Thursday, October 13, 2011

Finally Creating Art Again



I haven't created an "actual" fine Art piece since before I came to California. Sure, I've done lots of crafty stuff but I have been completely devoid of fine art inspiration.

Since my illness, though, I have had to begin thinking about what I will be doing with my life if I continue to get seriously ill on a regular basis. I don't feel like I can take on the responsibility of being a therapist if I cannot be sure of being reliable for my clients... and so Art might just be the secure career to fall back on :)

In concentrating on Art I have been developing an idea of where I want to go with my work right now. I guess you could say it is a mix of abstraction and realism. Figurative/portrait work (since I am most interested in people as subjects of all creative work) but it is imposed on a backdrop of geometric patterns. I was inspired by the beauty of quilts that women have been making for hundreds of years-- works of such craftmanship and beauty that they should have been acknowledged as the works of Art that they are, but have never been seen as Art-- they are always relegated to the halls of "craft" just as other womens' work has been so long ignored and dismissed.

I hope to speak to the beauty and importance of the work of so many talented women of history by referencing their creations in my own work. I believe that this will be one of the recurrent themes that I will work with as my own body of work evolves and grows. I really hope that I will be able to make work that can speak to the lack of respect so many talented women have endured in the centuries before we were free.