Cartography for Creativity

I am going to take a short break -- about a week -- and when I return to the blog, I'll start analyzing the inspirations for the past 25 or so paintings.

Maybe by categorizing the inspirations and finding out what they have in common, we can come up with a road map to creativity!

Hope all of you are enjoying the start of another beautiful autumn.

Rusting Near Monticello

A 2007 visit to a ranch north of Monticello, New Mexico provided lots of photo opps. One sight that got my attention was two old cars, rusting away in someone's barnyard.  I took several photos of the old cars and filed the photos. A friend of mine liked the pix, too, and did this collage, which she called "Gentlemen: Start Your Engines."

"Gentlemen:  Start Your Engines!"

Then, this past summer I attended a Sterling Edwards workshop in Cloudcroft, New Mexico. In preparation for the workshop, I dug through my pile of resource photos and came up with this one, then added it to my workshop materials.

At the workshop, I pulled the photo out to work from for one of the exercises. The painting is little more than a sketch, but somehow a sense of humor and a flavor of the place came through.

"Rusting Near Monticello"

I couldn't resist putting the ravens in -- ravens are everywhere in the canyon! Enjoy!

Inspiration:  More old New Mexico stuff -- cars rusting away in the yard, New Mexico colors, and ravens!

Two Souls, One Heart

From the first time I saw rock art in New Mexico, I was enchanted. Whether the people who made them ever thought they would be seen in another, far distant time, or maybe just thought of them like today's "taggers" think of their messages, we'll probably never know. But from my perspective, as a viewer in the 21st century, they are messages from the past. And just what the message says is left up to my interpretation -- reader relevance way beyond what my literature professor was talking about in freshman world literature.

The square shouldered anthropomorphic figure - single or in groups - is a theme that appears in rock art all over the world, covering many centuries of time. So it seems to be a theme that is common to all people.

"Two Souls, One Heart"

I find these themes and images so universal, so personal that they must be part of my own work. It's important, I think, not to literally copy the designs of other people and time, but by picking up the general idea of the image and placing it in my work together with my techniques and ideas, I'm extending the theme even farther.

"Two Souls, One Heart" was inspired by anthropomorphic figures in a group, combined with an ethereal background and ladders -- another image from a distant time that still has meaning for us. I like how it turned out, and may re-interpret the idea in the future.

Inspiration:  Rock art images from another time.

Serenity Calling

Today, I am wishing for a simpler, less complicated life. Maybe that's what drew me to this painting -- it reminds me of a time when, as children, my sister and I depended on each other and on a less complicated environment for entertainment.

One game we played will be recognized by many of you. One sister would pick a yellow flower (usually a dandelion in our world), hold it just beneath the chin of the other and look for the yellow reflection. If it was there, the answer to the question "do you like butter?" was "Yes!"  (Of  course, the yellow reflection was always there.)

Here in the high desert, if there has been sufficient water the autumn prior, springtime presents us with acres of yellow flowers -- California poppies. That sight took me straight back to childhood one day and I felt compelled to paint it.

"Do You Like Butter?"

The answer to the question is "Yes!"  Who doesn't like butter? And I like the peaceful, unspoiled landscape just north of my home, approximated here in "Do You Like Butter?"  I'm praying for rain now so we'll have poppies next spring!

Inspiration:  Memories of a simpler time, juxtaposed with that gorgeous New Mexico landscape.

Pieces of the Past

Just a short walk around the Gila Wilderness area where I was last weekend reminded me again of the connection between the folks who lived there perhaps a thousand years ago, and those who use the land today. Fragments of tools, burned rocks from fires, shards of black and white Mimbres pottery, as well as nails, hinges, horseshoes and other historic items lie all about. Each little piece is a tiny message from the past. If we put them all together, we can read the script of the land during man's occupation of it.

"Sprung"

"Sprung" started out as a painting. The idea was a blossoming prickly pear, coming up through the pieces of an old Mimbres bowl. I wasn't completely happy with the painting, and added some cactus pads and blossoms to make it a better composition.

I like the painting - it speaks to me about the continuity of everything -- life continuing.

Inspiration:  Pieces of the past juxtaposed with life today.

Still Wishing for Rain

One of the neatest features of our beautiful New Mexico skies is that we can see for so many miles. Without trees and large buildings to get in the way, the skies and the horizons get their full due.

And when what is in the sky and on the horizon is rain and the promise of rain, we can get really excited. Our expected annual rainfall here in southwest New Mexico is only about 10 inches. According to the digital rain gauge on our patio, we've only received a little over an inch and a half in the last 12 months. That makes images of rain so much more precious.

When I was a child, my mother sometimes explained what was happening in the skies according to the way she had been taught in eastern Nebraska. Rain seen from a distance often appears to be falling diagonally, due to the accompanying wind. The Indians (nearby Sioux -- or Lakota -- people) called that "walking rain," she told me.  I loved that description.

So when I saw walking rain that appeared to be red and pink, falling onto the nearby Robledo Mountains from riotous violet, orange and gray clouds, I was mesmerized.

"Red Walking Rain"

Great Spirit, send some of that rain walking this way!

Inspiration:  More New Mexico skies, color and wonder.

Instant Recognition

I create papers for collage without any idea of what the papers will eventually become. Just to enjoy the process is enough. Brilliant colors and unexpected textures are pure pleasure to me.

Textures are created through an endless variety of techniques. The brilliant orange and pink in the sky of this piece was created by pushing and wrinkling plastic wrap onto wet paint and then leaving it to dry. When I saw the dry piece later, I recognized the gorgeous colors of a New Mexico sunset. Then I recalled watching the swooping and diving silhouettes of nighthawks as they chased insects at sunset.

Photo courtesy of Kim Taylor http://www.flickr.com/photos/kim/6134931718/

I cut silhouette nighthawk shapes from various shades of blue and gray, then moved them around on the sunset background until I was pleased with the rhythm.

"Nighthawks at Sunset"

The mountains in the distant background were made by tearing shapes from grays and tans.

Inspiration:  Pure joy in the New Mexico sunset and in the paper colors and textures.