Create What You Love

One thing I always say to any of my students, apprentices, striving artists, etc, is always do art that you love. The only way to nurture your soul as an artist is to do your own personal art or craft. Now that being said, there comes a great sense of gratitude when a client sees their tattoo for the first time and a huge smile goes across their face, or when someone picks up a pot or sculpture that speaks to them. These moments really push me forward as an artist. Knowing that the larger community enjoys the art that I bring into the world. What is it about the art that we bring into the world, and why do we love it so much?

I remember when I was a kid, our parents would load my brother Devon and I into the car and drive us out to the back hills of Pennsylvania. (Sounds sketchy right?) You ask me now where we went, and I couldn't tell you. but I remember a dirt road twisting for hours it seemed through woods and fields. We would eventually end up at this farmhouse on a hilltop. Rolling hills, fields, and woods all around. These were my parents' friends. They happened to be artists. The husband was a painter, and his wife was a potter. We would always go to the Barn first. My mom was a huge fan of this woman's pottery. In fact, few pieces I have and use here and there. The way the barn was set up on the main floor was made into a display area. Fine crafted wooden walls would have rounded corner tier shelving filled with pottery. It was breath taking. After my mom and dad looked through the pottery, we would be taken to the house to have a bite to eat and chat. This was a typical farmhouse, old, rustic, country fresh air, a little musky, but smells of lavender, and other flowers permeated the house. The husband was happy to show us his room where he painted. It was filled with canvases filled with abstract grotesque imagery. I loved it. A lot of people would view this work as creepy and maybe had a little serial killer vibe, but it was just the zeitgeist of the times. What I would come to find out about this couple is they would live here in the summer, and during the winters they lived in Italy. I found that so amazing. I mean they were also busy with art shows, vending her pottery, and living in the mid 80's. I find it so fascinating on how freeing it is to be so close to nature and how that brings out such natural art. You could see the imperfection, the simpleness and complexity within the forms of her pottery and his paintings.

This has rubbed off on me over the years. Being able to get out of my head for a while and go hiking or camping has done worlds for my creative mind. Most of the time while a person is in their daily routine, they think about things like their job, or stresses, or list of responsibilities to do during the day, getting something good to eat, drama, family, or the basic hustle of the day. This may not be all people, but this is what I find personally and how people around me tend to deal with on a daily basis. But this routine can get mundane after a while. This is why getting in touch with nature a few times a week is good for the artistic mind. It creates time for us to relax our brain, to let the quite of nature to relax our soul. It's something about the green of the trees, or the texture of the ground beneath our feet that has a calming effect on our souls. It's a grounding effect that calms the whole body. I know I have mentioned this before in a previous post. When relaxed is when the ideas come in. first at a trickle, but then as a flood.

I guess I should wright about my process for creativity. Of course, most ideas come as just those. Ideas. They come at random times either out of the blue, or inspired by writings, people, places, or things. I personally have a great interest in symbolism and meaning. I like for a piece to have a meaning behind it. Whether it be my meaning or the viewers idea. I would like the imagery to evoke thought. Ideas will come in and go out most of the time. It's the idea that keeps showing up in my head and grows upon itself. Once these ideas share my head for a period of 3 months to 2 years I will move onto my 2nd stage of my process. The drawing. This stage is nothing glamorous. I am far from a perfect human being, so I don't do extravagant drawing with measurements, and explanations. Most of the time it's just a sketch, or a small, detailed picture. Many of these can be done at different angles or positions to see which one best depicts what you see in your head. This allows me to bring the thought into existence. This I'm sure every artist out there does to some degree. We first have to see if what we thought even works well on a paper as a sketch. Now this is when a daily practice comes in. If you are at least drawing or sketching a few days a week if not every day, then this practice will make it easier for you to bring the idea forth on paper. Giving you a more defined image then a sketchy piece of shit. (Even though those are always fun to draw.) This design gives the artist a better idea on how the design will come out. This works well for all mediums of artwork.

If the idea works out well that's when we work on the planning stage. This differs from artist to artis but for myself I usually draw the design element more to give the design more detail. Tattoo designs I keep as 2D of course but I want to make sure that I have a good composition, defined design elements, and well-balanced design that will work well on a client or in some cases on my pottery. The design if meant for a sculpture or a detailed pot I want to make sure I try and add a light source so I can get a basic idea on how the form will work well in a lite room. These designs can have measurements or in my process a hopeful dimension the piece will possibly get to. I am not a perfectionist. Usually at this point is when I start getting hands on with clay and start building the piece. I am not going to get into detail of building a whole piece. Rather I would like to rewind and talk about another process I do.

This process is called 'just go for it!' I mostly do this exploratory technique with clay, pen drawing, painting, or body painting. I still have a basic idea but it's in my head. This can be very fun when we just let our hands create something. Getting the idea out and seeing it take form without any plan of attack. If you are not used to this, be ready for failures. These are the biggest teachers you will ever encounter in an art career. The failure teaches us what works and what doesn't. I'm going to say that plainly and not go into depth about it but it's just like life. every failure is a lesson to be learned. This creative process is very fun, and a stream of creativity can come from this.

The previous process is extremely helpful when going through a very emotion time. That why a lot of younger artists have raw energy exuding from their art. They are taking some of that frustration of youth and putting it into their work. I tend to do the same thing when dealing with emotional situations. I tend not to show my feelings much, not so much as bottling them up but channeling them through a creative process. When I was younger on top of doing a lot of pen drawing and getting a lot of my ideas and frustration out on restaurant napkins or in my various sketch books I would also sing in bands. This process of singing, screaming, growling basic forms of melody was the way I would start building up my sketches for a musical pattern I would use to eventually write my lyrics. I remember working at Perkins/Dennys back in the day throwing a tape of band practice into my small tape deck in the back dish room and carving out lyrics to a song. Repeating them over and over again till they were cemented in my head. I hardly ever wrote down my lyrics. This raw emotion was able to be channeled in a healthy way into something creative and beautiful to some. Bringing this artistic expression into the world.

Now how to tie this all together. Easy right? The nature of the ideas that bounce our heads is a constant. Most are of things that have to do with everyday life. But there will always be a few ideas of creativity in there somewhere. Whether you are an artist, a craftsman, a writer, a youtuber, tiktoker, landscaper, creative parent, etc these ideas are always there. I feel that some people just think them not important or flights of fancy. But for those that do recognize these thoughts and want to explore them we have to slow down and really understand that those ideas are true expressions of who we are inside, what we want to share with the world. Just like my parents' friends, the painter and the potter. they brought beauty into the world and a true inspiration to a kid who didn't even know who they were yet. I told you the romanticized version of my memory of my parents' friends. When in fact the wife, who was the potter had a huge pile outside the back of the barn of a big pile of broken pots. The pile was taller than me. And the husband, most of his painting had unfinished paintings on the underside of almost every canvas he painted. This is a basic understanding of letting go of what didn't work and presenting what does work. The pots the wife made and kept were smooth, uniform, and beautiful forms. His work was dark, creepy, bloody. Two completely different styles but if they didn't like what they made; they wouldn't share it. They didn't hide it, but what they did make evokes a feeling within them to share with the world which in turn inspires feeling within us.

So, what is the art that we bring to world, and why do we love it so much? The varieties of styles in art out there cover all the spectrums of the rainbow. Just like us as human beings, we as individuals like different things. If we all liked the same thing this world would be boring. When an artist creates something from the heart made from love, sadness, hate, interests, it evokes the feelings in others whether we like the piece or not. But! someone will. And in turn that's where the connection is made. We all will end up making something that someone will love. A conversation will be had off of a basic thought, and maybe a friendship or relationship can be formed from the original idea of the project. So that's why I always say make art that you love. That is the true expression of yourself. It's a complete freedom, a form of therapy, at times an escape. But whatever you make, it's you. You may stumble or fail along the way. But didn't we do that as a child. We had to learn to walk before we could run. So, take your first step and make what you love. Enjoy your day.