Confession time! Yep that’s right, I must confess I don’t know what I’m doing most of the time. When my oldest entered high school, I had panicked about my time when the girls would be gone and I needed to be working full-time again on my art career. What did I want to pursue? The way I decided to deal with the overwhelming prospect was to just start making stuff. With the gelli plate on my art table, I started playing and experimenting with printing. I watched many videos on techniques for using the plate. I began to have piles of prints, some more successful than others. I searched to see what other artist did with their prints. I also began to research on how to become that full-time artist. I looked to see how other artists got to that point in their career.
One of the first things that caught my attention was that successful artist often create a series of work. I had a taste of this when I was a senior in college and had to do a thesis class. It was the whole year long and I worked hard at it with decent success in the end. Like I said, it was a taste, the first and only time I had done in it in my entire time of art college. Most of the schooling was focused on learning elements and principles of art and a variety techniques and styles.
So here is the confession, I graduated with the fear that I would create a piece of artwork but wouldn’t be able to repeat it or continue in that same style. WHAT? I know, how silly that may seem, but it’s true. Then when this idea of creating in a series stood out like a neon sign, I kinda cringed. I decided to gather all the things I had been making and just take a look. I had only been making things that brought me joy, but much to my surprise, I discovered some patterns.
I discovered a collection of birds, some prints, some mixed media with painting and prints combined. Bird watching is one of my favorite things to do while I sit at my dining table. When I looked at this work I could see my style too. My art has color, movement, texture and a view of the world that is up-close and personal. I had done this all by coincidence, but from that point on, I intentionally decided to work in series.
I also had a group of work about summer fun. I spent many weeks during the summer at my great aunt and uncle’s house at the Jersey shore. I made art about ocean waves, fireworks, schools of fish, and the icky things that you can’t always see but feel touching your legs, think- seaweed, jellyfish, crabs.
I was excited because I was making progress and there was tangible work to prove it. I can create artwork that is cohesive. In the practice of art making, I discovered a direction for my future. Just as the joy of this epiphany appeared, my studio space was taken out of commission. That is another story I will share soon. Thanks for reading