The Persistence of Vision

"The Persistence of Vision"...  it's the title of an upcoming exhibition that my work will be shown in.  Here's a press release about it.

"The Persistence of Vision"... it's about the persistence of human beings to be part of the connected thread of human creativity that runs under everything, regardless of the pressures of the world, and also because of those pressures.

It's also about my own life as an artist: knowing I am on the right track, knowing it from the inside out, knowing that I can find and exercise my voice if I stay the path.  I have discovered that in order to be an artist, I need a lot of sheer dogged stubborn refusal to succumb to all the noise that I myself generate simply by being in this world.  Sometimes it amazes me that I manage it at all.  

But then, look: I was invited to join a group of very diverse artists, all of whom know about persistence.  And now we are having an exhibition of our work.

"The Persistence of Vision"... it does pay off, sooner or later.

this is my brain on art

Back when I was in art school, we were given an assignment to make "an artist's toolbox".  After some consideration, I decided there was no definitive artist's toolbox outside the artist's own mind, so I made "The Creative Brain".

It is made of coloured wires, xmas lights, a small container filled with water and an aquarium aerator.  Back then I called it The Creative Brain, and I still do... but in my growing maturity as an artist, I realize there's some heart and soul in the thing as well.

A brain hums, a heart pumps, and a soul casts light, n'est pas?

papers and patterns

The art store where I work part-time has a paper sale this month.  I love decorative papers, and there are some really gorgeous new ones so of course I had to buy a few sheets yesterday.  

Paper is like fabric, to me: beautiful + tactile = irresistible!

There are often pockets of time for creative pursuits at the store, so some days I bring a sketchbook and do portraits.  Yesterday I began with paper collage and then made portraits on top with paint markers.

Above: I like the combined patterns and colours of the papers, but not sure how I like the drawing on top.  Well, I'll call that one a "study"  *laughs*

Below: The drawing is more to my liking, and integrated better with the collaged paper too.

Above: Portrait of CP which I made today.  I like this one a lot.  CP's face has a very interesting pattern.  Can you see how the shape of her eyebrows relate to the shape of her mouth and hairline, how the fall of her hair is echoed in her nose and chin shapes?

While I drew, we were talking about patterns, and how pattern recognition can help you to draw basically anything.  In order to recognize patterns, you must continually observe them in the world.  Forget what you think things look like - your mind's paradigms are just that - and observe the actual patterns before you.  It does not take long to realize that everything you see is made up of patterns; that the whole world is composed of observable and inter-connected relationships.

Pattern observation in the visual world has become a joyful exercise for me.  It makes my eyes happy, and then I am never bored no matter where I am or how long I must wait there.

Above: photo I took out the window of the city bus this morning.

Patterns on paper, patterns in faces, patterns on the street... they are everywhere.