After meeting with my mentor on Tuesday I feel a new sense of freedom. I had not looked at my older work since I came back from my residency. I felt like I should leave it behind for awhile. I am glad I did, but I realized when looking at it that it is still very real for me. What I need to say right now is in these characters that I draw, not in real or even imagined humans. We looked at my old work first and then pulled out the new work. Something was missing, I felt it immediately, and I am grateful.
:)
ReplyDeleteYES! Love your older stuff- original and quirky. Floppy stubby ears and black noses just send me!
ReplyDeletenice to have your intuition guiding you with what's what :)
ReplyDeleteGo with what you feel, I think. I love your characters. Was just looking at my beautiful wooden block earlier tonight. (Did I mention that I bought the Happy Families cards? So lovely to have another 4 of your art works in miniature!)
ReplyDeleteOhh! The word verification is Pantles - it sounds like it could be the name of one of your creatures!
isn't it funny the way our process transforms... :) When I observed your later works recently I was waiting for that 'same feeling' that I get when I look at your earlier drawings and I hope this ok to share but I struggled a little to feel the same depth and heart you so successfully give to your other drawings. But I loved to see the new things you were trying too. It is often our own heart-felt drawings/paintings that speak to others. But I like your openess in being able to try new things - I guess the challenge now is to be able to bring both together and progress to yet another level. :D
ReplyDelete"Something was missing... and I am grateful" I'm not sure I understand. can you explain?
ReplyDeletewhat i see that is missing is maybe the naivety in your characters. They seem more assertive. Is it possible?
Nathalie, I just felt immediately when looking at my new work, after a long look at older work that i was missing something. The figures were hanging out in a space between real and unreal, specific person and symbol, and I missed the figures that i have been working with for so long. They are not real, and i like that, but they have real emotions. I believe and trust the figures with strange heads and ears more than I trust the figures that begin to look like individuals. It was trust I was missing.
ReplyDeleteI think some of the newer work felt more like people in advertising (not "real" people,but posers) and the old ones felt like people who didn't want to be seen in the same way. More awkward, if you understand what I mean?
ReplyDeletetrust in what you do is so very important, but of course we have to try something else to know it is a choice, not just by comfort that we continue with the same
and with awkward I meant that they felt like real people... Not that your drawings are awkward!
ReplyDelete(: ALexandra they are actually a bit awkward but then again i guess that is more real than not,
ReplyDeletei feel pretty awkward most days(: But yes I definitely get what you mean. Thanks so much for your comments!