Art Intentions

Getting Ready! 

For several weeks I've felt like I am caught in an artistic slump. At such times I think about old arguments contrasting artistic process with artistic output. I believe the origins of the discussion is really educational theory, and it is a good way to look at my situation. 

For me, artistic process includes any number of activities. The only thing that has slowed down is my work in the visual arts. When this happens I recall years ago when I was making collages from magazine pieces and was always suspicious of my color selections, I'd lay out the pieces I was planning to use and look at them for several days or even weeks. I wanted to give my eye time to really see the interactions of the colors before I committed myself to glue. I'm sure I just couldn't get the gumption gathered to engage in the sometimes tedious act of gluing. BUT I'm not making excuses, simply describing.

My current stalled project includes lino block printing on a variety of prepared papers. I've messed with it over several months and finally selected some colors, maps, brushes, inks, on and on. I'm not quite sure my block cut is finished. Hopefully I'll have some finished piece to show next week. I remain hopeful and while my mind keeps at solving visual projects, I keep writing stories. And telling them.

Denver, 2016

Artist Trading Cards 'The Orient'

Monthly I attend two ATC swap groups and was pleased when the second group got a topic similar to one the first group had about three months ago. The Orient would allow me to use up some collage items I had collected for Asian Inspired. Such good luck! Glad I didn’t blithely throw away my unused pieces. (Confession: I have before.) 

This time, though, I did make different approaches to the cards although I used Japanese, Chinese, and south-east Asian images. Plus, a couple of weeks ago I collected papers from chop sticks at a Chinese restaurant where we ate.
Most important, I recalled a technique my sisters learned from a Japanese neighbor when we were children, a simple way to make bamboo images. I got out some inks and began trying with varying results and success. I was pleased to dig back into my memory for something I had not done for decades, around six or more decades

Lotus ATCs by Phillip Hoyle 2016

As usual the trade was fun, the other artists there engaging, the sense of community satisfying. What more good side effects can one wish from a simple activity of making and trading tiny pieces of art. (The cards are 2.5 x 3.5 inches.) Hope you are having fun too!

Denver, 2016

What Art to Do?

 I must still be in trip recovery mode because outside of beginning a group of Artist Trading Cards, I've accomplished almost nothing in my studio in nearly two weeks. I have projected some projects but have made little progress. One of my objectives it to keep an Artist's Journal of flora and this week decided how to approach it. 

In summer 2009 I took many pictures of the plants in our yard, plants Jim had taken care of; I got to enjoy them. I kept a photographic record but an unkempt record. This year I will make a purposeful photographic record and will draw the same plants over and over at different stages of their development. 

You get the picture, so to speak, from several photos of the ostrich ferns that always make the yard look good. Before long I'll show my drawings and mixed media pieces that I will be making in my Flora Art Journal 2016.

Denver, 2016

And of course there are always attendant birds in the garden