I keep meaning to write longer posts, but have been working steady on my story for National Novel Writing Month. And as I'm still awake and at the computer at 12:30am, I think it's time for me to re-evaluate my time management as there is so much I want (and need!) to say.
Above is the canvas you saw in yesterday's video, the one I splashed paint and water on. It wasn't a technique of any kind, rather, not one I've seen. But I've been thinking, lately, outside the box when it comes to how I approach creating art, and breaking the rules is, well, fun.
A few years ago, I dropped my copy of Wreck This Journal in my pool. It was hard. There was, as you'd imagine, a certain amount of resistance. I had, in my hands, a book. And while I'd gotten over the bump of altering books for artwork or ripping out pages for collage fodder, throwing an entire book into a pool -- on purpose! -- frightened me.
I remember a vacation one year, in Florida, where my mother dropped the book she'd been reading into the pool while floating along under the bright sunshine. The book, 'A is for Alibi,' was put in the microwave and tossed in the dryer for a few cycles, but was never the same. And maybe I was afraid that, by throwing my journal in the pool, it would never be the same.
It wasn't. It was better.
When I was sitting outside with fluid acrylics and a spray bottle, I knew I needed something more. And then the sprinklers came on. Why not put the canvas under the sprinkler? It would work much better than the little mister I have, and aren't canvases made to have wet media thrown on them, anyway?
And so, while I was playing outside with the new camera, my brother experimenting in his own way with filming (I have taken him on as my student as a way to re-learn all the things about creating video I love), I thought throwing paint at a canvas would make for a wicked visual. And then, I eyed my water jar next to me and thought, wouldn't throwing this at the canvas be fun?
If you can get outside, or in your garage, or an unfinished basement, or somewhere, do it. Go buy a cheap canvas from Michaels or Hobby Lobby or Big Lots. Open a tube of your favorite paint and throw it on there. Pretend your Jackson Pollock or Aelita Andre. Then, fill your water jar, position the canvas upright and throw it on there. Let it get all messy. Let it drip down and make spatters. Run your hands over it. Turn it different directions.
Do something frightening and unexpected.
I double-dog-dare you.