Random thoughs on blogging

I've discovered that to create art is exposing a deeply personal part of myself.  To share this deeply personal side of my personality can be quite scary.  Sharing my art exposes what I see and feel and how I interpret the world around me.  With the internet and this world of blogging, it becomes very scary for me to expose this side of myself.  It leaves me open for others to judge (oh yes you know you do).  I can only hope that the judging will be less and the enjoyment will be greater.

I wrestle with whether I should continue to blog or just forget this journey.  I sometimes get discouraged, by the lack of comments.  I do post on several other sites and get some awesome comments which is very encouraging.  I've begun to add some of those comments to this blog in the post, so that I'll remember and have them in a central location.  Comments, give the artist a spark of encouragement.  At least I know they do for me.  I don't really think that I have to be validated, but it does make me feel good when someone finds that a piece of mine sparks something in them that makes them smile.

Then I have to step back and consider why do I blog.  For me it has become a personal journey to chronicle this art journey.  I love to go back and see the things I've blogged.  It brings back memories and images for every post I've made.  In some ways the blog becomes a digital scrapbook of my art journey.  On many occasions, I've had friends ask to see my work.  It is a easy way to direct them to a collections of what I'm working on now and in the past.

I think, no matter whether others would see this blog or not, I'd continue for my own personal artistic journey.

Random thoughts on inspiration

There are times in my art journey where I am overwhelmed with inspiration.  Those are the times when the creative process just flows on its own.  The pages for my journals or images on a canvas just seem to create themselves.  But inspiration, like anything else, can come and go.  Those are the times when I think that there is simply nothing left to express.  Those are the times when I just have to walk away and pursue other interests.  When I come back, the world seems fresh and ready to flow from my fingers.

Then sometimes it seems that out of the blue, inspiration will strike.  It may be from something I see around me, something from the media, even sometimes it comes in the form of a dream.  Yesterday, I had a dream that screamed, sketch me.  I did a sketch that was only a snip-it of the dream.  I had to get it on paper.  It wasn't exactly as I'd dreamed it but then I think the dream was only meant to be a spark to something else evolving in my brain.  The owl wasn't part of the dream, but rather a nondescript bird nestled in logs and leaves.  I'd been sketching owls for another project and he seemed to fit this design better.

 

JJ commented: "I love it...I dream about colors...I think we are called....artists!!! xo"