The Visual Elements that Stand Tall

Happy Friday All!  I wanted to talk a bit today on Symbolism, Meaning, and Do We Need It at All.  And so I did!  

To recap some thoughts on symbolism:

- When we actively work with symbolism in our art, we create layers of meaning.  I find it helpful to think in terms of symbols when I want to express a large concept without needing to explain it in great detail - to allow one visual element to stand in for a more complex thought.  These can go deep, full of historical meaning, universally recognizable, or they can be utterly simple, light and invented just for us.  It can be something as easy as "yellow means happy" or as far reaching as "a feather means connection with the higher spiritual realm."  

- The most important thing to remember in this is that symbolism is merely a tool in our artistic tool box - we can use it as we need, we can change it's purpose at any moment (like that moment when a butter knife suddenly becomes a screwdriver), or we can leave it to the side if it does not serve the current pieces we're working on (like that moment you spread butter with your fingers).  When we develop symbols, they become a part of our visual vocabulary - much like the map key - and because they are just part of our tools, we have full agency to invent and shift anytime we need.  Remember!  Artistic polygamy!

- While I spoke primarily in this video on using Symbols (think marks, shapes, specific images, colors), there is no end to the number of visual elements we can use to represent the concepts and meanings we want to express.  But a great way to begin exploring what symbols we already have is to look back at our individual inspiration explorations.  So many of our big inspirations are rather without a nice, concise picture to explain them, but as we dissect our associations and study them, we can often find symbols that will stand in as representatives.   

Home[play] for the Weekend: 

I'd like you to spend some time with your sketchbooks continuing to expand on your inspirations, but to really begin looking through them for the various visual elements that can stand in as symbols - especially those inspirations that did not have tidy images already attached.  If you had something like "walking in full moonlight" on your list of inspirations, perhaps start asking how you can symbolise that walk (does it look like feet, a foot print, a dotted trail line, a broad stroke of blue, etc), or how you can symbolise that full moonlight (the shape of the moon, the phases, radiating light patterns, a milky yellow or blue color).  Remember, not everything needs (or will ever even have) a symbolism!  This is merely one more way to compile information and inspiration, one more way to step into telling the story of the work of our hands  Start adding these to your sketchbook as potential ways to develop your art!

If you are in the FaceBook group and would like to share your thoughts on symbolism and begin discussing using it in your work, we'd all love to dialogue! 

See you next week ladies!
- K

Expanding the Modes of Looking

As we really begin laying down our thoughts, ideas and observations in our sketchbooks, building up our visual vocabulary, I'd like to discuss the topic of drawing as a means of recording.  There are as many different ways to draw and sketch as there are hands on the planet, and truly no "right" way to create an image on paper.  Some of us fall into the category of highly detailed renderings, some of us into abstracted forms, and some into the "just don't do a lot of drawing" category.  And each of those is perfectly alright!   

There are various modes of looking and translating an object into the drawn/painted/sculpted/etc. form.  Some of the work we've been doing has begun with observing a physical, tangible object.  Now I had you begin with something you could pick up, hold, look at from different angles and this was no random beginning BUT observing a thing in real life is just one way to LOOK.  

 "Childhood Truths"  early work in progress

Working from Real Life

When we are in physical proximity to the thing we're drawing, our brains register the three dimensionality of it.  Every time we shift our own position, the exact angles and lines change due to the fact that is IS a dimensional form.  That constant shift can add a huge amount of life to our drawings because we are studying the fullness of a form; we are developing an awareness and knowledge of it's full shape.  This is true even if we don't see it immediately in our drawings, it's true even if our drawings are not meant to be a precise recognizable image.  We still begin seeing in fullness and that fullness informs the way we recreate it.

Working from Photographs

In my own work I often desire to create a recognizable form but do not have access to sit that "thing" down nicely in front of me while I create copious sketches (wild jackrabbits and barn owls don't like to play that way).  Photographs open up a whole world of visual inspirations, from the sights we can not see on our own (like a satellite view of North America), for the things that won't hold still (like a galloping herd of mustangs) to the that which we can not even see with the naked eye (hello mitochondria!).  When we work with photographs, not only do we have an endless plethora of sources to view, we have the ability to find the exact position we wish to study, and really study it in detail.

Working from Memory

While I work extensively with both real life and photographs, I may love working with memory the most.  When we work with an image or a "thing" from memory, there is a fascinating morphing that happens based on the particular details our minds recorded.  We don't have the object in front of us to make small corrections or to record lines too carefully.  Instead, we have the ability to hone in on the parts we remember - and in that there can be a huge amount of freedom from "perfection" and looseness in our hands.  Let's say we were painting foxgloves from memory.  We had studied them, looked closely, and and then walked away from the plant to create them in the studio.  The most important parts would stand out: there would be an open belled shape, there would be copious dots and spots running rampant, and there would be two very distinct sets of ribs.  Now this might not correspond with the exact real shape and layout of a foxglove, BUT in drawing what we remember, in drawing how the pieces fit in our minds, we create something that is entirely unique and honest to us.  Memory expands certain details, it let's go of others, it pulls in associations we may not have recognized when studying an object in person or from photographs.  

Each of these modes of looking has strong benefits.  I like to think of drawing from real life as corresponding to the hands (tangible), drawing from photograph as corresponding to the eye (observing) and drawing from memory as corresponding to the heart (intuition).  Each can be utilized completely on their own, but when we recognize how to make each one work for us, they can work together to create deeply rounded work. 

To illustrate how these three different modes of looking can be combined in one piece, I'd like to share with you a painting currently in progress in my studio.

 "Childhood Truths"   - work in progress

This piece began with an intuitive vision, a spark from a waking dream.   The background became an exercise in working from memory - how the setting sunlight falls through the evergreen trees, how the light forms glowing orbs in the background bokeh of a photograph.  The hand is my own, working from real life, holding it up (I'm left handed, so it had to be my right), turning in the light, looking for the color under my skin, in the folds and shadows.  The butterfly, not surprisingly, is being worked from a photograph - in this case it was important to me that it was a Western Swallowtail and I want to render some correct species details.  And in case you were wondering, that certainly is a halo in encircling the two. ;)  

For today, as we continue to compile new inspirations, revisit old themes and ideas, collect objects from our surroundings, while sketching and taking notes on them all, I'd like for you to keep these three modes of looking at the forefront of your mind.  Try on all three:  Close your eyes and feel out if there is something on your lists or in your mind that you can create from memory - keeping in mind that memory gives us total freedom to interpret.  Find one thing on your list of inspirations that might not be available for drawing in person and either take or find a photograph that embodies it.  Hold one of your found goodies in hand, observe it from various angles and record what you see.  Again, every time we try on these various modes, we're adding to that grand tool chest, deepening and enriching our personal visual vocabulary!  And how exciting is that!

With butterfly wings dancing above my head, 

- K