Inspiration or Perspiration?

Thomas Edison said “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”  This blog is about the one percent, the inspiration.

I have always been intensely interested in how and where artists get their ideas. And judging by the questions I am asked by students and people looking at my art, so are many others.

So, in an effort to discover how inspiration works, I decided to examine the process in a group of works for which I already know what the original inspiration was. Then maybe we could create an outline by seeing what is common among the group, and at the end, connect the dots!

“Current Residents of Dripping Springs”

Just east of Las Cruces, New Mexico, at Dripping Springs Canyon on the west side of the Organ Mountains, are the ruins of a late 1800’s resort built by an ex-officer of the Confederate Army, A. E. Van Patten. Not much remains but a partial building. Finding the setting and the idea of a resort up in the clean mountain air very engaging, I visited it a half dozen times between 1980 and 2000. During one visit, I was particularly intrigued by the idea that the only occupants in recent years have been wildlife and perhaps a few human spirits.

Taking this idea further, I created a crumbling wall, dark doorway and surrounding cactus that have encroached. My very favorite high desert dwellers are ravens, so they HAD to be there, along with the spirit of a fellow in a western hat, slouching just inside the doorway.

To make a lot of strong texture, I soaked 140-lb. watercolor paper, then wadded it tightly to create wrinkles and lines on the surface. Then I established the top outline of a crumbling adobe wall and filled in, painting negatively around tall and short cacti and the doorway, leaving plenty of white for sparkle here and there. The background canyon wall was painted with a large brush in blue and slate colors, the doorway filled in very dark. The last steps were painting in a variety of greens and golds for prickly vegetation, creating the ravens in a dark blue-black, and lifting out the spirit figure with a thirsty brush. Final touches included scraping and scratching out a few more whites around the cactus and making the spirit outline more indistinct.

Inspiration – a fascinating place and musings about who and what might remain after many years of human absence.

So the first thing to do is go out and find those places and sights that result in an emotional response!