I was pretty happy with this approach. After all, this is what I learned in art school and later, my mentors here in Colorado. Many, many representational artists create much of their work in this way. There is nothing wrong with this. Being inspired by what an artist directly sees or experiences has been a pretty well-accepted approach to art for the last 5,000 years or more.
But there have been artists of all kinds who have created works in slightly different ways. Sometimes, as in the song "Yesterday" written by Paul McCartney or the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the work comes to us in a dream. Others might "see" a finished painting or sculpture suddenly pop into their brains while doing something else, such as driving or meditating, then later create the piece as they saw it in their mind's eye. Others at times seem to tap directly into an unseen source or flow of creative inspiration. We might call this a Muse, our creativity, or our artistic spirit - something that seems to speak to us, that tells us what to create, or guides us along the path to a finished work.
About four years ago, my creative process started to change. I may write about this more later, but the short of it is that I moved to Maine and somehow that shook up my creative side. Through a series of dreams, spiritual episodes, and meeting some key people, my Muse started to "talk" with me.
No, I'm not crazy :-) In modern terms I guess you would say that I began to allow myself to fully listen to my deep, inner well of creative vision.
Or is it that I allowed The Real Creator to speak through me?
Many spiritual leaders have taught that the Source of all deep creativity is The Creator ("God," or however you envision such a being or force). I'm beginning to really feel the truth of this, especially with my latest painting.
In late June, I started to get an internal sense that I needed to do a painting featuring a Jaguar, the four-legged King of the Mesoamerican forests. The ancient Maya kings also aligned themselves closely with the Jaguar, and many kings adopted "jaguar" as part of their kingly name.
I allowed that internal sense to percolate for a while, "thinking" that I would pair the Jaguar with a Mayan sculpture of a Jaguar in the background. But that's not what my Muse wanted me to paint :-)
My mentors and instructors never told me what happens when the Muse takes over...
"She" started waking me up at 3 or 4 AM, urging me to work on the painting. I finally gave in one morning last week and started working through my library of photos of Mayan art and architecture, through books of old archaeological drawings from the first European scientists who studied the ancient Maya, and through sketches of heiroglyphs, names of rulers.
I finally came across the name of a deity and something clicked: the background would be a sculpture of The Night Sun God.
"God of the Night Sun" stage 1, laying it out.
The Muse continues to wake me up early, urging me to continue working on the painting.
"God of the Night Sun" stage 2, blocking in the Jaguar.
"God of the Night Sun" stage 3, day 1 is complete.
At the end of the first full day of painting, I'm mentally worn out and am more than ready to let this dry overnight.
Content and paintings are copyright Nancy Rynes, 2013. You may link to this page, but please do not copy or in any way use these works without my written consent.
No comments:
Post a Comment