Ideas Galore!

ATC clown by
Phillip Hoyle

I seem never to be short on ideas but often do find myself short on motivation. I may list ten new art project ideas in my daily morning pages but not be able to corral my energy and focus long enough to even re-read the list. Organizing the project may wait in a long line of other needs, even some that had not occurred to me while I was making my list and that sometimes seem more like my attempt to dodge the creative process. I’ve never quite understood this in me except to accept it and work with it. 

ATC clown by
Phillip Hoyle

Making Artist Trading Cards has certainly kept my project ideas and motivational hang-ups in good shape. If I can’t face making a big mess—meaning resetting my studio for some large project, which would involve cleaning off all the counters, gathering the needed canvas or paper, and choosing tubes of paint; or in some other project organizing and cutting lino blocks, choosing inks, setting up my little press, getting all the other things I need to complete the idea, and sometimes sweeping the floor. If I cannot face all that, I can always work on a few ATCs! So I stay busy with my art.

My friend Sue says, “If you can do it as an ATC, you can do it as a large piece of art.” I quote (or misquote) her when deciding to focus on some ATCs, and in so doing I have discovered the truth of what she claims. 

A couple of weeks ago you may have looked at my clown ATCs. No, I haven’t made large paintings of those crazy characters, but I did make some new ATC collages of clowns constructed mainly of letters from ads in fashion magazines. My encounter with drawings clowns taught me the basic shapes I needed: lines, circles, boxes, triangles, lines, and curlicues. 

ATC clown by
Phillip Hoyle

In this new ATC project I looked for letters with those shapes in magazines and went to work. I liked this project. It seemed connected with many collages I made years ago when I cut out letters for messages and the like—emulating those cut-and-paste ransom notes in old TV shows. I discovered the best letters came from Madison Avenue ads in fancy magazines. This time I began with Vogue and Details. I also found some interesting smaller letters in other magazines. I cut out the most interesting letters and sat down with blank cards (2 ½ x 3 ½), my best scissors, a few pens, glue stick, glue bottle, varied sizes of plastic googly eyes, and my trusty pen knife, and began the task. 

ATC Clown by
Phillip Hoyle

What resulted I call clowns. You can decide for yourself. But I certainly had fun clowning around with the images.