muse beckons. I start out with great intentions, but my sketchbook by my bedside is empty because the massive wave of creativity that washes over me as I drift off happens when I'm drifting off! I have about 50 sketchbooks/notebooks/journals, stuffed full of copy paper/napkins/junk mail covered with ideas, both visual and verbal, scattered throughout my environment. I pity the person trying to sort and categorize my creative thoughts/ideas after I'm "gone". There is no rhyme or reason; there is no logical order or linear time sequence. My mind works on the explosion process, images morphing into objects or wildly splattering across a canvas. Words appear and merge with color, contrasts jarring and exciting through texture or value or color. So I thought I would take you along with me on my process of creating this fall jewelry collection.
Yesterday's focal element didn't appear first. Here is the process unfolding in one sketchbook:
This is a shape that has appeared frequently in my abstract paintings. I really love this shape. This sketch led to:
and
Now I'm in full gear and thinking about the whole piece, needing a central element:
The top drawing works out the logistics of assembling the round focal element featured in yesterday's blog. Studying that piece gives me ideas for the rest of the necklace, and the color ideas and shape and size for the side pieces get finalized on the bottom.
As you can see, I'm a process artist. The act of creating leads to more creating - but the pragmatist is always there, waving a finger at me, reminding me these things have to work in real life, so now it's time to make the prototypes for the side pieces.
More about this process tomorrow.
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