Discovering new creative inspiration by revisiting and updating earlier works

Beagle in the House!

Introducing Gilly, our new beagle. She was rescued by way of http://www.norcalbeagles.com/ and I am printing/bloging with a new partner now.

I have been stuck in the creative process for new material and new ideas for content as well as developing my woodcutting technique further. This past week I found both. I looked at some older artworks as potential subject manner due to the fact my carving techniques are producing different looking images than previous artworks. The difference is made by a number of reasons: I am using 2 plates to print one image which allows for a richer and deeper look because the layered inks can provide opaqueness or transparencies as intuition dictates. I am also using 4 different sized circle punches, and 3 different awls, which provide an infinite number of patterns.

I found a great new inspiration from looking back at my sketchbook from the late 1980’s, when I used Van Gogh’s Self Portraits as subject matter. I thought of the ways that Chuck Close has used the same image presented in a different manner each decade, and the way that artists build a body of work. Several artists have changed their painting style as their inspiration grows, but several make this change by using the images of artworks from their past to update them with new style, or technique.

In the past, I thought some of my older artwork had lost its relevance because my focus on printmaking had changed, my style had changed, and my subject matter changed. These so called relics of my past are perceived in 2 different ways, either junk from your past or still loved but where is the present connection to your current artwork? By recommitting myself to some older images, I can build a connection to my past through my present artworks. I am going to do a number of new artworks based on older pieces. I have decided to take only small sections, mostly portraits from previous artworks, enlarge them, and see what images will inspire me to create whole new artworks in my current working style. For subject matter, I choose the Van Gogh Self Portrait again. I made several paintings in the late 80’s and early 90’s.

I started my drawing dissecting the image and allowing my present mind to forget all the previous times I used the same subject manner. I convinced myself that any new approach to an older image will produce a completely different piece, because stylistically and artistically, I have grown.

This is my printing area, to the right is my drawing.

In this new print I have expanded my carving in one different way. I am no longer isolating the type of cuts on each plate (previous work included isolating white line cuts to one plate and the second one, a punched plate). I am now combining both cutting marks on both cutting plates. I have reduced my printing to hand painting each space for each plate printed. In order to achieve a final look, I have printed several spaces overlapping each other, and left some blank on each plate in order to emphasize depth, texture, and color.

Detail of print showing how color is layered

Detail of print in progress

detail of plate #1 

My printmaking process is all painting. I am mixing colors with a brush and palette, and I am printing with my trusty old wooden spoon to use as a baren. I am focused on making sure there is a strong light source present, how to add contrast where some colors will be overlapping, and how the patterns that are carved will produce different visual effects. I am concerned with how opaque and transparent colors will play out on the final piece.


On this print I left both plates UN gesso-ed/un-fixed and this may have been a mistake, because the ink is adsorbs into the plate which means I have to paint a smaller area to print, and adds time. However, the un-fixed plate also produces a softer look, and I can still get a real hard edge by applying the ink while it is still pretty stiff.

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3, Plate 1 is printed, time to start printing the second.

Detail after first plate is printed

Stage 4

Stage 5, and completed

My excitement is contained by the number of hours to finalize one print. So far I have printed 3 in a 3 day period working about 6-8 hours on each piece. The slow process allows me to take an analytical look as the print begins to develop. This slow and time consuming practice appeals to me more than creating an edition of several exact copies. I am now producing much larger and more technical, more concentrated works and producing a smaller number of unique prints from each plate.

BTW: Gilly slept the whole time at my feet, what a good girl!

"Light" the ultimate source of the creative process

For any artist looking to free himself from a creative block, there is one source that many artists have looked at for hundreds of years and produced many famous works of art. The creative source was light. The desire to capture light has inspired almost every painter from the time that people began painting and inspired them to innovate.

Because light is not constant, there are unlimited, unique interpretations of light, from a candlelit still life or portrait in the daylight through an open window, to the stormy skies of a John Constable and William Turner or the evening glow captured by Charles Rollo Peters. Of course, for the most well-known depictions of changing light,...pick any Monet painting you like. The pioneering painters were all inspired by light.

Capturing the light on any subject is the key to most all works of art. When I think about creating new works and I get stuck, I typically go for a walk down to the shoreline. I have found that staring out at the water will quiet my mind and fine tune the creative ideas jumping around in the mind. Staring out over the landscape, I can immediately see how Constable was inspired by approaching storm clouds. The light makes everything beautiful. These memories of looking at landscape paintings and looking directly at the landscape led me to create my own interpretations of light; gave me purpose to create my own messages in art about how I perceived light.

I made an important decision a long time ago, "I would not discount any form of light that makes the subject strong." For a long time, painting light used to mean only one thing to me and that was strong and direct day light. It is simple to fall into this trap when creating new work because we spend most of our time in day light. A few years back, during the winter, we had a power-out. I had lit a few candles and noticed how everything was transforemd by the candlight. The light was simple and warm and had not over powered every surface in the room like traditional modern lighting. It has been a long time that candles have been the main source of light in modern art and I felt inspired to draw in my sketchbook. I managed to complete one drawing of a reclining figure behind a few lit candles on a table in the fore ground with a pot of orchids on it. It was the only time I had worked under candlelight to when drawing. Afterwards, I found the drawing appealing enough to do a small painting titled, "Power Out."

The idea for this painting, Nude with Tealights, started from a simple moment having a drink at a local bar that had several tealights in a row. As I enjoyed my drink, I just stared at the light flashing on the candle, the glass container, the shadow and the reflection. It was the beginning of a new work, ...inspiration at last.

Light is still the main source of my creative inspiration when I am confronted with a block. My exploration of light frees me of these creative blocks; moonlight at midnight, dusk on a cold or hot day, midday light, late evening light, candlelight, lighting by a house lamp, and early morning.

I have used light during different times of the day to express quiet images of landscape or portraiture. As with all artists that have come before me, capturing light in my art is still powerful and thought provoking.

"If I am not an artist, who am I?"

"If I am not an artist, who am I?"
Those are the memorable words of William T.Wiley who has become one of the most impressionable artists for my own personal work. His statement is appropriate for every and any artist that confronts a mental block, as in this moment of questioning that we look inside ourselves and define who we are by responding with action.