A while back I got some of Teesha Moore's stamps (Creator of Zetti style), and very recently went back for some back issues of her publications. I hadn't discovered stamping, mixed media etc when she was doing all this, so browsing through the pages were fresh to me, and have provided a lot of inspiration. In Art & Life issue #7, Tracy Moore refers to a talk given by Jay Lake:
"He talked a lot about balance and finding how to be a "producer" more than a "consumer;" spending lots of time playing video games, watching movies, reading graphic novels, etc. Writing, drawing, making journals, photography, and just plain doodling are all things that fall under the "producer" label. The satisfaction that comes after "producing" something is so far superior to the feelings which remain after being a "consumer", the choice should not be hard to make. But it often is. That is where balance comes in."
I've found that attending a live-in class often stops my creating for a while - it's as though my subconscious needs a lot of time to assimilate the class. Some might say I'd lost my mojo, or enthusiasm, for the craft. BUT I'm not doing nothing during this period. I'm re-balancing myself by re-reading books, catching up on all those recordings of Star Trek Voyager, meeting deadlines for this blog's pieces, and "doodling".
So with Halloween around, I'm preparing die cuts with no fixed intent.
Ravens, hissy cats, supposedly black. I was playing with alcohol ink backgrounds, and drinking juice, which provided me with more material to die cut. The juice cartons have that silver inside.
Why shouldn't a cat or raven be shining silver in the moonlight?
Or calico-coloured after smearing the alcohol inks around.
And they would both be standing out from their background (Heaven knows what that will be). So that means glueing multiples on top of each other. Or offset, as if they are jumping out of their skin
So I'm playing, I'm creating, BUT I don't have the direction for a "finished" piece. But I'm happy, and having fun, while Nevermore (the raven) and Alice (cheshire cat? Michael deMeng's online class starting mid-October?) play with my mind. And mess with yours.
