Fluid or Fixed
What is something in your practice that has remained firmly fixed and could benefit from becoming more fluid?
“Life, work - it's all very organic and fluid, a laboratory. I always tell people: whatever your thing is, you just have to be in it. Jump in; you'll figure it out.” Mark Bradford
Figuring it out is what artists do. Just start with “what if” and go from there. You might feel like you are drowning at first, but we all eventually learn the doggy paddle. I don’t exactly know where the idea for fluidity came from as a prompt this week, but for some reason it was stuck in my mind. At first I thought of juxtaposing the idea of fluidity and viscosity. Makes sense as a painter, but fixed just made me think further on the subject. We as human beings can be fixed in our practice, our thinking, our place, and routines. By remaining fixed we lose out on progress, openness to the world in which we exist, and the endless possibilities of creativity.
Experimentation and the openness to failure will quickly cure a practice that is fixed. As always, it’s easier said than done. For me, I have a longing to loosen up my approach. It’s so easy for me to tighten my images and my shoulders at the same time. I decided that this week I would try to be more fluid with my materials and techniques in the hope that it would force me to create a different type of image. I’m not there yet, but I allowed myself the ability to fail and just enjoy experimenting with a different approach.
In my crow series I typically work on a solid red background. This was one of the constraints I placed on my process in addition to using crows to illustrate the prompt. To work with the idea of being more fluid, I used red inks and poured and dripped the ink on the paper instead of a solid red background. This immediately gave me movement and an interesting line within the piece. I thoroughly enjoyed the unexpected outcome and the loss of control. You can see the process by clicking the link below the image.
Click to see this artwork in process
In addition to my crow series, I have a sketchbook completely dedicated to birds. It’s a place for me to practice drawing the form and variety of birds as well as playing with media techniques. Once again I created a number of drawings using fluid inks, gesso, and collage. I love the luminosity and the unexpected results of the fluid inks. It is so different from the opacity of most of my acrylics. I’ve added a full version with commentary and a time-lapsed version depending on your own interest and time.
Click to see the full length version of this Starling in Process with tutorials
Click Here to see the time lapsed version without tutorial
For my last experiment of the week I used a sketchbook that I keep just for small thumbnails. It’s fast, easy, and carefree because there is absolutely no chance that what I create will ever be anything but a small study. Setting myself up to have no chance of creating a finished work of art takes all of the pressure out of experimentation. It will only ever live inside the covers of my sketchbook. You can see a time lapse of my experiments below.
Click Here to see my sketchbook experiments with fluid ink and resist
I would love to know how will you choose to leave behind the fear of failure and become more fluid? Let me know in the comments below.
Thank you for being part of my journey.
