Playing With Ink and String
As I mentioned in my last post, I used the couple days prior to the Thanksgiving holiday to do some loose, fun artwork that would keep my stress level down and provide some relaxation into my life. I created this piece for AEDM Day#25. As you may remember, I was picking my daughter up from college in Chicago on the 24th, so that day was very long and the following day, I was pretty tired. I began this piece by using a technique that I learned from an art therapy mentor of mine that involves dipping cotton string into India ink and creating various abstract shapes and spatters onto the paper. By dragging, dropping, spinning and laying the ink drenched string onto my paper I created some very abstract black shapes without any preconceived notion of what the creation might become. This aspect is very much like the Scribble Drawing "Flowering Lady" post, they both allow the artist to work very intuitively, which is just lovely for relaxing and letting go of your "inner critics" inhibitions.
Gazing Into The Water
Once the India ink was completely dry, I tried to find a picture that wanted to emerge from the abstract shapes. I began to see a striped fish first and I started to add some pastel colors to it. As I worked, I found a seahorse and another little pink fish come out to greet me. I finished the piece by adding some green seaweed and some nice blue swirls in the water that surrounded my sea creatures. In the end, I felt really pleased with my creation. I was kind of surprised that I was lively enough to actually create anything after all the driving the day before. If you look closely, all three of the sea creatures do have pretty droopy, sleepy eyes...especially the little pink one at the bottom. Hmm...something always carries into our work from our personal experiences. I have gotten caught back up on my sleep now.
More Art Every Day Month pieces to come!
Blessings and Love,
D.
Posts
i love the drowsy pink fish
ReplyDeleteSo your finished with your challenge. Are you going to continue with everyday art?
ReplyDeleteI like this peice and can't wait to see the rest.
Sue...good to hear from you again. Yes, the drowsy pink fish is my favorite too, maybe because I related so well with him. He almost looks like he is going to just go to sleep and float to the bottom. The striped fish looks a little sad to me.
ReplyDeleteDiana...I don't know if I can keep up the everyday art, I was not even able to do art every day for the challenge. It is a great concept though. I might try it still through the holiday, but I am starting back to Art Therapy grad school in the middle of January (I took this past semester off to look for a full-time social work job—still nothing on that front yet), so once that starts back up I think my research class is going to be intense if it is anything like the social work masters research coursework. We shall see. I certainly have enjoyed myself this month.
I know the upstream swimming feeling...and am grateful to know you will continue to post and create. I am grateful to have come to know you a bit during Art Every Day Month. Your support, enthusiasm and encouragement were always a beacon of light. Thank you thank you!
ReplyDeleteHi Julie...thank you for your comment. I am very grateful that I got to meet you via this cyberworld and I learned a little bit about your life and art too. You say the NICEST things! I WILL be continuing to post, I will continue doing art and I will be able to have a little time to work on some other things too. Hopefully my full website will be finished before the New Year and before I have to dive back into the school books. Look for that soon too. I miss AEDM already!
ReplyDeleteI know just what you mean about feeling crazed! It is so important to give ourselves some breathing room -- no one is keeping score. I love the string art paintings. I learned this technqiue as well in my expressive arts training. In fact, I posted some on Day 4 of the AEDM challenge. Your blog and creations are insightful and inspiring. I very much look forward to seeing more of your lovely creations!
ReplyDeleteHi Silky (expressivehart)...I know people aren't keeping score, but why is it so hard sometimes to not let my inner voice tell me that they are? I keep working on it. Yes, I saw the string paintings that you did on Day#4 too. Great! Aren't they the BEST? I have actually gotten a lot of really cool art pieces out of just playing like this AND some very "profoundly insightful" knowledge about myself in the process. Keep coming back, more art will continue to appear along with my ramblings!
ReplyDeleteI love making art in this way. And what a cool image came out of it for you!! I'm loving it! So glad you joined in Art Every Day Month this year, Diane. It was such a pleasure to create and connect with you throughout the month. xox
ReplyDeleteLeah..I am very glad that I was lead to your Art Every Day Month from ExpressiveHart's blog, I read that she was going to participate in this years event and it sounded cool, so I followed her link over and signed up. What a blessing it was. I thoroughly enjoyed the event. You are awesome to have developed this and you have cultivated it well over the years. My hat goes off to you!
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