The Creative Process
Folk Art Follows No Rules. Anything Becomes a Tool.
Painting… the imaginative fun part! Nothing is more satisfying than to splash some color on a fresh canvas and get those creative juices flowing.
All my life I have worked with images and colors. In the 70’s I worked with view cameras and photofloods, spending long hours in the darkroom with an enlarger, developing film and making prints. I operated large format process cameras and laser scanners, riding the digital revolution wave as it invaded the commercial printing industry from the 80's onward.
A resigned insomniac, sleep will elude me until find myself in my studio in the wee hours sketching a new design or mixing a special color. It is a time of energetic creativity.
In some ways, researching an idea will stifle creativity. That is not to say one should be ignorant regarding the particulars surrounding a given concept. But often, too much information tends to shape one’s perspective, overshadowing any original ideas that they might have had.
I will sometimes just jump in there with both feet to try to make something happen. Gaining a little experience always sharpens one’s attention to details.
Once I get my feet wet, I’m able to get a truer perspective about a thing. I might then take a different approach, maybe let the idea simmer a bit, or perhaps abandon the project altogether.
Either way, I come away a little wiser, having added to my bag of tools and ideas.
Often success with an idea occurs because I didn’t know it couldn’t be done that way.
If it was easy, everybody would do it!
I was drawn to acrylic painting around 2016. The medium offers colors well beyond the pigments available in traditional photographs and 4-color process printing. There are certain blues, aquas, purples and greens that will dazzle; neon colors and metallics that scream off the canvas, not to mention the textures and dimension possible with acrylic paint. In addition, each painting is a unique work that can only be copied, but never duplicated.
My subjects are imaginary, ideas coming from somewhere deep within me. My style is ever changing as I enjoy exploring different methods of applying paint to the canvas. I will experiment using different tools, brushes, scrapers, sprayers, rollers, or whatever to achieve a new look. I don't have any specific goals in mind other than letting the creative juices flow as they may.
