How do you know when to unify and when to deconstruct your ideas?

Unify and/or Deconstruct

“I truly believe that music or art, in general, is the only thing that can unify a world that is plagued by war and violence, and I believe that it should be taken to more people”. Ilaiyaraaja

In my last blog, I talked about gathering ideas from as many sources as possible. The idea is to go deeper into the focus of your creative endeavor. It would be impossible to share all of my inspiration for my newest series, but I can share a few key ideas that I deconstructed from my lists and how I am using that to create unity.

To have unity in a work of art is to create a harmonious balance and wholeness.  It gives a work a sense of order and completeness.  Creating restrictions is but one way to create unity in a work.  Limiting choices is a simple way to start.  Using the idea of sameness can also work, such as overall texture and pattern, similar objects, a common theme, or a neutral background which can create unity throughout a composition.  It’s not always that simple though.  Too much of the same strategy can be boring, and that’s why variety is important!

Deconstructing an idea allows you to take a step back, sift through the information, make an assessment of what excites you as a creative, and get rid of the rest. The gathering is what takes you deeper, but it’s the deconstruction that creates unity and brings the most important ideas to the forefront. It should be the focus that lights you up inside.

My focus for my latest series boiled down to 3 main ideas: cycles, growth, and yellow.

We are flooded with information on a daily basis from a multitude of sources. To sift through the mirage it’s important to curate information and at the same time remain open to unexpected possibilities. Be a collector and cast a wide net to find new creative ideas and inspiration.

Cycles

All three of these ideas are tied to my emotional response and experiences.  I’ve always been enthralled with the cycles of the seasons.  Spring first arrives for me when the sparks of yellow begin to grow from the hills in the vibrant forsythia bushes.  Yellow is the first sign that spring has arrived.  It turns out that yellow and white are the first blooms that emerge because they attract the first pollinators - black flies.  The black flies are colorblind and are attracted to the brightness of the yellow and white blooms. 

Growth

The male goldfinches are bright yellow in the spring, and as my birder friend Gina would say, they are” flying lemons” streaking through the trees. They will change color after the mating season ends. The dandelions will change from yellow dots in the yard to white fluffs. The green and white of the dogwood will be pushed out by the growing leaves beneath. Newly budding trees are much more yellow than green. As the trees begin to leaf out they will grow into a deep green as the season progresses to summer.

Yellow

Although yellow was the focus, I obviously used additional colors in my paintings. I chose a limited palette that included paynes gray, sap green, yellow gold, cad yellow, nickel azo gold, and white. I used the same colors in different variations throughout the work. I think you can see this is a great way to also create unity within a series. I may continue to explore the ideas of cycles and growth through other colors as time passes. Each season brings forth something new that ties me to the natural world.

Additional Strategies

Looking for an additional strategy? Try creating work using abstraction.  Abstraction is a distillation strategy and according to the TATE Modern it is “art that does not attempt to represent an accurate depiction of a visual reality but instead uses shapes, colors, forms and gestural marks to achieve its effect.  Strictly speaking, the word abstract means to separate or withdraw something from something else where forms have been simplified or schematised”.  Abstraction is in search of unity, as are all art forms, and in this case through deconstruction.

Interestingly, all of my series have an underlayer of abstraction. I like to begin my work with color, shapes, gestural marks, and lines. It creates a movement and texture under the overpainting. Bits and pieces of the original painting come through and it’s interesting to compose my image with the abstracted composition as a guide. This strategy helps keep me a little fresher and looser as I begin.

Imagine deconstructing your idea into small pieces. How could you simplify or rearrange those pieces to create unity and excitement in your work?

Thank you for being part of my journey.