on the process of making art: inspiration

in the last weeks i have been pretty much watching the world in the perspective of my bed. this last edition of the flu is not fun. a deceptive illness that makes you fell miserable for a few days, then when you think everything will be okay, you are thrown in bed again. just in time for the group show "Tarts, Trollops, and Tramps" to which i had planned some cool pieces with a cool concept i had developed just for the show, but that i was just too miserable to bring to physical form. more about it later.

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but what i really wanted to talk today is about the creative process. i have been spawned some new pencil pieces lately (all in progress for now) and people have been asking about my process, materials, and so on. in fact that's a question i hear quite often. so i decided to write about it. starting with the genesis of the process. aka the inspiration.

 

"Recollection", work in progress

when i think inspiration i immediately think something that is dear to my heart and that touches me. something that is like oxygen, that fills your lungs, and makes you move.

the Free Dictionary defines:

in·spire  (n-spr)

v. in·spired, in·spir·ing, in·spires

v.tr.

1. To affect, guide, or arouse by divine influence.

2. To fill with enlivening or exalting emotion: hymns that inspire the congregation; an artist who was inspired by Impressionism.

3.

a. To stimulate to action; motivate: a sales force that was inspired by the prospect of a bonus.

b. To affect or touch: The falling leaves inspired her with sadness.

4. To draw forth; elicit or arouse: a teacher who inspired admiration and respect.

5. To be the cause or source of; bring about: an invention that inspired many imitations.

6. To draw in (air) by inhaling.

7. Archaic

a. To breathe on.

b. To breathe life into.

v.intr.

1. To stimulate energies, ideals, or reverence: a leader who inspires by example.

2. To inhale.

what makes you feel all of these things?

everybody have stories no matter whether they lived traveling the world in a boat, or in a distant farm in a country town. everybody have those things that fill them with life. or death. they say that writers should write about things they know well. i think that also applies to artists... draw your life... dance your life... sing your life. even if all you want is to raise questions. it is all a big mystery after all. but do it with passion. find your passion.

when i was a child, i spent most of my time in my inner world. the people and places i created, the dreams of other dreamers, were way more interesting that the "real" world around me. i was always more comfortable with the things i could not see with my physical eyes. religious experiences (ah, Brazil). myths, fairytales, mysteries, magic. the supernatural, and the tools to access it. religion. God and the Devil, saints and demons, spirits and devas. my inspiration, my oxygen, comes from the invisible. from the place where things are first shaped to manifest in this world (many times just to be corrupted by men.) I grew up embracing the invisible and it spilled in the stories i wrote and the art i created. 

Another progress for a commission, still untitled.

when you talk about what you love and understand (or desire to understand), you will create a bridge. you will find your interlocutors and the great dialogue called art will manifest.

cleaning off the spider webs

over two months and no updates? can't believe it.

i am still working on a new version for my website, when time permits. since the new site is powered by WordPress, i've been pondering if i should keep the blog here or migrate it to the website. i have been a Blogger user for years, and i am very fond of it, so the decision has been a little difficult.

meanwhile, lots have happened. i have a new show up, at Vertigo Rising Gallery, here in Everett WA. the show is called Venusian Odyssey and features artworks of artists Carol J Elsip, Cher Clemans, and myself. i am showing some old pieces and a couple new drawings i have prepared exclusively for the show.

Venusian #1 and #2

in December i will be the featured artist at the Habitude Salon and Spa, in Ballard, Seattle, where i will be showing for the first time works in oils and acrylics. the pieces are a blend of geometric abstracts + figurative work. sneak peak of a work in progress:

Leda, oil and acrylic on canvas. Progress detail.

2013 starts well with two more shows around the Seattle area. details coming soon.

around the studio, things are bubbly (and a bit confusing at times). slowly finishing a bunch of commissions i had in line since early this year, with new ones coming. playing more and more with abstracts, which has been greatly opening my perception of color, form, and composition, and also improving my inner sight. i think that my experience with abstract painting deserves a special post. my illustration work has taken a different direction, with bigger contrast color/grey scale, more detailed pencil work, and the return of my first love, the colored pencils. it has become sort of difficult to work following my old direction of colorful water media. this commission will probably be the last piece more or less following that line of work.

Wocekiye, mixed media on illustration board. Progress detail.

also, i have recently signed a contract with Pacifica Tile Art Studio to have my work printed in tile murals. The Chemistry, Yemanja, and Esperance have been already released. 

thank you so very much for all the lovely messages and the valuable support, and my apologies for not being able to return back to you as promptly as i'd like. hope you all had a scrumptious Halloween!

Me as a voodoo doll.

new website + painting in progress, step by step

so, between commissions, design projects, and weekly 2 and a half hours bus trips to Seattle (this part will finally be over soon), i have been managing to work on some essentials that have been neglected for a while. first, my new website, being completed bit by bit, when i have the time.



graphics on the website are all handmade. (striped curved lines on the left are an effect caused by camera + lighting + computer screen. they do not actually exist.)


drawing the graphics.

second, a new exciting personal painting project. i wanted to start experimenting for a commission on masonite i am working on, and thought that i should develop something personal first, using the same style + technique. my idea was to use an imprimatura underpainting instead of my usual multicolor abstract washes and see what would come out.




i made the imprimatura wash mixing raw sienna and a bit of black. in acrylics, because i had no oils available in that color. the drawing came after. if i hardly follow rules in life, much less in art.




at this point i was wondering if i would be able to do any tonal study, which is one the things an imprimatura is good for. i never do tonal studies of anything. my painting is pretty much instinctual. it is part of the fun, after all. :)



i ended up roughly trying the tonal study (notice the darker areas,) but, no patience. i want to go down the rabbit hole. no pencil rendering this time: my oil paints were smiling at me. part of my visual language is never to render my figures in realistic colors. i like them surreal, unnatural, spectral, in grey scales or showing the hues of my underpainting. i used the paints straight from the tube, without mixing with any vehicle. a bit difficult to work on more delicate details, but possible.




and, because my process is usually chaotic, and because i like to see a bit of each part of the work before finishing others so i can have a glimpse of the final product, i started to study the background before even finishing the face.




i also started applying the flowers, in acrylics and free brushstrokes.




the face here is almost all finished. not bad for a first attempt i guess... oils are a fun, flexible, forgiving media, and a perfect substitute for my traditional pencil rendering in surfaces like masonite, wood, and canvas. the imprimatura worked well in its magic of playing with light absorbency, making the face almost luminescent. good good. more as long as the piece progresses. :)

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the open edition prints poll is still open. i got samples of papers from the printing service, the prints will come out awesome. i am amazed how Persephone and Duality as disputing the first place in public preference. thanks for your voting, folks!

settled in, but not quite.

so, almost one month after having picked up the keys to my new place, i am still struggling to get things flowing the way they are supposed to. baby is still attending school in Seattle, which means i have to share my time between both cities during the whole month of May -- and maybe early June. with all the studio set up in Everett, and only 3 days in the week available for painting, i don't have other choice but continuing in a slow pace until getting definitely out of the limbo.

the Drawing-a-Day project will be put on hold until June. i have 19 more drawings to go!

current projects in progress:

a peacock commission on canvas. pencil drawing soon to be covered in acrylics. this is something very different from my usual direction, but exciting. working on something more ornamental is always a delight.

detail of a commission on paper board with which i have been struggling for quite some time now. :((

the sunset from my rooftop. 

Inner Self Portrait Show

i am honored by being invited as part of one more exhibition of The Forgotten Goddess project. the show, called Inner Self Portrait, will display artworks from victims of domestic violence alongside other women artists from all over the world. the proceeds will benefit Haven Hills, California company that provides shelter and support for victims of domestic violence.

i consider myself a person of so many facets that is quite difficult to paint a self portrait that would involve everything i would like to express. to paint my "inner self portrait" at this moment, i focused in how the recent events of my life have been stripped me of so many things, both positive and negative. although i feel unprotected and vulnerable, i also feel i have been more human than ever, without masks or stratagems. i am naked and blindfolded, being guided uniquely by my heart's vision and light, embracing my "deaths" as opportunities to fly and transmuting all with my right hand, in visions of beauty through this blessing called ART.

the progress:

Progress shots for the new show

Omnia vincit amor (Love conquers all.) There will be another version with two dudes kissing, but not for this show.


Serpentarium


I should be way ahead with these pieces but these have been tumultuous days. my studio contract with Inscape has expired and i decided not to renew it, so this week i've been busy packing up my stuff to bring back home. it has not been easy to let go of a dream to have my own working space where i could display my pieces to the public and teach, but the truth is that i have been producing way more at home, so the rent expenses are rather being painful now. i am now accommodating everything in the basement -- i started calling it "The Dungeon" -- and i feel comfortable enough to keep the creation flame burning. well, someday, i will be back.

so, moving on, because life is a constant flow.

Happy New Year!

While Christmas is always a somewhat depressing time for me, New Year's is one of my favorite holidays of the year. I love its festive, optimistic character, and all the celebration around hopes of a new cycle of prosperity and happiness. It doesn't matter that is only a change in the calendar. What matters is that people's mindsets are generally focused toward a new beginning, improvement, and change, and all that positivity generates an egregore of optimism that can only attract good things.

My New Year Eve was not what i wanted it to be (I am a party person.) I traveled to Kentucky to spend the Holidays with my daughter's family, and things here are not exactly what a party creature would call "exciting"... But it was a pretty calm evening and I spent it with the things i love the most in this world - my baby and my art, so it couldn't be bad (it would be better if boyfriend was around too, but nothing is perfect...) As the only things I could bring in the plane were a few pieces of illustration board, a few pencils and brushes, and a set of watercolors, had to revisit an old passion of mine: the combination watercolor + pencil.

Think I can consider this for my new show, in February, and add maybe three more pieces in the same style.

I feel like something is opening up for me. The months that followed my divorce and my move to Seattle were quite overwhelming. I have been trying to balance personal life, art, health that gets gradually worse, motherhood, survival and emotional issues, and that big sign that many times blinks inside your mind reading "you are alone, lady, and there's no escape, so, make the best of it!" As I have been registering here, my art has been also gone through a long phase of experimentation (a reflex of my own life?), in each I have been exhaustively trying to reach ways to represent what I see inside, reaping some results that are undoubtedly getting me to a more comprehensive path. On my quest, I have been taking a little distance from who I am in order to find myself again. I went farther, training my hand in Abstractionism (in my opinion maybe the most difficult path that one could take in art,) evolving on canvas work, knowing my limits and challenges. It is liberating to think that you can be and do anything you want when you really want it. As long as the heart and your personal truth takes the lead, everything is valid.

This year, my intention is just one: to improve. I want to do the best I can, and even so, do not get satisfied. I also want to focus more on the business of art and explore other possibilities to my art making.

To all my friends, followers, patrons, buyers, a sincere, tsunamic THANK YOU. Wish you a year of enlightenment, prosperity, and inspiration.

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I still have a bunch of December works to show here. It will be done soon, promise.

To Drown a Rose

One of my good friends and collectors observed recently that my images have gained an air of "slight melancholy", and I agree. in the last months, since I started to dive deeper into the abstract/figurative technique, I have totally let the abstract dictate the tone of the paintings, and the process has become almost 80% intuition. that makes me think about what is being released from my heart in the last months. my interpretation of "To Drown a Rose" (title of one of my favorite Death in June songs, although the painting itself has not been inspired on the song) is this desire of killing pain and transform in beauty.

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last weekend i did a live drawing presentation at the Seattle Central District Artwalk. unfortunately I could not get there in time to enjoy the entire event, but had time enough for a bit of fun. it was a beautiful sunny and chilly afternoon and i loved to spread my drop cloth outside and make some art while listening to some good live music. 

she dreams in blue

working hard to rebuild my inventory after selling almost all my stuff before coming to Seattle.

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shot of my Saturday students doing contour drawing of a ball of crumpled paper. don't try at home.

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i miss my yoga classes and i miss my bike rides. living in a city where bikers are everywhere, that is also a shame.

peeks for the Illuminare show...

From graphic and "illustrative" to loose and more pictorial, my work has suffered such a dramatic change in the past few months. Truth is that this has been an announced and very desired change, which I have been working hard to get to. Since works like Study for Woman's Head, Waterlily and others i have been pursuing a more hybrid mix of abstracts and figurativism, almost like if both things were one. Abstract painting is very linked to the spiritual in a more energetic, idealized sense, and my goal to mix the human figure to this spiritual dimension is reaching a more "tangible" point in this new phase. I think I am also achieving a more defined identity and my work is gaining a bit more of a character. :)

Colors in us

I should be packing and mailing my art materials to the Northwest right now since I have now little over than 2 weeks from my move, but the muses govern my life and they act through mysterious ways. Experimentations with abstract underpaintings are not a new thing in my journey but it seems that i am feeling more and more drawn to it, specially since my interest in the ties science + spirituality + art was ignited some time ago. I am fascinated by the concept of color being nothing less than light in different frequencies, and light being the constitution of matter (a cool, nerdy article here.) It is very symbolic to me the representation oh human bodies and faces coming out of colors. Do we have colors in us? Music? The thought of it thrills my heart and make the muses have multiple orgasms. Serious intentions about a series of figurative works mixed with expressionistic abstracts, without a concern with deep conceptualization besides the interaction matter/color/light. New, exciting paths to explore.

Still untitled. Acrylics and pencils on gessoed masonite.


The abstract underpainting. Pale in my past experiments, getting stronger and more assertive now.


Working on these experiments unleashed something, and have made me feel a lot freer. I think I might have been blocked for several months without a conscience I was really facing a block. Going to write more about this experience and this devil, the artist's block, in one of my next posts.

slowly but surely

the last weeks have found me very prolific, although i have been doing things in a very chaotic manner. i have been dedicating good part of my time to my art direction work for the lingerie company, which is bringing me great satisfaction and excitement. it is bothering me that i am not really seeing a lot of my independent production finished, and my online presence is being sort of neglected lately. i really apologize for all the unanswered emails, messages and comments. the day is just too short, the energy runs out sooner that desired and my time on the computer really has to be limited to what really matters (my migraines have killed me). as soon as i can afford it i need to hire an assistant. my slow rhythm and inability to get organized is not really being compatible with all the stuff i need to accomplish and to the very rhythm of my own muses.

so lately i have been doing these...



The Travelers, acrylics and pencil on masonite board. this work is going very, very slowly. i am experimenting, savoring the work, living every second of it since there is a lot of emotional involvement. not sure if it is going for sale either. my heart is in it.



Sunny, pencil on bristol board. more experimentation on new languages of illustration.



Changing Woman, illustration for the project of the same name. this is the second version, and i am happier; probably going to stick with it. this is a project i have been growing inside me for a while and giving birth slowly. going to tell more about it soon!