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First attempt reminiscent - openness part of creativity

Pen 1 - digital painting 1st try with pen pad

This is more like a fabric than a painting - process than finished piece. I was offered a graphics tablet at about a third of its normal cost and as much as I’ve been proud of using a mouse for my art all this time, I thought I should try it.

What is fascinating to me, is that I am every bit as uncoordinated with the pen pad as I was when I first started painting with a mouse - laughing - thinking - no one could paint with one of these.

I continued because I liked the results.

Whether the graphics tablet becomes my friend or not isn’t the issue - but it is noteworthy that part of being creative is not to close oneself off to things which are new.

See Also

• Before You Buy a Graphics Tablet - Advantages and Features of Graphics Tablets
  Looks like might be worthwhile to check out - if these interest you - course I might have one to sell
• Second-Work
  without digging in my computer for first mouse painting - this is the second and accesible - nice piece despite lack of coordination

Literal Latitude -> Feeling, Process and Intent

Enlarge - Cloud Cover - Digital Painting 2006- Dan Beck

One would never know its been raining here.  Sometimes the clouds just swallow the mountains. I look out, I look up… and see this incredible interplay of cloud and mountain - rain blending the whole scene as though the clouds were bleeding into the hills and the hill/mountains(as I like to call them) disappearing below them.

Indeed the inspiration would be obvious if you were living here too. The response I received today was "That looks familiar".

Yet the curious thing is that there are many things going on with the painting which do not accurately portray what is here. There are shadows where there shouldn’t be, groves of trees kind of hanging in space, a slightly exaggerated cloud density, and a play of light which isn’t quite right.

Recognizing these differences is interesting but the point of bringing them up is about how much latitude there is in portraying a scene. I think sometimes that which holds a piece together, which makes it feel like it should, is not found within the physical strokes;  but rather in the intent and process.

See Also

• Feeling of Rain
  A piece from somewhat similar inspiration
• Art Quotes | Art Quotations | Art Sayings | Wisdom Quotes
  Quotations about art - quick, fun, interesting reading
• The Art of Forecasting
  The art weather connection from the weather side

Shared Aesthetic, Process, Unique, & Sameness

Meaning - Digital Painting 2006 - Larger Meaning

We hear all the time, you can find anything on the internet.  It amused me one day that I should do a search for meaning on google. Not really expecting to find enlightenment - which I suppose could also be searched for - but curious.

So as I write this and if you eventually find this from such a search - you will find the above painting which I did quickly.

The title is not really suggesting that the work is so profound, but I will offer this. The piece is completely about the process, it is about using motion that is uniquely mine given my physical attributes and limitations. It is about using a language and aesthetic which are completely shared.  It is about the view from my perspective.

We are unique in our bodies and the same in our shared culture and spirit.  Meaning can be found in the differences as well as in the sameness; but if too different or too the same - there is little if any meaning to be found.

See Also

• The Artistry of Traditional African Sculpture
  Discussion of shared aesthetic crossing cultural lines
• Excerpts from Metaphors We Live By
  Shared aesthetic search yielded sayings about love and therefore life

Creating Beauty Requires Imperfection

Years ago when I used to create beautiful produce displays as my way of making a living, it became clear that sometimes a display could look too perfect, too beautiful for people to want to touch. In an article in the Kentucky Kernal about a sushi place, the author states:  "The food often arrives too beautiful to eat."

The comment struck me as I ironically remembered how it is common in all Japanese art to leave a piece intentionally imperfect as perfection is only saved for deity. It seems to me that some of the offness is part of what allows any work to be accessible. In an article in the Georgetown Voice about an exhibition of portraits taken from almost too close for comfort, it says:  "Close manages to capture in this series that beauty present in all of us: imperfection."

This concept of imperfection, is perhaps like the mistakes which keep us moving forward in life, keep us growing. Perhaps in order to be creative and human it is necessary to to have such imperfection just to keep striving. Perfection is not just untouchable, undesturbable, but no longer part of the process or journey.

Of course, from my perspective, kind of flipping it on its head and due to the nature of learning and growth, I tend to think things are only perfect when they have such an imperfection.

See Also

• The Georgetown Voice
  Getting Close-r to the gallery scene
• The Globe and Mail: The coven of the marble mavens
  Wonderful story of planting beauty, enchantment and the imperfection therein
• Kentucky Kernal
  Tomo an artistic dish
• App.com - Now hear this: Sounds stir our emotions
  Interesting article about limits and aesthetics of sound - related enough
• NYTimes- Scalia defends government’s right to deny art funds
  Interesting discussion about who should decide - current and worth being up on.