My first masterpiece wasn't particularly colorful.
I was about three and a half years old and they way I remember things, I had been babysat by my dad's younger sister the night before. She had told a story, probably to convince us of the merits of behaving when the parents are away, of creatures that could swoop down and carry away small children when they misbehaved. The memory I have of that night of course is vividly enhanced by those memories only a child's mind can create.........I am pretty sure I believed in magic as firmly as I did in the real world surrounding me. I was pretty sure that anything that an adult said was possible, and didn't discount the possibility that she may have the ability to wiggle her nose and turn me into a bowl of creamed corn if she couldn't conjure the flyi ng creatures to carry my naughty self away.
Of course, the real world combined with the world of a child's imagination is limitless in its possibilities. I didn't entertain the idea of ever dropping an anvil on anyone from the top of a desert cliff, but the possibility that if I painted a black circle on a wall I could jump through it like Bugs Bunny seemed relatively certain. I ruined a couple of umbrellas trying to fly like Mary Poppins in a wind storm and spent afternoons on a towel in my backyard whispering "abracadabra!" in all the inflections I could think of trying to transform it into my own magical flying carpet.
My work has advanced a bit since I was three.....take a look at what i do.... OR keep reading about where it all comes from.......
I discovered Crayola crayons, markers and construction paper. I also developed a fascination with nature - flowers, mushrooms, birds and the dog next door. Animals enthralled me and I still love all creatures great and small. My work sprang prolifically from my fertile, vivid imagination when I was young..........cities of animals living in the fashion of humans - wearing clothes, driving cars and doing mundane human-like things. I worshiped Beatrix Potter, Richard Scarry and Jim Henson!! My stuffed animals were my favorite companions and I had a very "Calvin and Hobbes" relationship with my stuffed possums. To this day, I still wonder.........did I see them occasionally wink back at me when I left in the mornings for school?
Speaking of possums, I had an utter obsession with marsupials. The answers to life, the universe and everything evade children in the early years and we are left often to our own devices in finding or creating answers to the ultimate question: "Where do babies come from?"
I think I was too shy and even maybe a bit intuitive when very young........I can't recall asking the question and was sure I DIDN'T want to know the answer. Marsupials were great tools for exploring natural development, however. I studies books on mammals, watched Winnie the Pooh and paid close attention when Kanga and Roo were on. I would spend hours with my pla-doh making impressively accurate kangas with GIGANTIC pouches and long tails that served as ballast so they didn't tip over. They looked sort of like trendy ashtrays. I would then make scads of teensy little baby roos and fill up the mama's pouch.
I don't know why we as people must begin moving away from the natural, flowing, magical creativity of our youth, but it happens. Responsibilities and relationships often step in where creativity and daydreaming in solitude were the innocent joys of prolific, endless creativity. Eventually, this prolific drive dwindles to self-conscious, occasional dabbling.. As time passes, we find we are forced to make time for daydreams and design. The nearly instinctive act of picking up crayon/chalk/marker and disappearing into imagination and reams of paper becomes less and less natural. It even becomes a subject of scorn by elders if our determination to maintain a creative spirit overrides the more typical compliance with our communities' standards of responsibility, accountability and productivity.
As adults, we must often wedge time at the drawing board between work, home responsibilities and relationships. Sometimes we have to rediscover it altogether, years after we walk away from childish toys and games for school and continue marching towards careers. What I do know, is that there is no more powerful force within me than the drive to create and dream and capture my visions and dreams on paper.
Today, I still draw creatures. My primary love is pastels and I have moved towards a loose, colorful technique that represents my way of viewing the relationships in color and form that I observe in nature. Even my most abstract works are closely tied to organic inspirations.
Art is a process ~ intentional, incidental, accidental and continuous. The process is hard work and often, as I said, the time to create and maintain the processes is difficult and seemingly impossible to manage. I learned much about myself, creating and maintaining and protecting the creative process from the book "The Artist's Way," by Julia Cameron. I stumbled upon the book at a large retailer years ago in a half-hearted search for that one perfect book on artistic technique that would spring me from my artist's block. I glanced through it and perked up in reading the inspirational quotations and was excited by the prospect of learning a new pen and ink or brush and ink technique that I thought was promised by the illustration on the front cover. As the story of most blocked artists who discover this book may go, the book made it home, but didn't come out of the package for a couple of weeks. I pulled it out with excitement after remembering the promise of learning beautiful new techniques and wrinkled my nose in disappointment when I noted in the first few pages that I was possibly signing a contract and that this was a book on recovery.............
A recovery?
ick. I didn't think that I was interested in an in-depth Jungian analysis
of my inability to put pencil to paper and chucked the book aside. I am sure
many reading this are smiling to themselves if they are familiar with the book.
And yes, I picked it up a few years later and read..................
And I practiced what I read. I have to admit, I didn't complete the cycle. But the initial impetus was towards a freedom from the rigid me who earned a paycheck, kept my apartment tidy and movement towards the creative me. I learned to trust my daydreams and intuition again and from the Morning Pages exercises encouraged by the author, Ms. Cameron, emerged me, The Artist!!
I am working towards forming an Artist's Way creativity/support group locally, in the Indianapolis area to share what I have learned and share in what others have learned from the process created by Ms. Carmeron. See the Artists Way Meetup link below for more information or visit The Artist's Way/The Artist's Way at Work to learn more about the woman and the process.
I hope that you enjoy my work. Please leave a note to let me know you were here and what you think of my art. On a technical note, most of my work is too large to scan on your standard flatbed. The best is yet to come!
Peace, Corrie
MORE TO COME!!! Please return often!!
Contact Serendip Indy with questions
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Speedway, IN 46224, U.S.A.
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