My first job was in the city which entailed an hour's travel on public transport to get there and then another hour to get home at the end of the day. Suddenly I had my own money and spent it on fashion and other things. I went out with friends and enjoyed myself. I bought a car, got a job closer to home, moved out of home into a flat, moved back home, changed jobs, went overseas, changed jobs again, went overseas again, bought my first house in my forties, made a garden, moved house, took redundancy, retrained and at sixty found a new job in my chosen field.
So all of sudden, I'm settled in a great job, really close to home, living in a secure friendly environment, looking towards retirement in 5-10 years, but I'm restless - why? I need a crafty/arty outlet for my spare time and start trawling the net. First stop, Zentangle (see my previous post) where I discover a whole community doing some amazing art, and although I enjoy tangling it is not really where I want to stay. But the thing about websites is that one always leads to another and another ...
I found Frieda Oxenham whose site I look at every day and get my daily fix of flowers, quilts, art, dogs, etc. Through her, I found the ladies at Art to the 5th with their Documented Life Project where I can get a weekly prompt to make some art and inspiration from the artists taking part. I found Donna Downey with her videos and her artist gang where a weekly video offers inspiration. Of course, I found loads more that I check often to get inspiration, but I joined the 2015 Documented Life Project and took the step to actually making art instead of just looking at how to make art.
From the very start of the Project I became aware that I had little knowledge of technique - despite six years of art at secondary school. So just as well that the DLP 2015 weekly challenges give you the opportunity to explore different mediums & techniques while documenting various aspects of life. Now more than half way through the Project, I think I have finally hit upon a style that I am happy with and can use over and over.
I used this technique in my scrapbooks a couple of times - where I cropped a photo and then extended it using free-hand drawing. In this case, some ugly weeds in the photo are replaced by branches extending out over the water.
By pure luck because I used a magazine cover as the basis for a DLP challenge, I have found a style which I can use for lots of artwork. The photo is stuck to the page and colour is added to extend the photo across the page. This challenge was to use cheesecloth and as soon as I saw the magazine, I saw that I could use the cheesecloth as a net laying next to the boat.
And here is another challenge using the same technique. This time I used two photos from my trip through South Australia in 2011 to see Lake Eyre. The gel medium I used to glue the photos down took away some of the ink when I swiped it around the edges. I really like that grungy look.
How happy am I? Really happy that I have a technique to use that can be altered to suit lots of the DLP challenges. Happy that when I run out of inspiration, I have a tried and tested format to use. Happy that I am building confidence in my artistic ability. And really happy that confidence means I will try new things and other ways to express myself on the page.
The only thing I'm not happy about - there's not enough time left over after work, cooking and housework to get more art done!
http://www.art5academy.com
http://donnadowney.typepad.com/simply_me/2015/07/art-1.html
