Outside Your Box

It's the week before my vacation, so I shouldn't even be doing this stuff, let alone writing about it!! But don't you just know, when you should be doing other things-really important stuff-that's when the inspirations strikes?!!


Friday Art Challenge...I thought up that little "get out of the box" thing up that morning as I was writing it! I had no idea what the challenge would be before that. None. I usually know at least a couple of days in advance. I think about them all the time. (I'm making a list, so if you have ideas-feel free to email me!) They either feel right or they don't. I know I shouldn't overthink it. There are plenty of website and books that have creative prompts and I could just go to those a pick something someone has already thought up! But this is as much about me and my creativity as it is about yours. The challenge is a part of the process for me.  I figure some of them will be great, others good, some so-so and some just not good at all! But I think that will be individual and I think they will all be good to spark some type of creativity. And that my creative friends, is the whole point.

I also had no idea how I would meet the challenge myself. In a discussion with a couple of artist friends online the ideas started to flow! It had to be something outside my box. But my box is pretty big! My first thought was collage. I love collage. And that's where I was headed. And then, don't you know, a friend told me she might do a woodcut and something clicked. I remembered some lino I had in my closet for a class I took online (I swear-I'm writing a post about those classes, its just not finished!) and never used. And there it was-I had to do a print!

Now I haven't done printing in years. I'm not even going to tell you how many!! But printing is awesome. If you've read this blog at all you know I love line. I just love its diversity. And I love the lines in a print. I also love that I can take one cutting and make an endless variety of things from it. This would definitely be outside my box.

That afternoon I went hunting for inspiration. I find most of my inspiration in nature and though not actually outside but still from nature- I noticed my beautiful flowers from mothers day. Yes, I am an unashamed flower fanatic! The photo and my sketch show the awesome forms and delicate lines the petals and leaves have. I spent the entire night Friday, designing and cutting the lino. (for those not familiar, lino is just short for linoleum. I used the soft easy to cut kind you can get at any art supply store.) I have to vacuum now! This morning I found some old ink pads and went to work. Since it's been so long I forgot that it would be a mirror image and that I needed to think in reverse compositionally. Oh well.

I did the first in my sketchbook thinking I would like the dark pink of the Stargazer. It didn't work for me. I next stamped a blank card of 50lb. paper and tried to give form and shadow to a white lillie. The paper soaked up the paint so fast the color has lines. This type of paper would be much better with colored pencil. (oh the applications!) I liked this one a little better, but decided to try a few more, since I don't have the time for it! And since I don't use colored pencils much-I did these two on printer paper with colored pencils. And of course, I had to paint the original sketch!

So there you have it. I really have to go now and get that list taken care of!! Thanks for reading. I hope you are enjoying this even though I've only seen a handful of submissions. I have no trouble posting on the link, so I hope you are not either. Like I said, feel free to email me your submission and I will post it for you if you have trouble.

Again, enjoy your challenge. See you Friday!